somewhat semi-serious gaming laptop?

k well i was thinking these specs from dell:


Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5250 (2MB cache/1.5GHz/667Mhz FSB), English
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition, English
Jet Black Color with Matte Finish
Glossy, high contrast, widescreen 17.0 inch display (1440 x 900)
NO WEBCAM OPTION
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 Dimm
120G 5400RPM SATA HDD
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GT
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability

$1199

Inspiron 1720

i obviously know that this can work well for homework and stuff, but what im more concerned about is if this will last for the future.
i want games like the new Unreal Tourney (UT2007) and Bioshock/Crysis which are very graphically demanding do run smoothly at high settings, as i said i am a semi-serious gamer which is why i customized it for the nvidia graphics card which i believe has 256 mb dedicated gfx. (correct me if im wrong, but i heard that this is one of the best performance graphics cards on laptops)

moreover i just want some suggestions on whether the graphics card/processor will last for the next few years. also, i was thinking 3 gb ram would be ample.

 

only crysis wont run at high settings. more like medium... lowish

 

thats what i got, its a f*ckin beauty! You will be happy with it mate!

 

how far into the future are you talking about?

crysis will run at med low

even though it is one of the best, its still considered mainstream and not high end (like the 7950gtx) and thus it will do only med on the more graphically intensive games such as crysis or WIC

increasing CPU or adding more ram will not greatly affect how many fps you get, typically maybe 5% or if its either really cpu or ram dependent 10%

its the graphics card that is the most important in gaming and unfortunately, that is the least upgradeable component in a lappy

 

I'd upgrade the processor if budget allows but other than that, it looks good. Same ideas that I had, a not expensive laptop that can play games well and last a few years. BTW, what do you have against webcams?

 

=/ unfortunately dell pulled a fast one and they use a ddr2 version of the card which is lower clocked compared to the ddr3 version. The ddr2 model can be pushed to get around 3.5k in 3dmark 06 while the ddr3 model can be pushed to get 4.6k rather easy.
Whats your actual price range, everyone could help you more if we know what you have to work with.

 

i have almost the same settings your talking about on my 1720 i can play Bioshock with all high settings with 40+ FPS no problem have not yet played crysis so... UT2007 runs like a dream, never any lagg. All HL2 games/mods run beautifuly, I always have 140+ FPS. I recomend not buying your RAM from dell though. I got mine from Newegg.com they have great prices! So far so good, its a great lappy and with the price i got for it i can't complain even if there was something to complain about.. GO FOR IT!

 

My 8600M GT is DDR3 from dell.

 

if you bought it in the us its ddr2 actually

 

No it's not.

 

=/ programs that detect what version it is don't report correctly right now. DDR3 comes with stock clocks of 475 core clock and 700 memory. A dell certainly doesn't have that.

 

Then why does it say this in Rivatuner?

 

Because Rivatuner is incompatible with mobile graphics cards. Check your clock speeds, you'll see it's spec'd at 400mhz stock. Everest should also show it as DDR2 memory.

 

Oh.. i C.

 

my budget is 1200-1400 cdn $, which is why im ordering from dell canada because i live in canada. i dont really understand this ddr2 and ddr3 stuff so much, =\. not that much of a technical person, but just wondering would i be able to upgrade the graphics card later on in the future?

p.s. Irish James, how the hell did u get it for $1000?!!?!? are u in the US?

to tell u guys the truth, im talking around 2 years + in the future maybe until mid university or the year before i graduate. i want this to last for the price im getting it at. and moreover, i wont be gaming much, the games ill be playing are some old ones such as warcraft 3/diablo 2 and new ones such as ut2007, bioshock maybe crysis and starcraft 2.

i dont think upgrading my processor would be in my budget cause the next upgrade from mine costs $410 extra

also, how much ram is the 1720 expandable to?

 

No, you will most likely not be able to upgrade your graphics card in the future. It's theoretically possible, but I wouldn't count on it.

For moderate gaming for a couple of years, this system should be fine. Though out of curiosity, can I ask why you're looking at the 17" Inspiron? The 1520 is cheaper, no?

You can upgrade the RAM to 4GB right now.

 

im in canada
try dell.ca and see the difference between the 1720 and the 1520

 

When i bought mine there was a kick a$$ coupon out and the price was not as high as it is now, the T7300 back when i got mine cost as much as the stock T7250 does now. Plus I got my RAM from newegg w/newegg coupons yea i lucked out!

You can put a total of 4GB in the 1720 wich would be two 2GB sticks.

 

I checked, the 1520 appears to be around $100 cheaper. Also, you could go for a Vostro which starts at even lower prices.

 

:O

i thought the vostro was a business laptop?!

 

Not sure if you have this handy, but try using this coupon code and see if it helps for your 1720...

$100 off $999 on the Following Systems!
RCNC5G0TGXC3BQ
Expires: 2007-10-25

Found it here... http://www.edealinfo.com/Coupons/dellca.shtml

 

The Vostro 1500 and 1700 are exactly the same as the Inspiron 1520 and 1720 respectively, except for styling.

 

hmm
i might consider vostro
thx for the coupon too

another major question
later on in a year or so i may consider getting my gpu upgraded to like a
Nvidia GeForce Go7900GTX
Nvidia GeForce Go7950GTX
is it possible, and if so how much would i cost me approximately?

 

No, as I said before, you can't upgrade your GPU. Someday in the future it may be technically possible, but don't count on it. Read the stickies for more info.

 

oh well thanks anyway.
so i guess this or the vostro is the ideal laptop for me?

 

Dunno I would shop around a little more. If it was me I would actually wait a little longer if you can. Its not a guarantee but a few new things will be coming out shortly like the new processors. Also the crysis demo isn't very far out and that is a game you want to play. Better off knowing what a game actually requires than guessing.

 

actually the 1520 fits well

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7250 (2MB cache/2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB), English
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition, English
Jet Black Color with Matte Finish
High Resolution, glossy widescreen 15.4 inch display (1440 x 900)
NO WEBCAM OPTION
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 Dimm
160G 5400RPM SATA HDD
256MB NVIDIA ®GeForce™8600M GT
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability

$1300 aprox

 

holy god!!!...i thought it was me writing all that stuff...

 

and can someone explain to me the difference between the ddr2 and ddr3 things that u guys were debating earlier

 

The Crysis requirements have actually been revealed already.


Minimum Requirements

CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.8 GHz (3.2 GHz for Vista), Intel Core 2.0 GHz (2.2 GHz for Vista), AMD Athlon 2800+ (3200+ for Vista) or better
RAM: 1GB (1.5GB on Windows Vista)
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (Radeon X800 Pro for Vista) or better
VRAM: 256MB of Graphics Memory
Storage: 12GB
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c Compatible
ODD: DVD-ROM
OS: Microsoft Windows XP or Vista
DirectX: DX9.0c or DX10


Recommended Requirements

CPU: Core 2 Duo/Athlon X2 or better
RAM: 1.5GB
Video Card: NVIDIA 7800 Series, ATI Radeon 1800 Series or better
VRAM: 512MB of Graphics Memory
Storage: 12GB
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c Compatible
ODD: DVD-ROM
OS: Microsoft Windows XP or Vista
DirectX: DX9.0c or DX10


Granted, the beta runs horribly even with recommended specs... but it is, after all, a beta.

 

lol
street fighter

 

Official minimum/recommended requirements mean little, and will not necessarily have much of a bearing on real world performance.

 

way too true...i've had personal experience with this. I've tried oblivion on the "minimum" and basically its liike playing morrowind graphics...even worse actually. On "recommended" its more like medium settings...multiply the recommended by 3 and you can do high probably.

 

True, but when you can't run a game smoothly at high settings on your native resolution with top-of-the-line desktop hardware, you get a bit worried.

Though I'm convinced that Oblivion and Crysis just have horrible engines.

 

another question:
what role does the processor play when ur gaming?
i know a better processor would run the game better, but what would be the ideal processor for my budget?

 

i don't really know what your budget is and frankly im too lazy to go click and find out...but any dual core 2ghz is fast....the E6600 and E6700 are exceptionally good though. if your budget is really high then i suppose quad core cpu would be nice.

 

furthermore, everything matters in games. CPU, RAM, obviously GPU, even hdd RPM. you should balance all of them out to get optimum performance. don't go get a 1.5ghz cpu with 512ram with sli or something...or something along those lines.

 

With your budget I'd really try for a T7300 or T7500. The processor will have varying importance depending on the game, I strongly suspect that even when optimized Crysis will be quite CPU dependent. Also most RTS's rely heavily on CPU, though traditional FPS's will be fine with any modern dual core processor.

 

It's tough to fit the 1720 into a $1200-1400 budget. You're either stuck with the lame 8600m GS video card, a sub-2 GHz processor, or a 5400rpm hard drive, any of which will noticeably affect your performance. I'd say the video card would be the worst place for a compromise, followed by the processor, and then the hard drive. With that in mind, and assuming you're dead-set on buying a Dell (poor you), I would suggest this configuration:

PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7250 (2MB cache/2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB), English
OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition, English
SYSTEM COLOUR: Jet Black Color with Matte Finish
LCD DISPLAY: Glossy, high contrast, widescreen 17.0 inch display (1440 x 900)
INTEGRATED WEBCAM: NO WEBCAM OPTION
MEMORY: 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 Dimm
HARD DRIVE: 80G 5400RPM SATA HDD
GRAPHICS CARD: 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8600M GT
OPTICAL DRIVE: 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive

$1439

And if you absolutely must have it for less than $1400, switch the T7250 for a T5450.

 

this guy is lying

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2007/08/30/bioshock_gameplay_graphics_and_performance/9

they are barely breaking 40fps at MED at 1024x768...

why do people like to lie? so they can have a bigger e-peen?

EDIT: oh, the 8600gt for desktop is DDR3 and higher clocked

 

mmk why the f*ck would i lie about something like that? with a 1024x768 res on all high settings i get 40+ FPS, that really so hard to belive?

 

he DOES have 3gb of ram, it really helps the 8 series apparently, but if you want to pack your point show some fraps

 

I have a 14" 4:3 T61p that has the equivalent of a Geforce 8600M with DDR3 RAM in it. It's one of the few laptops in its size class to be able to game so well, yet be so portable.

Moving down from a 15 incher has been a godsend. I can just throw my laptop in whereever I go and not feel a significant bulk or weight increase.

I got mine for about $1200 on sale with a set of fairly good specs (100 gb 7200, 2 GB ram, T7500, etc.)

 

sager 2090>>>>>>>>>>>>