Laptop recommendation

[r0jaws]

Ladies & Gents,
I've had my little Averatec 3200 laptop for the last 4 years and with careful upgrades it has served me well.
However, whilst it is fine for web browsing and emulation, it is reaching the edge of what it can do in a practical sense.
I have a desktop for gaming, but I rarely use it, as I only really play strategy games such as Dawn of War.
I'm pretty sure that a reasonable laptop with a semi decent 3d capable graphics card could cope with my needs. I want to be able to find a replacement for my laptop and desktop, and am looking for any advice or recommendation that you may have.
I'm looking for something with a reasonable 3d graphics card, not necessarily bleeding edge. A minimum of 250Gb hard drive, wireless, and reasonable battery life.
Any ideas that anyone has, are gratefully received.
:thanks:

 

[imnogeek]

Re: Laptop recommendation

haven't got time to look now but have a look here http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/default.asp

thaey do a lot of "factory refurbs" etc you can save a bundle on some of them

Gary

 

[Zetr0]

Re: Laptop recommendation

@r0jaws

what kinda budget are you looking at m8?

 

[Zetr0]

Re: Laptop recommendation

Delving into the links the best (features / price) setups I could find are interesting

Toshiba - Tecra A10-10B (Intel Core 2 Duro P8400)(2.26Ghz) *refurb* £499
This the best of the refurb range under £500 (not much under its £499) to be fair its a lot of processing power for the pound, it also has its bells and whistles but its not all that and a bag of chips.... it has a big letdown.... graphics....

This model has the integrated Intel GMA 4500MHD, this is entry level 3d graphics card at best. it has NO dedicated memory and uses the main system ram, this is essentialy what is known as a BUS HOG graphics adapter.

(for the princely sum of £20 more I woudl plum for the following)

Dell Studio 1555 Intel T4200 / 4GB Ram / 250GB HD/ Blue-Ray / Ati 4750 £520
Okay so a slight processing hit, but the beauty here is the graphics adapter (256mb) dedicated GDDR4/5 gfx with the addition of upto 2GB (shared DDR2 (800)) the ATI Radeon 4750 spanks the crap out of the Intel GMA systems, to befair there isn't much that doesn't!! (except maybe the ATI itegrated radeon 7000 series). to behonest this system would make a great rebust (upper)mid-rage gaming laptop for half the price it would normally cost. to be honest, if wanted to go higher you would need around £1,500 for an top of the range Nvidia Graphics equipped system...

but for me... I fell inlove with this little puppy a while back (yes Kinnie its pretty and sparkly)

Sager NP9262 ($5,879) (Worlds 1st Quad Core Laptop)

CPU: Intel® Core® 2 Quad Processor Q9650 / 12MB L2 Cache, 3.0GHz, 1333MHz FSB
Memory: 8GB memory
Hard Drive: 320GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive + other HD choices
Graphics: Dual Nvidia GeForce 9800M GTX Graphics with 1GB DDR3 Video Memory in SLI mode
Display: 17" Wide Viewing Angles WUXGA LCD with Super Glossy Surface (1920 x 1200)

OS: Windows® Vista® ULTIMATE 32/64-Bit Edition (well you cannot have it all eh?)

still. £3000 is a lot for a laptop..... maybe I need to start playing the lottery

 

[Harrison]

Re: Laptop recommendation

What is your budget? There are a wide range of laptop specs and prices available from as low as £200, up to a few thousand!

 

[Justin]

Re: Laptop recommendation

Laptop recommendation? ummm burn it in an endless lake of fire?

seriously though not a recommendation of what to buy, but what not to buy, Asus, HP and dell, huge overheating problems on the latest models of all three, remember when looking at the specs that whatever you buy will not run the same as it's desktop counterpart so it's best to buy above what you think you'll need (although Windows 7 will help matters)

cheers, JuvUK

 

[r0jaws]

Re: Laptop recommendation

Thanks for the comments so far Gents, I had forgotten to put a budget. oh: Well my good lady has offered to buy me this, so as much as she can chuck on the credit card!

Probably in the region of £600-700 in all honesty. I would like something that is likely to still be a useable piece of kit in 4-5 years.
Tall order for a laptop I know, but definitely dedicated graphics, and the best I could afford.

Thanks for the links, I shall be having a good old root about later. :thanks:

 

[Zetr0]

Re: Laptop recommendation

another link m8

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/

book mark it!!!, its got some fantastic £500 - £600 units well worth considering.

to be fair, theres absolutely no way you can future-proof a GAMING laptop for 4/5 years no matter how much cash you throw at it!!... in all honesty you are considered to be on a lucky roll (and rolling in cash) to be able to future proof a Desktop Gaming PC for 2 years!!!

essentially when you buy a laptop you buy a "snap shot" of a system, it maybe okay today, tomorrow and very reasonable next year.... but the year after you will be wondering.... crickey!!.... did i really have flares that big!!! look at the hair... oh dear oh dear...

 

[Harrison]

Re: Laptop recommendation

Laptops direct is a great site to buy one from. I've purchased 4 different laptops for other people on there over the years and they have always given first class service with fast delivery.

However if you want the best laptops for gaming buy a Rock. http://www.rockdirect.com/ Expensive, but well made, they will awards and they are good.

 

[woodycool]

Re: Laptop recommendation

My laptop recommendation is .... DON'T GET ONE!

 

[Kin Hell]

Re: Laptop recommendation

Do ya really need one r0jaws? - Endless sea's of fire; Sleepless nights from formatting C: ....

At least a Duo is the right way to go, but does it have to be ATI Gfx? - I hear they're hotter than Satans Cat on a hot tin roof. :|

Kin

 

[woodycool]

Re: Laptop recommendation

I dunno about everyone else, but me and laptops DON'T get on at all.
I have a grievance against laptops! issed:

 

[r0jaws]

Re: Laptop recommendation

Again thanks for the suggestions, Had a look around a few of the sites and there are some very nice examples kicking about.
I was particularly taken with THIS one.
A Dedicated NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GS seems to be a reasonable mid range graphics card. Any one have any opinions on this?
It also comes with a free Windows 7 upgrade which is very tempting, especially as Its right on the edge of my budget.
The reason for a laptop, is I spend half my life on my little Averatec, but would like to play the occasional game every now and then without having to fire up the desktop. It would save a considerable amount of space in my house if I were to get shot of the Desktop, and TBH it is seriously under-used. Having a system with the portability of my laptop, but with the power to play the kind of games I enjoy would be ideal.

 

[Harrison]

Re: Laptop recommendation

The T5800 CPU, clocked at just 2GHz with only a 2MB cache isn't in my view that great. And the 9600M is quite middle of the road. This combination will not perform well enough to run games at the laptop's native screen resolution, and it would struggle with many current games even in lower resolutions.

I would recommend looking for a laptop with at least a T7xxx range CPU. Slightly faster clock speeds, and twice the cache size.

Although the T9xxx range is nicer still with a 1066MHz FSB, 6MB cache and speeds up to 3.06GHz.

 

[Kin Hell]

Re: Laptop recommendation

As a matter of interest Phil, what sort of games are you planning to play on this Laptop?

Harrison is right on both counts above. The CPU & Graphics could be better, but it really depends what you're hoping to do or play. Laptops are not gaming rigs really & you need to be a bit more excessive with the config to have the better experience, especially at those Screen Resolutions.

Kin

 

[r0jaws]

Re: Laptop recommendation

I'm not real a FPS type gamer, I prefer my strategy games such as Dawn of War II. These do require a moderate level of 3D acceleration though, so that's why I thought a reasonably powerful Laptop would serve as well as a desktop for my needs.
If anything a desktop is overpowered for what I want, and as I go away fairly frequently, I would like to be able to take my kit with me.
Like I said the desktop sits almost unused apart from when I want to fire up one of my strategy games, and the vast majority of my time is spent on my laptop, browsing t'interweb, running emulations and checking my email.
That's why I was asking, I'm not terribly au-fait with laptop GPU capabilities, and whilst I understand that any laptop I buy will be obsolete for hardcore games within months, I'm not bothered about that.
I was hoping a mid-range system would be able to play the type of games I like for at least the next few years, especially as I only buy a game once in a blue moon!

 

[Kin Hell]

Re: Laptop recommendation

It's a lot of money to throw at something that is now almost obsolete. Spending that kind of wedge commands some thought of chucking another couple of hundred at it. What you're going for should be fine with Dawn of War II etc, but......
Problem is, the default screen mode of the Laptop is gunno task that mobile 9600 core. Your game will look total cr4p if you reduce the resolution of the Display to compensate for GPU FPS hit. For it to look right, your game needs to be running in 1920 x 1080 & that's a real bar-steward resolution for a single 9600 core, never mind the mobile version. 1280 x 1024 would be doable on a single 9600 core. :wink:


Kin