Laptop Rec-Me-Do

Runcle · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 15:42

Hello, My friends looking for a new laptop and he doesnt know what to look for, I know slightly more but Im guessing you geeky lot will be able to find the best one for him.
Hes only really after a decent graphics card and a good sized hard drive. Also would be hard pushed to go with Acer again.
He hasnt really got a price range yet but I doubt he'll have the Earth to spend on it.

KovacsC · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 15:52

If not Acer what about Dell or HP?

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32624

Just go hammer "Dell" then "HP" into the search box on HotUKDeals. That's all I do when people ask me for laptop deals now. You can normally either get a PCWorld special on a HP or some voucher scammage on the Dell website.

Runcle · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 15:55

I think either will be fine, I had a bad time with Acer aswell a couple of years ago. My HP has already last longer than my Acer and the battery has hardly diminished.
I think he'll only be playing strategy games on it aswell, so as long as it can run the current state of them sort of games should be fine.

KovacsC · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 15:57

http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/343196/d ... dual-core/

specs are

Intel dual core T3400
2GB Ram
160GB Hd
15.6" screen

you get a choice of 3 colours which are blue,red and black

cheapest inspiron on dells site is £369

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32624

That'll have integrated graphics though, sounds like Runcle's mate wants dedicated.

Wullie · **Joined:** 27th Jun, 2008 **Posts:** 6183

I'm crap at PC advice, but you could always look here.

KovacsC · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 16:03

Doctor Glyndwr wrote:

That'll have integrated graphics though, sounds like Runcle's mate wants dedicated.

It was the first one I found

Grim... · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 16:48

Runcle wrote:

I think either will be fine, I had a bad time with Acer aswell a couple of years ago. My HP has already last longer than my Acer and the battery has hardly diminished.
I think he'll only be playing strategy games on it aswell, so as long as it can run the current state of them sort of games should be fine.

Christ, good luck. As Craster will tell you, games don't tend to support laptop graphic cards. I'll drop in the standard "Laptop RMD question" - can he not have a desktop instead?

KovacsC · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 16:50

My Dell D630 (works) has an integrated card. I updated the drivers and it now plays most of the RTS games I put on it.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32624

Grim... wrote:

Christ, good luck. As Craster will tell you, games don't tend to support laptop graphic cards.

Urr, what? I have two laptops in the house with GeForce cards (one 7600, one 8600) that beg to differ. How can the game even tell it's a laptop card? It's just a bunch of DirectX API calls.

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

I've noticed an increasing trend of games saying in their requirements, where they list supported GPUs, a caveat of "Mobile versions of these cards are not explicitly supported".

Spore, for example, refuses to work with my card - whereas it would work fine on the same GPU on a desktop. Attempting to get support results in "Mobile GPU? Hah. Read the box, noob!".

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32624

Craster wrote:

Spore, for example, refuses to work with my card - whereas it would work fine on the same GPU on a desktop. Attempting to get support results in "Mobile GPU? Hah. Read the box, noob!".

What the fuck?

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

Hence why I've 99% given up on PC gaming.

myp · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 17:26

Craster wrote:

Hence why I've 99% given up on PC gaming.

Also because it's for fagballs.

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32624

myp wrote:

Craster wrote:

Hence why I've 99% given up on PC gaming.

Also because it's for fagballs.

You should get one then myp, you'd fit right in.

KovacsC · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 17:27

myp wrote:

Craster wrote:

Hence why I've 99% given up on PC gaming.

Also because it's for fagballs.

you are so mean to me

Paging JC, pc gaming mentioned!!

Malabelm · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 17:29

Kovacs Caprios wrote:

Paging JC, pc gaming mentioned!!

Oh Christ, don't get Jesus in here.

myp · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 17:34

Doctor Glyndwr wrote:

myp wrote:

Craster wrote:

Hence why I've 99% given up on PC gaming.

Also because it's for fagballs.

You should get one then myp, you'd fit right in.

Cock off.

pupil · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 17:42

Craster wrote:

I've noticed an increasing trend of games saying in their requirements, where they list supported GPUs, a caveat of "Mobile versions of these cards are not explicitly supported".

Spore, for example, refuses to work with my card - whereas it would work fine on the same GPU on a desktop. Attempting to get support results in "Mobile GPU? Hah. Read the box, noob!".

If it's an ATi GPU, maybe try modding/hacking the drivers using this:

http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php

Might work.

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

It's nVidia, but there's a similar solution for it.

The problem is, it's just not worth the hours spent fucking around.

Zardoz · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 17:49

Craster wrote:

PC Gaming: it's just not worth the hours spent fucking around.

Ultra fix

KovacsC · **Posted:** Wed Feb 25, 2009 17:51

Zardoz wrote:

Craster wrote:

PC Gaming: it's just not worth the hours spent fucking around.

Ultra fix

I suppose I have been lucky and not had to 'fuck around' to get any games work on my PCs (laptop and desktop)

Cras · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 49244

Precisely. When it works, it's great. When it doesn't, it can fuck off back down its hole.

Bobbyaro · **Joined:** 18th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 11898

Which of these laptops would you buy and why? Also, feel free to offer alternatives:

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/HP_Pavil ... 65433.html

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

Processor AMD A6-3430MX Quad Core (1.7GHz, 4MB Cache, Up to 2.4GHz in Boost Mode)
Screen 15.6" (HP BrightView, LED Backlit, 1366 x 768 HD 16:9 Screen)
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit
RAM 6GB (DDR3)
Hard Drive 1000GB
Optical Drive DVD Rewriter (Records DVDs 8x & CDs 24x & Dual Layer Super Multi)
Graphics Dedicated (AMD Radeon HD 7470M with 512MB DDR3 RAM)
Wireless LAN Wireless (802.11b/g/n Wireless)
Network Card 10/100/1000 Gigabit Fast Ethernet
Integrated Webcam Integrated Webcam with Microphone
Card Reader 2-in-1 card reader ( SD, MMC )
USB Ports 4x USB 2.0 Ports
Bluetooth Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR included
Speakers Integrated Altec Lansing Sound System
VGA Port 1 External VGA Port
Kensington Lock Kensington lock slot
Charge Time 2.5 Hours
HDMI 1x HDMI Port
Warranty HP Pavilion 12 Month Warranty (Also use for Consumer Compaq's)
Battery Life 2-3 Hours (up to 3 hours with power management)
Weight 2-3 Kg (This Model 2.95 Kg)

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/HP_Pavil ... 63720.html

ZOMG Spoiler! Click here to view!

Processor Intel® Core™ i5-2450M Dual Core (2.5GHz, Intel Sandy Bridge Architecture, 3MB Cache, Intel Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz)
Screen 15.6" (HP BrightView, LED Backlit, 1366 x 768 HD 16:9 Screen)
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit
RAM 6GB (DDR3)
Hard Drive 500GB
Optical Drive DVD Rewriter (Records DVDs 8x & CDs 24x & Dual Layer Super Multi)
Graphics Integrated (Intel® HD 3000 Graphics with up to 1274MB Shared Memory)
Wireless LAN Wireless (802.11b/g/n Wireless)
Network Card 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet
Integrated Webcam Integrated Webcam with Microphone
Card Reader 2-in-1 card reader ( SD, MMC )
USB Ports 3x USB 2.0 ports
Speakers Integrated Altec Lansing Sound System
VGA Port 1 External VGA Port
Kensington Lock Kensington lock slot
Charge Time 2.5 Hours
HDMI 1x HDMI Port
Warranty HP Pavilion 12 Month Warranty (Also use for Consumer Compaq's)
Battery Life 3-4 Hours (up to 4 hours with power management)
Weight 2-3 Kg (This Model 2.5 Kg)

I am going to be playing a few games on it, but appreciate that it won't run Skyrim (very well)

Hearthly · **Joined:** 11th May, 2008 **Posts:** 13386

Intel is the better bet, even AMD's newer mobile chips can run pretty hot (fan noise) and they're still basically tweaked Athlon64 architecture so old and inefficient.

Plus the GPU drivers are 'variable' at best these days.

Bobbyaro · **Joined:** 18th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 11898

Thanks,
Are the benefits of the dedicated graphics offset by the poorer CPU in the AMD? (I guess they probably are given the price is the same!)

Hearthly · **Joined:** 11th May, 2008 **Posts:** 13386

Bobbyaro wrote:

Thanks,
Are the benefits of the dedicated graphics offset by the poorer CPU in the AMD? (I guess they probably are given the price is the same!)

The integrated Intel graphics are a lot better than they used to be, the GPU is integrated onto the CPU on the AMD chip as well. (You're generally talking a pretty pricey laptop before you get a discrete GPU.)

The resolution of the screen on both laptops is the same and is relatively low, so you should be able to play modern games alright as long as you're prepared to turn the graphics options down a bit (stuff like anti-aliasing and shadows + fancy lighting effects tend to really kill mobile GPUs).

Don't get me wrong, the AMD powered laptop is perfectly capable and day-to-day both would probably perform fine - but the AMD flavour will tend to run hot more often with more fan noise, and the CPU is underpowered by modern standards.

Bobbyaro · **Joined:** 18th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 11898

Oh, cheeky, it claims the AMD graphics are dedicated, does that just mean the system memory is dedicated and not variable?

Thanks, I shall look around a bit more, but like the look of the Intel one.

Hearthly · **Joined:** 11th May, 2008 **Posts:** 13386

Bobbyaro wrote:

Oh, cheeky, it claims the AMD graphics are dedicated, does that just mean the system memory is dedicated and not variable?

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-A-Seri ... 987.0.html

It's a pretty low end part to be honest, definitely one of the lower-performing AMD CPU/GPU combos.

You'll do a lot better with the Intel flavour, and it'll be easier to live with in terms of noise + heat too.

Hearthly · **Joined:** 11th May, 2008 **Posts:** 13386

I'm not sure where they've got the specs for the GPU on the AMD laptop, everything I can find about it says that CPU uses the integrated Radeon HD 6520G GPU, unless this is some really weird variant?

Doctor Glyndwr · **Joined:** 30th Mar, 2008 **Posts:** 32624

I'd generally suggest the Intel, the Sandy Bridge (and Ivy Bridge) are a long way ahead of AMD's offerings at the moment. The only reason to not do that is if the AMD's graphics are much stronger than the Intel's; I doubt that's the case but I'm not sure off hand. Look at the GPU database on Anandtech and see if you can get an idea of the relative performances.

Bobbyaro · **Joined:** 18th Apr, 2008 **Posts:** 11898

Is it possible to fit a graphics card into a laptop after the event?

Hearthly · **Joined:** 11th May, 2008 **Posts:** 13386

Bobbyaro wrote:

Is it possible to fit a graphics card into a laptop after the event?

Not unless it explicitly states that it's upgradeable, and you're looking at high-end specialist gaming/CAD laptops for that sort of arrangement.

Malc · **Posted:** Thu May 17, 2012 8:42

With the new Ivy Bridge stuff from Intel, I wonder if people are going to get confused about where I live...

Malc

Plissken · **Posted:** Thu May 17, 2012 15:24

I had the same problem when I was living in the Fields of the Nehalem.

Be Excellent To Each Other

Laptop Rec-Me-Do
Yes another one.

Who is online

Be Excellent To Each Other

Laptop Rec-Me-Do Yes another one.

Who is online

Laptop Rec-Me-Do
Yes another one.