best small gaming laptop

ok here's the deal, im looking for the best and smallest gaming laptop, that means really good video card, 2gb of ram, and 13"-14". price hopefully between 1300-1600 euro

so far i've found these nice machines
the Asus A8js (with 2gb ram) ( http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3313&review=Asus+A8Js)

the dell xps m1210 with this config:
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...w=classic&leadtime=6/4/2007&showleadtime=True

the upcoming samsung Q70
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/laptops/0,39029450,49290430,00.htm

and the last one i just looked was this one called zeptop??? if anyone knows
http://www.zepto.com/Shop/Config.aspx?configurationid=288&notebookid=644

any suggestions would be more than welcome on which do you think its the best and smallest gaming laptop

 

Zepto is easily the best one of those four. Actually it's the best 14" performance vise currently in the market. It has the best video card available for 14" notebooks, Geforce 8600M GT and it's build on the Intel's latest Santa Rosa platform.

2nd comes Asus A8js, not too far, but it has older dx9 card, Geforce Go 7700
3rd Samsung Q70
4th Dell xps m1210

 

The M1210 is a really great little machine, but the graphics in any 13.3" or smaller laptop are going to be pretty weak. However, I have been able to play any game I want on mine by lowering the settings. It depends on what you value more--portability or graphics power.

 

The M1210 is one of the two 12.1" or smaller laptops that support dedicated graphics (the other is the LG ultraportable with the Geforce Go 7300). However, you'll find the Geforce Go 7400 in the M1210 isn't up to par compared to what you can get in a 14.1" notebook (in the case of the Zepto, the 8600M GT, which is several times more powerful).

14" is really a great screen size if you want to balance performance, portability, and battery life. You can get a relatively powerful graphics card, maintain a weight of 5-6 pounds for the laptop plus battery, and still have a battery life of 3 hours or more.

 

do you know what's the difference between these options for the zepto?

2.00 GHz Intel® Core™2 Duo T7300 800MHz
1.80 GHz Intel® Core™2 Duo T7100 800MHz
2.20 GHz Intel® Core™2 Duo T7500 800MHz
2.40 GHz Intel® Core™2 Duo T7700 800MHz

and how much would it affect taking the smallest (cheapest) vs biggest (most expensive)?

 

There's not much difference if we are talking about gaming performance. You won't see much difference in general use either. But if you plan to do lots of CPU intensive tasks like editting, encoding or decoding video or lots of multitasking then you might consider getting faster one. In that case 2.00 GHz T7300 is propably best bang for the buck. If you plan to use your laptop mainly for gaming, then just get the cheapest one.

 

Dont forget the Sony SZ with the go7400.

 

if the laptop is really small, lets say 12"-13", but im planning on using it for games, plugging it to my 19" lcd screen through the VGA output, will the resolution and performance would be the same as a bigger laptop?

 

also is it really useful to have a 2 gb of ram? what kind of usage woudl require more than 1 gb of ram?

based on the original question of the post, what do you think about this:
Intel® PRO/Wireless 3945ABG 54Mbit (260025)
Keyboard Znote 6x14W Black UK (170078)
14,1" WXGA+ 1440x900 - 6224W (100302)
6 Cell Battery (250324)
NVIDIA® Geforce 8600M GT Info Text (800104)
2.00 GHz Intel® Core™2 Duo T7300 800MHz (120626)
1024MB DDR2 800/PC6400 SODIMM (130130)
160GB Hybrid 2,5" 5400RPM - SAMSUNG (140103)
SAMSUNG DVD-RW Slot-in 6xx4W/6xx5WD/2xx5 (150124)

 

......price 1500 euro (already with taxes)

 

The graphics cards available for 12" and 13" laptops are not nearly as powerful as in 14". So their performance won't be the same at same resolutions. The higher the resolution, the more taxing it's for the graphics card in games. With powerful graphics card like the 8600M GT you can play at high resolutions, most games propably at your LCD native, and with most eye candy enabled.

Definitely get atleast 2GB of ram. It's the second important component after graphics card if you plan to do any gaming. And Windows Vista certainly benefits from it. So the general performance will also be better than with 1GB. Though you may consider buying the additional 1GB stick from other store, since you will definitely get it cheaper.

Otherwise that Zepto configuration seems fine. You may also consider getting the additional 12 Cell battery if you plan to use your laptop a lot with battery only (not plugged in).

 

"what kind of usage woudl require more than 1 gb of ram?"

I'd recommend 2GB for Vista. It's not really needed, but it is noticable. The aftermarket prices for RAM have really dropped lately. You can probably order the laptop with the smallest amount of RAM possible from the manufacturer (or at least get 1GB on a single stick - leaving the other one open for upgrade) then get some RAM for cheap on-line (newegg.com). Generally buying more RAM from the retailer is really expensive.