New Laptop question (hardware people plz apply)

[m4stryfe]

Alright so I need to get a laptop for the upcoming semester and obviously I want a gaming laptop (possibly something to replace my desktop - for now at least until next summer when I build a new tower). I know the term "gaming laptop" used to be an oxymoron but they do make em now heh. So I need ideas if anyone's willing to give me some. Something preferably between $1500-2500. I heard the XPS m1710 is a good buy (have to get the 7950 GTX graphics card in it). I also can get a discount from dell because my gf's dad's company has some business agreement with them. I get 10% discount on dell stuff (*GASP* - yeah it's not that much) from my work as well. But is there anything else? Thanks guys.

[Teknobry]

I was in a similar position. You need to get the fastest dual core you can afford. The best graphics card at the moment is the 7950 GTX 512mb.

I purchased the m1710, 2.16 ghz dual core, 7950 GTX. I bought it with the minumum 1gig ram and upgraded it to 2gig myself (dell's RAM prices are horrendously over inflated)

Make sure you get a 7200RPM speed hard disc, and not the slower 5400 and below.

I absolutely love the m1710, but as I also got it from dell, the operating system came bogged down full with dells sh1te. Best bet is as soon as you get it, reformat fully with windows XP.

I'm currently dual booting with vista and XP, and get at least 20FPS more on xp than vista when playing counterstrike.

Remember though, you have to spend 3times as much on a laptop to get it to the equivalent spec of a desktop, so only bother with a gaming laptop if you have absolutely no choice.
Its probably better to get a cheap laptop for school/work, and then spend the rest of the money on a kick ass desktop system.

Currently, there are NO dx10 laptops. The best card is still the 7950gtx, despite the nvidia 8 series having been out for quite a while now for desktops. (don't even consider the peice of crap cards that are in the newest 1720's)



As for alternatives.... there is Rock and alienware (although alienware is owned by dell now, so doubt you'd find anything better/cheaper there)
Rock do some good systems, well worth having a look at what they have to offer.

[m4stryfe]

Awesome dude thanks. So I have another question for ya. If I do go the route of getting a cheap laptop for school.. what would be a good choice then for just playing WoW (in between classes heh)? That would be the only game I'd run on it. Or hell I could even NOT play games on it I guess. Should I just get a cheap dell?

And if ya don't mind I'd need your help upgrading my desktop then with the extra money. I've built 4 computers myself in the past but the last one I built I F-ed myself over (look at my specs below and you'll see why) My first Desktop I built lasted me almost 4 years (ah I love you ATI 9700 pro - why did you have to go under 3 ft of water?!) Anyway I built this desktop last summer and this thing just pisses me off at the performance...

Here are my specs...
ASUS P5ND2-SLI LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 4 SLI Intel Edition ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Pentium 4 630 Prescott 3.0GHz LGA 775 EM64T Processor
2 gig Kingston ValueRAM 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) (two 1 gig sticks)
XFX GeForce 7900GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
^ I am STILL kicking myself for buying this piece of shit
APEVIA ATX 520W Power Supply
Seagate 80GB EIDE HD 7200/2MB/ATA-100 (I think that is what it is - I bought this thing in like 04 or 05 - also went under water but still kicking!)

This damn machine chugs... It doesn't even play WoW smoothly (times of fps above 60 down to 20 and back up again) - WoW is NOT that hard of a game to run

I believe my bottleneck in performance is 1 of 3 things...

1. Crappy non core 2 duo processor
2. REALLY crappy videocard (which XFX discontinued bc of bad memory)
3. Old hardrive??? (I doubt this one tho)

Now should I upgrade my CPU? But my mobo only handles 800 mhz FSB and not 1033 (or w/e the new type is). Should I just spend 600 bucks and get me a new CPU/mobo, and get an EVGA 8800GTS? Thanks for the input.

[Teknobry]

Glad the info was useful!

When it comes to choices, its ALL about the budget. How much are you looking to spend in total?

Have a good think about what kind of setup you want, the XPS m1710 will handle pretty much any game at the moment, but upgradablilty is practically nil, and you'll be forced to keep on turning down graphics detail more and more to get smooth fps as games get more demanding.
Its also not the most portable of laptops, 17in screen with native resolution of 1900x1200 needs every mb of that 512mb video card.
I'm not saying don't rule one out altogether as a desktop replacement, just to have a good think about what your needs are.

If WOW is your main game priority, then its not worth getting a very expensive laptop when you'll spend most of your gaming time in a situation where you could just be using a desktop.

One other thing, if you get yourself a cheap laptop for school that can't play games... then I'd bet money on it that you'd get better grades without WOW distracting you :D

I'm quite surprised to be honest that your existing setup is struggling so much. Anyways, let me know what you can spend, and I'll throw up some suggestions.

[m4stryfe]

WoW is definetly not the only thing I'll be playing... just using it as an example on how my Rig has moments of chugging... I mean I wanna get Crysis too heh

I really think it's my CPU to be honest... I mean I want a set up that can run CS:S consistently over 40 fps with no drops (except internet lag of course)... I hear people saying that they can run it over 60fps no problem with a set up similar to mine... I pay all this money I want to run things on max (and yes I understand as new games come out u have to drop settings more and more for an aging system). Call it an addiction to have a fast PC I dunno. I mean I'd be willing to spend 600-800ish for a new CPU/mobo and videocard... but do you think I'd just need the CPU right now? I want to be able to play games like Gears of War, Assassin's Creed and of course Left 4 dead on near max graphics (if not max) - consistently over 40 fps at least (60 would be nice but w/e). It'd also be nice to have it last more than a year before I have to get something new...

I've been looking around at hardware and
CPU - E6600 core 2 duo
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8 2E16819115003 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115003)
Motherboard - Either Asus or EVGA or anything else someone can recommend me
Videocard - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8 2E16814130071 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130071)
(which is on sale by the way)

Now if I can't buy all of that in one shot... what would be the recommended way to go? Videocard first or CPU/mobo

And the last question is... what is better EVGA or XFX - I'm thinking EVGA because of their step up program for future hardware upgrades. Thanks.

[m4stryfe]

Just bumping this so Teknobry can help me

[Teknobry]

Sorry, I work away during the week and often have no internet access until I get back.

Motherboard, I'd recommend this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8 2E16813128048 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128048)

Excellent board, good future proof technology (well, as far as you can anyway) and has really good overclocking features for when you feel like tweaking your system.

What monitor are you using? Unless you're playing above 1600x1200 resolution, there is little point in getting the 640mb version of the 8800 GTS. You may as well get the 320mb version, as its cheaper and in benchmarks its slightly faster as well.

As for which one to get, get the cheapest. All the 8800GTS cards have the same hardware, its just some come with slight overclocks to make them quicker. Trust me, graphics card overclocking is VERY easy and simple to do, so its not worth paying extra for one thats overclocked, when in 2 minutes you can do it yourself for free.

I'm still not sure why your current system is struggling, I'd definately look at formatting the drive, re-installing XP and downloading the latest drivers for all your hardware. You should definately be able to play CS on it no problem.

The E6600 CPU is great, good speeds out of the box and can be overclocked, I'd recommend it all day long.

As for what to buy first... I'd probably go for the Mobo/CPU combo first, then the graphics card, and then the RAM. (you can run faster RAM with the new mobo)


I have to go out now, but will have more time on sunday to write a better post.

[m4stryfe]

Awesome. Thanks so much. I really don't understand why my system sometimes chugs like it does... I really think it could be the harddrive or CPU.... the harddrive did go under water 2 years ago... still works but I dunno. My monitor is an Acer 22 inch:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N8 2E16824009094 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009094)

Thanks for all your help.

[Teknobry]

Hmm, with that resolution may as well go for the 640mb card, to be on the safe side.

When you run the CSS framerate test, what FPS score do you get, and with what graphics settings?

[m4stryfe]

I'll get you those specs tmrw night :) Thanks for the help

[Teknobry]

I'll be back tuesday or wednesday night, will take a look then.

[Etheallmighty]

ok I didn't read anyone else's post, but i'm going to get one in the future too...and I just saw in a magazine, the ASUS G1s-A1 (I think it's that) is only 1999 (little under 2K/2k) and so I thought it would have outdated graphics cards or would b more money, but it said it has the 8600 GT or something which is close to the bes i thinkt!!!! i'm looking more into it, I will post more specs....

actually I'm not sure if 8600 is all that good, cause on the bottom of this page with a review the alienware 7700 gets better score with the mark program.....Ok I want this question answered...is it the higher the number the better the graphics card? (like 8600>7700)
asus G1-A1 (http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3728&review=Asus+G1S)

look towards bottom....I need to be sure so maybe I won't get this

[Etheallmighty]

what is the very best available card for laptops?7950 GTX 512mb.

is this true?? so that means higher number means nothing (like 7950 GTX 512mb is better than 8600?)

I don't know much about PC type stuff but I will get a gaming laptop sometime in the future.

[Teknobry]

Basically, the 8600 is a bag of wank. (for gaming)

The current best card IS the 7950GTX, as its the top of the range 7 series, which is better than the bottom of the range 8 series.

Etheallmighty, what are you buying the laptop for? A desktop replacement? Work/school?

You need to be careful, as you can easily spend a fortune on something that you will be disappointed with.

[m4stryfe]

Sorry I've been busy Tek. I'll try to get those specs for you by the end of the week. Thanks.

[Etheallmighty]

well my brother's both got laptops (not gaming) for going to collage presents from my mom/dad...So I willl get one, but I want a game one.....from like 2500 to 3000 i think there's were..(just macs but still around there)

[Teknobry]

Well, I'd honestly recommend a desktop for gaming, and just a basic laptop for doing your college work.
But, if you're gonna go ahead with a gaming laptop..

Alienware is silly money for what it is, but dell do the XPS M1710 which is good for gaming. (i have one) I'd recommend windows xp over vista though, 2gig ram the 7950GTX graphics card and the fastest processor you can afford.

Rock also make a similar spec machine, so its just a case of pricing up what you can afford and buying the best for the money.

Post up what you can find for the budget, and I'll give you my opinion on it.

[Etheallmighty]

yeah I prettty much have to get the laptop not desktop cause I have horrible connection and so I'll bring it over to friend's houses to play liike I'm doing right now/