Gaming on a DV1000?

I am considering getting this computer, it has most of what I am looking for except for one thing....I guess it really sucks for playing games. I am not a big gamer mind you, but I would like to be able to play some stuff on it if I am bored or something. I was leaning toward getting a Sony Vaio because of this, but they tend to be more expensive, and from the reviews I've read, they aren't as good as they used to be and now I am a little nervous about getting one. HP products seem to always get strong reviews though.

Anyway, HP doesn't offer a graphics card for this unit I guess, so is there anyway to make it play games better?

 

What games are you trying to play?

 

Might want to look at something like the Acer 4402 with ATI x700 card.

 

Hmm, if you're worried about graphics performance, I wouldn't touch a notebook with integrated graphics. They really are bad for anything other than surfing the web and watching movies.

Yes, check out an Acer TravelMate 4402 like zazonz said, or you could try a Dell Inspiron 6000 - you can get that for less with a 128MB X300 card.

 

The X300 is a modest improvement over the shared-memory Radeon 200M that the HP Turion notebooks use. The 64MB X700 smokes it. The 200M is OK for light gaming (and I never thought I'd say that about a shared memory GPU) but if gaming is important I'd definitely spend the extra money for that Travelmate 4400 (see zipzoomfly.com). Or a Ferrari 4000 .

From the original message it sounds like the HP L2000 SE or Compaq V2000z (Turions with ATI Radeon 200M chipsets) should be adequate and they have the same physical layout as the dv1000. Configure the 12 cell battery and Bluetooth options and get 1GB of RAM (the GPU will carve out 128MB of that).

 

If you're not a big gamer and aren't trying to play the latest games, you may want to check this out:
http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/intel915g/sb/CS-011967.htm
It's a list of a few games known to be supported by the Intel GMA. I know that my first impressions of integrated graphics were not that great, but then I realized that the types of games I play are easily supported by the integrated GMA.

 

Also note in order to play most of the games on that list it'll be on lowest settings and lowest resolution. If you want any form of deacent game play, a dedicated GPU is a must. You might want to consider a Compal 2030, similar in size to the dv1000 but with a GPU for not much more price.

There's a review of it here:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2504

 

I have the presario V2000 with the 200m, and its not too bad for games. it gets 2700 in 3dmark01 and it plays warcraft III good. it even works with battlefield2, but thats with everything on low.. the intel extreme craphics have compatability issues with many games...
Its DX9.0c compatable btw.

 

Question about the 200m graphics, you say they can play BF2, can they play Half-Life 2? Or prehaps counter-strike source?

 

Im sure it could play thoes games, but you might not want to! In order for it to be playable you might have to reduce the graphics to a point where it doesnt look too good.. I will have to try HL2 later, I just hate steam...