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How long will this laptop last me?
jmeyer2039
Registered User new member
Registered User new member
I am not simply trying to put my system specs on display here - I haven't even bought the thing, yet. This is a genuine question.
I'm on the verge of ordering a Dell XPS M1730 with the following build:
PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache)
MEMORY: 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
VIDEO CARD : NVIDIA® SLI™ Dual GeForce® 8800M GTX with 1GB GDDR3 Memory edit
PHYSX CARD : AGEIA PhysXâ„¢ 100M Processor
I want to highlight the video card, though. It's my understanding that the M1730 model is already a year or two old, and doesn't support the newest GPUs like nVidia's 100M or 200M series (GTX 280M, for example). Dual 9800 GTX would be about as high as I could go, I think, but I don't think that would be worth the money as an upgrade over dual 8800M GTX. In other words, I think I would be stuck with the dual 8800M GTX in this machine.
So, my question for you is this: How long do you suppose I will be able to play newly-released PC games with decent to good settings? I don't necessarily need or want to max out everything, but I'd still prefer the ability to make some improvements to a particular game's default settings without compromising performance. I was actually going to opt for a solo 8700M GT because I think it would be fine for what I want a GPU to do right now (I only buy PC games occasionally), and that would be $500 cheaper. But I feel that the 8800M GTX SLI upgrade would be useful in order to sort of futureproof the machine.
Still, I don't know how futureproof it would be, so that's why I'm here. I am hoping that this system will last me at least a couple of years, but I've never owned a laptop before, so I'm pretty unfamiliar with their side of things. I intend for this to be a desktop replacement, by the way.
I guess that's enough elaboration. Thanks for reading.
I'm on the verge of ordering a Dell XPS M1730 with the following build:
PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache)
MEMORY: 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
VIDEO CARD : NVIDIA® SLI™ Dual GeForce® 8800M GTX with 1GB GDDR3 Memory edit
PHYSX CARD : AGEIA PhysXâ„¢ 100M Processor
I want to highlight the video card, though. It's my understanding that the M1730 model is already a year or two old, and doesn't support the newest GPUs like nVidia's 100M or 200M series (GTX 280M, for example). Dual 9800 GTX would be about as high as I could go, I think, but I don't think that would be worth the money as an upgrade over dual 8800M GTX. In other words, I think I would be stuck with the dual 8800M GTX in this machine.
So, my question for you is this: How long do you suppose I will be able to play newly-released PC games with decent to good settings? I don't necessarily need or want to max out everything, but I'd still prefer the ability to make some improvements to a particular game's default settings without compromising performance. I was actually going to opt for a solo 8700M GT because I think it would be fine for what I want a GPU to do right now (I only buy PC games occasionally), and that would be $500 cheaper. But I feel that the 8800M GTX SLI upgrade would be useful in order to sort of futureproof the machine.
Still, I don't know how futureproof it would be, so that's why I'm here. I am hoping that this system will last me at least a couple of years, but I've never owned a laptop before, so I'm pretty unfamiliar with their side of things. I intend for this to be a desktop replacement, by the way.
I guess that's enough elaboration. Thanks for reading.
jmeyer2039 on
0
Posts
I'll be surprised if it's still able to play new games on high settings in [edit] three years.
HP dv7-1243cl
* AMD Turion™ X2 RM-72 (2.10GHz)
* 1MB L2 cache
* 4GB DDR2 SDRAM
*ATI Radeon HD3200
*8x SuperMulti DVD±RW
*Windows® Vista Home Premium
*17" widescreen
*Approximate Weight: 7.75 lbs
$699.99
I mainly need a decent laptop to take me through three years of graduate school. I have a desktop for actual gaming, and if I put any games on this it will pretty much be games from GOG.com, Sins of a Solar Empire, and maybe, maybe Oblivion.
Just don't expect a beautiful, stunning game with amazing graphics afterward. It's still fun, though. ;-)
you'll save a shit ton of money this way.
PSN: super_emu
Xbox360 Gamertag: Emuchop
Any other recommendations? I would like to avoid the netbooks because my hands are pretty big and they tend to cramp up on their keyboards.
I tried out a 10" netbook today and I couldn't get used to it. The lack of an actual resting place for your wrists is apparently a far greater drawback to me than the actual size of the keyboard.
But yeah, I hear ya. It does take a while to get used to how small those things can be.
Seriously, why buy a laptop for games? It's prohibitively expensive when compared to a desktop, and cumbersome to lug around; unless you just want to bring it to a friend's house to play...but that's what the internet is for
I bought a used laptop for the bargain price of $230, and all I use it for is Office 2007 and some internet browsing.
But for 'real' gaming I'm always on a PC. It's just nice to be able to scratch that itch when I'm out of the house without having to lug a tower + display + keyboard/mouse everywhere.
Avoid them unless all you're doing is carrying your laptop quickly rom table to table.