Gaming laptop for e2300 ish?

Nephew

I'm half thinking of buying a laptop, gaming would be an important factor. I know you get a lot more for your money with a desktop but I'd like to be able to play demanding games on the laptop. I am willing to spend up to e2300-2500, I'll be claiming the vat back which would leave me with an actual budget of about e1800-2000 before vat. Probably along the Dell route, despite their **** customer care I've rarely had a problem with a Dell.

Mobility isnt a major factor, so I was thinking along the lines of a 15 or 17inch screen.

I guess a 120gb hd would probably be sufficient as I have a few external hds.

At least 2gb of ram and Vista Premium.

I haven't a clue about the graphics card tbh. At the moment I've a 256mb geforce 6800 in my desktop so I'd want the best card I could get with my budget.

These dual core processors are new to me, how would say a 2ghz dual core compare with an old Pentium4 3.4ghz?

Something in the back of my head tells me to hold off for a couple of months, till they iron out the bugs and compatibility issue with Vista. Also, the fact that Vista is rather demanding, manufacturers may up the spec of their machines once Vista starts taking off, and I'd get a lot more bang for my buck then. I know regardless of when you buy there will always be something better out. But my 2 year old desktop still holds it own against a lot of stuff being sold today.

Guys I'd appreciate any input.

Thanks

Saruman

Well fistly.. the lowest spec core 2 duo (has to be core 2 now) is so far beyond a P4 3.4 ghz that you can not compare.. even though ghz is less, its just a one horse race.

Unfortunatly Laptops are not great for games and because you cant upgrade the graphics... you are spending 2 to 3 k on something that will be unable to play the latest games in a year or two.

If you want to go with dell then look at the XPS models
such as: http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=ie&cs=iedhs1&kc=N4XXPS03&l=en&oc=N02XPS5&rbc=N02XPS5&s=dhs&sbc=iedhsftdppnotebook3

Nephew

Thanks saruman.

I was thinking of buying another desktop instead, but I've started to realise how convenient a laptop would be.

I checked out the XPS there. Any idea how the 256mb geforce 7900 would handle recent games?

BostonB

I had a XPS M1710 for a little while with the following spec 2GB RAM/2.16Ghz core2duo /100.00GB/512mb 7950GTX. Ran everything I had at 1900x1200 smooth as silk. Was a lot, lot faster than my desktop P4/3.4 Dual Core/7900GS. pretty amazing machine. Impulse buy, so I returned it. One coment I'll make is that the quality of the screens on the M1710/9300 laptops seems to be hit and miss, with inconsistent backlighting and bleed, going by the laptop forums. Poor viewing angles, vertical or horizontal can also be an issue. TBH it seems to be a problem across all the insprions I've seen. Some are ok some aren't. Mine was ok, but not perfect, and for the money it cost (under 2k on the outlet) I'd want perfect. For gaming you won't notice it. But if you are picky about screens it might bug you.

Make more sense to buy a desktop for gaming and a cheaper laptop for other stuff, and perhaps lite gaming. But the M1710 is probably the cheapest most powerful laptop you are going to get atm. The attraction of a smaller footprint is appealing, but is it worth €1000 more than a desktop?

Nephew

Boston, thanks for the info.

I was kind of thinking of getting one, but I'd hate to pay all that money for a **** screen.

BostonB

Nephew wrote:

Boston, thanks for the info.

I was kind of thinking of getting one, but I'd hate to pay all that money for a **** screen.

Don't get me wrong for games the screen is excellent. Its just not as good as other brands like a good Sony for instance, if thats what you are used to.