The GW2 Beta this weekend proved to my that my old AMD dual core has finally outlived its usefulness. This has been the best lappy I've ever had, and I hate to see it go, but time marches on and I'm hoping to find another similar unit that will have a good long life. I've been taking a look around at the market, and because my old lappy has lasted so long I realized I don't know a damn thing about the newer technologies that have come about since I bought it. That said, I'd like to request input from anyone with a good working knowledge of laptops and what might be the best value out there at the moment. GW2 min specs: (as stated in many other posts here) Windows® XP Service Pack 2 or better • Intel® Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, Core i3, AMD Athlon 64 X2, or better • 2 GB RAM • NVIDIA® GeForce® 7800, ATI X1800, Intel HD 3000, or better (256MB of video RAM and shader model 3.0 or better) • 25 GB available HDD space • Broadband Internet connection • Keyboard and mouse I've shopped a bit and it seems I can find a laptop that is well over the minimum standards for less than $1000, but the best stuff available on the market is well over $3000 in a laptop. I'd like to keep price down, but having a unit that can play games at least at the moderate graphics settings is what I'm looking for. It has to be a laptop, because it is primarily a work machine that I also happen to game with. The only requirements from a work perspective that I have are at least 500GB of disk space (easy) and numberic keypad built in (easy as long as you are looking at 15" screen or bigger). Do any of you technical wiz-kids out there have a suggestion for me? I've wandered the web a little bit to various sites, but I don't have a good feel for what mid-range graphics require in terms of hardware.
I would look into these models: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152307 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158220 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158219 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834214604
If you buy used or refurbished, with a model that has a 560M or above, then buy an aftermarket warranty, you'll end up saving quite a bit. You could bid on this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-G74SX-...tops_Nov05&hash=item35bbad6d47#ht_1743wt_1396 which has only 1 day left and get the warranty there after. Here's a refurb with 2gb video memory for the 560M card http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-G74SX-...A%2BFICS%2BUFI&otn=21&pmod=300700560760&ps=54
I think I am missing something here, so forgive me for being ignorant when it comes to hardware. Are the 7600 series Radeon GPUs wildly inferior to the Nvidia GTX's? Looking at the specs I can't seem to figure out why this is about $500 less than anything comparable: http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/Ac...-2450M-Windows-7-Home-Premium-64/2609564.aspx Besides the GPU the only thing I see is 90w instead of 180w power and the lower MHz RAM, neither of which seems like a big enough deal to run it down that much. I set up a search based on hardware parameters that had all my options in the $1100 - $1500 range, and this little bastard popped up thoroughly confusing me.
The numbers are linear but they come in sets and there are a lot of variations between the M types and standard desktops. In short, yes there is a difference. A quick way to check is through notebookcheck, http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7670M.69483.0.html vs http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-560M.48313.0.html The 560M is in Class 1 and can run SC2 at: 234.9 FPS low / 67.9 high / 31 ultra 7670M is in the ass end of Class 2 and SC2 runs at: 170.4 low / 31.3 high / 18.9 ultra Still not a bad mobile GPU but severely worse than the 560M.
Mid grade 7000 series cards are pretty terrible really. Even on the desktop. (mid grade being 74##-77##)
Thanks to both of you for the exceptional advice. I think I know what to do now and I'll probably end up in something that resembles one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...30-141^34-230-141-TS,34-214-694^34-214-694-TS or a Batallion unit from iBuypower
Went to make my final selection and purchase today, and I stumbled accross this apparently impossible deal. http://k.toolshomes.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=9870 An ASUS G74 i7-2630QM GTX 560M - 3 gig VRAM 2x 750 GB 7200rpm HDD 12 GB DDR3 (I think the G74 is 1333 MHz, but it doesnt say in the description) $320.00 Does anyone know anything about this retailer? Is it possible I missed something, or he has no idea what he is selling?
Scam: http://www.aboutus.org/ToolsHomes.com I bought an item to check for myself, it is a dummy site.
The cost of those parts without any markup and direct from the manufacturers would cost more than what is listed on the site.
http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=product_customed&model_name=NP9170 /thread bitches don't know bout my sager
http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Battalion_101_W170ER_Gaming_Laptop# The link above is a decent lappy, for the price and meets all requirments of GW2. But If I had to choose, I would go with the one Mercsan aka Tommy posted. For the price you wont beat that. If you go through alienware, you will get the EXACT same computer but for nearly $1000 more.