Need help with buying DESKTOP

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metin

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Oct 25, 2008
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1_What is your budget?
under $800

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15.4"

3_What screen resolution
I don't know much about this
but standard for a 15.4" screen though

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement
desktop replacement

5_How much battery life do you need?
a decent amount, im going to be using for games

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)?
cod4 medium quality, enough to enjoy it without lag *most important to me
halo 2 medium


7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo, surfing the web, playing music, watching movies, Etc.)
surfing the web, music and movies but i dont need an amazing laptop for that
8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
250gb is good enough

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.
www.bestbuy.com
I just want a trustable store that I can return to if necessary, I don't want to buy something like this off of the internet

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
about 2 years before i go to college, i figure by then my laptop won't be as good and I would have to get a new one.
tell me if I am wrong.

11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them.
ability to play good games
doesnt overheat easy
not too heavy

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I guess brands dont matter
for a graphics card I would want an nVidia because of what I hear about their capability
for processors, like I said, I don't know much about laptops..

13_What country do you live in?
USA

any other questions, feel free to ask
thanks for any replies


edit:
I was looking at Dell XPS M1530 and it was about $1000, I don't think I want to pay that much, and a review by cnet.com said it wouldn't be able to use high end graphics cards. Can anyone confirm this?
And if so, how can you tell how good of a card you can put into a laptop?
 
I don't think COD4 playable can be done for $800. The best card you can get for an $800 notebook is an 8400/9300 or so. I've seen it done, but medium quality will be sacrificed. You can look at the Dell XPS 1500 line, but I'm not sure on the prices of them.

@ edit..
Generally, you cannot upgrade the graphics card in any notebook. Some of them are possible, but very, very few. The 1530 uses 8400/9300 and 8600/9600 cards, I believe, which are low/midrange. The 8600/9600 will do fine on COD4, but not so much the others.
 

metin

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Oct 25, 2008
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Haha. This is gonna cost me more than $800 I'm guessing.
I should just a get desktop, but then I can't take it anywhere..
Thanks for the help guys
 

dwellman

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Well for anything I would call "decent" for gaming, I would expect to spend $1200 - $1300 for reqular retail.

However, you might try looking at the HP dv5t [EDIT] Yeah, the base model with the 9600GT option comes to $799.[/EDIT]

 

metin

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dwellman, can you send me a link to the $799 one, or is it the one you can customize on the site?
I've been looking for a good laptop for about 2 weeks now
and every laptop has its pros and cons...
I'm bad with computers in general, but how are processors and the graphics chip related?
Like say I got a 9600GT, what kind of processor would I need? does it depends on the ghz?
Yeah, sorry it's alot of questions but I'm trying to learn on this forum lol
 

dwellman

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Oh, ugh. . . that's what I get for posting late. . . ANYWAY here is the link:
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...4AV&aoid=20715&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=KQ574AV

Um, yeah the base config has a really crummy processor. . . fairly crummy. Well, no more crummy than what I'm using right now. . .
So what you're looking at for the configuration you need is $924.99. . . $125 over budget.
This is choosing the P7350 (which is a good deal considering that processor retails for around $220-$225 and HP is only "charging" $125 for it and the 9600GT (for $200, which is nearly double what a desktop version goes for).

the "free upgrade" to 3GB from 2GB ($50) is actually a pretty bad deal as that 2 GB SODIMM is almost twice as much as what you should be able to get at say, Crucial.com ($33.00) and 4 GB "kits" (2 x 2GB) start around $60 (including shipping) on Newegg. (I'm assuming DDR2 800 / PC2-6400
 

metin

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DONT BOTHER READING THIS BELOW

Ok so I see the config you were suggesting, but is there anyway I can buy the gfx chip separately and install it myself? Is it part of that very few laptops that will let me, according to frozenlead? I hope so because if I get the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD and find the nVIDIA chip somewhere else for cheaper and install it myself, that would save me some money.



HUGE EDIT: Ok, I have now decided to get a desktop, why you may ask? Because I realize that I am not going to drag my laptop around with me everywhere. I want a laptop for gaming but I understand that it is a much bigger hassle and it would be easier+cheaper to get a desktop that I can customize such as this one :
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9032316&st=dx+4710-05&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1218010533213
I want to buy a nVIDIA 9800GT because I looked at the prices, it's not much more but a review said that it is twice as good as the 9600GT.
This computer has Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q6600.
I believe that should be good enough, and by getting a desktop, it would be much easier for me to customize it the way I want.
 


No, Frozenlead is right in most circumstances. Due to the cramped nature of laptops, it is generally difficult to replace the graphics chip. Add on to the fact that there really isn't a standard connection for laptop GPUs (unlike desktops with PCI-x slots). Most laptops do have PCI slots for the cards, but some manufacturers physically solder the chips to the board. Other companies use what is becoming the norm which is the MXM (Mobile Xpress Module) but often times make changes to either the card or the slot that they use, thus making it impossible to use a card from another company. Laptop GPU's also aren't sold mainstream like desktop cards. They are very difficult to find unless you use e-bay, which I wouldn't recommend.

The other thing to keep in mind is heat dissapation. Generally the laptops that come with integrated solutions (the Intel chip you mentioned i.e.) do not have the cooling capacity that most dedicated cards need to function properly. So shoving a dedicated card into a laptop that wasn't designed to handle the higher heat often results in damage to hardware (either the GPU itself or frying the motherboard).

What I always tell people to do if they want a dedicated card and want the ability to play games is this: buy the best card that you can currently afford. Don't go cheap and then expect to make an upgrade down the road because you WILL be disappointed.
 
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