laptop recomendations - 1.2k to 1.5k

I've only bought one laptop for games, and it's not in that range (Alienware Area-51). I've had great luck with Dell laptops for work, very reliable and consistent. I have not gamed with them much. The one I gamed with at 3Com had an external Doc and we were only doing Quake2, etc.

Sorry for the semi-help...
-qor72

 

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Gaming+Laptop+Reviews

 

MacBook Pro FTW! *runs away*

 

Whatever you get, just make sure you get as much warranty coverage as you can on it. Laptops are pretty poorly constructed these days, it will break.

 

That's probably about as good as you're going to get for that price, and the only thing I'd ever buy from DELL is a laptop.

The only thing you may want to wait for is that within the next 30 days places will be able to start selling the new Intel Core 2 Duo line which will get a good performance boost for the same power consumption. I think the codename for the new mobile processor based on it is "Merom"

 

Swifty, I'm looking at getting the HP Pavillion 8000t 17" widescreen Intel core duo 2500 (2.0ghz) with 1gb ram and a 7900gs. I get an educational discoumt, and with tax, warranty, and case, it's just over 1500. You could knock down the proc a bit or something, or get like the 15" version to fit within that price range.

I'm waiting until next week, though, because AMD has announced a MASSIVE cpu price drop for Monday. The high-end CPUs will be dropping by almost 50% in price. How long it will take to effect laptop prices, or whether or not that will ALSO affect intel prices -- I don't know -- but that info may help you.

 

The Core Duo laptop processor (Merom) is what the Dell picked out has. Its what the new desktop Duo Core processors coming out this week are based on. The performance of the laptop processor is already very good.

AMD is lowering prices on their desktop processors this week to compete with the Duo Core. Their laptop processors aren't that great anyway.

I think it was Sentrosi who got a pretty nice one from HP a month ago. I don't know how well that Dell spec'd one is gonna game.

5400 rpm drives are really slow. A smaller 7200 is better choice if performance is important.

I really hate it when Dell gives you limited choices on video chipsets. A mobile x1600, or 7600, 9700, etc would be better than the x1400 and cheaper than the 7900 gs.

 

sorry, that hp had a 7600 go, not 7900gs

 

You better run

 

Macbook Pro

 

For work I have a Dell D810 with an ATI A600 and UXGA flat panel in it. The max resolution of the monitor is like 1900x1280 widescreen, which is capable of displaying 1080p HDTV signals if you have an external tuner or something. It is able to play WoW at max resolution at around 20-25 FPS. I like it very much. With 1GB of RAM its a quite capable little laptop.

 

MacBook (Pro) with the biggest drive you can afford is what I recommend to people right now.

Everyone thinks Bootcamp is the cat's ass until they realize they are sawing their hard drive in half and giving half to Windows and half to OSX.
I suggest either giant internal drive or an external that is for XP only. It actually plays PC games well.

Alienware has nice stuff. However they buy their laptops from the same people everyone else does. VooDoo and widowPC offer machines that look identical to Alienwares.

Anyway Sager actually makes theirs (and probably Dell)

Dell and Alienware have discounts to employees of various companies. So you might check with them to see if you qualify.

Much as I HATE to admit it. Dell does make a pretty good laptop. We have about 300 at work. We like them much better than the Compaq and HP's we have had over the years.

But they got support and if the kid is going away, that will be most important.

Also, if you own your house, ask your insurance agent if your policy will cover the laptop.