Wich laptop

[scrappy 10+ year member]

Im looking for a laptop. I need a new computer and might as well have mobility with it. Mostly used for internet photos movies and occasional gamiing. I would like to keep it under 900. I seen alot that cost 899 or so. I have been looking around town came accross this one for 649. http://www.officemax.com/omax/catalog/sku.jsp?skuId=21669614&category_Id=cat1140046

Is it any good? What would you reccomend?

Click to read more...

 

[TurdFergueson2 5,000+ posts]

Not bad for the price. 3 gigs of ram core 2 duo, nice sized hard drive. Camera and mic. I'd jump down....

 

[negativezeroz 5,000+ posts]

If you are wanting to do any gaming at all, that will not do.

The Intel X3100 on that board is bad at running games (even at 640x480)

 

[MikeofTulsa Moderator]

hell of a deal for the price.

 

[scrappy 10+ year member]

If i plan to do some gaming what video card should I look for

 

[negativezeroz 5,000+ posts]

Well, discrete would be best but that's impossible for under $900.

Desktops are much cheaper in terms of gaming ability but...

ATi Mobility Radeon HD 3450 and nVidia 8600 are doing pretty decently as far as laptops are concerned.

----------------------

I'll do some more looking around for ya when I get back tonight.

 

[Jmac 10+ year member]

Expect to spend at least $750 on a laptop capable of casual gaming ...

You'll want at least:

ATI Radeon HD 2600/HD 3650 or better

Nvidia GeForce 8600/9500 or better

ATI's cards run cooler and draw less power, so they're a better choice on a laptop, even if the equivalent Nvidia cards are a little faster.

Personally, I'd recommend an Intel 7000/8000/9000 series Core 2 Duo. On a more budget friendly scale, the Core 2 Duo T5750/5850 are decent as are the Turion Ultra X2 RM/ZM CPUs.

3 GB or more is plenty of RAM

I'd aim for a newer 7200 RPM hard drive, though it's not a common feature.

Best bang for the buck I've seen is the Gateway T6873/4 ... T5750, 3 GB, HD 2600, 320 GB, Vista Home Premium for $800 ... Personally, I'd rather get an HP or Dell equivalent, which will probably run you about $1000 ...

Oh, and Toshiba is god awful ... We send back at least a dozen laptops a month from DOAs and the ones that survive the first month don't exactly have a stellar track record, either ...

 

[T9X 10+ year member]

Whatever you do, DO NOT buy an HP.

 

[Jmac 10+ year member]

Whatever you do, DO NOT buy an HP.

Why not ?
They have made major improvements to their entire lineup since the former Voodoo CEO took over as HP's CEO ... Now if they could improve their shitty service, they'd easily be one of the top 3 now ...

 

[T9X 10+ year member]

Why not ?
They have made major improvements to their entire lineup since the former Voodoo CEO took over as HP's CEO ... Now if they could improve their shitty service, they'd easily be one of the top 3 now ...

I've had 3 HPs crap out on me within the past year.

Maybe I'm just bad luck.

 

[Jmac 10+ year member]

I've had 3 HPs crap out on me within the past year.
Maybe I'm just bad luck.

Over the last year, we've seen the number of HP repairs decrease substantially, especially DOAs, while sales have also increased. They're easily our #1 selling brand of laptop, despite their price tags rising over last year compared to the competition.
With pretty much every laptop manufacturer (outside of Sony and Apple) having first-year failure rates in the 15-25% range, it is entirely possible, albeit highly improbable, that you had 3 failures on 3 laptops within a year (0.15^3 = 0.338% odds or a 1 in 296 chance). Even with the best brands (Sony, Apple), you're still looking in the area of 12-14% (0.12^3 = 0.173% or 1 in 579 chance of it happening thrice in a year).

 

[negativezeroz 5,000+ posts]

My HP laptop is fine. No problems. Even with Vista Ultimate 64bit right from the initial sale of Vista.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4089618&CatId=3982

Kinda based towards business side of things hence the Vista Business but has 2GB of 800Mhz RAM vs the 3GB at 667Mhz of that Gateway and has the Radeon 3200.

Or customize a Dell Studio 15 with the Customer Pick Spotlight version. 3GB @ 667MHz, ATi 3450, 250GB HD, T5850 2.1Ghz CPU....$802.00

 

[scrappy 10+ year member]

Ok thanks ill start looking around. Anyone else

 

[Jmac 10+ year member]

My HP laptop is fine. No problems. Even with Vista Ultimate 64bit right from the initial sale of Vista.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4089618&CatId=3982

Kinda based towards business side of things hence the Vista Business but has 2GB of 800Mhz RAM vs the 3GB at 667Mhz of that Gateway and has the Radeon 3200.

Or customize a Dell Studio 15 with the Customer Pick Spotlight version. 3GB @ 667MHz, ATi 3450, 250GB HD, T5850 2.1Ghz CPU....$802.00

The 3200 (aka HD 2400) and 3450 are almost useless for gaming, though ... They're fine for older games (3+ years old) and low-end casual games, but are insufficient for most new games. My friend has a GeForce 8400 and Civ 4 is barely playable on medium graphics settings (he runs it at low so he can maintain a decent framerate) and that's on par w/ those 2. Civ 4 is by no means new or even graphically intensive, as well.
Even the 8600/9500 and 2600/3650 are barely passable for new games @ medium settings, thus why I advise getting AT LEAST those cards if you want to have the ability to play future games w/ half decent framerates, even if they can only be played at low/low-medium settings.

 

[benchambers80]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8907043&st=gateway+fx&lp=2&type=product&cp=1&id=1213046783376

i bought it for 750 on sale, got away with 811$ including tax.

radeon 2600

4 gigs

dual core duo centrino 1

"very nice"-borat