With our powers combined we can pick the perfect laptop!11!!1!!

R

riskzero

CAGiversary!
Heyy folks, so here's the deal. I was given a $250 spot bonus today (yay me) and my company offers as a perk half or up to $250 money back program if you buy a computer/laptop.

With those 2 figures I've decided to buy myself a $500 laptop that would basically cost me nothing.

The problem is I'm looking for a laptop that can game somewhat, not looking to max out crysis or anything but say dawn of war 2 as a benchmark.

The next thing I'm looking for is (i'll admit I'm a total newb at this one) a capture card or whatever else is needed to record some gameplay from my console's from time to time.

I don't mind spending a little bit more than $500, lets say 599.99 shipped would be completely ideal for me at this point.

I really appreciate any help and suggestions everyone, many thanks in advance!!!!!!

:):D:bouncy:
 
given what your looking for I wouldn't go and do what I did and go from an extreme low end to ordering an extreme high end laptop but there are a few you can look at. Gateway has few affordable 1200 dollar models in their FX line then theres ASUS which my fiance has and loves they have a few in their republic of gamers line that are very solid. I'd look for something with a good resolution , independant graphics card like a geforce 260 mobile version since those are fairly affordable. I'd get at least 4 gigs of ram and depending on how much your going to use it a good solid harddrive. What all other than Dawn of War are you going to run on it?
 
Thanks Phoenix,

Other than dawn of war 2 would be the max to be honest, maybe d3 but I have a desktop that I use for gaming.

Otherwise I really just plan on doing some basic video editing of whatever i capture off my consoles, watching dvd, burning cds/dvds, browsing the web and thats really it.
 
in that case I'd say a quad core would be good but you don't need a super fast one, four gigs of memory, maybe an HD screen with a blu-ray player/burner if you can find one if not get a CD/DVD burner and around a 300 gig harddrive should do you fine. Heres a few ones a core duo but thats still pretty good for laptop and will likely get you longer battery life if you looking for that. Personally I keep my laptops plugged in all the time because even on my cheap laptop its got about 2 to 3 hrs of good use before its dead as a doornail.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220669

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220563

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834101203


Take a look around newegg and some other sites and see what you think.
 
[quote name='PhoenixT']in that case I'd say a quad core would be good but you don't need a super fast one, four gigs of memory, maybe an HD screen with a blu-ray player/burner if you can find one if not get a CD/DVD burner and around a 300 gig harddrive should do you fine. Heres a few ones a core duo but thats still pretty good for laptop and will likely get you longer battery life if you looking for that. Personally I keep my laptops plugged in all the time because even on my cheap laptop its got about 2 to 3 hrs of good use before its dead as a doornail.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220669

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220563

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834101203


Take a look around newegg and some other sites and see what you think.[/QUOTE]
Those are about double (or more) the $500 he was looking to spend... :whistle2:k

I found this one the other day while looking for a semi-cheap laptop for the wife. It's not going to melt your face off, and will probably only play games on lower settings, but it's much closer to your criteria.

You would be able to buy a USB video capture device like this one for fairly cheap that seems like it would do what you wanted.

Total cost would be around $650 or so, and you could use the video capture doohickey with your desktop as well.
 
The problem is most computers at that price range have very weak graphics cards. If you're willing to go up to ~$800 a lot of options will open up and at ~$1000 you can get a great laptop. This laptop for example can run most games at low settings while this one can probably run them on high settings. The one Lawyers Guns n Money linked to is a decent deal but the 4330 isn't going to have an easy time running most games (see this list for an idea of how powerful each graphic card is, I mostly look at the section that says which games weaker graphics cards can run).
 
Thanks everyone for there input, lawyers - great find on that capture device! That looks perfect, I'm thinking just hook it up to my tv out red/white/yellow bam into laptop and im done.

DrFoo thanks for that link to the video cards awesome, amazing info there. I see your point with the prices, I like that asus laptop you linked to. Would that be your choice for that price range? I think I may head to bestbuy this weekend if thats the case.

Thanks again everyone!
 
If I were to pick up a gaming laptop the second one I linked to would probably be my choice although I always get fairly cheap laptops and a more powerful desktop. That second one has an extremely powerful graphics card and Asus is known to have the lowest failure rates for their laptops (see this picture).
 
Hey DrFoo just curious as to what you think about the Alienware M11X? It's $799 compared to the $899 ASUS one.

Just curious as to what your thoughts are, thanks!
 
Look man for 600 dollars you are not gonna get the laptop you described, maybe in a desktop if you built it yourself and stretched the money as hell through rebates and discounts.
 
[quote name='chililili']Look man for 600 dollars you are not gonna get the laptop you described, maybe in a desktop if you built it yourself and stretched the money as hell through rebates and discounts.[/QUOTE]

Yea, I know that now, which is why I'm looking at $900 laptops, thanks for the input tho :applause:
 
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