Laptop Purchase Help?

[Thorax]

Ok, that's what I thought. Guess I'll have to keep looking. Thanks for the help Otis and Vert.

[Ad Bot]

[Thorax]

Sorry for the bump, but I think I found a new computer. It's a Dell Inspiron e1705.

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Specs of the Dell Inspiron e1705 Being Reviewed:

Processor: Intel T2500 2.0GHz Core Duo
Motherboard Chipset: Intel Calistoga i945GM/PM 
Hard Drive: 100GB 7200RPM SATA (Hitachi TraveStar)
Memory/RAM: 1GB (1,024MB) Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (667MHz)
Screen: 17.0" UXGA TrueLife (1900 x 1200 pixel resolution glossy screen)
Graphics: nVidia GeForce Go 7800 256MB
Optical Drive: DVD +/-RW with DL DVD+R write capacity
Battery: 9-cell (standard size 6-cell, 9-cell extended life optional)
Wireless: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG (802.11 a/b/g)
User Input: Touchpad
Dimensions: 15.5" x 11.3" x 1.6" (Width x Depth x Height)
TV Tuner: Optional external USB TV Tuner with remote control upgrade for $104
Weight: 8.1 lbs
Ports:
6 USB 2.0 ports
IEEE 1394 (FireWire)
Digital Video Interface (DVI-D)
VGA out (monitor out)
S-Video Out
RJ-45 (Ethernet LAN)
RJ-11 (56-Kbps Modem)
Audio line out for headphone/speakers
Microphone
Slots:
5-in-1 Multi Card Reader (MS, MS Pro, SD, MMC, xD)
1 ExpressCard 54 slot
Buttons:
Power on/off
Volume up/down/mute (3 buttons)
Media buttons (play, forward, back, stop)
Battery charge test button
Battery lock and release

I think these are the specs for the one I want, but I'm not quite sure as they are not selling it. I'm buying one used.

[Mr.Patrick]

nVidia GeForce Go 7800 256MB is a pretty powerful laptop graphics card, I had a 7300 Go, played BL on highest, but the cpu couldn't keep up so source games wasn't playable really.

[Thorax]

Ok thanks. The person who I might buy it from is going to let me test it out soon in a couple of days, so I'll see what to do then. But does anyone know if this CPU will keep up with the graphics card.

[Reactor Worker]

For those bad mouthing ATI, just GTFO. It is clear that few of you (Otis being one of the few exceptions) actually know what you are talking about when it comes to GPUs.

Blockland, L4D and the like are all highly scalable games and their performance is really a matter of what settings you choose.

Laptop hardware costs twice as much as a desktop for equal levels of performance and the ergonomics are horrible. Smaller screens, smaller, less tactile keyboards and pathetic speakers make them really unappealing for gaming. Connect that with the stuffty mobile graphics chips and mobile processors they use and you have a big ol' ball of waste.

Most overestimate their need for portability, and generally a better plan is to buy a performance desktop machine for gaming and spend about $200-$400 on a simple notebook without all the fancy features.

[Thorax]

I really would like to get a laptop even if it won't work as well as a high performance desktop because I go to a lot of LAN parties and I don't really want to be lugging around a full system. As for the smaller screen and keyboard, they're pretty big. It's a 17" Screen and a bigger keyboard because of the extra space.

[Thorax]

Sorry for the double post, but I think I might have answered my question about processing.

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Processor and Performance

The e1705 processor in this review machine runs at 2.0GHz with dual cores -- meaning multi-tasking is what this machine is born to do.  There's no lag on this notebook,  even when there's a virus scan running in the background and I'm ripping a CD, have Word, Outlook, an HTML Editor and Visual Studio (a code development tool) open and flipping between them the e1705 is yawning and CPU usage is low.

Two processor graphs for two processor cores in Windows Task Manager
[b](There was a pic of the CPU memory usage that was not high at all)[/b]

The T2500 processor coupled with the nVidia GeForce Go 256MB graphics card is enough to play most any game.  As a demonstration of the processor and graphics card capability I installed Doom 3 and took it for a test run.  The game ran flawlessly on High Quality graphics settings without any problems -- I didn't try "Ultra Quality" as you'd really need more memory and a desktop class graphics processor for running in such a mode.  Given the fact Doom 3 runs well on High Quality graphics settings, Half Life 2 and other popular titles can be assumed to run well.

Hopeful, some of you more computer-savy guys can tell me if this is a thumbs up and I should buy it.

[CHEESE]

-SNIP-

Good enough for Blockland. Get it, if its cheap.

[Thorax]

Good enough for Blockland. Get it, if its cheap.

$500, I'm saving $150 and getting a better deal. I just want to make sure it can run TF2 because I got it for my B-Day (3 months ago) and I want to be able to play for the first time.

[Muffinmix]

Buy a laptop that doesn't suck or overheat. That's basically it.

[Mr_Grinch14]

HP has some really good laptops. Check out best buy for some deals.

I found one:
4 GB ram
2.0GHZ Dual core Centrino
Geforce 9600M GT (really good Laptop card, will run your games for sure)
17-inch screen
Blue ray player
HDMI port (if you like that kind of stuff)
64-Bit Vista

I mean its a bit more than you will spend. But i'm just giving an example of a laptop for a good deal.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9053007&st=HP+DV7-1175NR&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1218012194815

[Reactor Worker]

I really would like to get a laptop even if it won't work as well as a high performance desktop because I go to a lot of LAN parties and I don't really want to be lugging around a full system. As for the smaller screen and keyboard, they're pretty big. It's a 17" Screen and a bigger keyboard because of the extra space.

FIRST OFF DELETE THE loving CODE TAGS

Second, get a shuttle case and real computer components.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16856101039

[Thorax]

FIRST OFF DELETE THE loving CODE TAGS

Why?

And like I said, even with a shuttle, I don't want to lug everything around when I go to parties.

[Thorax]

I'm on the computer that I may by right now and I'm downloading blockland. So far it's running really well. I'll post back with how well Blockland runs.

[Nightmare-Duckie]

Sorry for triple post, but here are the specs.

heres some help, don't buy ANY type of computer from walmart!