Help a Future Student Out

*Hey, I decided to post in this thread since the sony experts are here (i'm assuming)
*Anyways I'm going to be buying this laptop in a couple weeks maybe a month max (so if any discounts or price drops are to be expected tell me).
*Gaming is a huge part of my life a good ATI or NVDIA GPU is a necessity.
Also a nice HD screen would be nice.
*I was looking into the HP Envy 14 Coming out soon because it's a premium laptop. I always thought that all sony laptops were premium so they appealed to me. I may be able to get a student discount but I read that I could get a 15% discount by calling etc.

I'm looking at these 2 comps.
Sony VPCF1290X (I like the green power button hahaha. And I see they have a HD upgrade available,I would upgrade to a 330m GPU but is that good for gaming? )
Sony VPCZ1290X (This thing looks like a behemoth. And once again my green power button is their lol. It's to much for me at 1.9k so unless U can get it for 1.5 or 1k which I highly doubt it this isn't a very clear option. Also it would require alot of begging from my parents)

 

If heavy gaming is very important to you, forget the Z. It's a good performer, but it's just not meant to be used for serious gaming... You'll just be disappointed. Plus it costs $2k+ for being so small and light (while still having a 330M).

The F12 series weighs 6.9 pounds so it takes some effort to carry around, and the battery life isn't stellar (1.5-2.5~ hours). Also, I don't think its video card (330M) is extremely suitable for hardcore gaming. There are probably more powerful options in the same price/weight laptop class.

 

Yeah, I agree with shurcooL.

I'm going to be a future student next year as well, and I ended up getting the Z because its basically the best package you can get--battery life, speed, and a decent graphics card. (I do play games a lot as well) I mean how much are you really going to game when you're in college. I don't know, just my thoughts, its completely up to you.

It's going to be hard to lower the price of these laptops to around what you want them to be. I guess if price is the problem, maybe you should try the Acer TimelineX series, they seemed to have good reviews on them.

 

I agree with shurcooL and jtd9,

IF you want SERIOUS gaming, the 330m is NOT for you, however, I've played Battlefield: Bad Company 2 on medium settings on the Vaio Z with ~25-30 fps(drops when in really smoky situations). So either option, the Vaio Z or F series would not be good for SERIOUS gaming, but it will play games at lower settings.

About the price of a Vaio Z, MS store sold their Vaio Z for ~1250 a while back, but that was clearance for the new Vaio Z12(the "refresh"). So I don't see any price of a vaio Z dropping to 1.5k any time soon in the forseeable future.

As for alternatives, the TimelineX series from Acer offers better gaming and a cheaper price(HDD vs SSD, 1080p vs 768p). But it's not out yet and I'm not sure if it can be customized with a full HD screen. And i'm referring to the 3820tg, 4820tg and the 5820tg, NOT the 3820t, 4xxxt, 5xxxt(which have no dedicated graphics).

 

I bought my new Sony Vaio with gaming in mind. I would have gone for something better if I could but price limited me (and anything is better than my current intel graphics!). If gaming's your thing then actually the E series looks like it has the best gpu for a Vaio laptop, it's cheap too

 

Umm . thanks this acer timeline series when does it droo any time frame? And cakefish I saw the E series but I wish it had the build of the f/z series. Anyways I youtubed them and yeh gaming doesn't loo to great

 

Why not try alienware? I don't have personal experience but from the forums they seem to get games going

 

My best advice is to separate gaming from you notebook.
Buy a Sony PS3 and get several years of gaming and blu-ray playback.
On a laptop, by the time you get to next gen games, the laptop graphics would be unable to run the game with all the bells and whistles.

 

Btw, the GT 330 isn't that good for gaming, you may need to lower the resolution and turn of some eye-candy.

I say get the Notebook+ $299 PS3

 

IMHO, I think GT 330m is fine if you're a casual gamer who enjoys an occasional stint of gaming, even with demanding games. But you're right, it probably won't suit the hardcore crowd who wants all the eye-candy turned on.

For what it's worth, I have played Call of Duty Modern Warfare fluidly on the Z, albeit with a bit of an overclock. GTAIV also plays pretty good on native resolution and high detail settings, with only very occasional stuttering (again with an overclock). Granted, these games aren't Crysis or Bad Company 2, which don't sound like they can run on high detail settings on the Z, but again, for the casual gamer it's probably fine for gaming.

 

He did say: "Gaming is a huge part of my life a good ATI or NVDIA GPU is a necessity."

That doesn't sound like a casual gamer. Also, all of those games you mentioned, you are going to be lowering the res or AA or AF.
IMHO he can do casual gaming on the vaio and get a PS3 that should last for years, more than the laptop itself and still play the latest games.

 

Yeah thanks . As far as the alienware the casing on those is to ugly for me. I have a Ps3 and soon the be getting a xbox 360 slim to replace my fat one. Any other options ? Thanks for all the advice so far

 

Get the Sony....its simply amazing.
A cheaper but good option if you need long battery is the Asus UL30VT-A1