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Buying a laptop.

Ramen NoodleRamen Noodle whoa, god has a picture of me!Registered User regular
edited July 2008 in Moe's Stupid Technology Tavern
I've been looking for a laptop to replace this aging POS and need some advice. My budget is sub-$1000 yet I want to be able to do a bit of gaming on it. I found This at Best Buy. Is it a good laptop for the price/some light gaming (possibly Spore, SC2, Diablo 3, The Sims 2, the hardest I'll push it will probably be Mass Effect.). Thanks for the help, dudes.

Ramen Noodle on

Posts

  • .kbf?.kbf? Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    It might play the Sims. SC 2 and D3 are hard to say because there are no benchmarks as of yet(seeing as neither have been released) but I'd say maybe and if so on low res. Mass effect, no may. A good gaming laptop (I say good but there really is no good gaming laptop) will cost you a lot more the $1000.

    Your best bet for gaming is to either upgrade your desktop of build a new one. The good thing about desktops is you can go cheap now and if you feel the need upgrade later. Impossible with Mr. Lappy. $1000 desktop built off newegg will be able to run what you need for now.

    this thread has pages more reasons why a laptop is and always will be vastly inferior to a desktop for gaming.

    http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=62351

    .kbf? on
  • Ramen NoodleRamen Noodle whoa, god has a picture of me! Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    The thing is though, I'm getting the lappy a year early for college. A desktop/upgrading this is a no-no (don't want to spend a bunch of money/this thing is a complete piece of shit). I just want something semidecent, don't care about running shit on ultrahigh (I'm fine with Medium). I just want to know if this is worth it, not why I'm completely and utterly wrong.

    Ramen Noodle on
  • .kbf?.kbf? Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Well then my advice would be don't get it a year early. The longer you wait the better hardware your going to get for your money, this especially important when it comes to gaming laptops because a one year old laptop may have trouble playing newer games let alone two three and four years.

    edit: the laptop you linked is not ideal to play newer games although it will most likely be able to play them on low settings

    .kbf? on
  • BubbaTBubbaT Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    Spore and Sims 2 requirements are already known, and that laptop meets them. I'd be shocked if you couldn't run Starcraft 2 or Diablo 3 on that machine. Blizzard's known for making games without insane system requirements.


    As for ME, the HD2600xt is below the listed minimum specs, but apparently is still capable of running the game.

    http://masseffect.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=633483&forum=127

    BubbaT on
  • Ramen NoodleRamen Noodle whoa, god has a picture of me! Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    How does a geForce 9500M fare? I found an Acer with one on Newegg with one for 949, with 20 shipping (making it a tad cheaper than the Gateway due to no tax). The res is 1280x800. Would this run all that plus stuff like Team Fortress 2 (tried it last night, already addicted)? Thanks for the help, guys and sorry kbf if I snapped a bit (it would be ideal, but simply not feasable with my budget)

    Ramen Noodle on
  • .kbf?.kbf? Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    BubbaT wrote: »
    Spore and Sims 2 requirements are already known, and that laptop meets them. I'd be shocked if you couldn't run Starcraft 2 or Diablo 3 on that machine. Blizzard's known for making games without insane system requirements.


    As for ME, the HD2600xt is below the listed minimum specs, but apparently is still capable of running the game.

    http://masseffect.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=633483&forum=127

    My friend has a laptop with with a 2x00 card and it does "play" but I don't know if I'd define the state it runs in as playing.

    Mass effect has a really bad reputation for running like shit and crashing constantly on basically anything but top of the line.

    .kbf? on
  • AiranAiran Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    9500M will run TF2 at that resolution fine. Medium settings though, I'd imagine. Mass Effect you may have to tone down the settings a bit, but it looks to be a pretty demanding game, being UT3 engine and all (which does scale well, but the textures look fugly at lowest - my experience from UT3). SC2 and D3 will probably run at the lowest settings when there's a massive amount of mobs onscreen.

    Airan on
    paDudSig.jpg
  • Ramen NoodleRamen Noodle whoa, god has a picture of me! Registered User regular
    edited July 2008
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220331
    This is what I'm looking at. Worth it?

    Ramen Noodle on
  • DixonDixon Screwed...possibly doomed CanadaRegistered User regular
    edited July 2008
    see if you can find a drive that is 7200 rpm also 14" screen will suck for games dude.

    You might be able to build one at the dell website cheaper, I don't know. I would wait a year though if your not going off to school

    BAM get this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115486

    8600gtm which is better and a higher end processor

    Dixon on
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