Help Me Decided Please

Hey All,

I am in a bit of a dilemma here. I have been in the market for a Notebook for a month now and now I am feeling rushed into to buying one because one of my 2 home PC's have been fried. So this means my #1 machine goes to my mother and my laptop will be my main rig until I build something new in 2006-07.

So I need a notebook than I can take to school at night while I work on my graduate degree as well as create websites, client presentations, watch DVDs on trips, and play some games. Now I know the game play is where everything gets confusing; I currently play Tiger Woods 2005, Raven Shield multiplayer and SoCom three times a week. I enjoy my games but am not sure if I would consider myself a hardcore gamer.

I recently helped my girlfriend purchase a DV1000 for travel and work. The machine is great for what she needs, but may not be right for me. I have not loaded TW or Raven Shield to test it out on her machine but I did download the Brothers In Arms demo and after the intro loaded the display just turned off and music just kept on running, so I assumed it would not work.

Anyway I really like the look and feel of the V2000Z, and I am an AMD fan. My concern is with 64bit technology. Windows seems to be moving towards 64 bit with Vista and most new desktop processors are 64 bit. So I do not want to buy a machine that in 1.5 years when I may want to put some new software it would not work.

Also if 64 bit is going to be so big why is the Centrino still in some of the beast laptops (besides battery life)? I mean if 64 bit is in the immediate future why would someone spend $1500 on a Thinkpad that will not run the new software? It seems that only HP-Compaq is only making the move to all AMD 64 bit stuff.

So my question to all, is the Turion future proof (at least for 3 years), and what HP-Compaq would you recommend?

Thanks A bunch.

 

Actually, 64 bit software will not be big for at least for a couple of years. There'll be a 32 bit version of Vista and for the next few years, there'll still be a large majority using 32 bit software. Intel isn't stupid.

 

Intel is not stupid, but one can be arrogant. As noted I would not worry about 64 bit. More important if you will want Vista with all the trimmings is a GPU with DirectX 9 support. If you want a smaller notebook that can game, I would look at the Asus W3v.

 

Would the DV4000 do the job? And about the Direct X will it support 9C? Thanks

 

I would say yes, the ATI X700 in it is an excellent gaming card.

 

If you're going to move to Vista when it comes out I see no point in bothering with the 32-bit version. The Radeon 200M in the HP Turion notebooks is vastly superior to the Intel GPU in their Pentium-M notebooks. The Radeon X700 is, of course, the ideal way to go, but to get that in a Turion notebook you'll have to look at other brands ( MSI-1029, Acer Travelmate 4400, etc).

Update:
"Q: Is vista available in both 32bit and 64bit?
A: Yes 64 bit will be the standard for Vista, and 32-bit will be considered legacy."

In other words, like I said, if you want to run Vista you'll want a 64-bit CPU.

 

Thanks for the post. I am really interested in the MSI-1029 laptop. As I ahave been a PC builder for 7 years I would love to customize my own Laptop. Have you heard of anything good on this model "msi-1029" and what is the difference between the Ati 200 M chipset vs. ATI RX480M chipset? Reason I ask is because the Acers have the X700 GPU with a 200m chipset and the MSI have the RX480M chipset with X700 gpu. If there was no difference I was considering getting the Acer and swapping out the CPU with an ML40.
What do you think.

 

The ATI RX480M northbridge and SB400 southbridge comprise the Radeon 200M chipset. Same difference, in other words. The MSI-1029 configured with a Turion MT40 (the 25W max version, versus the 35W max ML40) and 7200RPM HD would be a pretty slick way to go. Acer was unhelpful when I went looking for a service guide for their Travelmate 4400 Turion notebook (points to HP for posting their service guides).

 

Thanks You have been really helpful. If you do not mind me asking what type of Notebook do you have or are in the market for?
Thanks

 

I'm still using my HP zv5000z, which I've heavily upgraded. If I were buying today I'd either go with the MSI-1029 or the Compaq V2000z (lighter, 12 cell battery option, no X700 option though and I'd want to swap in a Turion MT and 7200RPM HD), probably the MSI. HP's upcoming 17" widescreen Turion is interesting but I use a 20" LCD external display at home and once again HP has denied us a high-end GPU option.

 

I wouldn't consider the 32 bit versions to be less of a product and considering how XP 64 bit is, who knows what Vista 64 bit will be like. Microsoft says a lot of things, some of which end up not being true.

 

How about his; I was thinking of picking up the Acer 4402WLMI and down the road upgrading the processor with an MT40 and swap the HD with a Hitachi 7200. This way I would be getting the X700 GPU.

you also mentioned above the V2000Z, I have demoed this laptop in the store many times and absolutely loved the way it looked and felt plus the screen was awsome. The only thing that concernes me is the GPU being a 200m. What type of games do you think I would be able to play on it? Again I would probably upgrade this to an MT40 and faster HD down the road.

Sorry for all the Q's

 

Perhaps you should start your own thread.

 

I don't think manufacturers will get away with ignoring driver support for 64-bit Vista like they have for 64-bit WinXP. HP has been a particularly big offender here.

The Acer 4402WLMI looks like a good choice, especially for the money. It only has a 64MB X700 vs. 128MB in the MSI-1029, but otherwise appears to be outfitted pretty well, even has gigabit Ethernet. The trick will be figuring out how to get to the CPU socket without the service guide.

The Radeon 200M is going to require that you cut back the resolution of most 3D games, say to 800x600 or even 640x480 res, or cut back the game's detail so the native 1280x800 res will play semi-smoothly. It's the best shared memory notebook GPU out there right now, 3-4 times faster than Intel's, but high res at decent framerates for, say, Doom3 is still out of the question. Strategy games like Civ4 won't be a problem though.

 

Ooooh! Look what Asus just announced:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/051025/sftu098.html?.v=30
ASUS A6Km. Turion CPU, GeForce 7300 GPU, gigabit Ethernet, 1.3M webcam, Bluetooth, 15.4" widescreen. This is now my top pick, but I don't know about availability.

 

Yup, that is one nice looking machine.

 

this is my own thread