The Laptop Guide - Post here for questions, deals, etc.

[Royal]

It also got 8343 or something on the ffxi benchmark if that helps anyone out.

[mootsfox]

It also got 8343 or something on the ffxi benchmark if that helps anyone out.

High or Low? What CPU did you end up getting?

I might have to get me one of these 45nm Intels.

[Stellar]

Took the Toshiba back and ordered the Vostro 1500.. Got it yesterday, but the ram hasn't come in from newegg yet. Even with 1 gig of RAM it performs light years better than the Toshiba.. Glad you made this post.

[wintersquall]

my vostro 1500 (2x2.0G proc, nvidia 8600GT, 250GHD) arrived last friday, and i've been so busy installing and playing WoW, and generally being amazed that i got this kickass laptop for 800 bucks that i forgot to post here and say thanks


vostros kick ass.

[Royal]

It also got 8343 or something on the ffxi benchmark if that helps anyone out.

High or Low? What CPU did you end up getting?

I might have to get me one of these 45nm Intels.

On high settings, and oops i hit the 8, meant a 7, still really awesome though! 2.5ghz.

[Khamsin]

Got my laptop finally, and a new router (DLink DGL-4500).

It was

17" WUXGA display
Intel Core 2 Duo T9300(2.5GHz, 800Mhz, 6M L2 Cache)
4GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8700 GTS
400G (2x200) 7200RPM High Performance SATA HDD Free FallSensor

So far, it's nice but big. If could do it again, I might downsize it. My old laptop I could pick up with one hand and wave around. This thing is like 10 pounds and 2" thick. It's a bit awkward to have in my lap, but I could probably get used to it. Just a little tough to travel with it as much as I could with my old one. Luckily, I don't do gaming much so the battery should last a bit while on the go.

As far as performance, it is nice, though. The screen is bright and the speakers are clear. I don't have any benchmark numbers yet, but I did install FFXI on it (in Vista with an nVidia 8 series card). I didn't check FPS since I didn't get windower set up yet, but I did try it out on it's own and it works fine.

[Raikuken]

Hi first time poster! but i do have experience with laptops and computer game usage!

I currently own a Sager NP5793 which i have bought from http://www.xoticpc.com there is a world outside dell and alienware..

Sager NP5793 Custom Sager Notebook (Built on Clevo M570RU-U / M571RU-U)
- 17" WSXGA+ "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy Screen (1680x1050)
- Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound
- Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- ~Intel® T9300 45nm "Penryn" Core™2 Duo 2.5GHz w/6MB L2 On-die cache - 800MHz FSB
- 512MB PCI-Express nVidia GeForce 8800M GTX DX10 (User Upgradeable)
- ~ SPECIAL~ 4,096MB DDR2 667 PC2 5300 (2 SODIMMS) Dual Channel Memory (Requires Vista 64-Bit to recognize Full 4GB) $75 OFF When Purchased with 8800M GTX
- NP5792/5793 Orange Frame Trim Color
- ~Combo 8x8x6x4x Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW 5x DVD-RAM 24x CD-R/RW Drive w/Softwares
- ~ 200GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache)
- Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader (MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS Pro Duo/SD/Mini-SD/MMC/RS)
- Internal Bluetooth 2.0+ EDR
- Built-in Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965 802.11 a/g/n
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Basic Black Business Case - Included
- Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- Full Range Auto Switching AC Adapter - Included
- Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- ~Windows XP Pro SP2 w/ Drivers, Utilities CD
- 3 Year Labor* 1 Year Parts Warranty Lifetime 24/7 DOMESTIC Toll Free Tech Support
(Extra 2 Year Labor Warranty through Xotic PC)
Sub-Total: $2,534.00

this configuration cost about 300-400 less then an alienware m15x and this is a 17" laptop weight with battery is about 8LBs. a bit smaller and lighter then the M1730.

My current one has all those specs except i chose to get the x9000 and 1920x1200 screen and the cpu is overclockable i get over 9k 3dmark06 score stock drivers and resolution @ 1280x1204
Strong enough to play Crysis at all high settings @1024x768 even @ native resolutions i can still play it comfortably well @ all med settings.

I play ffxi at all high settings and in windows mode (the one built into ffxi) no issues at all. Btw if you need to update the graphic drivers for your laptops ill suggest you check
http://www.laptopvideo2go.com They have the Nvidia driver 174.74 that fixes most of the hanging issues on laptops that run 8X00 series cards. If you are running vista. Please read the instructions carefully how to install the drivers from this site as they do need you to use modded INF files which they supply usually next to the driver you want to install.

Any questions? Let me know ill do my best to help out!

Hope i was some help!

[alt]

Think the deal with Dell ended. Was about to buy one today, but cart doesnt show the $500 discount anymore

Help me out with some other deals here guys!

[Raikuken]

here so you know when they have there specials. http://www.dailyedeals.com/free_online_coupons/dell.htm
and here so you can get an extra 10% off http://eppcoupons.rjk.com/A10/ **valid till april 30**
to work the extra 10% off just make an AOL email or yahoo email and get this discount.
the Discounts DO stack!

[Scorp]

From Dells Small to Medium business deals, Vostro 1700 for £780 inc vat.

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T8100 (2.10 GHz, 3 MB L2 cache, 800 MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows® XP Professional - English
1Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day Included - No Upgrade Selected
17" Wide Screen WXGA+ (1440 x 900) Display with TrueLife™
3072MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (1x1024 + 1x2048 MB)
250GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
256MB nVidia® GeForce® 8600M GT
Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Drive including Software
Primary 6-cell Lithium-Ion Battery (56 WHr)

What I don't get is why they have a distinction between business and home laptops. This is a better deal than i get out of the domestic site and i can pick xp. Are there any requirements that I "should" have to get a vostro rather than XPS etc?

Also, is it realistic to try for a 512MB video card in a laptop for £500-£800 and is 3GB of ram a bit pointless since I'd be more likely to be limited by something else at 2GB.

[Cephius]

Business laptops are the only type that companies could buy when they have an account with Dell that gets them discounts. They tend to be geared towards multitasking capability and no graphics performance. A small/med buisness account will usually get a decent % off laptops, but they're not allowed to buy anything from the home section. So you can expect the business-class laptops to be a bit more expensive.

[sekaran]

Just a heads up. Those who might be purchasing a laptop through Dell's EPP program, there is an additional 10% coupon that can be had here: http://eppcoupons.rjk.com/A10/

Used it for the M1330 I placed an order on.

[The_OG_Nelta]

Has anyone heard anything about the Sony Vaio's? I hear they die after about a year ._. true? cause i'm thinking about getting one, either that or HP Pavillion. I haven't seen anything Dell that has caught my eye, i'm looking for school/torrent/gaming laptop, a little bit of everything that can handle all that

[Cephius]

Best Buy seems to be having a blow out on their laptops, I'm guessing Dell is unloading laptops on them to make room for their new line. A lot of these laptops are several hundred dollars off normal prices on dell.com, certainly worth looking at.

check it out here

[Khamsin]

Has anyone heard anything about the Sony Vaio's? I hear they die after about a year ._. true? cause i'm thinking about getting one, either that or HP Pavillion. I haven't seen anything Dell that has caught my eye, i'm looking for school/torrent/gaming laptop, a little bit of everything that can handle all that

My old laptop was a Sony VAIO. It went 4 years before anything went wrong, and that was the fan dying. I had the fan replaced for $250, and it's just fine now. Although it was a sign that it was time to get a new laptop...

[Boyiee]

I'm looking for something to play wow on, bring to school, and bring to work... probably a desktop replacement.

I was looking at Macbook pro's, and am looking to spend up to 2500$ I think.

That sager link in the first post looks great, but i'm really wondering how well the macbook pros run, and how well they run WoW with addons and such. I get alot of praise from my friends about how great the macbook pros are, but they arent as customizable, and Im afraid to get a vista setup (which the sager offers). It's hard to stick with XP without going dell/alienware which I dont want to do.

Is the 4gb ram with vista deal on sager good? Cause I always felt so slow with 2gb on vista...

[Cephius]

I'm looking for something to play wow on, bring to school, and bring to work... probably a desktop replacement.

I was looking at Macbook pro's, and am looking to spend up to 2500$ I think.

That sager link in the first post looks great, but i'm really wondering how well the macbook pros run, and how well they run WoW with addons and such. I get alot of praise from my friends about how great the macbook pros are, but they arent as customizable, and Im afraid to get a vista setup (which the sager offers). It's hard to stick with XP without going dell/alienware which I dont want to do.

Is the 4gb ram with vista deal on sager good? Cause I always felt so slow with 2gb on vista...

Macbooks are fine, but a bit overpriced.

2GB should be more than enough for Vista, if you still get slowdown just disable some of the extra Vista features like Drive Indexing, Superfetch, ect. Vista won't recognize 4GB ram unless you get a 64-bit version, so you should probably just go with 2gb/32bit anyway.

[Boyiee]

Well the sager has an offer of 4gb when you get 64bit so thats why I was wondering about it. Macbooks only seem a little overpriced, it seems you get jipped on the gfx card, which is why im wondering how well they actually do run games.

[Mayareira]

I'm looking for something to play wow on, bring to school, and bring to work... probably a desktop replacement.

I was looking at Macbook pro's, and am looking to spend up to 2500$ I think.

That sager link in the first post looks great, but i'm really wondering how well the macbook pros run, and how well they run WoW with addons and such. I get alot of praise from my friends about how great the macbook pros are, but they arent as customizable, and Im afraid to get a vista setup (which the sager offers). It's hard to stick with XP without going dell/alienware which I dont want to do.

Is the 4gb ram with vista deal on sager good? Cause I always felt so slow with 2gb on vista...

My macbook pro (2 generations(1.5 years) old), cheapest model runs WoW(and many other games like Civilization, Age of Empires, X3) at max. settings along with crapload of applications running at the same time. I've also got XP installed via bootcamp and able to run FFXI at max. settings again.

[Osede]

I have a question for those who bought dell vostro. Do you have them send it directly to you, but under your working company's name and telephone? Or send to the place where you guys work?


I'm thinking to buy it, but I am thinking that asking my friend who is work in some company to help me buy it, or I'm gonna to ask my professor to see if he can assist me so that I buy it under the name of the university (sincee I will be RA in a few weeks).