Looking to buy a laptop

[Ohemgee]

Within the $700-900 range at Best Buy ($100 in gift cards).

Just opened my ad papers today and was flipping through and saw this:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 7074865198

But I was talking to someone about AMD processors and they said for the deal I'm getting, its well worth it, but AMD is a hassle at times.


Basically I want it for school and FFXI/Oblivion/World in Conflict. I'll have my desktop for my music and what not. Good deal?

If theres any cheaper laptops that are marginally the same, please link it.


And yes I considered an Apple, but Apple doesn't agree with what I want.

edit: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... ductdetail

Found a sexier one

[Melena]

shared memory is going to bite for any sort of gaming. It may cost a bit more, but look for a model that has dedicated memory (if it says up to x mb of video memory, it means it's shared), your game performance will thank you for it.

[viperlasson]

Check the laptop's video card.

NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M (UMA)

It will play FFXI, but will struggle with oblivion and WiC. That card is pretty weak.

[Ohemgee]

I really don't mind downgrading my graphics for it. Mainly using it for school, games are always a second choice. But I can see what you mean for WiC.


Now that I think of it. I'll just keep WiC on my desktop. Biggest distraction ever.

and Oblivion

[viperlasson]

Yeah I would keep those games on the desktop and use the lappy for mobile ffxi :D ...and schoolwork

The 2nd HP's cover looks really cool btw.

[Elesirdur]

Whatever you end up buying spend an hour or two once you get it home and remove all the stupid and useless software the comes pre-installed on laptops and desktops these days from the manufacturer. Do you really need HP's proprietary software suite to download photos from your camera when Windows has that feature built-in? Hell no.

Lenovo's are about the only laptops I know that don't come crammed with all sorts of shit, and you can get them with XP instead of Vista. However, Lenovo's aren't exactly nice looking, they're not all that great for games (since they are designed for business consumers), but they are nigh-indestructible.

[fantasticdan]

Whatever you end up buying spend an hour or two once you get it home and remove all the stupid and useless software the comes pre-installed on laptops and desktops these days from the manufacturer. Do you really need HP's proprietary software suite to download photos from your camera when Windows has that feature built-in? Hell no.

Lenovo's are about the only laptops I know that don't come crammed with all sorts of shit, and you can get them with XP instead of Vista. However, Lenovo's aren't exactly nice looking, they're not all that great for games (since they are designed for business consumers), but they are nigh-indestructible.

Lenovo t61p is pretty solid for gaming (core 2 duo, nvidia quadro 570m 256MB), it's what I have. If you sign in with a CPP code, and use a 10% coupon code, you can end up getting 35% off most lenovo laptops, which ended up being over $700 off when I bought mine.

I like the design a lot thou, just simple, black, professional looking. Keyboard is nicer the most laptops too.

[Elesirdur]

Keyboard is nicer the most laptops too.

QTF Lenovo's have the nicest keyboards of any laptop I've ever used. I absolutely despise the keyboards on MacBooks, although the Pro models are acceptable.

[Day]

Whatever you end up buying spend an hour or two once you get it home and remove all the stupid and useless software the comes pre-installed on laptops and desktops these days from the manufacturer. Do you really need HP's proprietary software suite to download photos from your camera when Windows has that feature built-in? Hell no.

Couldn't possibly quote for more truth. When we get new Dell's in, the first thing we do is reformat -> reinstall the OS only. I can't believe how much useless preloaded shit comes on these machines... there's actually a free program out there called "Dell De-crappifier" that uninstalls all the garbage if you don't want to reformat. (Just using Dell as an example as thats what we use @ work)