Hel80 Futureproof for new games

Hi,

I have to buy a notebook for my school, but I also want to replace my desktop PC with it. I have to do allot of designing like Photoshop, and 3D Studio Max. But I also want to play games with it that's gonna be out in 2007 like Crysis, Unreal Tournament 2007, and maybe Gears of War if it's coming to PC. I will travel allot with it almost everyday because I don't live near my school, so hardness of the case also plays a big role. The notebooks that interests me are the Compal Hel 80 and the Zepto Znote 6214W. The system specs that I choose are:

WXGA (15.4inch 1280x800 Hel 80) - (14.1inch 1280x768 Znote 6214W)
Duo 2 Core 7200 2GHZ 4MB
1024MB DDR2 PC5300 - 667MHZ
Geforce Go 7600 (256 Hel 80) - (512 Znote 6214W)

So I would like to ask you guys are these notebooks futureproof for me and which is the best for me.

Thanks in advance.

 

The notebooks you mention, are futureproof, in the sense that, they will run Vista without any problems.

You should also consider the Asus A8Js, a 14 inch notebook with the powerful Go 7700 video card.

 

I'd say... not so much. I mean, I'm sure it'll play the games, but it won't be on par with middle to high end desktops.

Especially if you look at nvidia's 8800 gtx (out now) and ati's r600 (out Q1 2007). Those're the highest end cards, but they're quite a leap above the previous highest end cards. If I were you I think I'd consider a 17" with a 7950 or 7900. Of course, those'd be bulkier laptops, so if you just want to play, and not worry about keeping the settings high, the HEL80 should be fine.

 

Well I was considering to buy the Asus A8Js but the problem is that I live in Holland, and the Asus A8Js is €200 expensiver here than the 2 I mentioned here. So I'll have to go with hell80 or the znote 6214W.

If I can play Unreal Tournament 2K7 or Crysis on medium settings with a steady framerate like 30fps that will be more than enough for me. I also read somewhere that the Hell80 extremely is underclocked, so my question is how big are the difference between the 2 cards(Hell80 - Znote6214W).

 

i think they're the same thing. the zepto is just an hel80 with a different name...correct me if i'm wrong. so that means both are gonna be stock clocked at 350/350. you can easily oc to 450/369 with no problems at all and go up around 400-500 points in 3dmark05.

 

No, I think you were confused with the Zepto Znote 2425W. The Znote 6214W I mentioned is totally different.

 

As long as you are willing to make sacrifices in settings as newer, more demanding games are released you should be OK with either the HEL80 or Znote 6214W. You will not see much difference in gaming performance due to the extra VRAM in the Znote--but if it can achieve higher clock settings there may be more headroom there.

The HEL80 does come with an underclocked GPU and scores lower than other systems though. Gaming is still more than adequate at its stock settings, but it's worth mentioning.

Since you seem to be planning on taking this one everywhere you go, the 14.1" size will be more portable. Also, I'd prefer WXGA in a 14.1" system as I feel it's a bit low for a 15.4" screen. The 6214W is made of plastic though, and the aluminum on the lid of the HEL80 (as long as you're not getting the VBI version) would give you a little more of the rigidity that you were looking for. As long as you take care of your system, either one will be fine though.

Good luck.

 

Unreal scales rediculously well... So dont worry about that game. As for the others, best hardware/worst hardware comes down to how well they design the game engine to scale with architecture. Of course, a major part of this is "what can I turn down and turn off", but there is still alot of glue in the background the makes engines like the one in unreal over the top for scalability.

As far as 256mb of ram is concerned, you honestly should be fine there.. Most roadmaps for ram side are set to double every 2 years on the major market, while reaching minor market at 3-4

With the core speed, there is plenty of information on pushing the GPU up to more realistic values for the architecture, so dont put to much worry into that.. I currently play BF 2142 on nearly the highest settings at 1400x1050 and still dont go below 30fps even with alot of action and smoke...

Remember, if you seriously want to game, get a 7200 RPM drive... thats what loads your maps and characters, and fills your video ram with the lovely textures... Going with a slower drive will increase load times,and depending on how dynamicly loaded a game is, might cause stutter (unlikely, but possible, as you can see by my sig, I've got 5400rpm and my system loads BF 2142 maps about 8-12 seconds slower then my desktop which has a raid 0 of 7200rpm drives, both systems are dual cores with 2gb ram)

Last but not least... max out the ram if you want to game tomorrow. Even games today tend to see improvement with more then 1gb. I know my room mates computer takes almost twice as long to load a map as I do, and he has a faster processor (single core), a raid 0 7200rpm. He also gets intermitted stuttering while the swap file plays hockey... With .NET gaming also starting to become a reality (some great games already out), more ram is a must.. Just think.. my 52kb quake 3 map rendering engine with player physics(c#) turns into 27mb at execution and dynamically grows depending on the map file and "elements" (player models, object models) I add to the map.