BF2S Forums [LAPTOP] Help me find the best deal.

Get a DELL preinstalled with Unbuntu 

I recommend that you take a look at the HP DV range, in particular, the DV6000. It is a little more expensive than your budget, but I can personally say that it is an absolutely brilliant laptop! Despite its 7400GO card, it can still play Half-Life 2 on high settings etc., and of course, a beautiful widescreen monitor. My only personal gripe about it is that the resolution is only 1280x800.

Edit: it looks like HP have discontinued it but you can still pick them up at some places Its 15.4" widescreen monitor is of perfect size. I thought it might be a bit too small but I actually prefer it to my 17" desktop (hence the due upgrade!)

Last edited by leetkyle (2007-07-19 02:11:31)

theDude5B wrote:

what about this ACER laptop from PCWorld.co.uk

Main Features:

AMD Mobile Turion 64 X2 Dual Core TL-52
1600MHz HyperTransport
512KB Cache
2GB RAM
160GB Hard Drive
DVD ReWriter MultiDrive
17" Widescreen Display
Genuine MS Windows Vista Premium
256MB nVidia Geforce Go 7300 Graphics <-- this any good then?

7300 sucks. Try getting atleast a 7600 GO. The 160 gb HDD will do you good, and the 17" screen is one of the biggest on a laptops right now.

ok, this took up about 15 mins of my time, but I think I got ya one.

here.

If that doesn't work, then here's the specs for £737.74

BASE    Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5250 Processor (1.5GHz,667MHz,2MB L2 cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM    Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium - English   
COLOUR CHOICE    Jet Black Colour with Matte Finish & Integrated 2.0 mega pixel web camera    <-- you can change it if you want lol
LCD    17.0" Widescreen WXGA+ (1440x900) TFT Display   
MEMORY    1024MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x512]   
HARD DRIVE    160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive    edit
GRAPHICS CARD    nVidia® GeForce™ Go 8600M GT with 256MB DDR2 dedicated graphic memory   
OPTICAL DRIVE    Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software   
PRIMARY BATTERY    Primary 9-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (85 WHr)

thoughts?


edit: link is the "configure your system" page. I chose the cheapest except the graphics

Last edited by [E.F.L]Airwolf (2007-07-19 05:32:13)

Alienware has some good laptops.

It's about 1200$ USD I think (without looking), not sure how much that is for you.

=Karma-Kills= wrote:

Anyone know the performance of a 8600M GT (say compared to a 7600 Go)?

Much better.

7600Go vs. 8600m GT

3DMark06 Scores
7600 - Roughly 1900
8600 - Rougly 3566

@OP
What kind of notebook are you looking for? Somewhat portable? Or is this going to be plugged in most of the time. The most common screen sizes are 14", 15.4, 17"; any more or less than that, you might be paying a little more than you might want. If you're planning on carrying it around a lot, look for 14-15.4" or less; 17" is a little big to carry around constantly.

The graphics card that's integrated into the specs you noted isn't actually half bad, but it all depends on the games you're going to be playing.

Dell - Inspiron lineup has some decent stuff. The 1520 has an option for the 8600m GT, which is a fairly decent graphics card. Or you can take a look at the XPS M1330, might be a little pricey, but it looks quite nice, (I think it has a full sized keyboard), 13.3" screen, and an option for a dedicated GPU. But it can only fit a 8400m GS which performs, from what I've heard, at the level of the X1400/7400 Go. I don't know if there are Dell Coupons in the UK, but if there are use them.

Asus - Ships worldwide. Almost always has decent build quality and aesthetics. They've got an extensive lineup of very nice notebooks. I don't know any dealers situated in the UK, but you can go to their site (www.asus.com) and click on the "Where To Buy" tab on the UK site. The G1S is wildly popular among consumers; it's got very good gaming capacity, but IMO waaay too flashy. (I don't know if it's going to be in your price range though.)

Zepto - Currently the only notebook dealer that arranges a 14" notebook with a 8600m GT. <--- If you plan to somewhat game. I think they only ship to European countries, so you're good.

Here's one suggestion:
Dell Vostro 1500
(I'm thinking that the Vostro is just a Inspiron painted Black, but it usually comes out cheaper with the same specs, might want to check it out.)

BASE    Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7300 Processor (2.0GHz,800MHz,4MB L2 cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM    Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Basic - English
HARDWARE SUPPORT     3 Year Business Hardware Support - Next Business Day
LCD    15.4" Wide Screen WXGA+ (1440 x 900) Display with TrueLife™
INTEGRATED WEBCAM    Matte Jet Black without Camera
MEMORY    1024MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x512]
HARD DRIVE    120GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
GRAPHICS CARD    256 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT
OPTICAL DRIVE    Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive
PRIMARY BATTERY    Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr)

Total - £688.00    Ex. VAT & Shipping

Last note: Don't get RAM upgrades from Dell, just get the lowest option possible and buy your own, should come out cheaper. RAM is simple to upgrade in notebooks. Vostro upgrade to 2G of RAM - £95.00 This - £57.56