Looking for mid-range laptop

[Moebius078]

Hi all,

I'm going to do a 4 month exchange to Queen's University in Canada and, therefore, I will need to buy a laptop. There are basically two option for the use of this laptop: gaming laptop or regular one.

1) Gaming:
If I can find a decent gaming laptop, the budget will be around 1000€ or 1500 CAD. By this, I mean a laptop with a video card that is comparable to my x1900xt 256MB and a fast processor (Core 2 duo, say 2Ghz).

2) Regular:
I will mainly use the laptop for ms office, browsing the web and playing movies and music. Therefore, a basic laptop will be more than enough and the focus should be on portability and efficiency. (light weight, small case) The budget for this laptop is 600€ or 1000 CAD.

If possible, a cheap laptop that can be used for light gaming would be ideal. (say, 8600GS and Core 2 1.8 Ghz)


I'm not very familiar with laptops, so I would like to ask you to help me by sharing some good websites or recommending a specific model. Below, you can find some additional details.



2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Anything below 17 inch, but preferably less than 15.4 inch, because of portability reasons.

3_What screen resolution do you want?
1280x800 will be enough

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
TF2 (high settings), bf2, Mass Effect, (Empire: Total war?),...

13_What country do you live in?
I'm living in Belgium, but I'm planning to buy the laptop in Ontario, Canada


Many thanks,
Moebius

 

[Moebius078]

I've been surfing the web for some laptops, and these seem pretty good:

1) Gaming
- Dell XPS 1530: T5750, 3GB RAM, 250GB HD and 8600M GT for 1150 CAD or 720 EUR
- HP Pavilion: P7350,4GB RAM, 9600M GT, BD -> 1400 CAD or 875 EUR
- Toshiba Qosmio X300: P7350,4GB RAM, 9800M GS -> 1750 CAD or 1100 EUR
- GatewayM-6864hFX: T5750, 4GB, HD2600 -> 1000 CAD or 625 EUR
- Aspire Gemstone: T5750, 4GB, 9500M GS, BD -> 1000 CAD or 625 EUR
(resolution: 1366 x 768: is this common?)

2) El Cheapo
- Dell Inspiron 1525: T5750, 3GB RAM, 160GB -> 660 CAD (420 EUR)

 

[lostandwandering]

Out of the first list the best two are the Dell XPS and the HP. The HP would be the top pick because it has a CPU from the newest family of Intel mobile CPUs, more RAM and it has a slightly faster graphics card. If you go with the HP make sure it comes with a 64-bit OS otherwise windows won't fully recognize all 4gb of RAM and thus it would be a waste of money.

As for the Resolution, 1366x768 is what 720p HDTVs run when they are used as a computer monitor. So with that resolution you have a lower quality HD res.

 

[Moebius078]

Tnx for the reply. I do wonder whether it is wise to buy a laptop with 3GB of RAM (1x2GB, 1x1GB), as the RAM modules can't run in dual mode. How much performance will be lost?

 

[Maziar]

Almost no performance loss,dual channel wont make a noticeable difference.
Also i vote for XPS M1530 too

 

[Moebius078]

Some more options:

- Acer 5920-6389 Core 2 Duo T5550 GeForce 8600M GS 2GB 160GB 15.4IN WXGA DVDRW Vista Premium Notebook -> 750 CAD (471€)
But is 2 GB RAM enough for Vista?

- Acer Aspire AS5920-6642 Core 2 Duo T5750 GeForce 8600MGS 3GB 250GB 15.4IN WXGA DVDRW Vista Premium -> 888 CAD (560€)

- ASUS M51SN-C1 Core 2 Duo T5750 3GB 250GB 15.4IN WXGA GeForce 9500M 512 Vista Premium BT Notebook -> 1000 CAD (625€)

- ASUS M50VM-A1 Core 2 Duo P8400 4GB 320GB 15.4IN WXGA+ GeForce 9600M GS 1GB Vista Premium BT Notebook -> 1300 CAD (820€)

Also, I had two more questions:
1) a lot of these processors only have 2 MB L2 cache, whereas the desktop variants have 4 MB. How will this effect the performance?
2) How will these systems compare to my current desktop (E6600@3Ghz, 2GB RAM, X1900XT 256MB, P5B)
3) Can I assume that overclocking the CPU is not an option? (heat, battery life,...)

 

[Moebius078]

OK, this is my current short-list:

1) Budget
-------------
Acer 5920-6389 Core 2 Duo T5550 GeForce 8600M GS 2GB 160GB 15.4IN WXGA DVDRW Vista Premium Notebook -> 750 CAD (471€)

2) Mainstream
------------------
Dell XPS M1530: 1149 CAD (720€)
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5750 (2.0GHz/667Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
Genuine Windows® Vista Home Premium Edition SP1
Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch LCD (1280x800) & 2.0 MP Camera
3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms)
250GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GT
8X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Dell Wireless 1505 Wireless-N Mini-card
6 Cell Battery
Integrated Sound Blaster Audigy HD Software Edition

3) Performance
-------------------
ASUS M50VM-A1 Core 2 Duo P8400 4GB 320GB 15.4IN WXGA+ GeForce 9600M GS 1GB Vista Premium BT Notebook -> 1300 CAD (820€)

Which of these do you think offers the best value?

 

[Moebius078]

An addition to the list:

Aspire Gemstone: 1000 CAD (625 EUR)

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0926INGFS10107470&catid=26955&PCName=laptop_800_999&logon=&langid=EN

 

[killernotebooks]

I would go with the #3 Performance option you have listed from ASUS. Seems like a good deal.

Also, I have 2 customers that want to sell a 15.4" & a 17" system so they can get new ones. I thought I would put it out there in case anyone is interested.

Wakazachi SR (1280x800), Core2Duo T7500 2.2 Ghz 4 MB Cache, 8600 GS 256 MB, DDR2-667 4 Gigs RAM, 160 GB 7,200 rpm HDD, Wireless - 270 Mbps a/b/g/n, (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability , O.S. - Vista Business

17" Executioner WXGA+, 7900 GTX 512 MB dedicated, Core 2 Duo T7200 2.0 Ghz, DDR2-667 3 Gig RAM, Wireless - 108 Mbps, Optical - Dual Layer DVD Burner, O.S. - Windows Vista Business 32 bit.

They are both in the price range, so email me for further details. (I wouldn't mention it if it was actually ME trying to sell something. So my apologies in advance if anyone feels it out of place.)

 

[Moebius078]

IMO, the Aspire Gemstone has the best specs (4GB, 9500M, Bluray) for the money. As I'm not familiar with this brand, can anyone tell me about their experiences?

 

[Maziar]

Acer Gemstone blue laptops are very well features,brilliant display,excellent sound quality and good price.

 

[Moebius078]

That's very good to hear. But i do wonder why you would recommend the XPS rather than the gemstone...

 

[Maziar]

Well because XPS M1530 is currently the best 15.4" laptop

 

[Moebius078]

I don't quite understand why the XPS M1530 would be better, considering the specs of both laptops. Would you mind elaborating?
(btw: your system is awesome, maziar!)

 

[killernotebooks]

There are a lot of configurations on DELL XPS 1530 page, but I went and looked there and the 8600 seems to be the top GPU I can select. Is that correct, or am I in one of the pre-configured sections looking at a restricted menu or something?

 

[Moebius078]

I think the 8600M GT 256 is the best you can find in the XP1530. BTW: thanks for looking!

 

[cjl]

There are a lot of configurations on DELL XPS 1530 page, but I went and looked there and the 8600 seems to be the top GPU I can select. Is that correct, or am I in one of the pre-configured sections looking at a restricted menu or something?

That's the top one - Dell specifically markets the 1530 as a fairly thin, light 15" with excellent battery life and decent performance (a job it is quite good at), but they actually link over to Alienware's M15x as their 15" powerhouse notebook.

 

[Maziar]

I don't quite understand why the XPS M1530 would be better, considering the specs of both laptops. Would you mind elaborating?
(btw: your system is awesome, maziar!)

You cant compare the XPS M1530 with ACER GEMSTONE BLUE because M1530 is 15.4" and GEMSTONE BULE has 2 models which are 16" and 18" which makes them less portable.Also M1530 has better support than those ACERs.

Thanks for your comment about my rig

 

[Moebius078]

I've read some reviews about both the Aspire Gemstone and the XPS. Apparently, the XPS offers better gaming performance than the Gemstone, although it's specs are lower. Any idea why? Also, how does the T5750 compare to the quoted T7250?

XPS: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-XPS-M1530-Notebook.7295.0.html
Gemstone: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Acer-Aspire-6920G-Notebook.8783.0.html

btw: nice marketing: Gemstone has 4GB and 32bit vista ^^

 

[cjl]

The specs on the XPS don't look any lower to me - the 9500M is roughly the equal of the 8600M, and both have midrange core 2 duo chips in them.

 

[lostandwandering]

btw: nice marketing: Gemstone has 4GB and 32bit vista ^^

Not really sure of what your point was there, but 4gb of RAM will do you no good in a 32-bit OS since it will only recognize a little over 3gb of it.

 

[Moebius078]

@lostandwandering: That is exactly what I meant. The fourth GB of RAM doesn't add any real value. However, in the ears of the average consumer, it does sound like it is far superior to 3GB systems and can even be a discriminating factor. To Acer, it is a relatively cheap upgrade.
@cjl: tnx for the info. Apparently, these cards are the same. I was surprised to find out.

"The Nvidia 9500M-GS and the 9650M-GS are not actually anything new, merely die shrinks of the current 8600M-GT and 8700M-GT respectively; everything else down to the clocks themselves are the exact same. They are nothing to get excited about and offer basically no performance increase over the existing cards. Why Nvidia is passing them off as a new generation is unknown."
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=275056

 

[lostandwandering]

It's the same thing that NV did in the desktop sector. The 9800 GT is just basically a die shrunk 8800GT. The 9800GTX is pretty much the same with the 8800GTS 512 (slightly higher clocks). The 9800mGTis the same as the 8800mGTX. And so it goes.

 

[Maziar]

+1^

 

[dmacfour]

Get the XPS M1530. You might be able to squeeze in a processor upgrade, then find a coupon to get it for a good price.

Here are some Dell coupons:
http://www.notebookreview.com/dellCoupon.asp

I built an M1530 for $1249, then used the 20% off coupon to get it for $999 before tax.