I'm looking to buy a laptop soon to use for developing when away from home and general games use. What's a good one people can recommend for under £500? Is it possible to get one with a 3D chipset for that price, such as nvidia or ATI? I'm not after playing crysis, but COD4 would be nice.
Recommend a good laptop?
Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/Recommend a good laptop? This one has impressive specs for its price (£249):
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&id=vostronb_1310&l=en&s=bsd
And you can customize with better gfx card and other things and have an awesome machine for less than those £500 :)
http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukbsdt1&id=vostronb_1310&l=en&s=bsd
And you can customize with better gfx card and other things and have an awesome machine for less than those £500 :)
Get a Lenovo. All their laptops are great, like the R series.
I doubt you will be able to get one that runs COD4 at or under £500 though.
I doubt you will be able to get one that runs COD4 at or under £500 though.
What Plash said.
The only good laptop in the world is Alienware m17x ( http://www.alienware.com/products/notebook-computers.aspx ).
I have only a Lenovo Thinkpad T61p and Asus G2S, but I would buy that Alienware as my next laptop.
I have only a Lenovo Thinkpad T61p and Asus G2S, but I would buy that Alienware as my next laptop.
The only good laptop in the world is Alienware m17x
You've visited earth recently? You've visited earth recently?
lol
Lumooja: What is considered a "good laptop" actually varies greatly depending on your preferences.
Most people prefer laptops to be easily portable, comfortably usable on the lap (good cooling system), silent, and a long battery life. The Alienware m17x is over twice as heavy as my current laptop, for example, so if you're like me, it wouldn't even remotely come close to a "good laptop" - at most it's a fairly movable desktop gaming rig. I'd imagine it gets quite hot and has a horrible battery life too.
andy_mc: For that price, don't expect to get an amazing laptop, but I'd also recommend a Lenovo if you can get one, although be warned that their older models [like the T61 / R61] have notoriously dim and washed out screens. If you're looking for something ultra-light (without sacrificing CPU power), take a look at the Sony Vaio SR or SZ, although they're probably way over your budget in your country.
But regarding laptops in general, I would recommend against buying a laptop for anything by light gaming. Laptops are inherently a bad choice for gaming because you're bound to run into many issues when you put so much power in such a small box - cooling will suffer, battery life will suffer, weight will be far beyond the "portable" threshold, etc., etc. In addition to that, laptops aren't nearly as upgradable (if at all) as desktops, so don't expect your brand new gaming laptop to be able to play any new games after a year or two.
Instead remember that a good laptop is portable above all (otherwise, just buy a desktop), while hopefully not sacrificing too much performance. My Sony Vaio SZ for example is extremely light compared to most laptops (even similar sized ones) at 4.0 pounds, is almost always is cool to the touch (anywhere), can be used on non-air-circulating surfaces like pillows without CPU core temps raising more than 1 degree, virtually silent, gets 5-6 hours battery life, etc., and yet is 2-4x faster than my desktop.
I don't understand why people want smaller than 17" laptops, and then they go to gym every week. With a good and heavy 17" laptop, you can do exercises all day long, and could eventually skip the gym every 2nd or 3rd week.
The Alienware m15x is much lighter than the m17x (but still has the 8800 GTX card), but the screen is also much smaller, so modern games (FlashPoint 2) which support only CinemaScope (2.35:1), will look quite small on the 15" screen. And all LCD manufacturers are still producing outdated 16:10 (or 16:9) LCDs at best. Nobody has made 47:20 (=2.35:1) LCDs yet.
It's actually amazing how much that screen aspect ratio plays a role in realism. With a 4:3 screen it feels like you're watching a TV soap opera, and with 2.35:1 it feels that you're watching a Hollywood or even Lucasfilm movie. Ratio matters.
The Alienware m15x is much lighter than the m17x (but still has the 8800 GTX card), but the screen is also much smaller, so modern games (FlashPoint 2) which support only CinemaScope (2.35:1), will look quite small on the 15" screen. And all LCD manufacturers are still producing outdated 16:10 (or 16:9) LCDs at best. Nobody has made 47:20 (=2.35:1) LCDs yet.
It's actually amazing how much that screen aspect ratio plays a role in realism. With a 4:3 screen it feels like you're watching a TV soap opera, and with 2.35:1 it feels that you're watching a Hollywood or even Lucasfilm movie. Ratio matters.
I don't understand why people want smaller than 17" laptops, and then they go to gym every week. With a good and heavy 17" laptop, you can do exercises all day long, and could eventually skip the gym every 2nd or 3rd week.
I think that thought-train of yours is on a one way track to the funny farm... The only good laptop in the world is Alienware m17x
Particularly if you only need about 40 minutes of battery life, don't mind a Power Brick, that is literally a brick, and can give you 1st degree burns if you're not careful, don't mind a laptop that sounds like a small jet, and enjoy cleaning out crud every other week, because the seven or so fans needed to keep it cool, will suck in any dust (and small animals) in the room.Alienware suck.
I don't understand why people want smaller than 17" laptops, and then they go to gym every week. With a good and heavy 17" laptop, you can do exercises all day long, and could eventually skip the gym every 2nd or 3rd week.
The answer is simple, small laptops are sexy and there are lots of sexy people in the gym. :)
You can buy good gaming laptops from Novatech ... for £1200 you can get laptop with Nvidia 8800M card ... if I had known about them I could have bought my laptop from them instead of spending £1000 on a Sony Vaio.
You can buy good gaming laptops from Novatech ... for £1200 you can get laptop with Nvidia 8800M card ... if I had known about them I could have bought my laptop from them instead of spending £1000 on a Sony Vaio.
if you only need about 40 minutes of battery life, don't mind a Power Brick, that is literally a brick, and can give you 1st degree burns if you're not careful, don't mind a laptop that sounds like a small jet, and enjoy cleaning out crud every other week, because the seven or so fans needed to keep it cool, will suck in any dust (and small animals) in the room.
When will people learn that laptops aren't meant for gaming? I guess they'll have to buy one and find out the hard way, like I did. Believe me, everything FlameDuck said about big gaming laptops is 100% true, except the part about sucking small animals into the fans :)
BTW, I wouldn't recommend any Sony laptop 14" and above. Their only high quality laptops are the 13" models and below.