Which should I buy?

Hi all!

I'm thinking about buying a notebook. I have never had one so I don't really know how to choose the right one. I know that a lot of people have asked this kind of questions here but I really need your help. [:I]

First of all, I have to say that I have almost decided that it will be an Acer, why? Because they have some of the features I need and I think I can afford one of them.

So here is what I need:
- I'm going to use it for both work (I'm a analyst/programmer) and games (FPS, RTS, ...) so I want it with an ATI Radeon 9700 or better.
- 512 Mb of RAM
- DVD recorder, although this is optional, it should have at least a DVD Reader.
- 15" TFT, but I don't know if xga, sxga, wxga, ga ga ga...[ ] As I said I will use it for gaming so I would like to be good enough. I will use it to see movies too but I think that 17" is too much for me, I want it to be "portable" [ ]
- 60 Gb. of HDD
- The CPU really I don't mind. I don't want an old CPU or a very slow one, enough to play to HL2 without any problems. [ ]
- I think that most of the time it will be connected to current (don't know if it is said that way, I'm Spanish [:I]) so the battery duration is also not very important.
- Wifi or Wireless LAN or whatever you call it. Right now at work I could only connect it to the net using Wifi so it is mandatory for me.
- Good sound quality but I don't mind the quality of the speakers, I will use headphones most of the time.
- Price. Well, I'm going to buy it in Europe so I would like it not to cost more than about 1500 euros (US$2000).
- I can't think in anything else...

So I come here asking your help. The thing I'm most scared is about the screen. I have read in this forum than some model have a far better screen than others, even with the same size. So here comes the question. What model(s) do you recommend me? If someone knows any notebook from other brands they opinion will be very welcome too.

Thanks in advance!!!

Spawn

 

Hi Spawn,
I think your choice of the Acer line is a good choice for a gaming notebook. I'm not familiar with the models, but you will need to pick one with an ATI 9700 GPU. For a display, if your looking at 15", then get one with sxga with 1400x1050 resolution. I think that's the perfect rez. for a 15" LCD. The only brands I won't recommend to anyone right now are Dell and Gateway; gateway because the last I heard they were about to get out of the notebook business, in fact I think the company as a whole is on shakey legs. From what I've read on the forums here and elsewhere their quality is fairly poor as of late. Dell although the company is in great shape, their notebooks for the past two + years have gone way downhill in quality and reliability, so I cannot recommend them either.

Jack

"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" (Ben Franklin)
http://pbase.com/joneill

 

If u want the best acer, then look at the TM 8000 range, they are the best, in regards to what u asked for, but they are expensive.

it has 128mb ram for r9700 which right now is the highest.

 

sorry for the late answer

i would recommend mine 1681wlmi
i am verry happy with and guess what i just got back from playing hl2 on my lappy

you can also take a look at other models of acer like 4501. they have ati radeon 9700 too.
mine is 64mb but is enough so far, i can play farcry and hl2 at a decent frame rates on medium settings

also consider buying 15.4". i'm programmer myself and widescreen helps a lot...

 

Yeah I recommend the 1680 series. I just got a 1683WLMi with 1.7 Dothan my self, it has everything I wanted and more, and believe me this one has everything. Some said it comes with a 4 cell batt and it has no bluetooth and bla bla. But mine has an 8 cell batt and bluetooth and wat not. I think this is the best one you could good get with all the bells and whistles at a reasonable price. But since you have a budget of around USD 2000 u could go for a TM 8000.

Acer Aspire 1683WLMi
1.7 Centrino (Dothan, 2MB Cache), 512MB RAM, ATI Radeon 9700 Dedicated, 60GB, DVD-Dual(RW), 15.4" Wide Screen, Bluetooth, 3 in 1 Card Reader, 8 Cell Batt (4+ Hours).

 

I too need help deciding. I can get one of these two laptops...and that's it. I only have a TigerDirect credit line of 1350 to use. The two below stand out as the best TigerDirect has for that kind of money.

Also, I plan on using either of these as a desktop replacement to my MicronPC AMD Athlon 2200+ based system with a Geforce 4 Ti 4600 AGP card...and older DDR 266MHZ memory. Can either of these even replace that anyway?

ACER:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1161205&CatId=216

I since called TigerDirect and they assured me the screen was the 15.4 WXGA at max 1200x800 despite what it says there.

or Emachines:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1034849&CatId=1345


I can't decide at all. I am literally pulling my hair our of my head as I type. I'd go Acer, but that Athlon 64 keeps trying to reel me in. I'd appreciate any advice I can get.

 

I defiently recomed takig a look at asus or sager or compal. MY preference ofcourse is asus.

 

Hi,

First of all thanks four your answers. So I have two possible notebooks:
1) 168X/400X/450X
2) 800X

The biggest differences between both 'groups' are the price (about 350 euros = 455US$) and the screen (xga vs. sxga). Is the sxga worth the price difference?

I have seen some posts saying that the screen of the 400X/450X series is quite bad, that's why I'm thinking about buying the 8004...

Cheers.

Spawn

 

I would recommed my laptop to anyone.
The problem I had (see my other posts was of my own making)
The screen is imho fantastic.
Most of the time I have to turn down the brightness.
The x600 ati graphics play half life ok on medium settings, although I do have to put sound on the lowest setting.
I think there may not be much to choose between ati 9700 and ati x600 for games. Are they both DX9 compatible? I'm sure someone will let me know[ ]
You said you did not need or want a 17" screen but it really is usefull.
I have wifi and bluetooth, 80gig hard drive, 512 meg ram, 3.2 gig p4, dvd reader/writer +,- and DVD-RAM it does cdrom read+write too.
widescreen movies are fantastic.

ps I wish my spanish was as good as your english.

 

and i highly recommend centrino or pM chips

 

well, as far as i know, both 9700 and x600 are dx9 cards..
as for gaming, i didn't have any problems so far.. i play half life 2 on medium settings with pixel shader and sound settings at high resolution at 1280x800 without any lags only some lag when it loads the new level for maybe 3 secs.