BF2S Forums Need a laptop...

I must point out the obvious, getting ~1k$ desktop + $800 laptop is your way to go. Or even 1.3k$ desktop + $500 lenovo laptop.

GC_PaNzerFIN wrote:

I must point out the obvious, getting ~1k$ desktop + $800 laptop is your way to go. Or even 1.3k$ desktop + $500 lenovo laptop.

Having bought a laptop and used it for over an year now, I do regret not going this route. For the most part, having a notebook for classes is largely useless for most of my classes, I find that pencil/pen and paper do a much better job, though a laptop does help in taking some notes. Still, I feel like I would've been better off with making a desktop PC for about ~1000 and spending the rest on a netbook for classes or whatnot.

I haven't been in the loop in terms of notebooks for a while now so I'm afraid I can't help with some of your questions, but if you're set on getting a lappy only, here's the advice I can offer:

1. Not sure, but I'd go with the amount of processing power that you'll need. Laptops are mostly about portability to me, so I'd go with a dual core simply because the quad core will shorten the amount of battery I can squeeze out (I assume). However, if you feel like you'll need your notebook for some intensive stuff, I suppose you should opt for the quadcore since 1. they'll still be viable/decent even after a few years (though the same holds for dual cores probably) 2. quad cores should probably be all the power you'll need on a processor anyway.

2. This I have no clue on, sorry.

3. AFAIK, DDR3 isn't very widespread amongst laptops (though the last I checked was over 6 months ago so this is probably outdated), but when it first came out, I remember that it wasn't a very significant improvement. I'd go with what's cheaper, though I get the feeling that if you go i7 or whatnot, you'll probably have to go DDR3 anyway.

4. Again, being out of the loop, I'm not too sure about this, but try looking at this thread or this one. They list the current graphics processors from weakest to most powerful (ATI and nVidia respectively). If you want to play those games, you'll most likely have to choose from at the very least the mid-range stuff. You're probably better off with at least the performance - high end graphics if you want to be sure though.

5. Last I checked, ATI and nVidia were roughly on the same level. In some cases, one will beat out the other. Apparently, the GPU (ATI) in my notebook beats out the alternative by very little. The difference in performance was so similar though that it didn't really matter.

6. The difference between 4500 to 5400 rpm is very very significant. 5400 to 7200 is less so, but you will probably still see a difference. However, it all depends on whether you feel the extra money you spend will be worth it. You will lose battery life, but not such a significant amount from the upgrade. I've read that a high capacity 5400 rpm hard drive will perform similar to some 7200 rpm drives due to something about density, but I'm a little fuzzy on that. All in all, if the price is reasonably low, I'd probably go for the upgrade.

7. Lenovo has very reputable build quality, though I don't know about their customer service. But their build is very, very good and solid. I know that Dell and HP get a lot of shit for their customer service, but I've heard a lot of good things about HP's business line and the customer service for that. Dunno about Dell though. Probably not too great, you'll have to check up on that. I've avoided Acer for the most part since I don't like the look of their notebooks, so I can't say anything there since I've never done any research on them. Asus seems to have a lot of resellers that are quite nice to work with from what I've read about other people's experience. I also believe that they have default 2 years or warranty or something which is nice since most companies have it at 1 year default. (Might want to make sure about this, not sure anymore lol ). Not sure about Sager either, I haven't really considered buying one since they are a bit out of my price range lol. But from what I've picked up, their build is quite good and the customer service seems to be so also.

8. I'm not too sure about this. I bought my notebook from Newegg because it was on sale (prototype-ish model lol) and I've never contacted Sony yet so I can't quite say it's better to buy direct. But in my case, I bought mine cheaper than if I would've ordered the same spec from Sony directly. Asus notebooks are most often bought from third party resellers AFAIK, but they seem to have good service so that's not real bad. I would definitely research both options then go for the one that would be cheaper. But do check out the reseller, I'm sure there are quite a few shady ones out there.

9. Look into RAM/Hard Drive upgrades. If you do buy from a manufacturer, the prices they charge for a RAM or Hard Drive upgrades are sometimes if not always pricer than if you were to buy your own from say Newegg and install it yourself. But sometimes it'll void the warranty so check if you can swap them out yourself, look at the price for the upgrades and the kit separately and Newegg and decide from there what you'll do. For instance, my notebook came default with 2GB of RAM and the upgrade to 4GB would have cost ~75+ from Sony, but I bought a 2x2GB RAM kit from Newegg for less than $40 and replacing the RAM took like 5 minutes.

10. Weight and size are more or less a personal choice. Go to a Best Buy or something and compare the sizes and weights there. Most laptops, even 17"+ notebooks are still easily portable. I have a ~4 pound laptop at 13.3", and its really easy to carry around. But if you feel you could carry around larger notebooks too, you can go ahead with that. I for one though, appreciate the couple of pounds that are shaved off by carrying a smaller laptop. However, with that said, my roommate's 15.4" notebook at ~6 pounds isn't much harder to carry around either. However, given that you want to play more recent games, you'll probably go for a notebook around the 14-17" range since those are the ones with better graphics.

GC_PaNzerFIN wrote:

I must point out the obvious, getting ~1k$ desktop + $800 laptop is your way to go. Or even 1.3k$ desktop + $500 lenovo laptop.

Bertster7 wrote:

A gaming laptop is rarely a good idea. You want a gaming desktop and a normal laptop. Fortunately for that budget you could comfortably get both.

That's what I'd do.

This

I've flown several times with fully assembled PCs. As long as it's small enough so you can take it into the cabin with you there's no problem.

If it's too large to carry-on, just put it in a suitcase. Use towels for padding. Remove the heatsink if it's huge.

Or you can just Fed-Ex it ...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a … _-34115539

Except that they sold out...

Uhh to be honest, I don't think you will enjoy lugging around a heavy ass Sager notebook around and across campus. I had a friend bring his Sager 17 inch during the first semester of University last year and by the beginning of the second he bought himself a Asus netbook.

Not to mention your battery life will be absolute shit if you are away from a plug in...and believe me, finding an electrical wall outlet that is unoccupied in or out of a lecture hall are near impossible at times.

Thanks to both of you.

Can anyone elaborate further on the transportation? I'm getting tempted by this idea, but I want to be sure I won't be annoyed at my decision.

To add to my question about the elaboration, are there any ATX cases which are more conducive to traveling or shipping ease?

Also, to add to this, I scoped out a desktop near what I would get if I did go the desktop route. The parts are as follows:

Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD3R
Intel Core i7 920
Arctic CoolingFreezer 7 Pro (I heard this worked for LGA1366; if not, please recommend another cooler/tell me if the Intel stock cooler doesn't suck completely like the E6xxx series' did).
3GB Patriot DDR3 1066 tri-channel
Evga GTX 260 Core 216 (non-negotiable; I'll only buy Evga cards after they gifted me my 8800 GTS 512)
Seasonic S12 SS-550HT
Samsung SpinPoint 500GB
Samsung DVD burner (no need for Bluray)
ThermalTake Tsunami (very open to suggestions here, just chose it because it was top rated and didn't look too ostentatious; Wallpaper, your's were noted)

How does that look?

Maybe up it to 6GB? 4 is pretty much the standard minimum now, even my laptop has it.

After reading around on other forums, and hearing other kids in college say they should have gone the nice desktop + cheap laptop route, I'm about 90% leaning in that direction. Before I make any decision, though, I would really appreciate learning exactly how to travel with it, and suggestions for a non lanbox case that I would be able to take on an airplane. I'm not really liking the idea of paying $40 each way to take it home in the summer (as it would cost through Fed Ex/UPS, but I also dislike the look of a lanbox, and don't really want to complicate building my computer by using one. Thusly, a normal case conducive to traveling would be nice.

Additionally, I am going to get DDR3 if I do use this solution, as DDR3 is a decent idea with Core i7 (although a waste with any Core 2 system, I've been told.) Does the DDR3 speed matter - that is, will I see a difference between 1066, 1333, and 1600 Mhz?

not an expert here but shuttle pc are designed for portability.  You can get barebones one's too and customise.

shuttle: http://eu.shuttle.com/en/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid-2/

barebone shuttle (uk site though) http://www.ebuyer.com/store/Components/cat/Barebones

I think bradth3dork has one he carries from switz to US and back.

Last edited by m3thod (2009-07-28 03:04:29)