Best off the shelf laptop for sl

my laptop just pooped out..I am headed out the door to get a new one (dont have time to web order). Can anyone suggest a good laptop brand supplied at Best Buy or Circuit City..that will work with SL. thx

I have the Toshiba Qosmio and it works great for SL. Don't know if the stores you mentioned have it or not though.

The biggest danger of buying a laptop for SL without much thought:

# Intel GPUs.

Avoid them like the plague.

You want to make sure it has an NVidia or Radeon GPU..preferably with more than 256MB of dedicated (graphics) memory. They're not too easy to find if you're on a budget.

Plus, don't forget to make sure it's easy to convert to wired networking. SL still doesn't officially support wireless networks.

Also, preferably one that will take 4GB of RAM (even if it doesn't come with that much).

This, too, will drive up the price, but it is possible to find some for under $2K.

The 3D graphics card is the biggest most important issue.

ATI 1600 or newer (1900, 2600, etc)

nVidia 7600 or newer (79xx, 8xxx)

Do not take less, it is almost 2008, not 1999.

lee

does alienware make laptops? I haven't looked in ages...

yeah video, ram, and networking are going to be your biggest things to check as noted above.... and it doesn't hurt to get a premium level cpu, instead of the cut rate reduced cost version of the same

but you will pay too much ...

i am looking at ones like the
ASUS G Series G1S-B1 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T7700(2.40GHz) 15.4" Wide SXGA+ 2GB DDR2 667 200GB 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT - Retail

spend some time on newegg or your favorite shopping site and you will find many that are doing well...

it is either toshiba or dell that has the overclocked 8600, (called the 8700) in sli mode for 512mb of gddr3 memory...

the new catalyst drivers from ATI got my friends laptop with vista going too so that concern is pretty much gone now it seems...i would go with the 8 series fom nvidia, or the 2600? from ati as they are the only DX10 compatible chips out and theres no point in buying for the last round of DX...if you will game on it besides SL.



i love being a nerd-girl

just returned from best buy...and the ASUS you mention seemed to be the best one there. Looks real cool...ready to buy...oh...its not in STOCK...!uuuggghhh I will hit circuit city later

thanks everyones input

I would highly recommend toughing it out for a few days if you're a serious SLer. I have absolutely fallen in love with the built-to-order rigs from Vigor Gaming:

http://vigorgaming.com/product/config_artoriuspro.html

I have a 17" brightview widescreen, 1920x1200, with an nVidia GeForce Go 7950 GTX 512 MB PCI (note for nVidia numbers, the second number is more important than the first, so a 7950 is actually better than an 8800, first digit being family second digit being model).

They also provide three year warranties for an additional fee, which if you're using SL, is an important thing to get as SL likes to burn out laptops. You can read up on the rest of the features available at the link provided above. I *love* my Vigor rig.

Regards,

-Flip

the 7900 series is DX9 max, and the architechture changed between the two series...the 7950's in sli give really good 3d mark 6 scores...but the 8700 sli smokes them in laptops, and no 7900 series card will touch my 8800 gts 640 mb desktop card.

the entire design of the cards are different.

the new 8000 series uses stream processors instead of pixel pipelines and handles intense graphics so incredibly...

and honestly...for the future you will want a DX10 compatible chipset...right now it isnt a big deal, but give it a couple years and it is a matter of having to buy again, or being up to speed already.

I take it you mean off the shelf as in something you can pick up locally.

For anyone reading who may be looking to get a laptop though, stay away from Asus, I don`t know if its all models or just the one I have (W3V) but it is TERRIBLE for your eyes.

Anyway, if anyone spends a lot of time in SL I say get a desktop. SL + Ps + Long periods of time = killed my laptop.

My experience with Asus has been all bad.... bad quality, bad parts.. just bad unfortunately..

I'm more of a desktop kind of guy myself.. If you want to see what I'm working with, check out the thread about the Nicholaz client. I am always looking for ways to upgrad it

PC all the way for me.. gave my laptop to someone else a few months ago.. now run

2.4ghz Quad core (Intel, OC'd to 3.5 atm on fans only, monitoring heat), 2g of medium quality RAM, NVidia GeForce 8600GT, GIGAbyte mobo (Cant remember model atm), 320gig HD... and 4 fans total.... love this thing

I use AMD for processors, I have 3g of RAM, ATI Radeon X1300 512mb A 250g and a 500g HD... my little box is a beast

bah rich kidEDIT:: I usually use AMD, but the board I wanted was Intel, and its an amazing board.. my whole system, including XP home cost just under 1100$ which was my budget, and I'm extremely happy with what I built ^^

Rich kid? I wish. I am in the military... Contrary to popular belief, we don't get paid THAT much. At least not at my rank... hehe I'm still paying for my little bundle of bad-ass. I'll have to talk to you more for when I want to build a new one from scratch, which I'm looking and thinking about doing soon

I know exactly how much you get paid.. was XO in my schools NJrotc unit.. and we learn that stuff =P

But feel free to.. I like helping ^^

/me grins.

I may just take you up on that.

I'm sorry, you completely pulled that one out of your butt, 7's don't support DX10 which will start to become standard.

I run SL on my old slide rule.

I upgraded from my abacus a few months ago, and it runs so much better.

I use a MacBook Pro for SL, and it runs very well.

I've had mine for about 3 months now, and I love it. Core2 Duo, GeForce 8600, nicest screen I've EVER seen on a laptop (17 inch at full 1920x1200), all for well under $2000. What more could you want? Plus, it's a guaranteed attention getter with all it's fancy lights, huge bright screen, and Darth Vader styling. Wherever I go, everybody always asks me what it is and where I got it.

I only have only three very minor complaints about it. First, the battery life is pretty short, but that's to be expected for any gaming laptop. Second, the hard drive spec is a little slow at just 5400 RPM. I haven't actually noticed any speed issues with it, but if I ever do, it's easy enough to pop a 7200 in there. I assume they went with the 5400 just to save the already short battery life. Third, I hate Vista. But since it's pretty much impossible to get a new laptop with XP anymore, there was no choice. No XP drivers are available for this machine.

Other than that, I absolutely love the thing. Aside from my current desktop which I spent $10,000 on to get it exactly the way I want it, the Asus G2S A1 is without doubt the best computer I've ever owned. It's certainly the best laptop in its price range, better than most that cost $1000-2000 more, in fact.

To give you an idea, at 320 draw, 8xQ antialiasing, and every graphics option turned on and maxed, I get a steady 20-50FPS in most locations in SL on this laptop. It really kicks ass.



Edit: Oh, and if you want to spend a bit more, Asus recently came out with an even better one. It's called the G2S Extreme. It sports a Core 2 Extreme quad core instead of the Core 2 Duo, and a 7200 RPM drive. I think all the other specs are the same.

If you want to keep the price reasonable, go with the A1. You won't find anything close to its quality in the sub $2000 range. But if you want to go all out, the Extreme looks like a fantastic machine.

Whatever laptop you buy make sure you put it on a cooling pad as SL will fry it real quick.