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High Performance Gaming Laptops On A Budget?
Cory Tunney writes "In my quest to find a gaming laptop that will fulfill my gaming fantasies, but not kick me in the wallet at the same time, I've come across many options. Alienware is out of the question, as are companies like VooDooPC, but out of the rough comes companies less known but with impressive hardware. Sager seems to have won over a pretty large group of fans, and iBuyPower also seems to put out a decent amount of bang for the buck. However, when it comes down to it, I am still left with several options and I do not know what road to travel. So here's the jist of it - a system with a price tag around $2,000, a high-end video card (Radeon or the equivalent NVidia) and a system with an AMD would be a plus, but I will not rule out Intel if they can offer similar performance. So, Slashdot readers, what systems can you recommend?"
To be honest, I haven't checked benchmarks for it yet, but I just purchased a Dell Inspiron 5150 (should arrive on the 18th). The reason I picked this one in particular was that it was dell's lowest-priced laptop that still had decent video hardware.
The specs I got were as follows:
- 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 HT
- 15" SXGA+ LCD
- 512 MB RAM
- 60 GB HD
- 64 MB nVidia GeForce FX Go5200
Adding a more powerful battery and a 4x DVD burner put me up to CDN $2200 after tax and shipping.
The 5150 on the US website starts at 256 megs of ram, 3.06 GHz P4, 15" XGA at $1079 after a 10% discount.
Another Dell option is $2319 USD after 15% off (about $400 savings) for the Inspiron XPS - a little more than your target price, but the specs are impressive to say the least.
I don't know how well my system is going to handle games - they're mostly a secondary priority, and the system is going to have enough power to run FFXI at least, so that's all I'm really concerned about - but as far as a mixture of cheap and effective (assuming you're not going to want to play Doom 3 on it), Dell is probably the best way to go.
Mayhem. Nice stuff outfitted with ATI Radeon Mobility 9600 or 9700s. Your choice of Intel Pentium 4, Pentium M, or Athlon64, in order of least-to-most expensive. I'd go with the Pentium M version, based on your budget. The Athlon64 machine is $2100 with only 512Meg of RAM, whereas the Pentium M model is $1900 with 1Gig of RAM. That would also leave you enough money to upgrade to the 7200rpm HD.
Unforunately, this ailment isn't simply limited to nVidia or Toshiba; I got a Dell SmartStep 200N with an ATI Radeon Mobility about 2 years ago, and they have yet to produce an update.
I'm becoming of the opinion that a laptop gaming isn't worth it. I've had an experience much like mrluisp stated; it was great when I first got it, and held up for a few months, but lacking driver updates and upgradeability, I was left out in the cold. Now that everything depends on pixel shaders and I can't upgrade the graphics card in it, the only gaming I get out of it is emulation and looking for 2+ year old PC titles.
If you really have your heart set on mobile gaming, you can go ahead and try, but I would seriously consider dishing out the extra money for one with an upgradeable graphics card. Otherwise, your hot new laptop is going to be next to worthless in about 6 months for playing the latest games.
My Powerbook 15" 1.5GHz with 1.5GB of RAM kernel panics whenever I try to run Warcraft III. So it is useless to me for gaming.
The NP4790-C seems to be a good deal, and just under the $2000 you wanted to spend.
UNIX: Find it, fsck it, forget it.
While that may result in a machine with great specs, it's unlikely to be a LAPTOP. Reading the summary is hard, I know, but do try the title next time.
I've had this sig for three days.
The PowerBook G4s are far and away the best laptops on the market, but I wouldn't buy one for games unless I specifically wanted the games offered: there are far fewer Mac games, they release later, etc.
That said, Macs seem to be substantially faster MHz for MHz. I've owned several OS X machines and recommend them without hesitation to anybody who doesn't want specific software not available.
Have you tried going to CompUSA to play with one? They tend to have a popular game or two.
I've only seen one or two kernel panics using Macs as my main computers (including while a full-time software engineer) since 10.2. Those I saw were identified bugs and fixed in short order. I believe the other poster, but strongly suspect he has a hardware flaw in his video card.
Contrary to popular belief, when you consider the whole package, including weight and typical use patterns, the PowerBook laptops tend to be the best financial value. I helped a family member buy a laptop recently and PowerBooks were actually cheaper than similar PC laptops. This may not be true in math-intensive applications like gaming.
"Maybe this issue is limited to Toshiba, but my graphics card's drivers have not been updated once by Toshiba since I bought my laptop a year ago."
Generally, the Nvidia drivers for the same model number will work with the laptop graphics cards. I've got a Toshiba with a GeForce Go 460, and I am currently using the latest GeForce 460 MX drivers with no problems. Mileage, of course, may vary. Looks like that the more recent Toshiba laptops might not have that luxury, by your example.
One of the newer features of some gaming laptops (Dell and Alienware, at least) is a replaceable video card. I know that I'd definitely get that were I buying a new laptop. That would be worth spending more money to me.
Something to keep in mind, generally, as well: since the laptop has limited upgrade options (normally) you should not skimp on getting as much as you can afford. I've had my laptop for about 2 years now, and it still tends to play the majority of games fairly well. Sure, I can't play Doom 3 on it, but UT2004 plays very well, as does City of Heroes and Everquest. And it'll still be useful for work related activities for another couple of years (heck, it's still twice as powerful as my new work desktop, damn budget cuts).
So, my opinion is a lot like it was last time this topic surfaced: buy the best you can afford, and if possible, get a laptop with a replaceable video card.
Vincent J. Murphy
Spandex Justice
9 times out of 10 this is the best deal on desktops and laptops anywhere, especially when you consider the quality of what you're getting (I'm sorry, but Dell is better than most of these fly-by-nite operations by a long shot). The inventory changes almost daily, so if they don't have what you want, try again the next day.
That being said, I *have* had a Dell refurbished part fail on me, four months after purchase. Of course I thought "well, you can't get something for nothing..". However, after a quick chat with customer service they had a replacement on my doorstep two days later, with a RMA and a box for the old part. I'm so happy about this that I'm writing this post.
As of the 2.6.7 kernel, all of the stupid bios issues with this laptop are fixed, so you can turn acpi and speed governing on and it works. The only problem I still have is that it doesn't know when I plug it in or unplug it without restarting acpid (doesn't affect charging, just power profiles and the battery meter)
PC Torque has about the best customer service in the laptop industry. They sell both Sager and Acer notebooks. I got a Sager 5680 from them a year ago and it has been the most solid machine I've ever owned (and I've owned A LOT of machines, from Macs to store-boughts to homebrew). You aren't going to find a better place to discuss laptops than NotebookForums.com.
Colin Dean Go a year without DRM
http://emachines.com/products/products.html?prod=e Machines_M6811
15.4 1280x800 widescreen
Mobile Athlon 64 3400+ 1MB cache (or so it says - it also says 2GHz, not 2.2)
512MB PC2700 (so that's where you skimp)
80GB HDD
DVD+/-RW
6-in-1 flash card reader
ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 w/64MB VRAM
$1599 after rebate
Drop the 3400+ and go down to a 3200+, and drop the DVD burner and go down to a CD-RW/DVD combo, and it's $1399 after rebate. And, remember that the 3000+ (although that is a Newcastle, and the mobile 3000+ is a Hammer) kicked the 3.2GHz P4EE in Doom...
They DO skimp on the software - only XP Home, but you're getting all of the eMachines crap that you always get there...
I've heard that the hardware quality on the M68xx laptops is pretty damn good. One thing - they use VIA chipsets, so if you've hate those, forget about it (or any A64 laptop - you'll have to go Intel).
No, if you're a true retrogamer, you want one of these, and that's most definitely an AMD chip. 386DX-40, and that's 40 FSB * 1, w00t! If you can't find the 40MHz chip, then Intel's fair game too - their chips are identical to the AMD chips.
It also seems that other PGA132 chips (even 486DLC chips) had the same Dhrystone performance at the same clock speed, though, on this benchmark (reading graphs, don't know French).
If you need a 486, it gets trickier. Intel was probably the way to go at a certain clock speed, but didn't hit the highest clocks. Still, the Intel DX4-100 was the fastest on Dhrystone. However, Cyrix's 5x86 100MHz owned the Intels on Whetstone. AMD was slightly slower at 100MHz, though.
If you need a Pentium-class chip, determine how much Quake-playing there is. The more Quake, the closer you need to be to Intel (careful about PPros, but it might be 16-bitness on the part of the benchie app), and the further from AMD or Cyrix (and forget NexGen - there are no mobos that take the Nx587, and the Nx586FP is quite rare). However, with integer work, the AMD K6 0wns the Pentium. Then again, anything other than a Cyrix/IBM/ST or a PPro 0wned the Pentium (something tells me the benchie WAS 16-bit).
So, here's what you should have for each situation:
386: As long as it's 40MHz, it doesn't matter. AMD or some 486DLC, IT DOESN'T MATTER. If you can't hit 40MHz, then all 33MHz chips are the same performance according to this benchmark.
486: If you're doing Quake, get a Cyrix 5x86. Otherwise, go Intel.
Pentium: If you're doing Quake, get exactly that - a Pentium. If not, go AMD (but not a late K5).