Is this a good gaming laptop

BoneBone Canadia
edited August 2007 in Gaming
I just ordered a laptop and I am curious how it will fare for gaming purposes.

specs
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Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 (2.00GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB)
2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHZ
Video Card 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS


I want to play bioshock and that fairly smoothly and that, do you think this will be able to do that.

Comments

  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited August 2007
    In my opinion, "gaming laptop" is an oxymoron just like "sport truck." Believe it or not, I'm not being critical of your laptop interests. Your laptop scores really nice points in the CPU and physical memory departments. A 7900GS? Well, at least it's not the crap Intel onboard video with which most laptops are outfitted.

    It would help if you'd give a link to the laptop you've ordered. (Look, I'm sure you made a smart decision, I just don't know anything about "Bioshock.")
  • BoneBone Canadia
    edited August 2007
    its actually one of the dell xps laptops.

    NOW

    before you jump the guns and yell at me about getting a dell, let me explain that there are no true computer stores here and my parents are un trusting folk and their paying for half of my computer for my graduation present, so this was the best route I could take.
  • tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
    edited August 2007
    I had pretty much the same exact laptop except my cpu was a t2500 core duo. It ran most games pretty well, not at extreme resolutions or anything, but itl be very nice.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited August 2007
    before you jump the guns and yell at me about getting a dell
    No, not at all. Dell makes good laptops for the price. If you are looking for really high performance, you will pay dearly for it. I just don't know what's out there in laptop land with gaming video built in. The problem with laptops is that when the buyer looks for upper end graphics, the laptops tend to be in the upper tier pricing.
  • gtghmgtghm New
    edited August 2007
    for what it's worth I have the XPS M1330 and it is plenty good enough for most or all current games I think.

    If your a hard core gamer and want the best graphic gaming experience then unless you pay a super high price for it then laptops are not what you are looking for.

    If you want to be mobile and to play games then based on the current technology you will have to give some up in the graphics department but its a whole lot less than it used to be and sine you have the XPS I would say that you won't be dissapointed playing the current line of games out there.

    Duno, maybe others would disagree but I can tell you the difference between my old Inspron 8600 and my new 1330 are light years apart.

    The 1330 is stupid fast and games play at full values with out any loss of frame rates that I can tell.

    "g"
  • gtghmgtghm New
    edited August 2007
    My 1330 specs

    Tuxedo Black XPS;
    Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7500
    4GB, DDR2, 667MHz
    13.3 inch Wide Screen WXGA TL CCFL Backlit LCD with Camera, XPS M1330
    128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS, for XPS M1330
    200GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
    8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive
    Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy
    Intel 3945 WLAN (802.11a/g) Mini Card
    Dell Wirless 355 Bluetooth Module (2.0+EDR)
    Fingerprint Reader
  • edited August 2007
    The 7900 GS mobile chipset isn't bad for gaming and will give a decent gaming experience. But you might be able to save several hundred bucks by going with the E1505 series (or whatever Dell now sells instead of the E1505) with the 7900 GS vid subsystem. That's what I did in March instead of the XPS. The 15" screen will give you more screen area for viewing and isn't that much more bulky than a 13.3. With that XPS, you are getting double screwed on the price because: 1. It's an XPS "gaming" laptop and 2. You pay extra for the compactness of a "small" laptop.

    I went the other way with my purchase and went for the 17" screen model, the E1705, back in March. I saved about $800-900 over the cost of the 17" XPS1710 at the time and the E1705 is built on the same basic chassis as the XPS Dell was selling at the time. Since I really only need a portable computer to bring to work and then back home every 2 weeks instead of a truly mobile machine, the extra real estate and viewing capacity of the 17" widescreen suited my needs more than a smaller, more mobile laptop. BTW, my E1705 has the 7900GS vid subsystem on it (optional video card), just like the 17" XPS1710 of the time I bought it came with as standard. The Dell dude I ordered with was pretty impressed with how much money I saved over the XPS1710 for the same basic computer. :D
  • BoneBone Canadia
    edited August 2007
    I don't know if dell has changed their procedure since last time or if it is because im ordering from dell Canada but only way I could get a good video card with an xps.

    they didn't give the option of getting anything besides a onboard video card with an inspiron. I have never used anti-aliasing in games or that kind of stuff cause a little bit of jaggies has never bothered me. Being able to play most games on high as at least 1024x768 would make me happy but I would settle for medium.

    I have to contact dell monday and yell at them, they offered me a 3 year warranty instead of 1 year and said it only added 10 bucks to price... yeah that was 10 bucks to montly payment because it actually added 400 bucks to overall price of laptop.

    for that price I could had got a intel duo core t7400.. tho I do not know how much a different that would make.

    also gtghm, how did you get the geforce 8400 in there and how much did your laptop run you, thats a pretty bulky setup, I built my computer online because, not to be offensive but their all from india when you call them and I can barely understand them.
  • gtghmgtghm New
    edited August 2007
    I config'ed it through the Dell config.
    I paid too much for the machine like 99% of the stuff I buy. Ran $3999.00 out the door.

    I know that most won't be looking to spend that on any computer let alone a laptop.

    As for the bulkyness, it all fits nicely in the M1330 chassey. The whole machine weighs less than 5 lbs. The screen is the XPS HD screen but its only 13.3 in. Very clear, way better than the 21" on my Inspron 8600.

    One nice feature is the HDMI output, only thing I noticed is the sound is not being out put by the TV that I connect it to... I can get the desktop to the TV but the sound still comes out of the laptop?
    Probably something that I over looked on the config, what I thoguht I got was the better sound via the sound blaster audgy HD but I found out that it was software driven from onboard sigmatel audio... Now I see I could have added 22 bucks to the total and gotten a regular sound card I think....

    Oh well before too long they'll be sending these out the door standard with the blue ray burner... I tried to get that added but they said that the 8600 wasn't video card enough for blue ray... I didn't care that much at the time because I don't have any blue ray discs and I figure I'll just get one for my tower when they come down in price if I really need it.

    "g"
  • BoneBone Canadia
    edited August 2007
    i did not mean bulky as in big i meant as in powerful.

    and also, mine has a 17" screen because it is going to be for mostly home use.

    I am hoping to be able to run bioshock on high at atleast 30fps
  • gtghmgtghm New
    edited August 2007
    right on, thanks for the bulky meaning update... :) I'm not in the circle on that one...
    The 17 is a great size too, if they hadn't come out with the 1330 I prolly would have went with that one. After having the big screen version of the Inspron and lugging it around I realized that you really can get too big on a Laptop...
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