New laptop?

[Rackhir]

Not good for gaming? Are we talking about serious gaming or just a bit of it?

It's integrated motherboard graphics. It MIGHT be adequate for older games, but don't count on it being good for anything more recent. You really want to look for a discrete graphics chipset. Something like a Radeon x1600 or a GF 6600 mobile is probably the minimum if you have much of any desire to play games. Unfortunately, very few inexpensive laptops have a decent graphics chips.

Plus I plan on upgrading it from 1GB to 2GB does that change anything?

Probably not. RAM is not a substitute for dedicated graphics hardware, any more than a larger gas tank makes your car go faster. That said, integrated graphics DO often suck up some of your system memory for graphics use (the Hypermemory or "Shared" memory). So adding ram can help prevent the integrated graphics from diminishing the amount of available ram to the point where you have too little ram to run at full speed.

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. :\

Not exactly, those sort of "requirements" are best translated as "This is the absolute minimum in order for the program to start up and run." However, if you don't want to be watching a slide show (extremely low frame rate) with no graphical bells and whistles, then you usually need considerably more than the "requirements".

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 :\

Here's a guide to Nvidia's chipsets, you will want to look at the mobile units towards the bottom. Presumably there's a similar page for the ATI Radeon offerings.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_NVIDIA_Graphics_Processing_Units

The HP has an NVIDIA® GeForce Go 7400 is decent.

 

[drothgery]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_NVIDIA_Graphics_Processing_Units

The HP has an NVIDIA® GeForce Go 7400 is decent.

... and a little more research says the Dell's Quadro FX350M is a rebranded GeForce Go 7400.

 

[Mycanid]

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.

Dell is running a special on their new business line called "Vostro" where you can get a decent laptop that might fit your specs for 600$ BEFORE tax....

Might take a look. Graphics card is a nVidia 8400, but seems to involve borrowed memory in part. :\

 

[Ferret]

That looks awesome. It can run everything I want, and is the right price. But Don't I need to be a small business? Thanks for finding that Myca!

 

[Mycanid]

That looks awesome. It can run everything I want, and is the right price. But Don't I need to be a small business? Thanks for finding that Myca!

Hmm ... don't think so. :\

Just in case: here is the link: http://www.dell.com/content/product...h096bkI6LvfHaA89OdrWwWEEnRgdrps4G49Gl7tPrHgs=

 

[drothgery]

That looks awesome. It can run everything I want, and is the right price. But Don't I need to be a small business?

No (at least not in the US). I mean, you need to fill in a 'company name' on the order form, but I've picked up two desktops and a notebook from Dell's small business store over the years for 'Rothgery Software' (which is just me, and doesn't really exist, as I've done no independent consulting work). Because I'm typically buying systems to run development tools on when I do anything more demanding than surf the intraweb, rather than to play games, I usually want 'business' options (like no dial-up modem, or AoL, and 'Pro' or 'Business' versions of Windows preinstalled), and historically their special offers were less complicated on the business side (home users had mail-in rebates; business users just got discounts).

 

[Ferret]

Sweet, my dad actually runs a 'computer business', kingswood computers. So even then its all cool!

 

[Mycanid]

Sweet, my dad actually runs a 'computer business', kingswood computers. So even then its all cool!

Make it so Ferret!

Edit: When I went through the entire check out process (I opted for a 9 cell battery) the total I came to was: $672.93 ... which ain't so bad for a decent machine, actually.

Hmm ... maybe I should put in a request to the boss for one as well. :\

 

[Ferret]

I got one done to £544....although I'm sure I can tweak some stuff...

 

[Ferret]

I got a perfect one for £475 Should arrive this week!