Alrigth, I'm looking for a "gaming" laptop which is able to run CoD4 at 1284x1024 with a decent fps (around 125?) @ low/medium settings (which I use atm with my current cfg). I've around 1000 euro's to spend on it, and I need it before the i34 LAN ;).
I was surfing on inet but could not find any really convincing laptops, with only the Dell XPS series delivering a decent performance.
Could you give me some suggestions (+links if possible/PREFER .nl companies) to laptops which you think are decent enough? (you can give me some higher priced ones as well, since I can get some a bit cheaper) + is any of you using a laptop for playing CoD4?
from xxodd.nl, any clue how much fps i would get with this setup? its 1050 euro's, so affordable, and seems decent. other option is to save a bit more and go for:
XXODD XNi570ru-GT 17"
Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 (2,40GHz, 800MHz, 3MB) 2GB DDR2 667MHz geheugen (1x 2GB, single channel) 320GB SATA harde schijf 5400RPM DVD-CD +/- brander GeForce 8700m GT
Or I can configure an Alienware laptop for aroun 2600 dollars:
hey 9mm i used to work @ geeksquad before i got a real job :D my main experience was with laptops therefore i think i should offer atleast offer some help. first i will mention a few things you should keep in mind: - stay away from acers, i usually do not like to simply stereotype by company name alone but you definitely want to stay away from acers for countless issues - although at this point it might be hard to find a top of the line laptop without vista, you definitely do not want to go with vista if your focus is gaming mainly because it makes virtually everything slower; even if you cant find a good laptop without vista i suggest you install xp on it! - you definitely want either a good crt or a top of the line lcd to plug your laptop to otherwise youre going to be stuck @ 65 hertz refresh rate. (for fps anything below 85 truly is unplayable). - i myself have an asus lambo hooked up to a crt which works pretty well for gaming, the main problem with laptops are videocards (they simply do not perform as well as desktop cards), therefore you will still get great fps however f.e. in cs:s you will get fps lag with a smoke present infront of you. overall you want to look @ the specs present in the laptop itself and not the company. try to make sure you end up with xp and go with the best videocard possible in relation to your budget!
Nittnaus, that was some really useful advise, thnx! I've a very decent LCD monitor, so that should not pose an issue, and i have some xp install disks left so that is fixable as well.
For a videocard, the difference between the 8600,8700 and 8800gtx, is it really worth the price difference? I play at low specs, also on my desktop atm (high fps = win) and the price difference between a 8600 and a 8800gtx is about ~500 dollar
It's my understanding that you cannot upgrade a laptop's video card. I would suggest buying the one with the best video card you can afford and if it means sacrificing for a slower processor which you can upgrade later.
That XXODD would run COD4 fine @ 1280x1024 with low/med settings. Although I hear these new Acer laptops that are out, or coming out I think, are supposed to be really good, so it might be worth waiting for them possibly :>
#9 is a fact or a guess that you can upgrade your notebooks processor?
#10, according to #7, acer laptops are bad, but maybe you heard something else?
#11/12 I looked into Gateway and Rock and they are very decent. Problem with Gateway is that I dont think they ship to .nl.
Any more suggestions are welcome, and im still comparing all the laptops. Any1 has a site where i can competly configure my own laptop, and not just some parts?
Like #9 said, get a mid-range to high video cards off the bat. A video card is something you can't easily upgrade on notebooks compared to any other component. Most of them are made specific and fine-tuned for the vendor themselves. If I have time this week (which I probably won't) I will try out some notebooks here where I work but I would recommend at least 8700m GT.
If you get dell, you can downgrade from vista to xp legally.
And personally, I would stay away from gateway. Gateway, E-machine and Acer are the same company now, so all that stuff sucks. No toshiba's either!
I personally would go with a dell. Alienware and Dell are also the same, so pretty much if you buy an alienware, you're paying more for a name and nothing more. BUT, the Alienware specs are better than the XPS, but if you could get an 8700 in one, you should be able to get a good amount of FPS.
And #14, VooDoo PC is awesome, but I'm pretty sure.....no, I'm POSITIVE that they are out of his price range :D
Although if you have the money, that would be my choice ;D
----edit----- A while ago I read an article in MaximumPC Magazine about upgrading your laptop. If you seriously wanted to, you could lurk on their website or forums for the article!
Dell has a couple of awesome coupons, 20-30% off final price. My friend's Gateway broke down and when he talked to them to fix it, Gateway said 3 weeks. He got his notebook a little more than 2 months later.
the asus c90 is meant to be really upgradable so maybe deck one of these out with a good graphics card, some low ram and cpu power which you can upgrade over time ? I know a guy who has one of these and gets 125 o ncod4 and has never had a problem with it
The biggest problems in my experience come from the graphics cards, you can have a high spec laptop but if they skimped on the graphics cards CS is going to be difficult, especially when smokes are thrown.
www.tao-cs.com - Watch the trailer, read the quotes from the pros and then buy it.
So got some more ppl saying that acer is bad, will stay away :P
#17, read that article and some more, it's doable, but its kinda hard.
I surfed a bit on the net and found some benchmarks for mobile gfx, www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3155& amp;p=4 , looks like i will need at least a 8800m gts, and just skip on the 8700gt, since they cant do anything compared to the newer cards. So I kinda narrowed my search down to a laptop with a 8800m card.
#19, will look into that one later, at school atm ;)
KK, probably gonna save for this one, unless some1 comes up with a better one in the meantime. Now for the next part, is there any notable difference in performance from hdd with 5400rpm and 7200rpm?
and for cpu's any difference between the 8100 and the higher clocked ones?
#26 from my experience there is a huge difference between 5400 rpm & 7200 rpm. f.e. even on a 7200 rpm harddrive if you play while recording in cs:s the game can feel choppier (its not as noticable as s1 but there still is the difference.). so you can imagine how much of a noticable difference youll get between 5400 and 7200.
as for the cpu question i think you answered it yourself. just go for the best possible combo in regards to your budget. as i stated before i would stress the videocard, operating system and the harddrive (in that order).
dell xps m1530 is a great notebook for the price. it's only a 15.4 inch notebook tho. for $1689 w/o taxes, you get a 200 gb 7200 rpm hard drive, 8600gt, m8300 core 2 duo, integrated audio blaster (sound), xps gear, 1680 x 1050 hi-res glossy screen.
"gaming" laptop
I've around 1000 euro's to spend on it, and I need it before the i34 LAN ;).
I was surfing on inet but could not find any really convincing laptops, with only the Dell XPS series delivering a decent performance.
Could you give me some suggestions (+links if possible/PREFER .nl companies) to laptops which you think are decent enough? (you can give me some higher priced ones as well, since I can get some a bit cheaper) + is any of you using a laptop for playing CoD4?
ATM I have 2 options which could be decent:
Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 (2,10GHz, 800MHz, 3MB)
2GB DDR2 667MHz geheugen (1x 2GB, single channel)
320GB SATA harde schijf 5400RPM
DVD-CD +/- brander
1GB Intel Turbo Memory module
GeForce 8600m GS 512MB
from xxodd.nl, any clue how much fps i would get with this setup? its 1050 euro's, so affordable, and seems decent.
other option is to save a bit more and go for:
XXODD XNi570ru-GT 17"
Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 (2,40GHz, 800MHz, 3MB)
2GB DDR2 667MHz geheugen (1x 2GB, single channel)
320GB SATA harde schijf 5400RPM
DVD-CD +/- brander
GeForce 8700m GT
Or I can configure an Alienware laptop for aroun 2600 dollars:
512MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800M GTX
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T8300 2.4GHz (3MB Cache 800MHz FSB
4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz – 2 x 2048MB
120GB 7,200RPM (8MB Cache) w/ Free Fall Protection
8x Dual Layer Burner (DVD±RW, CD-RW
External Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio Card
Any advice/suggestions are welcome, thnx in advance!
could i downgrade it a bit and still have decent performance?
- stay away from acers, i usually do not like to simply stereotype by company name alone but you definitely want to stay away from acers for countless issues
- although at this point it might be hard to find a top of the line laptop without vista, you definitely do not want to go with vista if your focus is gaming mainly because it makes virtually everything slower; even if you cant find a good laptop without vista i suggest you install xp on it!
- you definitely want either a good crt or a top of the line lcd to plug your laptop to otherwise youre going to be stuck @ 65 hertz refresh rate. (for fps anything below 85 truly is unplayable).
- i myself have an asus lambo hooked up to a crt which works pretty well for gaming, the main problem with laptops are videocards (they simply do not perform as well as desktop cards), therefore you will still get great fps however f.e. in cs:s you will get fps lag with a smoke present infront of you.
overall you want to look @ the specs present in the laptop itself and not the company. try to make sure you end up with xp and go with the best videocard possible in relation to your budget!
I've a very decent LCD monitor, so that should not pose an issue, and i have some xp install disks left so that is fixable as well.
For a videocard, the difference between the 8600,8700 and 8800gtx, is it really worth the price difference? I play at low specs, also on my desktop atm (high fps = win) and the price difference between a 8600 and a 8800gtx is about ~500 dollar
Although I hear these new Acer laptops that are out, or coming out I think, are supposed to be really good, so it might be worth waiting for them possibly :>
#10, according to #7, acer laptops are bad, but maybe you heard something else?
#11/12 I looked into Gateway and Rock and they are very decent. Problem with Gateway is that I dont think they ship to .nl.
Any more suggestions are welcome, and im still comparing all the laptops.
Any1 has a site where i can competly configure my own laptop, and not just some parts?
And personally, I would stay away from gateway. Gateway, E-machine and Acer are the same company now, so all that stuff sucks. No toshiba's either!
I personally would go with a dell. Alienware and Dell are also the same, so pretty much if you buy an alienware, you're paying more for a name and nothing more. BUT, the Alienware specs are better than the XPS, but if you could get an 8700 in one, you should be able to get a good amount of FPS.
And #14, VooDoo PC is awesome, but I'm pretty sure.....no, I'm POSITIVE that they are out of his price range :D
Although if you have the money, that would be my choice ;D
----edit-----
A while ago I read an article in MaximumPC Magazine about upgrading your laptop. If you seriously wanted to, you could lurk on their website or forums for the article!
the asus c90 is meant to be really upgradable so maybe deck one of these out with a good graphics card, some low ram and cpu power which you can upgrade over time ? I know a guy who has one of these and gets 125 o ncod4 and has never had a problem with it
#17, read that article and some more, it's doable, but its kinda hard.
I surfed a bit on the net and found some benchmarks for mobile gfx, www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3155&
amp;p=4 , looks like i will need at least a 8800m gts, and just skip on the 8700gt, since they cant do anything compared to the newer cards. So I kinda narrowed my search down to a laptop with a 8800m card.
#19, will look into that one later, at school atm ;)
get an xps
Im able to upgrade the processor, memory etc, and I have a 8800gtx.
Migth be the one im looking for, any opinions? ^^
most laptops you see won't be anything special unless you're willing to spend 5k+ on a laptop
Now for the next part, is there any notable difference in performance from hdd with 5400rpm and 7200rpm?
and for cpu's any difference between the 8100 and the higher clocked ones?
from my experience there is a huge difference between 5400 rpm & 7200 rpm.
f.e. even on a 7200 rpm harddrive if you play while recording in cs:s the game can feel choppier (its not as noticable as s1 but there still is the difference.). so you can imagine how much of a noticable difference youll get between 5400 and 7200.
as for the cpu question i think you answered it yourself. just go for the best possible combo in regards to your budget. as i stated before i would stress the videocard, operating system and the harddrive (in that order).