Escapists! Help Me Choose a New Laptop!

[bart12300]

First of all, let me apologize in advance if this is the wrong spot for this post...

Moving on! I'm going to be graduating in the next month, and I'm planning on buying a laptop within the next two or three weeks. After searching for hours and hours, I've narrowed it down to a few possible choices. Keep in mind, I'm not a computer hardware expert, which is why I'm turning here. I'm planning on using it for school work when I begin attending college in the fall, as well as some moderate gaming. I'm looking for something that has the ability to run games like Fallout 3, COD: 4, Empire II: Total War, etc etc, (in other words, new. I'm not expecting it to run Crysis by any means though). My price range is approximately $800-$900. It's not much, but thats about the maximum I can spend.

Here's some of the choices I've narrowed it down to... I'm leaning towards the first or second currently due to the higher processor speeds, and I'm liking the 2nd choice for its ability to use all 4GB rather than just 3.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152086

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9173262&type=product&id=1218044029168

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220520

I'm looking for any feedback, but preferably anything that can tell me how they'll perform when running certain newer games so I have something to compare it to. I plan on playing everything from FPS's, to RPG's, to RTS's.

Any pro's or con's are welcome! Thanks!

 

[Leorex]

get a mac, then you wont be like that old pc guy on the commercials.

 

[vampirekid.13]

http://www.sagernotebook.com/category_browse.php?cid=&price_s=1999

that one.

 

[iJosh]

get a mac, then you wont be like that old pc guy on the commercials.

This.

 

[bart12300]

I've had a Mac for the past three years through a program my high school has. We received a grant of some kind, so each student gets one to keep and use however they wish during the school year, except we can't install or modify anything on the hard drive... After these three years, I've come to the conclusion that Macs are way to overpriced and over simplified. Not to mention they have no games by comparison. Thank you though!

 

[Leorex]

I've had a Mac for the past three years through a program my high school has. We received a grant of some kind, so each student gets one to keep and use however they wish during the school year, except we can't install or modify anything on the hard drive... After these three years, I've come to the conclusion that Macs are way to overpriced and over simplified. Not to mention they have no games by comparison. Thank you though!

in that case i would sugest an e-machines, there cheap, and made to bend.

 

[ThrobbingEgo]

First of all, let me apologize in advance if this is the wrong spot for this post...

Moving on! I'm going to be graduating in the next month, and I'm planning on buying a laptop within the next two or three weeks. After searching for hours and hours, I've narrowed it down to a few possible choices. Keep in mind, I'm not a computer hardware expert, which is why I'm turning here. I'm planning on using it for school work when I begin attending college in the fall, as well as some moderate gaming. I'm looking for something that has the ability to run games like Fallout 3, COD: 4, Empire II: Total War, etc etc, (in other words, new. I'm not expecting it to run Crysis by any means though). My price range is approximately $800-$900. It's not much, but thats about the maximum I can spend.

Here's some of the choices I've narrowed it down to... I'm leaning towards the first or second currently due to the higher processor speeds, and I'm liking the 2nd choice for its ability to use all 4GB rather than just 3.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152086

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9173262&type=product&id=1218044029168

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220520

I'm looking for any feedback, but preferably anything that can tell me how they'll perform when running certain newer games so I have something to compare it to. I plan on playing everything from FPS's, to RPG's, to RTS's.

Any pro's or con's are welcome! Thanks!

Out of your selections, if you're gaming, choose the BestBuy Asus. It has the best graphics card out of the three options posted - and at that level of hardware your graphics card is going to be your biggest bottleneck. Your CPU and RAM won't provide much improvement if your GPU is struggling to keep up. It's also the only part you can't swap out and upgrade, in a laptop.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9173262&type=product&id=1218044029168

 

[TeaBaggin]

Get a Toshiba. They're cheap and easy to find parts for, and decent laptops as well.

Toshiba's are crap, they're one of the most repaired in my shop.

As for the laptop go with asus f50s-x1, good gaming laptop and newegg has excellent deals.

 

[ThrobbingEgo]

Get a Toshiba. They're cheap and easy to find parts for, and decent laptops as well.

Toshiba's are crap, they're one of the most repaired in my shop.

As for the laptop go with asus f50s-x1, good gaming laptop and newegg has excellent deals.

It's got a NVIDIA GeForce GT 120M. That's the equivalent to a 9600M GT. The Best Buy Asus has 9800M GS.

 

[TeaBaggin]

Get a Toshiba. They're cheap and easy to find parts for, and decent laptops as well.

Toshiba's are crap, they're one of the most repaired in my shop.

Hence where the cheap and easy to find parts for comes in. A friend of mine has a Dell, it had the same hardware problem as me; was something to do with the battery shorting the motherboard or somesuch (no idea, I don't speak computer speak), it cost me $50-odd to have stuff repaired and replaced, cost him over $150.

Better to have one that lasts longer than one that breaks every few months.

Get a Toshiba. They're cheap and easy to find parts for, and decent laptops as well.

Toshiba's are crap, they're one of the most repaired in my shop.

As for the laptop go with asus f50s-x1, good gaming laptop and newegg has excellent deals.

It's got a NVIDIA GeForce GT 120M. That's the equivalent to a 9600M GT. The Best Buy Asus has 9800M GS.

Yeah but I'm "Best Biased"

 

[bart12300]

The only thing turning me off about the F50SV-X1 is the processor speed (2.0 rather than 2.26) and the 32 bit Vista. Honestly I don't know whether I should go for a 32 bit or 64 bit Vista computer. All I know is that 64-bit would allow all 4GB of the RAM to be used rather than just 3 of it.

And I'm wondering whether or not the 1GB video card would be worthwhile. It seems like at the maximum resolution the laptop offers, a 512MB would run just as fast as a 1GB. Any thoughts or insights? Haha.

 

[bart12300]

I'm not a big fan of Best Buy either, but if I have to pay my money to the more evil of the two retailers to get a better laptop, so be it.

 

[TeaBaggin]

The only thing turning me off about the F50SV-X1 is the processor speed (2.0 rather than 2.26) and the 32 bit Vista. Honestly I don't know whether I should go for a 32 bit or 64 bit Vista computer. All I know is that 64-bit would allow all 4GB of the RAM to be used rather than just 3 of it.

And I'm wondering whether or not the 1GB video card would be worthwhile. It seems like at the maximum resolution the laptop offers, a 512MB would run just as fast as a 1GB. Any thoughts or insights? Haha.

Vista 32 has a limit of 16GB of RAM so no problems there, i'd stay awway from 64 if you want a stable game playing machine.

 

[BlueTimberwolf]

First of all, let me apologize in advance if this is the wrong spot for this post...

Moving on! I'm going to be graduating in the next month, and I'm planning on buying a laptop within the next two or three weeks. After searching for hours and hours, I've narrowed it down to a few possible choices. Keep in mind, I'm not a computer hardware expert, which is why I'm turning here. I'm planning on using it for school work when I begin attending college in the fall, as well as some moderate gaming. I'm looking for something that has the ability to run games like Fallout 3, COD: 4, Empire II: Total War, etc etc, (in other words, new. I'm not expecting it to run Crysis by any means though). My price range is approximately $800-$900. It's not much, but thats about the maximum I can spend.

Here's some of the choices I've narrowed it down to... I'm leaning towards the first or second currently due to the higher processor speeds, and I'm liking the 2nd choice for its ability to use all 4GB rather than just 3.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152086

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9173262&type=product&id=1218044029168

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220520

I'm looking for any feedback, but preferably anything that can tell me how they'll perform when running certain newer games so I have something to compare it to. I plan on playing everything from FPS's, to RPG's, to RTS's.

Any pro's or con's are welcome! Thanks!

Out of your selections, if you're gaming, choose the BestBuy Asus. It has the best graphics card out of the three options posted - and at that level of hardware your graphics card is going to be your biggest bottleneck. Your CPU and RAM won't provide much improvement if your GPU is struggling to keep up. It's also the only part you can't swap out and upgrade, in a laptop.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9173262&type=product&id=1218044029168

Agreed this is the best one of the three.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

has anyone made a sub 2K laptop that has a resealable touch screen you can right on that has a decent video card chipset in it(enough to run UT3)?

 

[ThrobbingEgo]

And I'm wondering whether or not the 1GB video card would be worthwhile. It seems like at the maximum resolution the laptop offers, a 512MB would run just as fast as a 1GB. Any thoughts or insights? Haha.

Not if the card has a 256-bit bus. It wouldn't be able to use more than 512MB at a time. It'd be like giving two writers four typewriters. The thing is, memory's cheap and it's a bigger number. It's a marketing ploy.

What you want to look at the number of shaders and real world benchmarks.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-120M.14953.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9800M-GS.12932.0.html

I did a lot of lurking on notebookreview.com before I purchased my Sager.

 

[bart12300]

And I'm wondering whether or not the 1GB video card would be worthwhile. It seems like at the maximum resolution the laptop offers, a 512MB would run just as fast as a 1GB. Any thoughts or insights? Haha.

Not if the card has a 256-bit bus. It wouldn't be able to use more than 512MB at a time. It'd be like giving two writers four typewriters. The thing is, memory's cheap and it's a bigger number. It's a marketing ploy.

What you want to look at the number of shaders and real world benchmarks.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-120M.14953.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9800M-GS.12932.0.html

I'm definitely leaning more towards the Best Buy Asus. I still have a few weeks, but if nothing really changes until then, I'm pretty sure I'll stick with that one. Thanks a lot for the help! I understand the majority of the numbers involved, but the videocard-bit was definitely one I was clueless about.

 

[twistedshadows]

Asus G50Vt-X1: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9050279&type=product&id=1218012519873
You might want to take a look at this one, it's almost the same as the other Best Buy Asus (the X5) but it doesn't seem to have problems with crashing like many of the people who bought the X5 seem to have. Best Buy misprinted one the specs for the X1, the hard drive actually has 7200RMP (as opposed to the incorrect 5400), as any other site featuring it will say. It also has a better graphics card than the others you're looking at (aside from the X5 anyway).