Considering a laptop

Post by **Shrapnel** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 6:03 pm

I'm in a situation where I will be doing a lot of moving around and trying to move a desktop around with me just isn't practical. I've also been having some gaming withdrawl since I haven't fragged anything in over 3 months now. So I've been looking at getting a gaming laptop and have been looking at the three following models:

Dell XPS: $3300
Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz
2GB DDR2 667
512MB GeForce Go 7950GTX

Toshiba P100-ST9772: $2900
Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz
2GB (speed unknown)
512MB GeForce Go 7900GTX

Alienware m9700: $2700
Turon 64 2.2GHz
2GB DDR 400
2x256MB GeForce Go 7900GS

All three include Vista Ultimate, 160GB HDDs, DVD+/-RW, 17 inch screens, etc. I'm currently leaning towards the Alienware but am hesitent to pull the trigger because I know it will be very difficult to upgrade anything in a laptop once it's ordered. The Dell obviously offers the most performance but I'm having trouble justifying the extra $600 over the Alienware. I just don't think it would be that much better. I'm relatively certain the performance gain of the Toshiba would be negligable in comparison to the Alienware so I've all but cut that one out, but I'm open to differing opinions.

I'm wondering what some of you who might have experience with gaming laptops and SLI cards think. Which one would you go with?

Thanks for the help.

Post by **madcow** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 6:08 pm

I have been warned to never go with a Turon if I happened to be in the market for a mobile CPU. If you still prefer the cheaper Alienware then see if you can't get one with an Intel CPU instead.

Post by **Shrapnel** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 6:13 pm

They offer a 15" model with Core 2 Duos but those only have Go 7600GTX video cards in them.

What's the issue with the Turon? Do they just consume more power or is there some other issue?

Post by **madcow** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 6:16 pm

I think it is a performance thing. Look for some comparisons on Tom's Hardware or a similar site.

Total_focus_haz · Post by **Total_focus_haz** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 6:25 pm

Stay away from the toshiba, they have a design flaw with the battery, they are not the best laptop for gaming purposes as the batteries are useless, Dell arent to bad put have issues with hard-drive failure after a few months i must get 30 - 40 returns each month in work with "Blue Screen of Death Errors" i say alienware is better but defo go for pentium for performance matters

MorpheusPT · Post by **MorpheusPT** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 6:34 pm

I have a turion, i play the NABO's with it, and sometimes it's faster than my intel (that i have on my desktop).

The only problem with turions, is that they consume a little more power. otherwise than that, it's perfect

Post by **Shrapnel** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 6:39 pm

Found some comparisons and it seems the Duos blow away teh Turions accross the board. Also did some looking at the 7900GS vs. the 7950GTX. Couldn't find a SLI vs. non-SLI article but the GS was about 50% frame rate of the GTX...so I think the Dell is going to win. Keep the opinions coming though. I probably won't buy for another week or two.

HDD failure is a concern but not much of one. I won't be using it for work at all, just fun. It would be a nusiance if it occured though.

MorpheusPT · Post by **MorpheusPT** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 6:49 pm

depends on the turions. If you have a single core one, well then they'll get their butts handed to them, but if you have a dual-core one, then it's a different song...

Post by **Ash2Dust** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 8:54 pm

Since you're never going to upgrade the video, I'd say that would be as important as CPU. GTX all the way. And the 667 over the 400 on memory will help FPS games alot.

MorpheusPT · Post by **MorpheusPT** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 8:57 pm

yeah, on a gaming laptop, there's 3 things to consider at all time:

Graphics Card (the GPU velocity, the memory, and please MAKE SURE YOU GET DEDICATED MEMORY!)

CPU

RAM, and it's speed.

PinkAss · Post by **PinkAss** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 9:26 pm

Gaming laptops are very very prone to over heating.
So be careful , You should do some research on that cus it can become quite frustrating when you play more than 30 mins :p

Post by **matsif** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 9:59 pm

true that pinkass

I really don't think you want to have burn marks on your lap after a bit of gaming shrap...

MorpheusPT · Post by **MorpheusPT** » Sun Jun 24, 2007 10:05 pm

and whatever you do, don't overclock a laptop. that's the worst mistake you can do. cause the CPU fan and the GPU fan are the same, on most laptops. and sometimes they get a little too hot, let alone with an overclock... just a word of advice

styphon · Post by **styphon** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 4:52 am

If you can push the extra money, or wait a little more they have just released the new Graphics Cards, DX10 on laptops. Get one of them with Vista if you plan on using your laptop to play some of the newer games comming out soon.

ChickenSalad · Post by **ChickenSalad** » Wed Jun 27, 2007 8:18 am

Alienware is about to release an upgraded model of the 9700 next month, so I'd sure wait a little: http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/26/alie ... idia-gpus/

Asus has one ready that might be interesting in terms of it's upgrade ability: http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/18/asus ... le-laptop/