Need help in choosing LAPTOP....pls [any comment welcome]

[Tru_Snoop]

Hey guys;

I am thinking of buying a new laptop. I need your help in deciding. First of all, I don't want to spend too much money, my range is $1000 - 1200 canadian, before taxes. I have already looked at two nice laptops, one from "dell" and another from "bestbuy". I am a gamer, so I would like to play games like, "Age of Empires III, Battlefield 2, NHL 2006, Counter Strike, GTA:San Andreas, Half Life 2"...... Here are the two laptops I have seen so far. One has "128MB ATI Radeon Xpress 200M Shared" graphics card (from best buy) and dell computer has "128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY™ RADEON X300 PCI Express x16 Graphics".

Dell Computer:

Inspiron 6000
Inte Pentium® M Processor 750 (1.86GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition (English)
15.4 inch WXGA LCD Panel
512MB Shared DDR2 SDRAM 2 Dimms
100GB Hard Drive
24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY™ RADEON X300 PCI Express x16 Graphics
9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (80 WHr)
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2915 Internal Wireless (802.11 a/b/g, 54Mbps)

BestBuy Computer:

ompaq V2570 AMD Turion 64 ML-32 1.8GHz Laptop

Processor Type AMD Turion 64 ML-32
Screen Size 14.0"
RAM 512MB DDR RAM (Exp. To 2GB)
Hard Drive 60GB 4200RPM
Optical Drives DVD+/- R/RW and CD-RW Combo Drive
Graphics 128MB ATI Radeon Xpress 200M Shared
Average Battery Life 3 Hours
Product Weight 2.33 kg
Audio Type Altec Lansing
Battery Type 6-Cell Lithium-Ion
Cache 512KB L2
Fax/Modem 56K V.90
I/O Ports 3 x USB 2.0, 1 x IEEE 1394
Included In Box AC Adapter, Battery, Manual
Network Card 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11b/g Wireless
Other Software See The Features Section
PC Card Slots 1 x Type I/II 32-Bit (Supports 16-Bit)
Pointing Device Touchpad
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition SP2
Processor Speed 1.8GHz
Product Dimensions 33.40(W) x 3.28(H) x 23.11(D) cm
Removable Storage No
Screen Type WXGA High-Definition BrightView
Speakers Altec Lansing
System Bus 1800MHz
Warranty 1 Year Parts & Labour


First, How these two video cards compare? Can I be able to play the games listed above on these cards? Is there any site where I can check the benchmarks for these two cards?


thank you.

[WSFuser]

if ur HONESTLY thinking of gaming, ur aiming for rele low detail graphics and low resolution because none of those video chipsets screams "Performance". ill tell u right now to avoid teh "128MB ATI Radeon Xpress 200M Shared" (compaq) because it uses ur system memory. as for benchmarks i know of none and even if they existed they wouldnt be as accurate or fair as desktop benchmarks.

[Mrkvonic]

Hi,
If you are into gaming, do not buy laptops.
I would suggest an Athlon 64 AMD with Asus / Abit AN8 mobo and nVidia 6600 or 6800 graphic card (PCI-E of course). Plus, at least 2Gb RAM with low latency. You will save money, gain performance and customizability. Laptops are a pain to upgrade and tweak. Desktops are much more convenient. True, laptops are mobile and small, but if you trully a gamer as you say - only desktop, AMD, 64bit processor.
I don't know Canadian prices, but I bought a gamer San Diego 3700 with 2Gb 2.5ns Kingstone RAM, Gigabyte GT6600 PCI-E 128Mb, 2 HDD (WD Sata II, 200Gb & 160Gb), 2 DVDs (one reader one burner), plus all the accessories and flat 17" monitor for 1,600 dollars. You can go for heavier of course, but so does the price. But I think you need something similar to what I have.
I can play all the heaviest fps with best resolution at 60-80fps.
Mrk

[Close_Hauled]

These guys are right about the laptops not being ideal for gaming. Most have slow graphics cards and hard drives (5400RPM). You will need to get gaming specific laptops, like Dell XPS M170, or Alienware (Area 51, Aurora, and MJ-12).

I have a Dell Latitude D600 that I play some games on, and while it is passable for when I am on the road, it is by no means a desktop replacement.

If you want to look at inexpensive gaming laptops, try looking at the ones from Alienware. You can also look at Acer, Asus, Dell and Falcon Northwest.

Don't get lost in the GHz race either. The Pentium M (Dothan), although clocked slower, is faster than higher clocked processors from AMD and Intel:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/05/25/dothan_over_netburst/page11.html

A laptop with a Dothan will run cooler and have a much longer battery life (http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/05/25/dothan_over_netburst/page20.html).

Look for 7200RPM drives as well. I have swapped out 5400RPM drives for 7200RPM drives and was amazed at the new boot time. 7200RPM drives do consume more power though.

Look for these nVidia cards:

GeForce Go 7800 GTX
GeForce Go 7800
GeForce Go 6800 Ultra
GeForce Go 6800

Or these ATI cards:

Mobility Radeon X1600
Mobility Radeon X1400
Mobility Radeon X1300

Last, but not least, do not skimp on RAM. No less than 1 gig.