M30 question

Hi,
I am thinking of buying the m30 UU9 notebook on ebay. It has the following video:Graphics Controller: GeForceGo 5200 64MB, 200MHz, 128bit, 4XAGP
　
Is this any good? I am moving away and i cannot take my desktop with me so it is very important that i can play my games on this unit. Perhaps this is a dumb question, but on games where the resolution is 1280x1024 or 1028x764 what happens to the image on the widescreen? will it be stretched or would there be black bars on the side? (i play age of empires alot and would like to be able to run games like nhl 2004 and MOH etc...)
Thanks for any comments

???

 

Bunsen,

First off, I would not recommend getting the notebook from eBay unless the person can provide the purchase invoice. There have been a lot of stories of people buying stolen items from eBay without the purchaser knowing. The other thing I heard, I think it was on a post in this site, that some companies will not warranty any system purchased through eBay. You may want to check with Toshiba before buying the notebook.

Now, regarding the video card. The card is not DirectX 9.0 compliant so it will not give you the full graphics capabilities of a DirectX 9.0 game. There's even the possibility it may not even run. The card should be able to play the non-DirectX 9.0 games properly, but maybe not at max res.

On the normal settings, the screen will stretch to fill the screen, so some of the graphics will look a bit off (stretched). You have an option in the display properties or in the BIOS to disable stretching, therfore this will give you the black bars.

-Vb-

 

So where do you suggest i get a good laptop at a decent price (my limit is 1700CAN$) that can handle games and what not. Is there anything wrong with getting a used laptop on ebay or on this forum for that matter? Or would you only recommend purchasing a brand new computer? Thanks

???

 

Well, getting a used laptop anywhere is not really a bad thing. The only issue is the legality of some of the units. I'm not saying the notebook on eBay is "hot", I'm just saying to check with Toshiba to make sure they'll fix/warranty any notebook bought from eBay. Plus, make sure you get a copy or the original invoice to make sure it's legit. You definately don't want to get caught buying stolen items.

At $1799 Canadian, it's gonna get a bit tough to find a good notebook that will be powerful enough to play current games. You may want to look at companies that sell refurbished notebooks. Do a search under Google or any other search engine for companies in Canada that sell used or refurb'd notebooks.

I'm also looking for a new notebook, new only, and it's a difficult search. Not that many notebooks out there that have all the bells and whistles for a rock bottom price. Most units out there now have Integrated Video which is not that great on the latest games. It may work ok for Age of Empires & MOH. Dedicated video cards would definately be the better choice.

Toshiba came out with a few new models A60 & A70 that have Integrated video, but is in your price range. I saw them at Futureshop.ca.

-Vb-

 

What do you make of the tecra s1 1.5centrino with 512ram and 32 meg ati 9000? I realise 32 megs is not the greatest but would the video performance really be that bad? It is obvious i will not be able to afford the 9600 ati card so what would be a good compromise? Thanks

???

 

Well, the overall specs for the S1 seem fine, but the main issue would be the ATI 9000 IPG and especially the 32MB. Integrated video is usually not the best thing to get unless gameplay and graphics intensive apps is not what you will be doing. Integrated video controllers don't have their own dedicated memory, it shares the system memory. So, if you have 512MB system ram, 32, 64 or 128MB (depends on the capabilities of the system) can be allocated for video. This will be subtracted from your total available system memory. 512MB ram - 32MB Video memory = 479MB available ram. You will need a faster CPU in order to compensate for the loss of ram and integrated video card.

A good compromise would be a non-DirectX 9.0 video chip with dedicated video memory. So an ATI Mobility 9200 or NVidia Go 5200 sould be a minimum.

If you're not stuck on the Toshiba brand, have you looked at possibly the eMachines notebooks? They're a few hundred more than $1800 but it has a multitude of additional features that more than make up for the price. The M681x models have the AMD64 CPU, ATI 9600 GPU & a DVD Burner. The only draw backs are the fact that it's more & also currently there's a known problem with the hinges. They seem to be cracking the LCD casing & eMachines seems to be unwilling to replace them free of charge under warranty.

Other places you may want to check out is Staples, they recently had a sale on a Toshiba M10 for $1300, but they sold out in no time. Plus, Staples has a 150% price match guarantee, if you find a lower price from an authorized dealer, they will match the price and then beat it by 50% of the difference. That's pretty sweet!

Dell may be another option for you. They always have specials on their notebooks, either free shipping, free upgrades or discounts. Check them out at Dell.ca.

-Vb-

 

Venombite, Toshiba seems to be very popular in Canada, and many of the posts on this forum are from folks in Canada requesting information. Would you have any idea why? This is not to say that Toshiba is not a quality company, by the way.

 

Hey Reverend,

Toshiba is one of the larger computer companies in Canada. There are others like HP & IBM, but the Toshiba's have built a bigger name when it comes to less expensive notebooks. HP may be the 1st or 2nd largest computer manufacturer in the world, but I believe people are still a hesitant to purchase HP computers (not a very good track record in the past with their Omnibooks and Vectra desktops). Even though HP has dropped all their computer lines, except for the Pavilion, to go with the Compaq lines, people may still have that idea in their head of not buying HP. And IBM, you just don't get enough bang for the buck. We do have Dell as well, but since you can only purchase online, this makes it difficult for Canadians (who like to see what they buy) to purchase their products.

Regarding the requests for info, I believe it's because computer manufacturers don't have the large selections in models like they do in the USA. Plus, in Toshiba's case, their models differ from the US & Canada. Most of the Canadian models end with a zero, but in the US, the same notebook model ends with a five. A P20 in Canada is a P25 in the US. But Toshiba has started to slowly change their modelling scheme.

Generally, Toshiba's may just be more popular in Canada than the other brands. Hopefully this is what you were looking for, but this is just my personal opinion.

-Vb-