'Gaming' Laptop for about £700 (+/-)

[aeonf242]

I've had a quick scan of the forum and can't really find a similar post.

What I'm after is a 'Gaming' Laptop for about £700 (+/- £100)

Doesn't need to be very portable..enought to play EQ2 on.....

I'm getting a tad confused by the new faster clocking Core i5 chips, are these better than what seems to the stock 1.6 Core i7 chip?

Any ideas, currently my shortlist is:

Dell Studio 17 - Intel® Core™ i5-520M (2.4GHz), 4gb RAM, 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5650 £779 and DMXDimension or ebay @ £700ish

HP Pavilion dv6-2106ea, Core i7 i7-720QM (1.6), 4GB RAM,NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 230M 1 GB £850 ish exc. Quidco or £774

Thanks :-)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would get an SFF gaming computer TBH.

I would make sure that the HD5650 has DDR3 or GDDR3 RAM and is not a Hypermemory card.

Here is a review of the card:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mob...w.24035.0.html

[aeonf242]

I would get an SFF gaming computer TBH.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mob...w.24035.0.html

Any Suggestions :-0
(Thanks btw)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Do you need an OS,peripherals and a monitor??

[aeonf242]

Do you need an OS,peripherals and a monitor??

No, Having had a look I've found a seemingly exotic Shuttle XP48

I could reuse my DDR3 and Q9550......I also have HDD and optical drive..

Thanks as ever :-0

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Here is one build you might want to consider:

Core i5 750 ~ £132

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=37674

G.Skill RipJaw 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit ~ £92

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=37612

DFi Lanparty LP MI P55-T36 ~ £111

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/DFi-L...-see-full-spes

Scythe Shuriken Rev.B Quiet Low Profile Cooler 3 Heat Pipe ~ £24

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Scyth...-AMD-Intel-CPU

Silverstone SG05B ~ £70

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Silve...00W-80plus-PSU

There is also a bigger 450W mini ITX PSU available if you want to get a faster graphics card.

His HD5770 1GB ~ £120

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Compo...roductId=39068

Samsung F3 1TB ~ £53

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=37726

Samsung 8x Notebook DVD Writer Slot Loading Black ~ £31

http://www.aria.co.uk/SuperSpecials/...roductId=39408

The total comes to around £633 excluding any postage from Scan and Aria. You should be able to get free postage from Scan:

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...tup-guide.html

http://forums.hexus.net/scan-care-he...0-07-08-a.html

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

No, Having had a look I've found a seemingly exotic Shuttle XP48

I could reuse my DDR3 and Q9550......I also have HDD and optical drive..

Thanks as ever :-0

I have the earlier SD37P2 and I find the size great especially for LANs!!

However,Shuttles do use propriety parts so do consider this too and make sure that your RAM is compatible with the system too. Shuttles can be picky with RAM.

There are two versions of the SX48P2 - one which uses DDR2 and another which uses DDR3.

This is the DDR3 model:

http://www.eclipsecomputers.com/prod...-SX48P2D&af=50

This is the DDR2 model:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/145419

This forum is a good place for any Shuttle related questions:

http://www.sudhian.com/index.php?/forums/

If your DDR3 is high voltage then it cannot be used with a Core i5 unless it can be run at much lower voltages.

There is also the Lian Li PC-Q08 which takes mini ITX motherboards and a normal ATX PSU but is under £100:

http://forums.hexus.net/small-form-f...irst-shot.html

It even has an exhaust fan in the top of the chassis.

There are also mATX cases like the Silverstone SG01,SG02,SG03 and SG04 but they use the PSU as a system exhaust.

There is also the Lan Gear Da Box 100 but it might a while until this is released in Europe officially:

http://www.lan-gear.com/products.php

[Covenant]

Any Suggestions :-0
(Thanks btw)

If you are still after a laptop (because admittedly it's still a lot easier to take with you then a SFF with seperate monitor/keyboard/speakers) then how about something like this:

15.6inch, Core-i3 @2.13Ghz, 4gig Ram and 1gig Radeon HD 5650 - £599.99
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/133462...k/Product.html

Not exactly the best looking machine, but £100 less then your original £700 budget.

[aeonf242]

If you are still after a laptop (because admittedly it's still a lot easier to take with you then a SFF with seperate monitor/keyboard/speakers) then how about something like this:

15.6inch, Core-i3 @2.13Ghz, 4gig Ram and 1gig Radeon HD 5650 - £599.99
http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/133462...k/Product.html

Not exactly the best looking machine, but £100 less then your original £700 budget.

Thanks for that, I'm must admit I'm still a little fixated on Core i7 and confused by core i5/i3 :-)

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Having a gaming SFF PC makes much more sense than a gaming notebook TBH!

The fact that the graphics card is hard to upgrade in most notebooks does not help.

I would probably wait until technologies like XGP become more widespread.

This article regarding XGP will probably interest you:

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news...i-netbook.aspx

[aeonf242]

Having a gaming SFF PC makes much more sense than a gaming notebook TBH!

The fact that the graphics card is hard to upgrade in most notebooks does not help.

I would probably wait until technologies like XGP become more widespread.

This article regarding XGP will probably interest you:

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news...i-netbook.aspx

Looks interesting.

If I could beg one more pearl..is
a Intel Core i5-520M 2.4Ghz
any match for a
Intel Core i7-720QM 1.6GHz (turbo up to 2.8GHz)?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Core i7 would be a better choice of processor IMHO but the notebook with the Core i5 has a faster graphics card. Hence I would most likely go for the notebook with the better graphics card if gaming performance is importance.

Here are the specifications for both processors:

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=43122

http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=47341

[Jasp]

There is also the Lan Gear Da Box 100 but it might a while until this is released in Europe officially:

http://www.lan-gear.com/products.php

June at a cost of 165 euros with 25 euros shipping for the blackheart.

*Edit* Least thats what the last email i had of them said, as i enquired about it at the end of april.

[aeonf242]

For a laugh.....Advent Core i7..£699...with integrated Graphics...

I'm seriously thinking about the HP DV7 or the Dell 17"...Prefer the build of the HP and the promsied performance of the Dell.

If I had more spare time I'd consider a SFF build.....and may still do so :-)

Anyone know if the HP DV7 can be turbo boosted so that the CPU runs @ 2.8 instead of 1.6?

[Jasp]

The HP series lineup is due to change radically in june as they have refreshed chassis and different CPU/GPU options so maybe worth waiting it out?

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5647

*edit* if its the i7 720m it boosts depending on the amount of cores in use, power and heat.

4 Cores : 1.6
2 Cores : 2.4
1 Core : 2.8

From memory..

[aeonf242]

The HP series lineup is due to change radically in june as they have refreshed chassis and different CPU/GPU options so maybe worth waiting it out?

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5647

thanks for the heads up..... :-)