Laptop for college! Gaming?

M

McPhale

CAG Veteran
Hey all-
I've got a riddle that needs solving... or, several questions rather. I was just informed that my family will pay up to approximately 1000 $ for a new laptop for college. Needless to say, the prospect of a new computer made me giddy at the thought of being able to play new games on my pc.

Heres what I'm looking for:
A mid-sized screen
A goodly amount of ram and disk space
A fairly nice graphics card
A decent processor

Preferred:
Slots to upgrade graphics card
Can run cod4 with little to no lag
Crysis on xp-crack high (yeah, good luck, I know)


And that's that.
Note: *I don't really know anything about picking a good graphics card. Help here would be appreciated.
* I would be interested in sites that let you mix and match parts; I just don't know where to look.
*I may be willing to shell out a bit from my pocket for better components, we'll see.



Thanks much!

-McPhale
 
You're not going to really be able to upgrade a laptop. And you're not getting a "gaming" laptop for $1000. You could get a gaming desktop for that price though.
 
You're going to pay a lot more than $1k for all those things you want. I mean there are laptops with Core 2 Extreme, 4gb of RAM, and SLI graphics that can run Crysis reasonably well, but obviously those have a hefty price tag.

Btw, if you are planning to get >= 4GB of RAM, make sure to use a 64bit OS.

Also, it can be more difficult to overclock the cpu in a laptop since a lot of the time the BIOS locks it, esp. in Dell systems. Not to mention that laptops already run pretty hot already...
 
With $1000 you can get a desktop that is really awesome. I do not suggest getting a laptop for gaming, you will be not be happy. Heat is a big issue with laptops, now imagine a gaming laptop running Crysis. It ain't fun, there are also driver issues, atleast there are with Nvidia and mobile cards. Upgrading video cards is really hard to do, they are coming out with some new stuff but still. Really, buy a desktop.

If you need a laptop then go with a cheap $300 or so dollar one. Then spend the rest on a desktop, with that $700 you will get a computer atleast as a $1000 dollar laptop.

Also, speaking from experience, you really do not need a laptop for college, it is just a hassle to carry around and you really do not need it. The only use I had for it was to play tetris during class. Note taking takes too long and in a class with formulas or math you are just gimped by the laptop by not being able to copy down the stuff exactly. Paper works much better.

The only benefit is that you can work on a paper or project anywhere. Which is nice but not worth $1000 to me, really go for a cheap one.
 
Well shit I didn't know about that one, guess I didn't research enough. How does the 9500M GS compare to the 8800M GTS? Well if it will play all my games maxed out I may get that instead of the 6860 since it's cheaper.
 
I don't know how those two graphics cards compare but his laptop is really, really good. Especially having a Dual Core and 4GB of RAM, the thing eats Vista alive.
 
Well, I have to get a laptop. That's one of the stipulations that comes with parents holding the cash...

But I think we have found a decent deal. It may not be great, but for the money and compared to the other stuff we've looked at I think it'll do alright. It's the Gateway M-6850FX.

http://laptoping.com/gateway-m-6850fx.html

I'll let you know if this is indeed what I decide on.
-McPhale
 
Yeah, but it's just out of my price range. I had a pretty difficult time convincing them I needed the extra power of the gateway over the dell... I think it was the huge amount of disk space that did it...
And yep, I did decide to take the gateway. When it comes in, I'll try the crysis/cod4 demos and let everyone know whether the casing melts or not...
 
For future reference, the 9500 GS compares fairly closely to the 7800GTX and X1900 laptop video cards. It would run a game like Call of Duty 4 on medium settings at about 30-40 fps... Crysis on low in the 40s. Older stuff like FEAR at 30fps/max or 60fps/medium.
 
Btw, do you guys think that a 1.83 ghz dual core processor will be able to handle cod4? The system requirements say it needs at least a 2.4 ghz. I'm pretty sure it will run fine on med-lower settings...
 
Why do we go through this same discussion every week?

Summary: get a cheap, portable, efficient laptop for school needs to accompany a desktop for gaming.

Demanding FPS on a laptop is just dumb.
 
It prolly would run on a CPU at 1.8GHz but doubt that would be enough to even justify playing it make you want to eat a bullet.

Laptops are not the way to go for gaming. I learned this the hard way last two Christmases went with a 17" Dell with a go 7900, 2 ghz core 2 duo, and 2gb of ram for $1,200. It is a decent set up. Play's BF2, CS:S, Half Life 2 all those games pretty much no problem. TF2 and Oblivion run pretty well on somewhat high settings.

Now I want to get a new computer, if I would have gone with a desktop I would be able to drop like $200 maybe $300 to get it to be running every game today no problem at all instead I have a 2 year old Dell laptop and need like $1,400 on a new gaming rig, since I need screen, keyboard, mice, case literally everything.

Point is a desktop although not mobile is much better in the long run this coming from someone with a decent gaming laptop. If you must get a gaming laptop to run games today decently and look alright expect to drop a pretty penny and expect to have to replace it in 2 years to once again get it running newer games happily.
 
I went through the same thing a few years ago with a bulky (but powerful) laptop -- I sold it a couple months later and bought a nice 4lb laptop, keeping the gaming to my desktop.

OP: Think. Have you ever seen somebody playing the latest and greatest games on their laptop, anywhere? Probably not. How many people do you see with laptops? A lot. What percentage of people our age game? A lot. Don't you think there's a reason for the discrepancy?

The people who try it quickly realize it doesn't work out.
 
Indeed. At least you got somethin to get your gaming in. I'd say go for a decent laptop from best buy or someplace.

Also, Crysis on high? On a laptop...LAWL!!! Crysis rapes and pillages practically everything even $500 gfx only get like 50FPS at a high res
 
COD4 will be fine on your proc, I was able to run it on my old dual core 1.66, and it runs like a dream on my new laptop core duo 2.0 with SLI geforce 8600M GT's for a total of 768 vram......you may not get the best resolutions out of it, but I don't know how high your disply goes, so that might not be a factor
 
[quote name='SmokyPreacher']Indeed. At least you got somethin to get your gaming in. I'd say go for a decent laptop from best buy or someplace.

Also, Crysis on high? On a laptop...LAWL!!! Crysis rapes and pillages practically everything even $500 gfx only get like 50FPS at a high res[/quote]

Well I just ordered a P-173x-FX for $1250 and the less powerful version of that laptop (the 6831/6860) has a 1.8ghz processor vs. a 2.2 and it's been shown playing Crysis on high giving about 20-25 fps on average. I think I probably could play it with a pretty stable fps, if not I'll just bump the settings down a bit...it's still better than my desktop.

Guys you have to realize, yes obviously desktops are better for gaming, but if you can't bring a desktop to college then obviously a laptop is better for gaming for us....games on slightly lower settings are better than no games at all.
 
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