Gaming laptop
I'm looking fairly soon to buy a laptop. I need it for college... so all the basic things a school would want a laptop to be able to run. But I also want it to run games well...or as well as it could on a budget. I need something around 600-700$. Any suggestions?
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http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41087&highlight=Laptop I still highly recommend HP. While that thread is a bit old and newer offerings exist with Core Duos, Core 2 Duos, and X2 Turons...you'll get the basic idea and what to think about when purchasing one. You don't want to buy a 20'' widescreen only to realize that it won't fit on the small desk you're sitting at in the majority of your classes.
While I may get stoned for this, you might also want to check out Apple's line of Macbooks and iBooks. Many colleges are tied in to a discount system with Apple (albeit puny discounts, but still) that make the option that much more appealing. Less of a fuss with oncampus wireless networking is always a plus as well. Leave it to Apple to get it right the first time.
As for getting the gaming out of a laptop for ~$800, don't expect much. The x300 chipset in my v2000 Presario can run AoEIII and Rise of Nations. I'm sure it would be able to play games like HL2 and Doom 3 if I really wanted to, but I've never had the desire to try. Check out www.notebookforums.com and www.notebookreview.com and read up on what they suggest for your budget. I spent hours doing research there and it really paid off.
Budget gaming laptops would best be found at www.pctorque.com. Don't let the "generic" looking name fool you, much of the enthusiast offerings from Alienware and Falcon Northwest use those same exact laptops, just without the markup and brand name.
The problem you are going to have is most if not any laptop in that price range will only provide semi ample gaming performance. most onboard graphics can't handle newer games all that well... but depending on what type of games you hoping to run some companies offer a descent setup.
I would suggest low balling the HD and Ram to save cash so you can afford to buy the better GPU and CPU
For a laptop that games decently, you will need one with a discrete graphics subsystem and not integrated graphics. And to get that, you will most probably end up paying over $1000 for a basic system. You can go cheap on the hard drive and ram to start, then upgrade to more ram and a faster, bigger hard drive later.
Its a ripoff but is intended for gaming.
My Sager 5660 also had a long run, able to play pretty much every game I threw at it for many years (tis a bit dated now though). They also wouldn't put high end mobile cards in laptops if they weren't for gaming.
How do you tell if its discrete or integrated graphics? None of them mention discrete for the cards...are standard cards like nvidia and such all discrete?
haha. i'm a noob.
Some companies integrate better GPU's onto their Motherboards, such as Dell, HP, Acer etc... and they also offer discrete setups as well. If you give us a link to what your looking at we can tell you what the laptop has.
You really need to decide what is more important, mobility or gaming? You can have either one for about $800-$1000 but not both.
If you do decide to go with a notebook, I would recommend a Dell or a Mac from recent personal expereince. If you want the best bang for you buck, look into a Dell. Sure there are some horror stories about Dell laptops out there, but you got to remember that Dell dominates notebook market so it is only expected to hear about the problems. If are considering a Dell, start watching this site: http://www.xpbargains.com/dell_coupons/ . They have some pretty badass deals on notebooks.
If you want to go for quality, I would recommend a MacBook. I paid $1050 (with my student discount) for mine. I am no mac fan boy, if anything I am the opposite, but honestly the MacBook is one of the best damn pieces of equipment I have owned.
good luck in your quest! let us know if you have any other q's
cheers :bigggrin:
http://www.insight.com/site/product/detail/index.cfm?item_number=06892BU&searchLink=y&search_params=C%3DC%252DAB%26CN%3DNotebooks%26M%3D43701%26OS%3DY%26K%3Dn100%26KT%3DT%26SB%3Dbest%26PS%3D10%26P%3D1%26%26p%5Fsess%3D&NugsTracking=Results_Full_Specs
Erm...
I'm supprised BF2 even starts. You are refering to 'Battlefield 2' by Electronic Arts... right?
could'nt be beat!
remember slick deals is your friend
Then you linked the wrong laptop.
OT - Armo: You may want to change your sigs. The middle was was a bit eww but the third one now probably crosses the "family" ratings limit too... heh.