Buying new computer, suggestions from where?

[keam02]

I have to buy a new computer for college. I am getting a laptop, I just dont know where I should get it from. Help me out.

[Rbstr]

honestly laptops are a fuzzy area for me right now, with all the different types of graphics chips ect.
It's hard to find good benchmarks on specific parts, becasue you can't relay mix and match parts.

The Pentium M(the centrino platform) has always need lauded as a great chip, so I'd look into it.

Are you looking for a laptop to game on, or just one for general use?

[Peacemaker]

Im going to highly reccomend you look into HPs. Especialy the ones with the AMD chip sets... very nice

[Derfud]

If you are building a desktop, get your components from NewEgg (http://www.newegg.com) or NCIX (http://www.ncix.com) (if you are in Canada).

[Majik]

HP and IBM make decent laptops. Of course if you want a gaming laptop....ALIENWARE MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[Setari]

As much as I hate their desktops, I hear Dell makes really good laptops too.

[Hamma]

Yes they do make pretty good laptops - and always have deals running on them as well. That XPS laptop was made for gaming but the price is kinda steep on it. One of my teammates has an XPS and it runs games pretty well.

[Rbstr]

HP and IBM make decent laptops. Of course if you want a gaming laptop....ALIENWARE MUHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Alienware is bullshit, you can pay thousands of dollars in preimium for nothing but a name, and horrible support.


Dell acctualy makes nice laptops.

One thing I'd like to put out there DON'T GO FOR ANY LAPTOP IF IT HAS A PENTIUM 4. It will kill your battery life, and get hot as fuck. Athlon 64's and the Pentium Ms are both far superior.

[OneManArmy]

yea I myself have a compaq (hp) laptop and I fucking love it.

uses AMD 64 (mobile version) with an ATI card (cheap as hell but I dont game on it)

never thought I'd love something from compaq but its a damn good laptop.

[Majik]

DO NOT BUY A DELL LAPTOP!!!!!!!

All I do all day long is fix those pieces of shit at work

[Mag-Mower]

If you are building a desktop, get your components from NewEgg (http://www.newegg.com) or NCIX (http://www.ncix.com) (if you are in Canada).


indeed, NCIX is awesome, they have alot of parts, and at a really decent price.

[keam02]

bump...thanks for the input. I think HP seems like the best idea but Im wary of the video card. I want to be able to play PS with max looking distance (dont care if graphics are all the way down) at a decent framerate. Im not really a graphics whore, but I want a decent framerate (constantly 30+ usually 60+) for most games. My current rig...blows. I get so much slow down that Im forced to be a cloaker or use a pheonix because when I drop to 1/2 fps I have a chance to actually survive.

[NamelessPlayer]

I hear PS is a RAM whore, so you might want to stock up with no less than 1 GB of RAM-preferably, double that. Other games such as BF2 will also thank you for it.

I would also personally settle only for a laptop that uses the higher-end nVidia chips, such as a GeForce Go6800 or Go7800. Sadly, most, if not all AMD-based laptops do not support these GPUs for some strange-ass reason-only Mobility Radeon 9700s. Maybe PS isn't nearly as GPU-heavy as it is CPU-demanding, but I'm not sure-besides, most modern games hit the GPU harder than the CPU.

I can't really say how much of a performance increase you'll get, as I play PS on a 3-to-4-year-old system that meets the recommended req's for PS. They ought to dub those the minimum req's, as I can play with max draw distance and everything else low/off on 1024x768 and still get single-digit framerates in heavy fighting...I'd upgrade if I had more money, but even so, DX10 is on the horizon-and I want a graphics card that can make use of it.

As for laptop brands? I'm not really sure, but I hear that Dell actually makes solid gaming laptops as part of the XPS line. I can't comment much or at all on other brands and their laptops, though I remember that VoodooPC was taking pre-orders for an AMD-based system that would take Athlon X2s and high-end nVidia graphics chips. Expensive as hell, though, clocking in at over 4,000 US$ for the minimum config IIRC.

[Hamma]

The more ram the better imo - not only for PS but for everything.

[OneManArmy]

chicks love ram.