Best PC laptops with dedicated video?

LoneIgadzra

I have a friend who is in need of a new laptop. He's not a heavy gamer, but he'd like to be able to run a few things like Half-Life 2 that are not going to be running so hot on all this ubiquitous Intel integrated bullshit. Hence he needs some kind of mid to low range dedicated video.

I know that Apple makes the best laptops, but the model in his price range is a MacBook, which again doesn't have dedicated video.

So what PC manufacturers even make good laptops these days? I've never used a single one I've been impressed with. More importantly, are any of them willing to put dedicated video in for a reasonable price?

Corvus

Depends what you consider a reasonable price. For an overview of various Laptop video solutions see here:

The Mobile Graphics Card Info Page

Theres a variety of laptops around around with dedicated cards, from Lenovo, HP, Toshiba, Dell, Asus, Acer, etc.

archonwarp

I'm surprised that no one ever links THE ULTIMATE COMPARISON BETWEEN ALL VARIETY OF MOBILE GRAPHICS CARDS
Or at least, that's what I call it. For mid to low level gaming, such as being able to play Halflife 2 with 30+ frames, a geforce 8400 should be an excellent choice. It gives me 50+ FPS in warcraft 3 with everything cranked to max. My old laptop had an x1400 (a bit worse than the 8400) and it ran CS:S at 120 FPS at native resolution. What size of a laptop does he want? Does he want to take this places, or mostly use around the house/Lan parties? Here's what I recommend based upon sizes and budgets, using a macbook as a base guide:



15.4" Asus with an 8600 GS and VERY NICE processor. Drop in an extra gig of ram for 50 bucks DIY. $1200 (sans ram upgrade).

For a 14.1 inch with a little less muscle and price, dell's vostro line has a nice magnesium casing (which doesn't scuff to hell like their other stuff) and will run you 700 to 800 for a nice machine with an 8400, 2 gigs of ram, and a 9-cell battery. It's not currently on a good special, but if he can wait a few weeks, it will hit bigtime (as always with dell).

If he wants an ultra portable, I would check out the Asus F9 series at Portable One. 1000 clams for a 12.1" with bluetooth, a webcam, an 8400, and one open memory slot to make upgrading convenient and cheaper.



I'll give him the same advice I give everyone buying a laptop, which is to always buy one size smaller than you think you want. If you think you want a 17 inch, buy a 15.4, or a 14.1 instead of a 15.4, etc. Particularly the 14.1 to 13.3 range, the keyboard's do not take a major cut in space, but the overall form factor of the notebook is MUCH nicer, especially if you plan on carrying it around.

LoneIgadzra

Thanks a lot for the info. That's about all we need to work with right now. As far as specifics go, there really are none. He just needs a laptop that won't completely fail when it comes to games and won't overheat like his current Inspiron 900m.

gift100001

What do you think is a reasonable price? If your friend is a game lover, he can buy a laptop with great video card. I think Sony 14.1 inch VAIO CR120 is a good chioce. Its Video is powered by the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, which uses shared video memory (up to 358 MB allocated from the system memory) The specs for the price are extremely comparable to the real competition, which is the smaller Dells. It is Intel Core 2 Duo T7100 (1.8Ghz) processor 2GB installed memory 160GB Hard drive CD/DVD player/burner 14.1" WXGA with XBRITE ECO Technology (1280 x 800) Intel PRO/Wireless 4965AGN Network Connection Built-in 1.3 megapixel MOTION EYE camera. Right now it is on sale, the price for it is pretty low. A recent deal is only $1250. If you are interested in it, you can check it out, here is the link to the deal:
http://dealstudio.com/searchd49
Hope this helps.

archonwarp

I know I will regret this, but that post/link stinks of spam. Not only is the x3100 a poor choice for a gamer (though MUCH better than the gma 950), but the cost per spec on that notebook is horrid.