New Lappy Thoughts

McBainMcBain San Clemente, CA New
edited October 2003 in Hardware
Oook guys,

My 4th(out of 5) of Computer engineering and electrical engineering is finally pushing me to the brink. I need a stinkin laptop.

If I am going to drop some serious $$ on this thing, I want it to do what I need.

Oddly enough, to interface with all of the electronics in our labs, its GOT to have a serial port, integrated wireless is a plus, 512 meg o ram is a definite, and then the rest is optional. I am lookin to drop about 1200-1300$ bucks for this thing.

One thing I would definitely like is the ability to game, we're not talkin doom 3, but UT2k3 and C&C: Generals is definitely gonna be on there.

It doesn't need to run everything with all the settings maxed out, but just smooth operation is all I want for games.

Here is one I am looking at....seems to be the most bang for the buck with all the requireds, and its an xp-m.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1061769819639&skuId=5990378&type=product&cmp=%20%20

My only question with that one is with the video card.

Obviously any suggestions and or comments would be preferred, better or worse, I need some guidance.
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Comments

  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    1. For laptops, the best price/performance processor is a Centrino.
    2. $1300 for a laptop is the low end of the scale, and as far as laptops are concerned, is not serious cash.
    3. The video in that laptop would be hard pressed to run half-life 1 at reasonable settings (~1024x768).

    If you want a laptop that can play ut2k3 and CC:Generals at even a decent frame-rate, expect to pay $2400+. Also start looking for laptops with the Radeon 9600 mobile GPU, that's your key to the door of performance. Your wallet will probably be the lock.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited October 2003
    www.powernotebooks.com

    Sager and PowerPro are both excellent (got one of each) and Powernotebooks is one of the most highly rated companies on resellerratings. Check them out... they've got a number of models that start @ ~$1300 or less, but I'd suggest that for a really outstanding laptop, you're probably going to want to spend more like $2000-$2500 if at all possible.
  • McBainMcBain San Clemente, CA New
    edited October 2003
    Any suggestions in the price range? cause 2g's is waaay outta my leauge. Like model specific suggestions?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    I got nothin'.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited October 2003
    I'd look at the PowerPro M 5:16, the Sager NP4060, the PowerPro IV:28, and maybe the PowerPro C 3:16 or the Sager NP4760 (altho those two are a bit more expensive).

    Very few laptops still have serial ports, so a USB-Serial adapter is going to be your best bet. A 1.4GHz Centrino is basically = to a 2GHz P4 in terms of performance, with much better battery life and much less heat.

    Did you want me to recommend a few specific configurations? I can do that too, if you want me to...
  • FormFactorFormFactor At the core of forgotten
    edited October 2003
    I just dropped >$3000 on mine about 2 months ago. and its already getting obsolete :( . Luckily my employer has a purchase plan that allows them to deduct it out of my paycheck over a 2 year period intrest free. Its a Dell which I wouldnt have purchased if it hadnt been for the purchase plan. I personally like Alienware cause you can get RAID configs on 2 7200RPM drives. My lappy has a 4200 RPM drive that is a MAJOR bottleneck.

    Check my sig for lappy specs. Other than the drive it runs games flawlessly as long as AA is disabled. I would imagine you could find one with similar specs for <$2000 by now since the geforce FX and radeon 9600 notebook gpus out.

    I hear those Sager lappys are pretty schweet and they have pretty much the same hardware as a lot of alienwares.

    Let us know what you do find though. Very interested to see how badly I have been raped by Dell :)
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited October 2003
    FormFactor, yea... Alienware is basically a ripoff. Up until Alienware introduced the new Area 51m with the GFFX5600Go, the Alienware and the Sager notebooks were the same thing- both were made by Clevo. I don't know if Alienware's new notebooks are done by Clevo as well, but the new Sagers are just as good as, if not better than the Alienwares...
  • McBainMcBain San Clemente, CA New
    edited October 2003
    lol, guys...I want this for more of a SCHOOl thing....honestly. I will do some gaming on this thing, but it will be bare minimum.

    Is the centrino really worth it?
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited October 2003
    Depends. It's got much, much better battery life than the P4 does, (ESPECIALLY the desktop P4s in the Sagers) and it runs a lot cooler. If the comp. is going to be plugged in most of the time, the difference is unimportant, but if you're going to be running on batteries a lot, I'd probably get the Centrino.
  • qparadoxqparadox Vancouver, BC
    edited October 2003
    Try and scrape together another couple hundred bucks and go for the Dell Latitude D600. I've got the D800 (the bigger fatter brother) and its a good notebook for the price. The biggest problem will be the inability to get it quick although sometimes you can get them in a week. Its really really really hard to find a serial port on a new laptop and the lower end ones are more likely to ditch them. My D800 was the only P-M notebook with a serial port available at the time from any major manufacturer. The centrino is absolutely worth it and its cheaper than the P4 anyways (only more expensive than the celeron).

    If you want it quick I'm not sure what you should go with, very few of the sagers have serial ports and that's a must for an ECE as is the parallel port.

    And a warning, DO NOT COUNT ON USB-> SERIAL ADAPTERS, i've seen many flashes go wrong because those things are crap and windows just doesn't interface with them properely. I haven't figured out exactly what the problem is but its just not worth the pain and hassle, find a laptop with a real serial port and don't count on emulation. There's nothing worse than finally finishing a new code build that's running properly on the sim and then uploading it and getting errors (or worse a complete windows crash) I saw it happen many times to many people.
  • FormFactorFormFactor At the core of forgotten
    edited October 2003
    The one in the best buy add looks pretty good for what your looking for I would say.

    Not top of the line performance but it should fit your needs perfectly. 64 megs video ram should be enough for the games you mentioned.

    And yes the desktop P4s have HORRIBLE battery life. I cant even finish watching a full dvd on 1 battery. so beware. Im always plugged in though.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    FormFactor said
    The one in the best buy add looks pretty good for what your looking for I would say.

    Not top of the line performance but it should fit your needs perfectly. 64 megs video ram should be enough for the games you mentioned.

    And yes the desktop P4s have HORRIBLE battery life. I cant even finish watching a full dvd on 1 battery. so beware. Im always plugged in though.

    It depends, that 64MB card could be an integrated SiS card or other non-discreet card, in which case it will NOT be able to run C&C Generals or UT2k3 at an even remotely playable speed, if at all.

    Factor: I use 2 batteries in my Desktop P4 laptop, gives me about 3 hours battery, which isn't great, but isn't awful either.

    NS
  • FormFactorFormFactor At the core of forgotten
    edited October 2003
    Yeah luckily the one in the add appears to be a radeon moibile card.

    I actually got screwed on the 2 battery deal with the dell :( I ordered 2 batterys but when it got here I found I have to take the dvd drive out to use the second one. A lappy without a cd/dvd drive isnt so usefull. So that kind of sux :( does yours have 2 battery bays?
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    It has the main battery, a fixed (but replacable) optical drive and a second drive bay (ZIP, Floppy, Second Battery, etc).

    np5660.jpg

    NS
  • FormFactorFormFactor At the core of forgotten
    edited October 2003
    :thumbsup: very nice
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Actual machine is - http://atomnet.co.uk/?p=systems#Starbug

    Managed to get the RAM timings down to 2-2-2 now and the screen is an Ultra-Wide-Angle display too, which I need to add too.

    Would like to know the response time of the TFT though.

    NS
  • McBainMcBain San Clemente, CA New
    edited October 2003
    Yeah, trust me....I NEED the actual serial, and I know this. Buddy of mine tried the usb-serial connection during finals last year on his new vaio and he was #$*@#*@. Soo, I was also looking at the Dell Inspiron 600, its got a centrino, and a radeon mobile 9000. Only prob is only 256 of ram.

    Also, even though it says a serial port on it, I looked at the pretty little pictures on best buys website and apparently their version of a serial port is a VGA OUT....mother @#*@&amp;#$. I think I might be headed in dell's direction.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    I highly doubt that the RAM isn't upgradable, so just buy that machine and buy an extra 256MB stick 'o' RAM.

    NS
  • McBainMcBain San Clemente, CA New
    edited October 2003
    Yeah, thats what I was thinkin....now excuse my laptop idiocy....but uh....I don't have to buy the laptop ram from dell do I? could I get it cheaper somewhere else and do it myself?
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    ARGH, ****ty ISP.

    Yeah, anywhere, just make sure you get the right RAM (SODIMMS).

    NS
  • McBainMcBain San Clemente, CA New
    edited October 2003
    Hmmm......would newegg happen to carry it?

    I see that they do....one more question, do all typical new laptops take SODIMMS?
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited October 2003
    Yes. All laptops except desknotes take sodimms. If it's a centrino/p4, you'll probably need ddr, which comes in 200-pin SODIMMs.
  • McBainMcBain San Clemente, CA New
    edited October 2003
    Thanks much guys....I'll post back with what I get.
  • GHoosdumGHoosdum Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    One thing to remember is that if it's got 256MB of RAM, it's probably installed as 2 128MB modules, instead of 1 256... for some reason, that's the way notebook manufacturers usually do it.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    Yeah, I had to pay a little extra for them to use a single 512MB DDR stick in my Laptop :(

    NS
  • McBainMcBain San Clemente, CA New
    edited October 2003
    I realized that. I am looking into see how much it would be to only use 1 stick....and then get another 256 stick...or just not do that and just buy 2 new sticks and replace both. Sound like a viable option?
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited October 2003
    It may or may not be with the Dell. I know that a lot of the Dell laptops have 1 SODIMM DIMM under the keyboard, that you have to disassemble the laptop (and void the warranty) to get to, and one more user-accessible one under the computer. Conveniently, when you order 1 stick of RAM, they seem to fill the bottom one in preference to the top one. Figures.

    I don't know if the new Dells are like that, but if they are, you may be stuck @ no more than 512, even with 1 stick of 512...
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    McBain: I have an inspiron 600, and I've added (successfully) 512mb of ram to it for a total of 640mb (comes with 2x128, remove 128 and add 512 = 640)

    I got the SODIMM from thechipmerchant.com, any PC2100 DDR will do.

    I am playing JKIII very beautifully on this laptop right now - I got the 1.3ghz Pentium M. I love this laptop. I can game for over two hours on battery. It lasts forever.

    The mobility radeon 9000 is a nice card.

    It's got a serial port.

    It was ~$1300
  • McBainMcBain San Clemente, CA New
    edited October 2003
    Thats exactly the lappy i was thinkin about getting prime.
  • maxanonmaxanon Montreal
    edited October 2003
    Kingston sells a lot of Laptop RAM, so you can probably get a better price.

    One thing, are the bays swappable? It may prolong usefullness. Also, check to see if the RAM is upgradable (do a search) cause you may find a little surprise. Also, do a check on problems (newsgroups and stuff) and it can give you an idea. The worst things that can happen are: The battery dying (a few hundred dollars), the powersupply frying itself and lastly, the integrated mouse being flaky.

    The danger when you talk gaming is that everyone expects the thing to run as well as their OC'd desktop. The laptop is not meant for that type of thing. Its a nice bonus, but it shuold do what you require of it.

    Enjoy the laptop. I think its going to replace the desktop in sales very soon.
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