Which gaming laptop would you recommend?

[72hundred]

Hey,

I'm currently considering buying a new laptop. Its primarily a DRL (desktop replacement laptop), with gaming also as a priority. I've been looking at the Dell M1710......... which seems to have taken a huge price hike in the last week or so for some reason .

I'll be waiting till Vista is out and up and running, before buying.

But does any one have any suggestions/tips about buying a laptop?


Many thanks!

[mothball]

3 letters

XPS

nuff said

for a gaming laptop probably the best specs are

over 3GHz Pentium 4 or prefably over 2GHz dual core (saves battery)
at least 2GB of RAM
New NVIDIA GeForce 512MB craphics cards (MUST HAVE!!! AWSOME CARDS!!)

I persionally am saving up for a dell XPS with 4GB or RAM and the new 512MB NVIDIA

If ur gaming forget about Vista for at least another year! it will be buggy as hell and most new games probably wont even work with it. Windows XP is a pretty good gaming OS so stick with that and then upgrade to vista when it has established itself......

by the way for a good Dell gaming laptop ur talking no less than €2000 the one I'm looking at is over €4000 so be warned.....

[72hundred]

Dunno about getting Pentium 4 in dell laptops, I thought that was discontinued quite some time ago ?!?

Also the advantages of 4Gb over 2Gb are, although I'm sure you might dispute, minimal. Extra RAM hanging around ain't worth the extra cash. Especially given the €1,190 price hike over the standard!!! (on the M1710) Hardly worth putting over half the cash for the machine in redundant RAM - lol. Especially if you have a high spinner of a hard drive, which could take up the excess, in the unlikely event that there is some.

In regards, Vista. I haven't heard any negative compatibility feedback on games.

If spending over 2 grand I think I'd want the newer OS, instead of the 5 year old one , also dell laptop's that current sell as "Vista compatible" are in truth not, as some of the vista hardware hasn't been offered yet. Not just GPU's, but "priority I/O" hard-drives, etc.

It's on the Vista release, which makes for interesting reading, although a lot of specific details are missing.

I'd say too that the day's of max of 512mb are numbered and soon Dell will offer 1gb video/ram - since Alienware, (owned by dell) is already offering SLi 1Gb.

Any thoughts on 7200rpm(100Gb) or 5400rpm(160Gb)?

I'm in two minds about it - advantages to both, especially since most of my memory heavy stuff in on an external HD...

[crazychris]

my advise is don't get a laptop to play games. in a few months it will be so far out of date it won't run any games. and also if you wern't to take my advise go for an alienware over a dell.

[72hundred]

Originally Posted by crazychris

my advise is don't get a laptop to play games. in a few months it will be so far out of date it won't run any games. and also if you wern't to take my advise go for an alienware over a dell.

Unfortunately, given some other constraints a desktop wouldn't be an option - ie occasional mobility.

I had looked into Alienware a few months back, but heard first hand and through peer reviews (reviewcentre . com) that the overall package wasn't great..... fans that rans too loud, bad layout, numerous dead pixels and other such small details. Also customer care is meant to be horrendous. Also quiet expensive...

Also I think laptops have come a long way from years ago, when 6 months later you're hardware was obsolete, and I would be quite confident that a laptop bought now (or ideally around April/May + Vista) would be able to handle all games.

Another issue, that ties in with redundant hardward , is the Blu-Ray / DVD-HD battle. Dell offered ,for a week!!, Blu-Ray with the M1710, and then withdrew it. Something to consider in the long run - buying Blu-Ray now to "Future Proof" any laptop, if such a process even exists lol.

[aajitpal]

I bought the XPS M1710 for 2600 Euros last november and since then i am in love with this machine. Its excellent in graphics and very very fast. specially with the lights all round the laptop. Looks are fantastic. the best investment that i made yet. Playing battlefield 2 or call of duty 2 the graphics are amazing.. Love it.....

[72hundred]

Originally Posted by aajitpal

I bought the XPS M1710 for 2600 Euros last november and since then i am in love with this machine. Its excellent in graphics and very very fast. specially with the lights all round the laptop. Looks are fantastic. the best investment that i made yet. Playing battlefield 2 or call of duty 2 the graphics are amazing.. Love it.....

That sounds pretty sweet alrite :-D. What are your spec's on that? 7200/5400 HD?

[aajitpal]

It has 120 GB @ 5400 HDD, 2GB @ 667 Mhz RAM(2 * 1024), 512 MB Nvidia GeForce Go 7950 GTX Graphics Card, Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7600 (2.33GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB) and Special Edition XPS Backpack.

[72hundred]

Originally Posted by aajitpal

It has 120 GB @ 5400 HDD, 2GB @ 667 Mhz RAM(2 * 1024), 512 MB Nvidia GeForce Go 7950 GTX Graphics Card, Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7600 (2.33GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB) and Special Edition XPS Backpack.

Yeah, that's exactly the set-up I'd like - nice one for ya! Just have to wait just a little longer now for vista to complete the package.

[Polar Ice]

Originally Posted by crazychris

my advise is don't get a laptop to play games. in a few months it will be so far out of date it won't run any games. and also if you wern't to take my advise go for an alienware over a dell.

Unless you have the money to throw around it is pointless in buying a laptop as a gaming machine. They cost a lot for what you get and you're going to have heat issues trying to get a good gaming laptop.
With regard to what type of laptop you should get it doesn't matter, provided that what you're getting is good value for money. Don't spend a crazy amount of money 'cause of Moore's Law

Moore's Law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[72hundred]

Hey PI,

You're right about laptop's and gaming. But I'd you'd read maybe the title or this thread or even what I said on the 17th of Jan you might have saved yourself some typing

In any case... does any1 know where I can buy a *IDE 2.5" (laptop hard drive) to USB connector/cable in Limerick?* or even preferably a case to turn it into a portable hard drive.

Need to try and savage a piece of junk hard drive I got off eBay.... Kept getting error messages when I tried to install it today and not the ones you can fix neither... more like the "your hard drive has something physically wrong with it buddy! - You're fcuked!" (Except of course M$ uses "System Fatal Error" in place of fcuked )

Any help?

UPDATE: Drive turned out to be totally unusable, but got refund, and ordered one off Komplett, which is working great .

[IRISHRANGER]

There is only one.CLICK HERE FOR THE BEAST

[Polar Ice]

Ya, but that costs way to much... it's really not worth it unless all you're into is computers and you're making in excess or 100k a year!

The basic version is £2500 - that's around €3700 - that's a lot of money

[mickomania]

Originally Posted by IRISHRANGER

There is only one.CLICK HERE FOR THE BEAST

That is quite a beast. Gaming doesn't seem quite the same on a laptop though. I
just cant get into it.

[shotgun]

Have a look at these beasties

VoodooPC Gaming PCs, Luxury PCs, Notebook PCs, and Entertainment PCs

[72hundred]

Hey,

Does anyone know when the next gaming laptop (i.e. M1710 replacement) from dell is going to be released?

It seems its every 14 months going on previous dates, and that would put it in July of this year.

Also if anyone has a website with info about what could be in it - please include it! I'm hopeful of SLi 1Gb for video ram.

BTW: had a look at the alienware/voodoo systems but the cost of both is way way too high, circa 4k for what I've in mind (see below) !!! .... not that I'm asking for that much

CPU: 2.16Ghz+ Dual Core
RAM: 2Gb
GPU: 1Gb Sli
HD: 150Gb+ @ 7200rpm
DISPLAY: 17" (1920x1200)

(Should be able to get Dell system at €2,500 for above)

Any news on new xps release would be great - thanks!

[72hundred]

Watch this space - some seriously equipment coming around....

dell.ie

Dual HD's so RAID 0 is an option, and maybe a solid state HD 64GB or something - also 19" Hopefully!

[72hundred]

Originally Posted by BrianMcEire

Hey,

It seems its every 14 months going on previous dates, and that would put it in July of this year.

Its great how predictable Dell are -

[Floo]

Just have a look at acer aspire 5920....

[mrpotatohead]

alienware!!!!!!!!!!