Choosing a gaming laptop (Alienware?)

[randycandy]

Hi all, I'm new :) I figured this forum might be able to help me! I'm thinking of buying a new laptop, and I need to be able to game on it (I know it should be a desktop, but it needs to be mobile!) So, I have a few questions.. bear with me! Sorry!


What's the difference in performance between the NVidia GeForce cards?
There's the NVidia GeForce 8700M GT 512MB and the NVidia GeForce 8600M GT 256MB (Toshiba also list a NVidia GeForce 8700M GT 256MB, but that doesn't seem to exist anywhere else!).

How big a difference is there between those two cards? And what's going on with Toshiba?


Here are the computers I've found:

Alienware
Graphics card: NVidia GeForce 8700M GT 512MB
RAM: 2GB dual channel DDR2 SO-DIMM at 667MHz (2x1024MB)
Processor: T8300 2.4 GHz (3MB cache 800MHz FSB)
This also has a 1GB Intel Turbo Cache memory.


Toshiba
Graphics card: NVidia GeForce 8700M GT 256MB
RAM: 4GB dual channel DDR2 at 667MHz (2x2048MB)
Processor: T8300 2.4 GHz (3MB cache 800MHz FSB)


Dell
Graphics card: NVidia GeForce 8600M GT 256MB
RAM: 4GB dual channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2x2048MB)
Processor: T9500 2.60 GHz (6MB cache 800MHz FSB)


Do the RAM and the processor speed make up for the graphics card differences? Or is the graphics card the most important for gaming - also taking into account future compatibility?


Thanks so much, any advice would be appreciated! :)

[LiNuX]

i would say the 8700 is better but i've never used it, 8600GT is excellent and i have that for my desktop and I am not a huge "laptop" gamer to tell you which will work but my best guess is the 8700

and graphics card is not the most important part for gaming, having the game is :-P

i used to have a toshiba and used it for gaming, it lasted like a year before burning out - had 1 gig ram and geforce something (was a while back and still have it, just don't remember gpu)

but out of those the alienware sounds best but i wouldn't know, im not a fan of toshiba or dell lol, alienware i've never tried to be able to tell you

[Strickin]

I suggest not getting a pre-made laptop, but getting a customized laptop that you choose the parts and components for.

[randycandy]

I suggest not getting a pre-made laptop, but getting a customized laptop that you choose the parts and components for.

How would I go about doing that?

Sorry! I'm such a noob!

[LiNuX]

I suggest not getting a pre-made laptop, but getting a customized laptop that you choose the parts and components for.

are you talking about those like dell? customize this and customize that?

they only give you few choices for those and sometimes premade is best way to go if you don't know how to "pick" the right parts

[GF Eric]

Ok for the Alienware laptop, is it that like super huge and bulky one with all those ports and stuff or is it another one?

[Blackbird]

I hated gaming on Laptop and prefer more Station PC. Well becuase it's not that expensive like Laptop ^^

[randycandy]

Ok for the Alienware laptop, is it that like super huge and bulky one with all those ports and stuff or is it another one?

Don't know which the super huge and bulky one is! It's the M15x.


are you talking about those like dell? customize this and customize that?

they only give you few choices for those and sometimes premade is best way to go if you don't know how to "pick" the right parts

Oh, I've customised the Dell to the best spec I can afford on it. The Tosh comes with the ones I've listed, but I'm happy with it.

[GF Eric]

Ok I looked at the laptop and it isn't the one I am talking about. But that alienware looks great and customizing it should be easy. For me I would go with Alienware.

[randycandy]

Hmm. I've decided against the Alienware because apparantly their build quality is shoddy, their customer service is rubbish and they take weeks to build the laptop because they're waiting for the parts :(

I've found a Tosh with 8600 SLI, which has now confused the whole situation again!

[LiNuX]

lol, just go with whatever you think is good, if it is a bad choice then you'll learn - that's how i learned in the past and now i can build my own computers in a matter of hours :D and fix laptops, its harder to find new working laptop parts because they are very expensive otherwise i wouldn't mind making me a super laptop like i did a desktop

and for gaming these days you don't need a LOT of power - if you have a good dual core processor with around 1-3 gigs of RAM and a decent graphics card like the ones you provided above, you should be fine

[Strickin]

Use this site, I just ordered an amazingly cheap and powerful PC from it. Cheers!


http://www.microtelpc.com/Default.aspx?tabid=465

[Iceskater101]

personally I dont like laptops

[LiNuX]

Use this site, I just ordered an amazingly cheap and powerful PC from it. Cheers!


http://www.microtelpc.com/Default.aspx?tabid=465

they are having problems, just wanted to try out lol

and generally i like to rely on my own tastes while building computers


personally I dont like laptops

laptops are VERY helpful at times - i use them to take notes in class :D don't like them for gaming though, not fun

[Kujo]

Bulid it yourself... TRUST ME!

www.ibuypower.com (http://www.gamers-forum.com/www.ibuypower.com)

You choose EVERY component, and they are VERY cheap compared to the same configurations you would get from Dell, Alienware... or anyone else for that matter.

[Iceskater101]

yah laptops are useful for notes for school but when it comes to games a big no no they dont have that much memory

[Kujo]

yah laptops are useful for notes for school but when it comes to games a big no no they dont have that much memory

What are you talking about? My laptop has 4 gigs of memeroy.. and a 250gig harddrive. Laptops can hold just as much memory/harddrive space as desktops. You just pay more for portability.