Gateway CX2620? ATIx600 Decent or Avoid?

First and foremost I apologize for this thread in advance. I know the majority of you hate these but I'm at work on a dogcrap slow internet question and can't use the search function as well as I want to

A friend of mine is looking to unload his laptop and has a few people on craigslist interested but he'll sell it to me for 300 within the next 2 hours or if I don't get back to him he'll sell it locally.

It's a Gateway CX2620 laptop. 1.73 Centrio M, 100gig HD, 1gb ram (upgradeable to 2) and an ATI X600 video card. I don't do any heavy gaming at all I just play WOW and I wanna know if this will be able to handle it. 300 is a bargain to me and I"m not a rich guy at all but if this will suffice me playing WOW and surfing the web then I"ll get it but if it sucks and you think I can do better for cheaper then I'll pass. Thanks in advance you guys.

-adam

 

$300 is a good price, and yes it should handle WoW on high settings just fine.

I would say go for it.

 

3 years ago the x600 was a good mid-range card of course it can't compare to today's video cards but it'll handle WoW just fine and the laptop is definitely worth $300 just try to upgrade to 2gigs of ram if you can.

Also make sure to install the latest drivers for the x600 to get the most of it.

 

It came 4 years ago, and wasn't THAT good at the time, as it was a slightly overclocked mobility 9600 (think 8400m GT today, not too bad, but not that great). Performance is below 8400m GS, I believe. Just remember that it doesn't support SM3 introduced with DX9.0c. So many new games won't even start on it.

However, performance is better than most IGPs (save the HD 3200), so unless you find a Puma-based laptop (which uses the HD 3200) for that price, this is the best you can do. And it's more than enough for surfing and such.

 

thank you gents, I will be picking it up after work. I don't care about any newer games or anything just WOW and casual net-surfing, IM etc. You guys ROCK!

 

Glad your happpy, Mowery! It should work out just fine!

 

leave us a report if it runs WOW okay, if not there r many things we can do to help u

 

That’s a good deal man!
I had the x600 256mb card in my system before I upgraded it to a 6800, and the x600 played FEAR and Quake 4 good at low settings…should max out playing WoW.
Pin-Mod a 1.6 (400fsb) CPU and you’re good to go running at 2.13GHz and a decent card.

 

what do you mean? settings tweaks? I'm not tech savy to pull it apart and start doing modifications internally.

 

well u can do tweaks, clock ur card, get better drivers etc

 

I have an older zd8000 (1GB RAM, p4 2.8ghz) with an x600 graphics card and it played WoW great.

BF2142: not so much.

 

I think you made a good decision, especially if you already have a desktop and just want a mobile system for goofing off online and WoW.

Any GPU can run WoW decently. One of my friends plays it on a mobile GMA950 at high settings (though she gets 5-8 FPS). So an x600 and a 1.83 GHz Pentium M will do you fine.

If you stick with XP all is well, if you want Vista (or maybe a little bit of extra kick) put another 1GB of RAM in there.

 

Well, I got it. Looks and runs pretty damn good. Since I'm computer stupid I know that the memory is comprised of 2x 512 sticks. Now I'm guess I need to get 2x 1gig sticks but looking on circuit city/bestbuy.com there is a crap load of different kinds of memory.

Based off my specs in the first post will any type of memory work? Sorry for being a misinformed dummy

 

DDR2 SODIMM 200pin PC4200 533 MHz. 667MHZ (PC5300) will work as well, but will downclock to 533MHz. Go for whatever is cheapest.

 

So upgrading the memory will downgrade the performance or am I not understanding you right? How would I get 667mhz out of it because 533 doesn't sound that great

 

YOu can't. Max clockspeed the Ram supports is 533MHz. Don't sweat it though. A C2D laptop can't use faster ram than 667MHz right now.

Performance won't go down from uprgrading the memory.

 

well, I got it and it looks and runs damn well. I'm going to hit up best buy tommorrow and try and buy 2x1g sticks of that ram. The screen is a little smudged and wiping with a white tshirt did somewhat ok.

I do not think it's an LCD screen so is it ok to use windex? Not sure if anyone has ever owned one of these but is there a way at all to increase performance without damaging the unit via serious over clocking?

 

It is an LCD screen. All laptops are. As are all thin computer screens.