Basic Gaming Laptop for <£600

[Dreaming]

Well, the budget is £600, but it can be stretched a tiny bit if the perfect laptop is £639 or something.

My brother wants it for gaming, in particular games like oblivion. No doubt he'll want to play the upcoming starcraft game as well.

I really don't know so much about gaming laptops however, told him it was a funny market because most laptops were personal use and not designed for gaming, so the ones that were charged a premium. But I do remember reading an article on an external graphics card, and he sounded really keen on that. At the moment he plays WoW more than anything, and dabbles in other things. Has a GeForce6600 that I bought him after he bought something akin to an fx5200.

He doesn't do benchmarking though, just said he wants it to run at native resolution with possibly 2x aa on or something.

[arbitor]

Beware..

My laptop has a 6800 ultra in and its dire, as the heat throttles the card.. and these dells go for more than what your looking to spend 2nd hand..

But at that price you will be talking 15 inch and as long ass the res isnt silly then you should be fine, have a look on laptopsdirect

[Dreaming]

He's got a 17" monitor that he can plug in as well.

[GoNz0]

so buy a cheap ass 15" laptop and wonder why it looks like a slideshow on the 17"

theres no such thing as a budget gaming laptop, blow over a grand or buy a PC, thats the only 2 options that wont leave either of you with a bitter taste, cus most here will just say "told you so" when he moans about crappy frame rates.

and you cant upgrade a laptop video (well ok some you can but that opens a new can o worms)

[arbitor]

As said u coudl get away with spending 6-700 on a 2nd hand one like i did that would do the job, or your looking at 1200 quid for something thats going to please .

[aidanjt]

Laptops are hardly designed for every day computing much less gaming, i'd strongly reconsider this aproch to gaming unless your brother likes 5fps in Oblivion, unless he's prepared to tripple his budget that's all he's gonna get.

[arbitor]

Laptops are hardly designed for every day computing much less gaming, i'd strongly reconsider this aproch to gaming unless your brother likes 5fps in Oblivion, unless he's prepared to tripple his budget that's all he's gonna get.

you can get a laptop for 1200-1300 that will run oblivion perfectly fine, and what are you on about, they aren't designed for every day computing? Of course they are, I use mine every day..

[aidanjt]

I said 'hardly', and no a &#163;1300 wouldn't run oblivion perfectly fine, a bleeding edge 'desktop' can just about run oblivion over 30fps. And considering how much Oblivion taxes machines the battery would be dead just over an hour, if that. For me, every day machine use includes gaming, virtual machines, compiling, and so forth, could I do all that on the go?

[arbitor]

I said 'hardly', and no a £1300 wouldn't run oblivion perfectly fine, a bleeding edge 'desktop' can just about run oblivion over 30fps. And considering how much Oblivion taxes machines the battery would be dead just over an hour, if that. For me, every day machine use includes gaming, virtual machines, compiling, and so forth, could I do all that on the go?

a bleeding edge desktop gets more than 30 fps. of course it does.

[GoNz0]

an SLi alienware maybe

[aidanjt]

An SLi laptop?.. Great idea, albeit you'll need to replace the Li-Ion battery with a portable fusion generator.

[GoNz0]

aye i think it comes with a cold fusion thingymajig

http://www.alienware.co.uk/product_d...de=SKU-DEFAULT

[Dreaming]

I think he'll be plugging it into the mains whenever he uses it. Its just he needs it to be portable, i.e. be able to fit it on a train or plane. Which a desktop, unfortunately, is not.

Thanks for the advice so far anyway. Maybe I should have a look and see if I can't hack up some designs :chin: - and for the comment that you need a bleeding edge desktop to get 30fps on oblivion?! My old xp2500 with a radeon 9800 ran it fine.

[arbitor]

Exactly thats bs

with one 8800 gtx you will run it well over that at most res i would think.

I mean i would recommend the dell xps m170 i have here its very well built nice and quick, can handle the games fine, just gets a bit hot sometimes.. oh and its built like a rock very hardy

[aidanjt]

I think he'll be plugging it into the mains whenever he uses it. Its just he needs it to be portable, i.e. be able to fit it on a train or plane. Which a desktop, unfortunately, is not.

Thanks for the advice so far anyway. Maybe I should have a look and see if I can't hack up some designs :chin: - and for the comment that you need a bleeding edge desktop to get 30fps on oblivion?! My old xp2500 with a radeon 9800 ran it fine.

10-15fps isn't 'fine'. But anyway.

[MSIC]

10-15fps isn't 'fine'. But anyway.

Yes it is. It's a matter of personal opinion about how happy people are, and not not your call. So dont drop your handbag, the guy's just asking for a little help here.

As for the first helpful reply, how is this Mesh at £689 inc Vat and delivery?
It's got dual core 1.8Ghz processor, 1 gig of RAM, and a Geforce go 7600 to power a 1280 x 800 resolution.