Tell me what to buy [laptop]

[bud]

Bud wants a laptop.
Bud will be buying within a month or two.
Bud fails at computer knowledge.
Bud wants to spend around 700 dollars.
Bud likes quality.
Bud likes speed.
Bud loves upgradeability.
Bud needs good battery life.
Bud is thinking about casual gaming.
Bud is an intel cigarette.
Bud needs help.

 

[XCVG]

Size? Are you looking for something small and portable like a netbook or subnotebook or a huge 17 inch monster?

 

[samjc3]

Size? Are you looking for something small and portable like a netbook or subnotebook or a huge 17 inch monster?

 

[bud]

Medium size I guess.14 inch?

 

[vskid3]

Asus G50, G51, and G60 all share a similar frame and are great if you want something in the 15-16" range. Palmer has one, I have a G60. I can max almost any game at 1366x768. I upgraded my 2.13ghz c2d to a 2.8ghz one, so there is some upgrade room.
If you want something smaller, there is the dell/alienware M11x, i'll be getting one in the mail today or tomorrow.

 

[samjc3]

In the 14" range, a thinkpad X120E (upgraded quite a ways, or stock) is quite good, and you'll have cash left for other stuff. And seconding the vote for the Asus G series. <3 my g73 so much.

 

[XCVG]

I love my Aspire TimelineX 3820TG, but there are other potentially better options. It's a nice laptop, but kind of last-gen and very, very hard to find in the US.

 

[bic]

ThinkPad x120e
ThinkPad L420

/lenovofanboy

Corporate grade Dells are pretty good too. Avoid anything from Best Buy or Wal-Mart like the plague.

 

[bud]

Can I get some links guys?

Also I'm a vain person. Therefore I like sexy/shiny. And nvidia

 

[bud]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Asus-G60Vx-Notebook ... dZViewItem
How about that one? If the price stays below 600 I can get it.
Or these? They are the G51:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ASUS-G51VX-CORE-2GH ... dZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/Asus-G51Vx-Notebook ... dZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/Asus-G51Vx-Notebook ... dZViewItem

 

[vskid3]

Any of those should be fine. I think all of them should have 2 HDD bays (I have a 7.2k rpm 320GB and a 5.4k rpm 500GB in mine). The GTX 260m is a beast of a laptop GPU. The weak point in all of them is the CPU, which is why I upgraded mine (gained a few FPS in Bad Company 2, and it was smoother overall). They run kind of hot, my GPU gets over 90C during high-end games, even with the RPM sense wire unplugged for what I like to call "leaf blower mode". There are plenty of tricks to lower the temps a bit, though. I haven't seen anything about them dying from the heat, they seem to take it pretty well. The screen is kinda meh quality, to be honest, but when you take into account the type of hardware you're getting for the price, its forgivable. Battery life is of course terrible. If you really try to make it last, you might be able to get 2.5 hours, but 1.5-2 is more realist for everyday tasks, under an hour for games.

Mine has yet to disappoint me in any way. The only reason I'm getting the M11x is because I need something a little smaller. I'll be sending the ASUS home to my brother for him to use until I have the room for this beast again.

 

[bud]

Mind telling me about the m11x?

 

[vskid3]

I'll let ya know when I get it, should be tomorrow. I got the 1st gen with a ULV C2D, mine comes with 4GB RAM and a 250GB HDD. Got it for $650 on ebay, which is about what my G60VX cost from Newegg when I got it as a refurb. It isn't as beastly as my ASUS, but its barely bigger than a netbook, and it can get netbook-like battery life when using the Intel GPU. If small/battery life are more of a priority, its a good option, by far your best for gaming. If you want something more along the lines of a desktop replacement or the best performance for your buck, then ASUS's G-series are a good place to start.

If you're wondering, these are the scores Windows 7 gives for everything (might be with slight OC, can't remember how it was when I ran the test).
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9600 @ 2.80GHz 6.5
Memory (RAM) 4.00 GB 6.5
Graphics NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M 6.8
Gaming graphics 6.8
Primary hard disk 16GB Free (75GB Total) 5.9

 

[bud]

I'm likin the size of it. A lot.
Let me know all the good stuff when you get it if you don't mind.

 

[Mako321]

<3 my X120e, cost me $460+tax and I haven't looked back.
The thing is built like any other thinkpad, I only have one gripe with the thing.
LOCKED 384MB VIDEO MEMORY
Can't *Can'tSayThisOnTV*ing run anything on here with that kind of bullflax pulled on us.
This thing will probably run things fine when it comes to *casual gaming*, mind you. Framerates in any source game drop when looking into things that aren't corners or small hallways. Maxes out Portal 2 at 1366x768 with a steady 18fps or so average, plays L4D2 at mid settings with 20fps but can't play TF2 or CS:S for flax at anything past 640x480

 

[vskid3]

My M11x runs Portal 2. At 1366x768. At 50+ fps. Maxed.

Borderlands runs at about 20-30fps at 1366x768 maxed, should be smooth as butter if I take it down a notch.

The max temp for the GPU, 61C, max for the CPU, 50C (I only played a few minutes each, so probably a few degrees higher after it gets fully warmed up). I have the stock OC enabled, thats it.

Be jelly.


I'll try some more games the next few nights, I won't have time to do a decent write up til the weekend. If you want to know anything specific (not something you can find in every review for it), just ask. If you want to know a game's performance, here is my steam profile, you should be able to see what games I have.

 

[bud]

I was actually planning to buy one new this weekend.

 

[bic]

Maxes out Portal 2 at 1366x768 with a steady 18fps or so average, plays L4D2 at mid settings with 20fps but can't play TF2 or CS:S for flax at anything past 640x480

My x100e can run TF2 acceptably at native res, better at 800x600. Turn everything down to the minimum and maybe run DirectX 8. Haven't tried Portal 2 on it yet, but L4D2 sits at 3 FPS because it forces multithreaded rendering off for some bloody reason.

I mostly bought it for the keyboard and screen awesomeness, though. Overall I like it much better than the current crop of creaky plastic engineered-by-Playskool netbooks out there.

 

[bud]

Processor:
Overclockable Intel® Core™2 Duo SU7300 1.3GHz (3MB Cache)  


Operating System:
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English


Memory:
4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 800MHz   4GB  


Hard Drive:
250GB SATAII 7,200RPM  


LCD:
11.6-inch WideHD 1366x768 (720p) WLED  

Video Card:
1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 335M  

Sound:
Internal High-Definition Surround Sound Audio (5.1)  


System Color:
Alienware M11x, Cosmic Black  


AlienFX:
Mars Red   RED  

OS Customization:
Alienhead Chrome Red  


Pre-Installed Games:
Steam and Portal™ Factory Installed   STEAM  


Pre-Installed Games:
World of Warcraft Pre-Installed


Pre-Installed Games:
Eve Online, Factory Installed   EVE


Integrated NIC:
Integrated 10/100 Network Interface Card



Webcam:
1.3MP Web Cam



Wireless:
Alienware M11x a/b/g/n 2x2 MIMO Wireless
   
All of that came to $709. I'm planning on ordering directly from Dell. See anything I should change before I buy it?

 

[samjc3]

Id change it to something that isnt a dell. But thats just me. And I wouldnt get it in red. Matte black if possible, would be my choice.