thinking about gaming laptops

Hey all,
so I currently have a compaq v2000z (turion 1.6ghz w/ 128 to ati x200m and 768MB of pc 2700 ram) and have been trying to game with it with as I feared from reading around crap results.. I can have CS:Source at lowest levels and get barely playable fps (which was annoying cause it checked out my system and set it to what it thought would run well with and it was 1024x768 with medium and high levels on textures and similar stuff and then when I ran it, it was soo sluggish which was so dissapointing). So I have looking around for a cheap gaming rig that would get me at least a consistent 30-40 fps in source with medium display settings and no drops when things get a bit crazy on screen (cause right now I get about 30-40 fps but if too many people (like 2 lol) start shooting me I hit like 10-15 fps. I saw the v4000t mentioned in other threads and looked up the specs. Would the v4000t outperform my current laptop greatly or at least to what Im looking for? like it has a x700 in it but a celeron 1.5 (at least the one I saw on ebay for 500USD). Anyone know any other laptops that would do what I want for up to 800USD... I would be willing to buy used so thats why I would say about 800USD.

Thanks for any help guys.

 

The x700 will run it fine. The Celeron is like the Pentium M, just not as power effective, meaning it will use more power then the Pentium M and it can't volt itself to lower voltages for less power comsumption. But if you don't mind that, the x700 on the v4000t will run it great!

 

I went through two v4000t's (both returned) and they both played source games like crap. FPS was high at times but the game stuttered badly, regardless of me spending hours tinkering around with drivers and settings. I also think that the x700 is no longer available with the v4000 anyways.

 

$800 USD isn't going to get you a good graphics card . . . X200M is as good as it gets at that price range.

You'll have to move up to $1,100 or so to get decent gaming capabilities. The Quanta KN1-PM is worth a look, www.istnc.com.

Check the Internet and find out about forcing CS:S to run under DirectX 7, you will get much faster performance.

 

Thanks for the quanta recommendation chaz! I had been looking at the msi 1029 or 1039 but this seems better suited for me after looking at it. Is the quality pretty good? What do you think the chances of being able to upgrade the gpu in the future are (seeing how it's mxm) because the 6600 is almost a last generation card now.

 

About the future - avaliability of the cards may be a problem, but if you find a place where you can buy them (probably from your notebook dealer), you should be able to just swap the cards and be fine.

An MXM 6600's equivalent in the latest gen of cards is the upcoming Go7600, which will be MXM II as well (there are different classes of MXM cards, 6600 is MXM II).

Quality is very good. Quanta is the world's number one notebook manufacturer.

Flanken, one of our members, owns one, and raves about it. He did a review as well:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2692

 

Great, I just finished ordering my system. 1.8ghz, 2gig ram, 7200 rpm hdd, 6600, 2200 wireless (my last 2200 worked great so i didn't see the need to change), with os for around $1460 iirc.

Can't wait! Thanks again for the help chaz.

 

Great! Hope you like your new system taylor

 

Nice job taylor, and congrats!

You're welcome for all the help. Let us know when you get it.

 

nice purchase, do not forget to post a review! (i still have mine to work on for my new z70va)

pb,out.

 

Congratulations on the purchase, taylor138; I think you'll like your new system a lot. The screen at the very least is a lot brighter than the v4000's.

And do post a review. I'm sure everyone's tired of having only my word to rely on for the KN1.

 

I'll try and do a review when it gets here.

I enjoyed reading your review, Flanken. I am curious if you have ever ran into any heat issues during extensive gaming now that you have had it for a while. Unfortunately, the artic silver is no longer available with the Quanta. However, Rick assured me that he would include a thermal solution, and that the artic silver isn't necessary.

 

Nope. No heat issues whatsoever; the cooling system on this is really effective. The GPU is actually cooler when running games than when it's at idle, because the fan is running full-time during gameplay. Be sure to try undervolting using Notebook Hardware Control when you get your laptop; it definitely curbs the fan noise a lot.