new laptop light gaming

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jubalskeiki

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 27, 2005
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I am looking for a laptop that I can use. I primarily would use it internet and pretty light use but I'd also like to be able to do at least some light gaming on it. Mostly I play games like Guild Wars and Civilization IV. It doesn't need to be a graphical powerhouse, but I'll occasionally run something that requires a bit more power like Oblivion or Far Cry 2. I am pretty well versed on desktop power, but I am really out of my element in the notebook market. I had seen some good prices on some Asus laptops, like this one. I dunno if it'd be what I was looking for though. Any suggestions? (ideally I'd like to stay below 500 dollars)
 
jubalskeiki said:
I am looking for a laptop that I can use. I primarily would use it internet and pretty light use but I'd also like to be able to do at least some light gaming on it. Mostly I play games like Guild Wars and Civilization IV. It doesn't need to be a graphical powerhouse, but I'll occasionally run something that requires a bit more power like Oblivion or Far Cry 2. I am pretty well versed on desktop power, but I am really out of my element in the notebook market. I had seen some good prices on some Asus laptops, like this one. I dunno if it'd be what I was looking for though. Any suggestions? (ideally I'd like to stay below 500 dollars)
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Yuck, Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M; that won't run much of anything to do with games. Also, you are going to have a pretty hard time finding something at $500 that will run Farcry 2.
 
Is there an integrated card that it would be better to look for? (At that price range I doubt I'll get a discreet graphics card) Far Cry 2 was an example...it's a game I'd like to take a look at but I've not actually played. Realistically the games I'd play would be older games 2 years or so old and generally not FPS (occasional FPS but really old...like HL2..maybe Portal but that'd be about it) Mostly I won't be playing a lot of games on it, but I'd like to be able to do something occasionally and not be stuck with just flash type games.
 
For Civilization IV, Portal, HL2 and Guild Wars, you could search laptops with the Radeon 3200/4200 integrated solutions. You might be able to run those games at low/medium settings but don't expect too much. And you can forget Oblivion and Far Cry 2 for example, maybe with a laptop with a dedicated card like the 4570; but it will be above your budget.
 
So I found a deal on the dell website. I can get this

Intel® Pentium® Dual Core™ T4400 (2.2GHz/800MHz FSB/1MB cache)
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz
250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
6-cell battery
Dell Wireless 1397 802.11g Half Mini-Card
256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330
8X CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)

For $530 I think I am getting a dedicated card (am I correct in how I am reading that?). The big thing I am not sure of if it isn't dedicated is will that 3 GB of RAM feel limiting with windows 7? (I've never run it..downloaded the beta but never really got it going..got too busy)
 
I don't know if this will help frame things better. I've played Oblivion (if I can't do FC2 that's really fine...I'd like to check it out, but I can wait till I get my desktop back) on a machine with an MSI 6600gt and a socket 939 athlon 64 3000 with a gig of ram on XP Pro at more than acceptable framerates for me...I'm not always a huge one for eyecandy. I'd like it to look decent, but I don't usually play at a really high resolution with massive AA/AF. I am not totally opposed to buying a gently used machine, but if I am going to do that I'd prefer to do a local trade so I can check it out first. I also wouldn't be opposed to like a factory refurbished one...or ones like they sell in the Dell Outlet (though I would prefer 7 to Vista due to the fact that 7 uses resources more efficiently).

I just don't know what sort of mobile hardware I'd be looking at for roughly the equivalent amount of power and how much it would cost. If push came to shove I may be able to up budget a bit, but it's hard to say exactly how much right now. I am just not sure.
 
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I see. I've been looking on google, but all I find seems to be pretty outdated. Is there a chart that would show me esp for video card, but to a lesser extent for CPU as well, comparisons between desktop and mobile cards? IE What would the 4330 be comparable to performance wise on a desktop. I know there is a non-mobile card that is a 4330...is it about the same as that?
 
I've been curious about Oblivion too so I've made a little research :

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-4330.13973.0.html

A 6600 is a little better than the 4330, unfortunately a weak chipset. Maybe it will run but you will have to limit the number of programs running in the background on a system with this card.

Sincerely, the 4550/4570 would still be the better option :

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-4570.13885.0.html

Here's a suggestion of a laptop with the 4570 :

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5254390&CatId=4938

I know it's over your budget but it gives you an idea of the price range required.

Hope this helps !
 
jubalskeiki said:
I see. I've been looking on google, but all I find seems to be pretty outdated. Is there a chart that would show me esp for video card, but to a lesser extent for CPU as well, comparisons between desktop and mobile cards? IE What would the 4330 be comparable to performance wise on a desktop. I know there is a non-mobile card that is a 4330...is it about the same as that?
Click to expand...

Here's another site that can help you :

http://www.gpureview.com/
 
Excalibur55 said:
Here's another site that can help you :

http://www.gpureview.com/
Click to expand...

Thanks for the links, unfortunately (unless I've missed something) it's another example of somewhat outdated information (at least on the mobile side of things). The most recent mobile card I am seeing was released around 2006. I found a similar chart somewhere else, but I had the same issue. I am usually pretty good about being able to find stuff on google, but this is really being a problem.
 
For $500 not many choices out there, probably ASUS 1201N with a atom 330 dual core and ion, but its very entry lvl setup not meant for gaming, but it should play some games with limitations.

If you could spare some cash, ASUS K42JR-A1 or ASUS UL30VT-A1 or ASUS U30JC-A1.
 
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Abula said:
For $500 not many choices out there, probably ASUS 1201N with a atom 330 dual core and ion, but its very entry lvl setup not meant for gaming, but it should play some games with limitations.

If you could spare some cash, ASUS K42JR-A1 or ASUS UL30VT-A1 or ASUS U30JC-A1.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestions. I think those other Asus' are way out of my price range, and I am really not sure how well games would do on an Atom. My sister currently has an Atom based desktop...which is OK, but not anywhere near what I'd need. Not to mention 12 inches seems a tad small for much of anything.

I have found a few machines in my range that have the 3200/4200 listed above...and then the Dell with the 4330...I just don't know what sort of power that translates to in real usage. It seems unreal to me that there isn't a reasonably priced laptop that can play a game that is 4 years old. Not that it isn't the case...it's just pretty hard for me to fathom. Depending on how things go down here I might have a little more money...I'll just need to see what's going on.
 
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Also, the big reason I don't necessarily want a high-powered card is because having decent battery life is more important to me than playing a ton of games. I'd just like to have an upgrade from the machine I am currently using (and to have my own machine).

I was looking through some forums talking about the 4330 I posted above...and someone mentioned a site "Can I run it" so I looked and even this machine is only unable (according to that) to run oblivion because it doesn't have any shader support...or something like that. I don't really know..I'm just so confused by all of this. It seems everyone I ask says different things. I realize the graphical quality would go up as I paid more. My current pondering would be a battery issue I suppose. If I got one of those 4500 series cards...how much battery life would I be sacrificing (if any) when using it not for gaming (at which time I don't mind having it plugged in).
 
jubalskeiki said:
Also, the big reason I don't necessarily want a high-powered card is because having decent battery life is more important to me than playing a ton of games. I'd just like to have an upgrade from the machine I am currently using (and to have my own machine).

I was looking through some forums talking about the 4330 I posted above...and someone mentioned a site "Can I run it" so I looked and even this machine is only unable (according to that) to run oblivion because it doesn't have any shader support...or something like that. I don't really know..I'm just so confused by all of this. It seems everyone I ask says different things. I realize the graphical quality would go up as I paid more. My current pondering would be a battery issue I suppose. If I got one of those 4500 series cards...how much battery life would I be sacrificing (if any) when using it not for gaming (at which time I don't mind having it plugged in).
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Well if battery life is your no1 prioirity and you still would like to have some game capabilities, i would suggest you to save a little more and go for UL30VT or UL80VT, this will offer really incredible battery life and still are more than capabable for all day tasks. Probably maybe even wait for the UL30JT that will come with a i7 + 310m that suppose to still deliver 10 hours of battery life, i own 2 ul30 atm, one vt (christmas gift to my brother) and x5 (christmas gift to my mother), both are really nice portable with great battery life, honestly if you dont do anything like video encoding this laptops are really amazing for what they offer and still under $1k. I used the VT for over two weeks, and i played games like WOW, COD4, CSS and they laptop was fine, i didnt feel it slow at all.
 
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Thanks for the advice. Unfortunately waiting awhile and saving more really isn't an option. I can't really wait too long. I need this in no more than 2 weeks. I'd seen a few of those 4500 series laptops for around 650ish...which I may be able to swing...but that's about the max I can get. So my real question at this point is I know the 4500 series would be a big jump in gaming capability (and really it'd be as much as I'd need...that much I am sure about). My two big hesitations with that are a) it's 150 dollars more, will I get that much of a bump from it? b) how badly would that kill the battery life? I've seen reviews of laptops with the 6 cell battery and the 4330 and they are fine...I'm just worried I'd have to get a bigger battery if I up the card to get the same battery life from it.

And just to clarify I am not talking about extreme life (I don't need 10 hours) I just don't want to end up with an hour and a half of battery life.
 
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jubalskeiki said:
So I found a deal on the dell website. I can get this

Intel® Pentium® Dual Core™ T4400 (2.2GHz/800MHz FSB/1MB cache)
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz
250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
6-cell battery
Dell Wireless 1397 802.11g Half Mini-Card
256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330
8X CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)

For $530 I think I am getting a dedicated card (am I correct in how I am reading that?). The big thing I am not sure of if it isn't dedicated is will that 3 GB of RAM feel limiting with windows 7? (I've never run it..downloaded the beta but never really got it going..got too busy)
Click to expand...

I just pulled the trigger on this, I wont be doing heavy gaming, moreso occasional. I wonder if it will run Wow n BF2? and CS source probably will run with no prob. $567 after $33 in taxes. Weird thing I noticed on build they included the integrated webcam which I didnt opt for just the 6 cell battery. We'll see what happens n how those games run. Estimated delivery date is 3-8-10 Arghh!
 
dwilson041781 said:
I just pulled the trigger on this, I wont be doing heavy gaming, moreso occasional. I wonder if it will run Wow n BF2? and CS source probably will run with no prob. $567 after $33 in taxes. Weird thing I noticed on build they included the integrated webcam which I didnt opt for just the 6 cell battery. We'll see what happens n how those games run. Estimated delivery date is 3-8-10 Arghh!
Click to expand...

I think it came with a webcam...I just didn't include all of the specs (I edited some of them out because it was a pretty long list). I don't think you had any choice about getting a cam or not.
 
got the laptop last week, so much earlier than they predicted. Great laptop, played wow, n some cs source no prob... BUT, then 2 days ago saw the studio 17's for $399 and waited till yesterday and they jacked it up to $450, I bit anyways... I gave them a call and they waived the restocking fee after I put in my new order for the studio 17, they sent me a UPS label via email for return of the Inspiron.

Sadly it took several phone calls because of communication problems, either person's accent was very strong or they did not understand what I was saying Ugh, anyways everything worked out.

For a lil more money I got a Core 2 duo cpu, 9 cell battery, 17" 1440x900, Ati HD3650 512mb video card. Less Ram and HD space, but both upgradeable as far as I know.

1 224-4288 Studio 1737, Intel Core 2 Duo T6600, 2.2GHz, 800Mhz, 2M L2 Cache
1 313-6991 Ruby Red Paint, Studio 1737
1 311-8622 2GB, DDR2, 800MHz 2 Dimm
1 330-0559 Standard Keyboard
1 320-6897 Hi Resolution, glossy widescreen 17.0 inch display (1440x900)
1 320-8018 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3650
1 341-7833 160G 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1899012

Did you ever find anything? best of luck
 
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