I'm going overseas in January and I want to take some of my stuff with me to play on the looooooooong loooooooong waits in the airport and between flights. Thus, a lappy is in order and I need some help figuring out what to get as I don't really trust the website ratings from the manufacturer *that* much.

Conditions:
-Needs to be portable.
-Readily available power (I'll be in civilization) so no need to have very long battery life.
-Needs to be able to run programs such as WoW, AoE3, basic 3D real-time strategy games.
-Needs to cost around $1000.
-New is good.

Suggestions?

I've nixed Alienware already based on a friend's bad experience. I looked at Dell XPS M1730 and M1710, cost too much for new stuff but I don't really trust the older stuff without warranty. What's worked for you?

11/14/2007 10:25:46 PM

Alienware = Dell.

Same company.

And not considering a computer because of one friend's bad experience is really retarded.

Since you only have a grand to spend and dont care about battery life, look at Sager's, Acer, Toshiba, Alienware, Dell and Voodoo. Also HP has a new performance line, but I dont know if its just desktops.

11/14/2007 10:47:16 PM

alienware is owned by dell, not the same hardware though

Seen lots of good experiences with the XPS stuff from dell, lots of bad issues with alienware, plus alienware still does their own super special brand of non dell customer support, which normally blows. On site to them means they can send you a part, or you can send it to them for 2 months for 'repairs'

11/14/2007 10:50:35 PM

any specific model types I should pay attention to?

11/14/2007 11:38:20 PM

Quote :

"-Needs to be portable."

that could be a problem if you want an actual gaming laptop.

11/14/2007 11:48:03 PM

well portable as in you can put it in your back pack, and then plug it in during class.

or portable like you want to use it when its not connected to the wall.

11/15/2007 12:09:58 AM

how big of a screen do you want

thats a good starting point

11/15/2007 12:11:34 AM

im sorry

i dont help anyone that says lappy

11/15/2007 12:23:35 AM

the xps m1730 weighs in at about 10 pounds for the basic model, granted it's a gaming laptop, I don't need that much game

I don't think one would need a top of the line computer to play WoW, and etc., now, if a game comes out with higher reqs that I do want to play on my laptop then having a m1730 would be sweet, but I do not need one right now

I need my screen to be 15in minimum, too small then it doesn't work for viewing the game field

I don't intend to take this to class, mostly for taking to places like visiting friends for a lan game or going on trips where I will be staying for longer than 2 weeks.

11/15/2007 12:41:08 AM

Dell e1705

Ive had mine for almost 2 years.

17" screen,dual core processor, top rate PCIE video card (upgradable) and 2 GB RAM capacity. I've played BF2, BF 2142 on the road with it and its been flawless. Available for about $1k or less if you find the right promotion. Its the best gamer bang for the buck. Basically an XPS without the cool case.

[/thread]

[Edited on November 15, 2007 at 12:53 AM. Reason : .]

11/15/2007 12:53:00 AM

I'd go with Dell. I got a Inspiron 9100 like 4 years back, and i upgraded it to be basically an xps (i think the only difference was the ati 9700 was 128, and not the 256 version). It's still running strong, and the warranty has paid for itself like twice already. Got a new power adapter, and 2 new sound cards, and a new harddrive. Most of it was just me being careless w/ the laptop (stepping on a cord plugged into the soundcard). The HD/power adapter came within 2 days, and whenever i needed a part replaced, there was a dell guy at my door within 2 days to replace it.

Of course this was back when they put Pentium 4's in laptops, and not that celeron crap. It's got a pentium 4 3.2 in it, and so it weighs 10 pounds, and has some impressive fans. If you're looking for a desktop replacement i'd defin go with a Dell xps.

11/15/2007 1:05:48 AM

I have a HP dv9000 that plays cs:s alright. Took a 2 hour Greyhound trip a couple weeks ago and played hl2 the whole way, battery never died. Bought for 1250 a year ago.

11/15/2007 2:52:59 AM

asus ftw

11/15/2007 7:34:56 AM

lappy

11/15/2007 10:08:29 AM

Quote :

"asus ftw"

Haha YES! i've actually got an asus laptop

and alienware does suck balls

[Edited on November 15, 2007 at 11:09 AM. Reason : ]

11/15/2007 11:09:09 AM

Quote :

"-Readily available power (I'll be in civilization) so no need to have very long battery life. -Needs to be able to run programs such as WoW, AoE3, basic 3D real-time strategy games. -Needs to cost around $1000."

you will not get all 3 of these. the closest I've gotten were my last 2 laptops, and my emachines isn't really relevant in this. my dell inspiron e1705 has been great. 7900gs, 1gb ddr2, 17" 1920x1200, core2duo, and about 3-4 hours of battery life when I'm not gaming. whenever you play a modern game, you're going to be pegging your drive at all times, loading textures and what not, unless it's a shitty strategy game or something, then 4gb of ram should be sufficient. this means really bad battery life while gaming, unless you get an express solid state drive (poor price point atm) for games only. you'll want a 9cell battery, if not 2. that's typically an extra 100-150. you'll also want a warranty. for 1000, you might get just the laptop, but nothing else that you'll really want to go with it. however, with dell you can add these things over time. buy more warranty when you have money, buy another battery, buy more ram, etc.

short version: dell inspiron e1705

[Edited on November 15, 2007 at 11:12 AM. Reason : wtf you already have an xps m17xx? that's the same damn thing. thats as good as it gets]

11/15/2007 11:09:19 AM

some of the asus laptops have desktop processors and guts... their battery life will blow ass and the bottom may scold you but they're cheap (1000-1200) and fast as hell.

If you have the money the asus G series which is what i'm posting from is an awesome gaming laptop, its fast i get 2-2.5 hours of battery life when i'm trying to save it, and the build quality feels soo much better than that of an hp or a dell.

<3 my asus

11/15/2007 11:22:16 AM

i'd def. go w/ 15.4" LCD instead of 17" to save your battery life, or if you go 17" get an extra battery, or a hi-capacity battery that will last you longer than 2 hours and 17" laptops are hard to fit in backpacks

but i'd def. recommend Dell & Asus if you don't need battery life


[Edited on November 15, 2007 at 11:29 AM. Reason : /]

11/15/2007 11:27:34 AM

Quote :

"you'll want a 9cell battery, if not 2."

think you misread:

Quote :

"(I'll be in civilization) so no need to have very long battery life."

but yeah, it wasn't that clear.

11/15/2007 11:32:35 AM

lol, I thought she meant the game, civilization.

11/15/2007 11:38:56 AM

for 1k you probably wont be in the xps line, but like someone else said they have others you can put close to the same stuff in, and if youre not playing really intensive games it should be fine. also i would say 15 is a pretty good size rather than 17 if youre trying to play on the go.

11/15/2007 1:53:12 PM

she defines play on the go as she can take it with her and it does nto weight over 8 pounds or so with batteries. She plays MMOs and RTS stuff mroe or less exclusivly, so NO FPS stuff, NO newer games, just wow, heroes of might and magic, civilization, etc.

11/15/2007 5:32:14 PM

it sounds like portability is more important to her than extreme pefromance. good luck finding an reasonably priced 17 inch machine that weighs under 8 lbs with battery and adapter (I mention adapter because 2 hours of play time on performance settings is NOT enough time for a WoW session.)

e1505 or the newer equivalent should be suitable. look for a slickdeal or something.

11/15/2007 6:02:21 PM

I also got on the same dell laptop deal of the 2006 summer that smoothcrim has. It's a great "desktop replacement". It really can't be classified as a laptop since it's bulky and burns legs. But as a mobile system, it works great. High res screen and gaming card is nice in a mobile package. I opted for the regular 6 cell battery as I too will always be around power. I got the 3yr warranty on mine and ended up spending around 1350ish shipped.

In all honestly, 8lbs isn't a lot. My older dell laptop weighed 14lbs, but it had two batteries.

I also agree, look at current 1500's and 1700's Inspiron series as they will probably be the cheapest solution, besides buying 2nd hand. Check slicksdeals as there are always deals on there, specially on black friday. Maybe not on a gaming "lappy"...

11/15/2007 6:44:33 PM

Assume that I will have a power outlet and a table top to play on if I am pulling out the laptop. I have to travel with this chunk of metal everywhere I go if I do go overseas. I may need a foreign adapter plug. I most likely will buy a cooling plate for it so if it's scolding hot, I won't be burning my skin, esp if I put it on a table (see aforementioned condition). I am looking at Asus and it seems that the G1S and G2S series is what they're pushing for gaming, anyone had one of those that can put in some comments or is there any other line in Asus I should be looking at?

11/15/2007 7:25:03 PM

Quote :

"asus ftw"

absolutely, i've got an F3Jp that i use for my basic gaming needs (bejeweld, WoW, Hellgate: London) and it works fine for me...

if i felt like upgrading (i've only had this for 10 months, no need yet) the G1 would probably be at the top of my list, I still haven't found a better value for a 15 inch gaming notebook

Quote :

"some of the asus laptops have desktop processors and guts... their battery life will blow ass and the bottom may scold you but they're cheap (1000-1200) and fast as hell."

that's the C series (C90, and potentially the C91 if they ever bother to get it to production)... avoid it at all costs... it does have the advantages of upgradability (graphics card, processor, ram, and hd are all easily upgradable) but it has no battery life and some loud ass fans out of it's backside.

The G series, or even the F series depending on which model you snag is much more reasonable for gaming on the go

[Edited on November 17, 2007 at 10:06 AM. Reason : /]

11/17/2007 10:04:30 AM

yeah i have a g1s-a1

11/17/2007 10:21:55 AM

Dell Vostro 1500.

Best laptop you've never heard of, hands down. I paid a bit over $850 for mine($200 off, but it's still a good deal) and it has a 15.4 widescreen wsxga+ display that runs at 1680x1050 on a GeForce 8400m. My base model has a Core 2 Duo T5470 1.6Ghz(2mb cache, 800mhz fsb), 1gb DDR2-800 ram, dvd burner, etc., only thing significantly upgraded was the display. The NV 8400m comes standard, has 256mb of DEDICATED graphics memory(not shared crap), and is dx10 compatible if you are so inclined to run Vista.

The only things I upgraded from the base model was the display(XGA standard - yuck), the wireless adapter I upgraded from Dell to Intel, (for Linux compatibility) and I got a 9-cell battery instead of the 6. It runs with wifi on, non-gaming stuff for at least 4-5 hours, no problem, more if you turn the brightness down.

It runs WoW pretty effortlessly, and best of all, doesn't become an $800 george foreman grill after you've been gaming for a couple hours. I get 40+fps with the settings turned about halfway up. It runs very cool for such a relatively powerful graphics adapter. I'm impressed with mine, and haven't had any issues wiht it yet. My configuration could stand a ram upgrade, but I didn't do that from Dell b/c it's cheaper to just do it myself. Honestly, the 1gb hasn't caused me enough, if any, grief to go out and get 2gb for it yet.

Overall, it's not a killer gaming laptop, but for the price, I think it's the best bang-for-your-buck. It can run games pretty nicely compared to most laptops, but isn't going to bleed your wallet to death like an Alienware or an XPS. If you want more than an off the shelf gaming experience without going for an all-out gaming laptop, I personally recommend this one.

11/19/2007 4:18:20 PM