Choose a laptop

[pompalomp]

Hi,

I have decided to get a laptop because i travel a lot. I would like it to be able to fairly modern games and have a good battery life. I am looking to spend about £500 - £600. Obviously i am looking for as much performance for my money as possible.

Unfortunately i do not know much about laptops so i would appreciate some help.

Regards,

Pompalomp

[staffsMike]

Well thats a decent amount of money for a laptop with basic gaming credentials. How big are you thinking? 12" - 13.3" or a 15.4"?

For 15" you can do a lot worse than the Dell Studio 15
http://www.dmxdimension.com/dell-uk/...rison-coupons/

Push the budget a little (or haggle them down on the phone) for an XPS M1530 with an 8600GT.
http://www.dmxdimension.com/dell-uk/...al-comparison/

More portable would be the samsung Q210 or Q310 with this sort of spec
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...NP-Q210-FSS0UK)

[pompalomp]

staffsMike,

Three things,

1.) That was a ridiculously fast response

2.) Are you being sarcastic when you say it's a decent about of money?

3.) I don't really mind what sized screen, all that's really important is that it's mobile and that it can play games like battlefield 2 etc

Regards,

Pompalomp

[staffsMike]

Lol well, right place at the right time, I've been ninja editting with suggestions.

Nope, not being sarcastic, the amount of people that want something for gaming but only want to play £350 is annoying, but almost do-able £500 - £600 is about what you want to pay for something decent quality and good specs. £800 gets you almost everything you want usually.

Well the thing with the Studio 15 is that the graphics aren't great (niether is the samsung) and it's quite a bulky thing. Not necessarily heavier than most 15" laptops but quite thick.

I personally use an XPS M1330 (13.3" version of the M1530) as my desktop replacement. It's very portable (and very pricey again atm) and has a naff little 8400gs which works it's poor little socks off to play BF2, COD4 and CS:S for me. Does it pretty well too.

Even plays Rainbow 6 vegas and vegas 2.. which are evil.

[sleepyhead]

Recent Dell Studio 15 owner here.

I got the Ati 3450 GFX, 4GB Ram and T5750 CPU.

Not installed games yet, but it chugs through Vista HP nicely (without any tweaking) and does everything else I want with it too.

If you go with the Studio 15, DEFINITELY go with the 9 cel battery...I was an idiot and thought the smaller 6 cel would do me fine but I should have listened to the people here.

It's a really nice laptop and even though StaffsMike says it is bulky, it isn't too bad for carrying around; I took mine for a 360 mile round trip to my sisters and back hooked up via Wifi to her network and wasn't a burden to carry or use. I've quickly got accustomed to the laptop keyboard too and can type just as well here as on a normal keyboard.

It's a very tidy laptop, the fan is audible but not annoying and only speeds up to audible levels when it requires the cooling and the screen is quite nice at 1280x800.

I use my laptop to remote desktop to my main rig when needed but only when I need to run programs.

The only critism I have is Dell took their sweet time building my laptop and they weren't very helpful over the phone.

The actual laptop has all the connectivity I want but a downside is the CD/DVD is slot loading and it freaks me out when I use it.

I can compare this laptop with an Acer laptop my friend bough for around £300 and Vista on his is chuggable at times and decoding h.264 720p video can de-sync the video, audio or subtitles at times. I've watched h.264 encoded 720p video here (streamed over my network) and it's faultless (Before people say it is codecs, both my friend and I use CCCP.)

I don't have experience with the other two laptops that StaffsMike points out but I wanted to let you know how I am getting on with my Dell Studio 15.

[pompalomp]

staffsMike,

I'm stuck between the M1530 and getting the upgrade of that

[staffsMike]

Oh certainly the Studio could be a lot worse, but when it comes to being portable most laptops will do it better. It just depends where you want to compromise because that unfortunatly is almost always what you have to do with laptops. Perfect they will rarely be.

The studio fit the bill for you imo, and it is one of the best laptops available at the moment. Good specs alround, HDMI out, blu ray upgrade available, I mean it could easily slot under the TV as a basic HTPC

But I lugged a 15" for 3 years at uni and then swapped to the XPS and it was so much better. It's non-existent in my bag.

EDIT: Personally in that situation, I would probably go for the XPS. It's a bit thinner and a bit lighter (if memory serves), it's got the GDDR3 8600GT which is very good in all current games.

The advantages of the £649 studio are quite small really. 4Gb of RAM (but they come with 32bit windows only),slightly better CPU and 2 years warranty which is a nice touch.

[pompalomp]

StaffsMike,

I think your right, i'm going to go with the XPS.

Luckily my friend can get the price down by about £100 so i should be able to save a bundle.

Thanks again, it seems like every time i have a problem your always there

Regards,

Pompalomp

[staffsMike]

Well that's a bargain then mate! There is always the blu ray drive to upgrade to later and with the HDMI out the same thing applies for it being a basic HTPC Comes with a basic remote and it works well as long as you are using software it likes (which isn't much lol).

[sleepyhead]

I wish I had your friend who could knock the price down Good luck with your purchase and you shouldn't be disappointed with performance.

[pompalomp]

The actual laptop has all the connectivity I want but a downside is the CD/DVD is slot loading and it freaks me out when I use it.

Haha that cracked me up. I'm at IBM at the moment doing work experience. Using an IBM thinkpad to write this.

Just a few more questions,

What is the advantage of a blueray drive?

What is better a slightly better proceseesor or a slightly better graphics card?

What is the battery life like on the laptops you have mentioned?

Regards,

Pompalomp

P.S Holy

look at these speeds!!! considering my house only gets .5mb a sec

[sleepyhead]

What is the advantage of a blueray drive?

Personally, I opted out of having a bluray drive in the laptop. Most of my media is on DVD (the rest is on VHS). If and when I move to BluRay I'll be using my main rig. If you want to use the laptop as a portable media device then BluRay with HDMI output would be perfect. Lets you watch all your DVD collection and any BluRay discs you decide to purchase.

What is better a slightly better proceseesor or a slightly better graphics card?

Not really too sure on processors, I'm sure one of the resident laptop experts will come back to you. As for graphics, I believe the 8600 GT is much better than the Ati 3450.

What is the battery life like on the laptops you have mentioned?

My Studio 15 lasts about 2 hours with use on the 6 cel battery but it depends on what it is doing. I usually use it for MSN, web browsing, light flash gaming and of course as a remote desktop for when I am lazy and want to run programes. Pretty sure if I tried watching a film, it would only last an hour max.

[pompalomp]

Sleepyhead,

Thanks for the reply,

i will probably fork out a bit more cash for a 9 cell battery becuase battery life annoys the hell out of me. is it possible to get a bigger battery that a nine cell?

Regards,

Pompalomp

[sleepyhead]

The only build options you have are either the 6 cel or 9 cel battery. The 9 cel being free upgrade.

As for unofficial batteries available, I do not know.

Definitely take the free 9 cel upgrade. I was an idiot and regret not going that route.

[pompalomp]

Sleepyhead,

I didn't realise there was a free upgrade!

Yay!

I'm going to look at an unofficial battery though.

Regards,

Pompalomp

[richieuk]

Take a tip from me, bigger screens may look better from gaming but are a mare to lug around every single day and become a chore. Mines only a 15.4 but would die for a 12/13" now for Uni

If I could sell my PR600 for a Eee10" and a wipe of my laptop debt I would in a flash!