new laptop

[lee_uk]

i am looking for a laptop. dont wont to spend more than £800 and must be able to games like cod4 and if poss have blu ray any ideas

[Domestic_Ginger]

I looked into laptops a while back and gave up trying to get one with a decent GPU for under 700. You are probably looking at a 9600M or a 3670. Search MSI, ACER and HP for the best graphics/price; I was under the impression they did some hi-spec and cheap models.

Also cosider shopping from the US, the dollar might still be weak and there are plenty of comparatively cheap deals but you are most likely to be stung for VAT and postage. Only two keys are in the wrong place.

On a similar post someone pointed out that you might as well get a gaming desktop and a weaker notebook (or netbook if you only want portability) for less. IMO this makes perfect sense, you will get better specs for gaming and a more portable laptop.

[scaryjim]

On a similar post someone pointed out that you might as well get a gaming desktop and a weaker notebook (or netbook if you only want portability) for less. IMO this makes perfect sense, you will get better specs for gaming and a more portable laptop.

Couldn't agree more. Why do you need a gaming machine to be that portable? Do you regularly play long CoD4 sessions on the train? To get reasonable gaming power in a laptop you sacrifice portability and battery life - so you end up with a heavy monster that needs to be plugged into the mains anyway!

[watercooled]

...and would be too heavy/hot to put on your lap for long too. IMO if you want to game, get a PC.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

TBH if space is at a premium build yourself an SFF gaming rig and get a lightweight notebook or one of the netbooks with a larger screen for portable use.

[lee_uk]

thanks for the advice Domestic_Ginger

i am replacing my desktop so i want a laptop that i can play cod4 and the new modern warfare 2. my pc is a quad core and i have a 8600gt and 2gigs of ram. ( i will be turning this pc into my media server for my popcorn a-110)

[staffsMike]

This will play cod4 no problem as even an 8400gs can ( a testament to to the games design), should handle MW2 as well

5% off when you spend over £700.. (voucher at the top of the link)
http://www.dmxdimension.com/dell-uk/...rison-coupons/

The gpu is around that of the 8600GT mobile, a very capable card You can do better for less money from the likes of acer but I wouldn't touch them tbh.

[scaryjim]

i am replacing my desktop so i want a laptop that i can play cod4 and the new modern warfare 2.

That still doesn't explain why you want a *laptop* to play these games. I don't think it's your best option, but I'm willing to listen to reasons if you have some...

[lee_uk]

games aren't the main reason i wont a laptop. but i want a laptop that is capable of playing them. i mainly want it for general internet use and watching HD video

[scaryjim]

Fair enough. At the low end you could get this one (£470) - DVD-RW / BD-ROM combi drive for your HD movies, and HDMI out so you can feed it to a larger full HD screen rather than the WXGA 16". The 512MB 3650 should certainly manage CoD4 on medium settings happily enough - not so sure about Modern Warfare 2 though...

Alternatively, you could take staffsMike's suggestion of a Dell Studio 15. It can be configured with a full HD (1920 x 1080) 15.4" display and DVD-RW / BD-ROM combi drive for around £700 and is almost certainly the best compromise between portability and features that I've found...

EDIT:
If you're particularly interested in portability for your laptop, you could consider either an Acer 3810TG - this is the version with the HD4330 graphics, although it doesn't have an internal optical drive so you'd need an external one - or a Samsung Q320 which sports NVidia G105m (which I think is a rebadged mobile 9400?). They're both a bit under £600, and have 13" monitors and lowish weights (2.1Kg for the Sammy, 1.6Kg for the Acer) to enhance their portability, while maintaining enough graphical clout to run games acceptably with low settings.

[lee_uk]

i did find this Acer Aspire 8930G with a 9600M GT for £699.97

[scaryjim]

That's the 18.4" Full HD Display one, isn't it? It looks like a reasonable buy, but it's very large and heavy. I wouldn't see the point in choosing that over a desktop, as it's not really portable enough to carry around and use on the move. Given how cheap graphics cards are now, you could upgrade your existing desktop for gaming, build a new, low power, media server, buy a netbook for your internet usage, and still see change out of £700...

From a personal point of view I'd take the Dell Studio 15 with full HD screen and BD-ROM upgrades at that price point, as it is relatively portable and makes more sense as a laptop.

[j.o.s.h.1408]

I wouldnt go for acer. their build quality is terrible. im speaking from experience. i have an acer laptop and its awful. keyboard broke one time and i had to replace my battery 3 times already. infact, the battery im using now is dead again.

[Domestic_Ginger]

Try notebookcheck for reviews and they do an excellent summary of mobile GPUs. They are German based and are quite methodical in reviewing everything; watch out for some dodgy translations!