What laptop should I buy

Bonsai99 · **Posted:** September 12th, 2011, 1:40 pm

Took the suggestions that you guys gave me and made a new list of options.
Here are my new options:

1. Acer Aspire 15.6" Intel Core i5-430M CPU GPU
2. Acer 17.3" AMD Phenom II Quad-Core N970 CPU GPU
3. Samsung 14" Intel Core i5 460M CPU GPU
4. Acer Aspire 15.6" Intel Core i3-2310M CPU GPU
5. Acer Aspire AS5560G-SB448 LX.RNZ02.022 AMD A8-3500M Quad-Core 1.50GHz CPU GPU
6. Acer Aspire AS5745PG LX.PVV02.014 Intel Core i3-350M 2.26GHz Touchscreen CPU GPU

Adbot · **Posted:** September 12th, 2011, 1:40 pm

Evelyn · **Posted:** September 12th, 2011, 1:43 pm

Don't get anything HP unless you want something that breaks down in less than a year. MW2 isn't that taxing of a game. nor is it a game that I recommend anybody to play For basic gaming, you want to get a laptop that has a dedicated graphics card (meaning NOT Intel integrated or anything like that). AMD tends to always be cheaper than the Intel equivalent, and that's kinda how it is.

Anubis · **Posted:** September 12th, 2011, 1:50 pm

Splurge on an alienware m15x like i did. 8-)

Bonsai99 · **Posted:** September 12th, 2011, 1:56 pm

I don't have money to splurge :S

Jason · **Posted:** September 12th, 2011, 2:58 pm

You aren't going to be able to play MW2 or any relatively newer games with a budget that low. You will need to spend at least 800-900 if you are going with a laptop.

Bonsai99 · **Posted:** September 12th, 2011, 3:12 pm

nikeballa435 wrote:

You aren't going to be able to play MW2 or any relatively newer games with a budget that low. You will need to spend at least 800-900 if you are going with a laptop.

A bit higher clock speed than the first laptop. And this is with fraps running so this is probably the framerate I'll get on the first laptop.

Adbot · **Posted:** September 12th, 2011, 3:12 pm

Priss · **Posted:** September 12th, 2011, 5:05 pm

Cliff Dude wrote:

Don't get anything HP unless you want something that breaks down in less than a year.

I have always had HP laptops. I never had much problems with them, and HP has great costumer support.

Anubis I also have a M15x

Evelyn · **Posted:** September 12th, 2011, 6:43 pm

Probably because they had so much practice from taking in so many calls because their products fail so often.

ASUS and Toshiba are the top two in reliability, Dell is somewhere in the middle, Acer is near the end, and HP is the end.

$550 is a pretty tight budget if you want any laptop that can game or has a half-decent processor. If you had a budget of $700 your options improve drastically.

Jason · **Posted:** September 12th, 2011, 6:49 pm

bonsai99 wrote:

nikeballa435 wrote:

You aren't going to be able to play MW2 or any relatively newer games with a budget that low. You will need to spend at least 800-900 if you are going with a laptop.

A bit higher clock speed than the first laptop. And this is with fraps running so this is probably the framerate I'll get on the first laptop.

Yeah but honestly, playing at below 60 fps isn't even worth it in my opinion when it comes to first person shooters. And when you go in to multiplayer you are going to have a much harder time running the game, especially with a lower end processor and when taking lag in to effect.

Evelyn · **Posted:** September 12th, 2011, 7:15 pm

FPS games are functional at framerates as low as 30 FPS. Only the pro-hardcore crowd would go for 60 FPS all the time, every time.

Jason · **Posted:** September 12th, 2011, 9:25 pm

Cliff Dude wrote:

FPS games are functional at framerates as low as 30 FPS. Only the pro-hardcore crowd would go for 60 FPS all the time, every time.

Well you got me there

Shane · **Posted:** September 12th, 2011, 9:37 pm

If you want to game at all besides RS you're looking in the wrong place, especially since three of four listed have integrated graphics. Just get a cheap laptop for school and/or portability. Save money for building a nice gaming computer later on.

As much as a gaming laptop would be nice you really don't want to be lugging around a 17" laptop (you have one listed), I'd even say 15" might be too big. Also where are the Intel based laptops? Intel generally has lower power consumption and therefore longer battery life.

I assume a Mac laptop is out of the question?

Evelyn · **Posted:** September 12th, 2011, 10:02 pm

Shane wrote:

I assume a Mac laptop is out of the question?

Not sure if any Macbook would be under $1000, even.

I have a 17" laptop that I use for college and gaming. I love my computer and would hate to deal with any smaller screen size or resolution. Each to their own I guess.

Shane · **Posted:** September 13th, 2011, 12:48 am

Cliff Dude wrote:

Shane wrote:

I assume a Mac laptop is out of the question?

Not sure if any Macbook would be under $1000, even.

That's why I asked if it's an option

.

Pfkninenines · Global Moderator 12/4/08

Newegg is having a sale today on a quad-core 15.6" notebook with dedicated graphics. here it is.

Here is the information on the graphics card. This site is fantastic for referencing what your mobile graphics card can do. I'd give it a check before any purchase you think you'd be doing gaming on.

Finding a quad-core in the sub-$800-900 range limits you to AMD, and on mobile I don't think a quad-core is necessary. The only way you'd get a quad-core by going Intel is their older Core2Quad line, as only the i7 is quad-core on mobile -- and that's only select models. You'd likely be much better going with an i3 or especially an i5 with hyperthreading + a better graphics card than to spend more money on quad-core.

As for the remark of "only" 512mb of graphics memory, you'd only notice that if you are loading large amounts of textures into the card, something I kind of doubt you'll be doing on a mobile part. You'll need to play at a lower resolution so you can get a playable framerate, meaning you'll not be using as much of the bandwidth or actual memory of the card as you'd think. Even with games I play on my laptop with a 256MB video card, I can see the memory get filled 80-90% and be fine. This is also with a dual-core processor, non-hyperthreaded. That being said, I'd suggest the 512mb as the lower end of the spectrum when thinking graphics card memory.