I have a pretty good idea of what I want but really haven’t been following notebook technology until I started to think about purchasing one. I worry that I’m missing something glaringly obvious to most everyone else so a few questions are in order to set my mind at ease.
1. Are Intel or AMD CPU’s the thing to go for in a notebook? I was thinking of one of the Athlon 64 models but there seems to be so many more options available if I go with an Intel notebook. How does performance compare?
2. Should I look for Nvidia or ATI graphics? From the brief research I’ve done, it seems that the Radeon Mobility 9700 is the fastest one that is widely available. I haven’t been able to find any X800 or 6800 models despite having read reviews of them to prove of their existence.
3. What is a good resolution? Commonly available seems to be the SVGA(+) option and that is what the notebook I was thinking of getting has. Is that an adequate option for gaming and movies?
My budget is about $2000 so cannot afford an alienware notebook that meets my specifications. Nor are any of the commercial brand names such as Dell/Gateway within my budget/specifications.
The notebook that caught my eye is the Asus Z80K which is typically a barebones notebook but I found one vendor that allows customization of CPU/HDD/Memory and will build it for you.
4. Finally, I was hoping to use part of the $2000 on a few upgrades for my desktop machine including a new CPU and graphics card (so that might really limit the notebook budget to about $1600). A question about the graphics card: What feature do I need to play DVD’s and .avi files from media player to my television?
1. Are Intel or AMD CPU’s the thing to go for in a notebook? I was thinking of one of the Athlon 64 models but there seems to be so many more options available if I go with an Intel notebook. How does performance compare?
2. Should I look for Nvidia or ATI graphics? From the brief research I’ve done, it seems that the Radeon Mobility 9700 is the fastest one that is widely available. I haven’t been able to find any X800 or 6800 models despite having read reviews of them to prove of their existence.
3. What is a good resolution? Commonly available seems to be the SVGA(+) option and that is what the notebook I was thinking of getting has. Is that an adequate option for gaming and movies?
My budget is about $2000 so cannot afford an alienware notebook that meets my specifications. Nor are any of the commercial brand names such as Dell/Gateway within my budget/specifications.
The notebook that caught my eye is the Asus Z80K which is typically a barebones notebook but I found one vendor that allows customization of CPU/HDD/Memory and will build it for you.
4. Finally, I was hoping to use part of the $2000 on a few upgrades for my desktop machine including a new CPU and graphics card (so that might really limit the notebook budget to about $1600). A question about the graphics card: What feature do I need to play DVD’s and .avi files from media player to my television?