Decent laptop, need opinions...

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Lloyd1337, Aug 4, 2007.

  1. Lloyd1337

    Lloyd1337 Private E-2

    I'm looking for a decent laptop for school. My price range is around $1000 - $1500 CDN.

    I am a gamer, and as such it is extremely hard for me to not try to get an ultra high end laptop. However, I have a good gaming PC that I upgrade regularly, so I should be fine. The laptop is mainly for taking to classes and such.

    My first stop was to Dell's site. The Inspiron 1420 seems to be pretty good. I want a Core 2 Duo processor, at least 1.8GHz, at least 2GB of RAM for Vista, and at least a 120GB HDD.

    However, when it comes to video processors, they only offer an Intel Media "Accelerator" (Vroom vroom), a Geforce 8400, or an 8600. The Intel thing is completely out of the question, as it can't do shit. Honestly, it scores about 150 in 3D Mark 06. I know this laptop isn't for gaming, but I'd at least like to play Half-Life 2 or maybe even Oblivion on low settings. ¬_¬'

    The GeForce cards are apparently crap compared to the last generation of cards. Personally, I'd prefer to be able to choose a 7800 or something similar, because at least it'd be able to play games. What is the point of having a DirectX 10 capable card if it can't even play DirectX 10 games at any sort of appreciable framerate?

    After looking at the Dell site, I took a trip down to Best Buy. They had a good assortment of crap on display for rediculously bloated prices. For some reason, all of the Toshiba laptops have a Bilingual keyboard, since I'm in Canada, and seeing échap when I'm looking for Esc seems like it could get annoying fast. I'd prefer English and Japanese personally, because it would actually be useful rather than typing everything phoenetically and having Windows translate.

    The Macbooks looked nice. I wouldn't mind using a Mac, and considering they can run Windows as well, it seems like it would be a pretty nice option. However, looking at Apple's site, it seems that the only way to get a semi-decent system is to go with a Macbook Pro, which is OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive for what it is. Seriously, no.

    The Sony Viaos were nice. Not all too powerful, though. Meh.

    There were some decent HPs. Only problem is that half the people I know own HP laptops, so... Meh. Also, apparently the remotes that come with the laptops work on any HP laptop, not just the one they came with, so you can turn off someone else's laptop from across the room if you have the same remote. =/

    I also saw some rediculously small laptops. I'm guessing they were about 10". They were quite neat, but personally I like having 20/20 vision and would like to keep it that way as long as possible. Also, it seems like my hands would cramp up typing on such a small keyboard.

    Some laptops had fingerprint readers, which were neat, but didn't seem like they'd be all to useful.

    Anyway, I checked online, and no one seems to let you customize your laptop's hardware except Dell. So I returned to Dell's website, and took a look at the 13" XPS. I started upgrading it to my liking, but when I came to the video card, I noticed that they only offered the 8400. Seeing as how that card can't really do shit, there is really no need to upgrade the processor or RAM. So the default XPS, at around $1400, seems alright. Well, it sucks in terms of video performance. But at least it looks nice.

    IN CONCLUSION:

    1. It is impossible to get a laptop with good video. From what I've heard, the GeForce 8600 and 8400 are crap.

    2. WTF is with the bilingual keyboards on Toshiba's laptops? Horrible idea. If it weren't for that, I'd consider getting one possibly.

    3. Macs are fricking overpriced to the max. Way to go, Apple.

    4. Umm... every other company seems to offer basically the exact same thing: an underpowered laptop with no decent video card solution.

    5. Why can't these dumbass laptop manufacturers offer laptops with decent video cards? Seriously, they only offer the crap Intel chips or the crap Geforce chips. Why don't they give the option to get some of the older cards, which don't have DX10 but at least weren't complete crap in terms of DX9 gaming performance?


    So here is my question...

    First of all, how are the 8600M GS cards when it comes to gaming? I've heard they suck, but is there anywhere I can see some benchmarks on games such as Oblivion and stuff? 3D Mark 06 doesn't seem like the most conclusive benchmark for me.

    Is there any site that offers actual benchmarks for some of these laptop cards? Like, tests using actual games?

    Second, out of all of the brands, which do you feel are the best? I'm looking at Dell, Sony, Toshiba, HP, and possibly Apple.

    Are there any other laptop manufacturers that offer better choices within my price range? Keep in mind that I'm in Canada, so it would have to ship to Canada.
     
  2. Cobra

    Cobra Private First Class

    I have a Dell 6400 laptop with an ATI Radeon 1400 Mobile card and it can play Quake 4 just fine at Medium/High settings and I only have a Core Duo at 1.73 gHz (but you can configure it for whatever you want). If you go to the small business site for most of these companies you can get a lot more bang for the buck.

    P.S.: I've heard that macbooks don't allow full graphics acceleration when running Windows; this may not be true anymore but, it would be a serious problem for you if you wanted gaming.
     

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