Buying a laptop

My budget is like $1000, im preferring it be around like $700. With that much, is it possible to get a good enough laptop to be able play games like oblivion/fallout 3? If not, what brand should I get? the Acer? I dont have much experience with specs.

let's see...

with your current budget, i think you can get a pretty decent (or even better) laptop if you're going for the newer models...

Acer is fine... HP or apple can too...

as for the specs.
> 2 gigs of memory (ram) w/ 2 - 2.2 ghz
> intel P4 core 2 duo
> 10/100 ethernet capabilities (for wireless internet, LAN)
> vista or XP (sp1/sp3)
> hardisk (it's up to you preferably about 150gig)
> for gaming, the graphics card... maybe a 511MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS w/ direct X10 capabilities. you can still find better GC than this btw.

*these are just suggestions mate...

ACERs are bad, bad, bad avoid them like the plague.
The new model HP, Compaq models are fairly respectable and haven't seen them any come back faulty.
Have a look at the Dell XPS 1330.
They'll 'Run' games but you'll have to sacrifice a fair amount of detail depending on how old a game is.
Otherwise you'd be looking into the extremely expensive gaming desktop replacements.
If you don't require portability splash that money out on a desktop to play games on, or save a bit more so you get something decent instead of a half-baked solution.

There's a deal on TigerDirect.com right now for a "Refurbished" Gateway Laptop for around $500-700. It has a 2.4Ghz Dual Core and 4Gb, along with 256mb of Dedicated Video Memory(Don't be mistaken when you see a laptop with 837mb of Video Memory, that's an integrated Video Card, sharing Ram with your motherboard, those cards are usually ungodly useless for games).

I'd go with Lenovo since they have cheap laptops with great processors!
I would recommend the

Lenovo IdeaPad U330 - 22672DU



And also

Thinkpad T500 with discrete graphics ( that what it says on the website )



I also Like Dell,Hp and Asus

First of all, I don't believe lenovo has ever been cheep, though they do provide good value for money (durability,quality, and support).
Second, then the first lenovo suggested, the U330, is a subnotebook with a 13 inch screen, which is not large enough for gaming by normal standards.
Third, then your third suggestion, the T500 is actually in most configurations not nearly as good a purchase (in terms of power/money ratio) as the model it's suppose to replace, the T61p

I know this since I recently bought a new laptop, and I ended up buying a T61p, even though the model have already been replaced by the T500

Hehe sorry i didn't read the gaming part of the request. only the i need a new laptop part and 700-1000$ and both of the laptops were only 700 - 1000$ well on their website at least.
Well anyways here's another laptop.

Gateway FX P-7805u

Short Review from Cnet

I see tree keywords here: quality, screen, and weight.
Looking at the general laptop it is clear that they have tried to sell it on the "key hardware", meaning the spec. most people read and (kind of) understand. So I would never buy it on account of not trusting it to last for very long..
The screen is, as also mentioned in the small review you included, sub standard for, well... basically any 17" laptop. 1440x1050 is only okay if the screen is 15" or smaller, and this is also a major reason they can keep the price down, since the screen is, in most cases, the most expensive piece of hardware in a laptop.
finally I want to address the weight. I know this should not be important if you want a gaming rig, but 9 lbs is still allot to carry around...

But besides these very serious flaws, the laptop does have some very nice spec. and using an external screen I could see myself play a game or two on it :)

Sorry but can't think of a lot of more gaming laptops that are around or under 1000$ but anyways here's another one
[Note] Small screen for a gaming Laptop 14.8 inches but only about 800$ though
Asus G50VT-X5

Short review by Cnet.


if you want to find more laptops i would suggest going on cnet.com they have lots of reviews on laptops and pc's there.

You just don't give up with the suggestions.. :)

As you state your self, the screen is a bit on the small side, and I can see that the weight is quite high, especially considering the small laptop it is. But otherwise it seems like a really nice laptop and bluetooth seems to be includedd in most cases, contrary to what your outtake of the cnet.com review states.
So nice find :D

Awesome suggestions, im gonna see if any stores personally nearby stock those this weekend. Technically, I dont really mind the small screen(unless its diminutive). What I was looking for is if they can handle the load of those new games relatively well.

I have not played fallout 3, but Oblivion does not need the very best and newest graphics card to look nice, so I believe that any of the suggested laptops in this thread would be able to handle Oblivion satisfactory :)

[size=10]I'd say go with this suggestion. Can't go wrong with 2gb of ram and a dual core 2.2ghz. It'll be good for running games too. And I doubt you will have any problems with it.
You could get something like that for maybe... £400 - £600. That's in pounds though. I'm guessing that's about $800?[/h]

Actually you can go wrong with 2gb of ram!... the processor suggested is 64-bit, and if you install Vista 64-bit version, then I would say it is not nearly enough! (some people would say pick XP then, but there are almost no drivers for XP 64-bit).
The processor does not matter all that much either (just dont get a celeron) when playing games, it is mostly just about a good graphics card.

Rawr, I went window shopping this week. I have a few questions and in need of enlightenment. I'm gonna buy one tomorrow with a high chance(95%). I r in Canada.

My current choice the Compaq CQ60-404CA. This is pretty close
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/en/ho/WF06b/321957-321957-3329742-89318-89318-3944778-3983112.html
It has Nvidia Geforce 8200 G, and a 5.6" AMD Athlon x2 QL-64 Dual Core, and I dont know what DAC TYPE: Integrated Ram Doc something. About $479.99 cad with only the laptop+Windows Vista. Is this a good choice?(And technically able to handle fallout 3/oblivion "well"?)


Now when I was looking around, my non-savvy self noticed a few things.
1. Alot of the laptops I saw were packing Intel Graphics Media Accelerator(GMA) 4500mhd's. Good?
2. Ati Radeon Hd 3200 graphics. Good?
3. Mobile Nvidia Geforce 8200m. A difference?
4. #gb DDR2 Memory. DDR2?

Okay. Starting off with the laptop you linked to, there are 3 major drawbacks:
1. 5400 rpm harddrive = slow laptop, always go for a 7200 rpm harddrive, atleast if it is your primary, if it is only an external for backup it might be okay with a slower hd if you need a lot of space and don't have the money to pay for it.
2. 1366 x 768 screen... my laptop old laptop is 5+ years old and has a better screen than this (it is also a 15")! the screen is one of the things that really cost money, but don't settle for something you can find on a fancy mobile phone (have actually seen a new model with better screen than this..) you will regret if you settle for a low resolution on a 15" screen.
3. the weight is almost 3 kg. This may not seem like much, after all 3 kg is easy to carry... WRONG! as soon as a laptop goes above 2 kg it will start to feel quite heavy to carry around often, and at the same time, unless the laptop is a monster desktop replacement, then a laptop above 2 kg usually signals poor quality.

I could comment more, but I will leave it at these 3 points, since if any one of these 3 points were present in a laptop, I would never concider buying it.





for any gaming, stay away from 1. 2 & 3 can be used for older games, though they are not that good since they are integrated graphics cards, and therefore not never good for gaming as a rule of thumb. If you can, try to find a laptop with an actual grahics card (and no shared memory!!) since they often perform much better.
Regarding DDR2, I won't get into unneccecarry details, you just need to know that RAM goes from SD DDR, DDR, DDR2, DDR3, DDR4, where SD DDR is slowest/oldest and DDR4 is newest and not on the marked yet. You should also keep an eye on the frequency the RAM is clocked with, since it has a high impact on performace (it is not listed in the example you link to, so you can resonally assume it is slow ram)

I believe you could play oblivon on graphics cards 2 & 3, though not on high settings. As I can't see all the spec. for the laptop you link to, it is hard to give a good estimate, but I believe you may even be able to play oblivion with "high" resolution on that laptop because of the small native screen resolution (I am assuming the game will limit options to what the screen can actually show, so normal low/medium becomes high settings)

Hope it helps you in you quest for the perfect gaming mashine for the smallest amount of money possible :)

Thanks for the info jenslyn, informative. The one I saw was probably better but that one is actually the first link on google. The weight itself is of no consequence but 1 and 2 sounds bad. I plan for this laptop to be a primary so I'll definately need to check its RPM. As for the screen quality, ill wing it.

As for the RPM, is there anything above 5400 and between 7200 is "Ok"?

Hi Vinned
The RPM on harddrives are fairly standardized: 4200,5400,7200,10000, and 15000 RPM. Where the last two are mainly used in high performance systems.
So I am really only suggesting 7200 RPM, since the options below will make the laptop very slow, and the faster ones are really exspensive (and I am unsure if you can even get a laptop version)

So I got the Compaq. Ive been messing what i can run courtesy of www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest. It can "fully" not tested run oblivion on min and requirements and fallout 3 in min. But theres something odd, when I go to Recommended, it says the Recommended is Intel Core 2 Duo Processor and I have a AMD Athalon Dual Core QL-64(For fallout 3). I guess its just the power of the intel that makes a difference?