New laptop?

[stonehill_troll]

Be mindful that Dell actually does not make their own laptop, they purchase them from manufacturers and then brand them "Dell". ASUS and CLEVO are two that I remember, but there are 2-3 more actual companies that make them and then sell to resellers like Dell, HP, etc.

Also size of the screen/unit count. I found 12"-14" to be too small and 17"-19" to be too big for taking to my weekly games and traveling on vacation with (hotels generally have free wireless LANs to connect to).

When I bought mine, about 2 years ago, I did a lot of research over 3 months before I chose a ASUS Z70VA acreen 15.4", processor PM 2ghz, 2 gb RAM, Video ATI x700. What I did is join a couple of laptop discussion boards and read poster's commets/feedback on laptop they recently purchased.

You can buy them from small resellers and get a better deal and cheaper warreaty in most cases. I would post your requirements at several laptop discussion boards and wait for responses and recommendations. Links are below.

Do not buy a laptop with a integrated graphic card.

Good discussion and info websites
http://www.notebookdiscussions.com/
http://www.powernotebooks.com/forum/
http://www.laptopical.com/cheap-laptops.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/
http://forums.legitreviews.com/?sid=ff534bf71f3dca4d029f9ef2a0f58836 (recommended by a friend)

Good vendors
http://www.discountlaptops.com/ (I bought from here, good service)
http://www.powernotebooks.com/
http://www.m-techlaptops.com/
http://www.proportable.com
http://istnc.com
http://www.geared2play.com

good luck

 

[drothgery]

FWIW, I think anything with more that 14.1" widescreen is to big for a coach airplane seat, which is the main place I'd use a laptop on the road... and I use an external monitor (20" widescreen LCD) at home.

 

[Ferret]

I can't see my self going on a plane in the next 5-10 years.

Also the problem is if its a purely American site, I'm going to have to add in shipping, besides other problems.

And from those sites it looks like the cheapest I'll find is about £650...so either I cut back or I spend more. I'm erring towards the later... :\

Scanning ebay once more, are any other graphics cards that i could live with? One which looks good have this, 'NVIDIA QUADRO FX 350M'. Is that ok?

Almost all of the machines I find haven't got the video card I want!

Ok, After more searching I found some good laptops:

Dell M65
Issues: Graphics card - NVIDIA QUADRO FX 350M, Will this be good enough?

HP DV600
Issues: OS - It only has XP. Is this a big problem? And would upgrading be a)worthwhile, and b) 'cost effective'?

Medion
Issues: Graphics card - NVidia® GeForce® Go 6150 graphics, Will this be good enough?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[drothgery]

I can't see my self going on a plane in the next 5-10 years.

Dude, you live in England. Where can you go without taking a plane?

 

[Ferret]

France, Germany, etc. They have these things, called boats. They float and stuff.

Plus remember I'm going to be student for the next 4 years. That's alot of non-travelling on a plane there.

Anyone seen the links in my post above? I edited it before I saw your post, drothgery.

 

[drothgery]

Plus remember I'm going to be student for the next 4 years. That's alot of non-travelling on a plane there.

There's this peculiar American collegiate institution known as Spring Break. I don't know if it crossed the Atlantic, but if it did...

Anyone seen the links in my post above? I edited it before I saw your post, drothgery.

It looks like the Quadro FX 350M is a business variant low-end NVidia part, probably GeForce 7-series based (and probably 7500-based, as the 110M in my notebook is 7300-based). Not great, but better than integrated stuff. And while nVidia's integrated graphics -- and 'NVidia® GeForce® Go 6150' is nVidia integrated graphics -- are better than Intel's, they're still not very good.

 

[Ferret]

In the morning I might look up how all the cards compare....

Thanks

 

[Ferret]

Right! The Medion's NVidia® GeForce® Go 6150 can run direct 3d 9.0 which is what I need I think, and it has the faster clock speed of the two... And its quite cheap. just need to find out if I can upgrade the mem.

 

[stonehill_troll]

Right! The Medion's NVidia® GeForce® Go 6150 can run direct 3d 9.0 which is what I need I think, and it has the faster clock speed of the two... And its quite cheap. just need to find out if I can upgrade the mem.

Not good for gaming, e.g. no Half-Life 2 (+ episodes) if that is still a requirement.

See this UK thread

http://www.hotukdeals.com/forums/showthread.php?p=534477

 

[Ferret]

Not good for gaming? Are we talking about serious gaming or just a bit of it? Plus I plan on upgrading it from 1GB to 2GB does that change anything?

Also the NVidia site says it "Plays popular games and applications that use Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 Shader Model 3.0 effects"

Which is what half-life 2 needs. :\

Although, the HP one has a 7 series which supports all that and HDR which means its got to be right... Which to choose?

The HP one has just ended :\