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Games Entertainment Hardware

High Performance Gaming Laptops On A Budget? 106

Posted by simoniker from the portable-gaming-goodness dept.
Cory Tunney writes "In my quest to find a gaming laptop that will fulfill my gaming fantasies, but not kick me in the wallet at the same time, I've come across many options. Alienware is out of the question, as are companies like VooDooPC, but out of the rough comes companies less known but with impressive hardware. Sager seems to have won over a pretty large group of fans, and iBuyPower also seems to put out a decent amount of bang for the buck. However, when it comes down to it, I am still left with several options and I do not know what road to travel. So here's the jist of it - a system with a price tag around $2,000, a high-end video card (Radeon or the equivalent NVidia) and a system with an AMD would be a plus, but I will not rule out Intel if they can offer similar performance. So, Slashdot readers, what systems can you recommend?"
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High Performance Gaming Laptops On A Budget? More

High Performance Gaming Laptops On A Budget?

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  • This is something I've been wondering about, and since it's on topic (at least slightly) I'd like to ask: Can anyone tell me how well the current 15" PowerBooks work for gaming? I'm seriously looking at them to replace my 4 year old Dell but I'd like to be able to play games now and then.

    • Re:PowerBook Gaming (Score:1, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      My Powerbook 15" 1.5GHz with 1.5GB of RAM kernel panics whenever I try to run Warcraft III. So it is useless to me for gaming.

    • Re:PowerBook Gaming (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      The PowerBook G4s are far and away the best laptops on the market, but I wouldn't buy one for games unless I specifically wanted the games offered: there are far fewer Mac games, they release later, etc.

      That said, Macs seem to be substantially faster MHz for MHz. I've owned several OS X machines and recommend them without hesitation to anybody who doesn't want specific software not available.

      Have you tried going to CompUSA to play with one? They tend to have a popular game or two.

      I've only seen one or tw
      • Thanks for the info. If Macs never played a single game, I would almost certanly still buy the machine as that's what I want and most games I play now are console or online (pop-cap type stuff). That said, the ability is there so I was curious about it. If I do play games, they will probably be Sims 2, Doom 3, UT, etc. They are BIG name games and I know they have (or at least will get) Mac ports. I'm in no hurry, so I don't maid waiting for the port either.

        Thanks for the info.

    • Apple has an extensive list of freeware/shareware games [apple.com] on their website. Macsoft Games [macsoftgames.com] and Aspyr [aspyr.com] both offer a fairly wide selection of ported games.

      I downloaded the Ureal Tournament 2003 demo just to see if my 12" iBook (G3 900/384 mb/ATI Moblity Radeon 7500 32mb) would choke...and I was shocked to find it runs quite nicely and looks great.

      (not affliated with any of the above companies, just like to game on iBook)

  • powerbook G4 (Score:2, Redundant)

    by trans_err ( 606306 )
    My powerbook cost around $2000 (admittedly after student discounts). The slick bugger tends to perform quite well with anything I've thrown at it. I can't wait to play DOOM 3 on it!
  • Dude, you're getting a dell.

    Seriously, get an 8600 with whatever the best graphics card they offer now happens to be. You can find coupons at get a 1.6 or 1.7 centrino at a pretty decent price. You will be more than happy. It runs Farcry better than my desktop (which is a p4-2.8ghz with a gig of ram). And their warranty is just icing.
    • Unless you go the XPS route, the best ATI gfx card you can get seems to be the 9600. The XPS thing lasts under an hour, and weighs in at something like 8 lbs. Granted, that's what you get for a gaming laptop, but I'm trying to shoot for the middle ground somewhere between there. I also want a somewhat normal aspect ratio instead of these wide screen laptops...
      • The 9100 actually has support for the Radeon 9700 or the new mobility Radeon 9800 (which just screams) although the latter will delay your shipment by about a week.
    • Actually for gaming Centrino is a twosided sword. The Pentium-M kicks with 1.7 GHz every other Intel Prozessors butt, litterally spoken. This thing is faster than a 4 GHz P4 and uses only a fraction of energy the P4 uses. But most centrino notebooks blow the gaming performance away with the dog slow and under linux rather problematic i855/xTreme2 graphics processor. Which is fast enough for occasional games (nwn still runs ok on this one) but never try it for high end gaming, you will end with a slideshow.
    • what kind of video card do you have in your desktop that you get such low performance on farcry?

  • Hmm... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Rie Beam ( 632299 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @08:46PM (#9905329) Journal
    " So, Slashdot readers, what systems can you recommend?"

    A desktop computer and a midget to carry it around?

  • Dunno if this counts (Score:3, Informative)

    by Sentry21 ( 8183 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @08:46PM (#9905332) Journal
    To be honest, I haven't checked benchmarks for it yet, but I just purchased a Dell Inspiron 5150 (should arrive on the 18th). The reason I picked this one in particular was that it was dell's lowest-priced laptop that still had decent video hardware.

    The specs I got were as follows:

    - 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 HT
    - 15" SXGA+ LCD
    - 512 MB RAM
    - 60 GB HD
    - 64 MB nVidia GeForce FX Go5200

    Adding a more powerful battery and a 4x DVD burner put me up to CDN $2200 after tax and shipping.

    The 5150 on the US website starts at 256 megs of ram, 3.06 GHz P4, 15" XGA at $1079 after a 10% discount.

    Another Dell option is $2319 USD after 15% off (about $400 savings) for the Inspiron XPS - a little more than your target price, but the specs are impressive to say the least.

    I don't know how well my system is going to handle games - they're mostly a secondary priority, and the system is going to have enough power to run FFXI at least, so that's all I'm really concerned about - but as far as a mixture of cheap and effective (assuming you're not going to want to play Doom 3 on it), Dell is probably the best way to go.

    • Re:Dunno if this counts (Score:4, Informative)

      by joeljkp ( 254783 ) <joeljkparker.gmail@com> on Friday August 06, 2004 @11:15PM (#9906294)
      I also purchased a 5150, but I got mine last fall for $2k (student discount):

      • 3.06 Ghz Mobile Pentium 4
      • 15" UXGA LCD
      • 512 MB RAM
      • 60 GB HD
      • 64 MB nVidia GeForce FX Go5200


      I enjoy using it, but I would not recommend it for a hardcore gaming system. The go5200 is essentially a "value" chip, and performs worse than the older ATI Radeon Mobility 9000 (although it has DX9 support). What they don't tell you is that the chip is 50% underclocked and hardcoded that way. Look on rojakpot.com for a review.

    • Of course it counts. (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      two words: DELL REFURBISHED. [dell.com]

      9 times out of 10 this is the best deal on desktops and laptops anywhere, especially when you consider the quality of what you're getting (I'm sorry, but Dell is better than most of these fly-by-nite operations by a long shot). The inventory changes almost daily, so if they don't have what you want, try again the next day.

      That being said, I *have* had a Dell refurbished part fail on me, four months after purchase. Of course I thought "well, you can't get something for nothin

    • Actually...that system should be able to run Doom 3 just fine. If you care about such things.
    • My friend had an Inspiron this summer. He told me it had desktop-level hardware in it, including a full Radeon (I dunno if that part is true or not). So he brings it in one day and I wonder "What's the thing he's setting the laptop on?" Then I noticed it was actually the case. Just the keyboard section of the laptop itself was something like two inches thick. The whole thing weighed ten pounds and the power adaptor was the size of about two DVD cases.

      It was absolutely ridiculous. It must be basically

  • Honestly... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by consolidatedbord ( 689996 )
    I'm sorry, but you have GOT to be kidding me. You just can't realistically find that in your price range. Sure, you can skimp out on HD space, or maybe drop the pre-installed software, but as soon as you sacrafice a brand name, you lose things like a decent warranty, and quality parts.

    Bottom line.

    • Re:Honestly... (Score:3, Informative)

      by bhtooefr ( 649901 )
      http://emachines.com/products/products.html?prod= e Machines_M6811

      15.4 1280x800 widescreen
      Mobile Athlon 64 3400+ 1MB cache (or so it says - it also says 2GHz, not 2.2)
      512MB PC2700 (so that's where you skimp)
      80GB HDD
      DVD+/-RW
      6-in-1 flash card reader
      ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 w/64MB VRAM
      $1599 after rebate

      Drop the 3400+ and go down to a 3200+, and drop the DVD burner and go down to a CD-RW/DVD combo, and it's $1399 after rebate. And, remember that the 3000+ (although that is a Newcastle, and the mobile 3000+ is

  • Don't get a laptop (Score:5, Insightful)

    by mrluisp ( 724199 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @08:53PM (#9905387)
    I know this isn't exactly on topic, but don't get a laptop for gaming. My last two computers have been "gaming" laptop. It just isn't worth it. It really isn't. The cost of a laptop is so much higher than a desktop, and the performance is so much lower. A Geforce4Go 5600 isn't anything like a Geforce 5600 FX. Laptops are essentially crippled by their graphic cards, no matter how hard Ati and nVidia try otherwise. My biggest argument against laptop is that the graphic drivers aren't updated. nVidia specifically states on their driver pages that laptop users should get updated drivers from their manufacturers. Maybe this issue is limited to Toshiba, but my graphics card's drivers have not been updated once by Toshiba since I bought my laptop a year ago. If you get a laptop, it will be fine for the first 6-8 months, but as soon as new games come out which rely on updated drivers, you will start missing out. I've tried upgrading my drivers, and all that does is create sub par performance and quite a few artifacts. Simply put, the graphic drivers are not optimized for laptops.

    • Re:Don't get a laptop (Score:5, Insightful)

      by obeythefist ( 719316 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @09:00PM (#9905438) Journal
      I strongly agree with the parent. If you intend to play games on a PC, the laptop is not the form factor you want.

      Laptops are popular for LAN gamers and I can see the appeal, but seriously, for the same kind of outlay you can buy a flat panel LCD display and a shuttle or similar small form factor PC. These small systems cost more than a full sized desktop but they will easily outperform any laptop in the same price range. They're also significantly more upgradable than a laptop, and the drivers are much better.
      • (Christ, I apologize for not using the preview button)

        I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. Can you guess what type of computer I'll purchase next?

        Seriously, I nearly cried when I got outside in Far Cry, and everything started fucking up. I can't decide whether I want to install Doom 3 or just wait.
      • " If you intend to play games on a PC, the laptop is not the form factor you want."

        It is if you travel a lot like I used to. You don't get as many neat effects. BFD. You're still not bringing your desktop to the hotel.
    • Unforunately, this ailment isn't simply limited to nVidia or Toshiba; I got a Dell SmartStep 200N with an ATI Radeon Mobility about 2 years ago, and they have yet to produce an update.

      I'm becoming of the opinion that a laptop gaming isn't worth it. I've had an experience much like mrluisp stated; it was great when I first got it, and held up for a few months, but lacking driver updates and upgradeability, I was left out in the cold. Now that everything depends on pixel shaders and I can't upgrade the gra
    • I actually had the opposite experience. My laptop a few years ago was an Inspiron 8100 with a GeForce2 Go card in it. It performed just fine for the games of the era, but where our stories divurge even more is that Dell actually put out fairly regular driver updates. I checked their website about every 3 months, and it seems like nearly every time I went there, there was an update.

      Now I never benchmarked, and I never noticed a huge difference in framerates, but there were distinct improvements in artifa

    • Re:Don't get a laptop (Score:3, Informative)

      by vjmurphy ( 190266 )
      "Maybe this issue is limited to Toshiba, but my graphics card's drivers have not been updated once by Toshiba since I bought my laptop a year ago."

      Generally, the Nvidia drivers for the same model number will work with the laptop graphics cards. I've got a Toshiba with a GeForce Go 460, and I am currently using the latest GeForce 460 MX drivers with no problems. Mileage, of course, may vary. Looks like that the more recent Toshiba laptops might not have that luxury, by your example.

      One of the newer feature
      • Three letters (or five, if ATI is your company of choice): MXM (or AXIOM). See, with a Dell or Alienware, you still have to get a Dell or Alienware branded upgrade. With MXM, you could get whatever brand you prefer (especially if ATI, XGI, and S3 make MXM cards or some company drops their mobile PCI-E chips on MXM cards).
    • Don't use the manufacturer's drivers. Get drivers from places like OmegaDrivers [htttp] and install those instead (after updating your chipset's BIOS.) That will keep you current and up to date.

      I have a 1.5 year old Inspiron 8200 that I'm still quite happy with. In another year, I may upgrade to another Dell. I game almost everywhere except home - I particularly like playing on wireless networks in the library and cafes - and I've had no problems. Desktop systems just take up way too much real estate, and where I
    • My biggest argument against laptop is that the graphic drivers aren't updated. nVidia specifically states on their driver pages that laptop users should get updated drivers from their manufacturers. Maybe this issue is limited to Toshiba, but my graphics card's drivers have not been updated once by Toshiba since I bought my laptop a year ago.

      Yep, i've got a HP Pavilion ze4400, and the drivers are updated about every 6 months, however... the main reason they ask you to get the drivers from the OEM is becau

  • I am shopping for a sub 2000 dollar laptop myself and the ABS Mayhem 2 looked like a winner. It is pretty light and sports nice hardware, however I haven't really seen any reviews for it so I don't know if they are supposed to be any good. http://www.abspc.com [abspc.com] is the site.
  • the fact of the matter is, you will get no battery life. u're gonna have to be jacked in to power. if u're gonna be jacked into ac, u might as well just build a pc that fits into a backpack and buy the best lcd u can with u're $$$. you will get better performance for u're buck.

  • ABS Mayhem notebooks (Score:3, Informative)

    by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) * on Friday August 06, 2004 @09:03PM (#9905459)
    Mayhem [abspc.com]. Nice stuff outfitted with ATI Radeon Mobility 9600 or 9700s. Your choice of Intel Pentium 4, Pentium M, or Athlon64, in order of least-to-most expensive. I'd go with the Pentium M version, based on your budget. The Athlon64 machine is $2100 with only 512Meg of RAM, whereas the Pentium M model is $1900 with 1Gig of RAM. That would also leave you enough money to upgrade to the 7200rpm HD.
    • I'll second that - my boss has an ABS he bought just for gaming, and I took it for a test drive at a few LAN parties we went to, very impressive considering the price!
      • One thing I've wondered about - what kind of battery life goes he get? (And what model is it?)
        • I'm not sure on the exact model, it has a P4 3.06, 1GB ram, 80GB hdd, 128mb radeon on it.

          He says the battery life is terrible, something like 1.5 - 2 hours, but for him it's worth it, since he only bought it to bring to LAN parties, so there's no need for it to have a killer battery life.

  • Go Small Form Factor (Score:3, Insightful)

    by pat_trick ( 218868 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @09:07PM (#9905498)
    I know you say you're looking for a laptop, but for that price range, you're not going to find what you really want.

    I'd say build yourself a small form factor pc. The plus side of this is that you get something that's still portable and will cost /much/ less than a laptop. The downside is that you'll need to haul / find a monitor wherever you go.

    I have a Shuttle SN41G2 (http://www.shuttle.com/) and it works wonders.
    • The downside is that you'll need to haul / find a monitor wherever you go.

      Not necessarily. Here's an idea, but I'm not sure of how well it would work.

      Ditch the small form factor. Use a regular ATX case. Install carry handles on top and lightweight wheels on bottom.

      Then, cut out a hole in the side of the case and mount an LCD there. I've never really seen a hack like this, but I've seen similar (Small LCD mounted in the front).

      Oh well, an idea.

      • There was a guy who did this very thing in MaximumPC like 2 or 3 years ago (at most) (can be certain, the mags only have a 4 month shelf life in my house since I loan them to my brother to read and then they vanish complete to me unless I nag my Bro). But he did a case out of wood and made it into a brief case that could have the top (holding a 15 or 17 inch lcd) removed and turned around to be used standing up, with the PS/2 connectors on one side to play games).
  • If you have a problem and call or email for support, alot of publisher's call centers will just get rid of you since laptops aren't generally supported. Its not enough reason alone to not get the laptop if you see enough pluses to it, but it is a factor to consider.

  • powernotebooks (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Tyreth ( 523822 ) on Friday August 06, 2004 @09:40PM (#9905739)
    I haven't checked them out for a while, but these guys seemed to have good prices: http://www.powernotebooks.com/
  • The NP4790-C [sagernotebook.com] seems to be a good deal, and just under the $2000 you wanted to spend.
  • I have the E-Machines M6811 from Best Buy for $1600 after Rebate.
    AMD Mobile Athlon 64 3400+
    512 MB PC2700
    80GB HD
    Radeon 9600 64MB
    15.4" WideScreen
    DVD+-RW
    4 USB2.0
    1 1394

    Plays UT2004 Great!!
  • a system with an AMD would be a plus.

    I've got a Sony Vaio laptop with an AMD Athlon. It works fine for most games, although it freezes frequently and crashes once in awhile too, but i have no idea if that's Sony's fault, AMD's fault, or Microsoft's fault.

    However, i've been trying to get Master of Magic and Master of Orion running on here for awhile. Both the Windows XP emulation mode and VDMSound report that there isn't enough expanded memory to run the program, no matter how much virtual expanded memor

    • I spent a great deal of time on this problem too, although with a desktop machine.

      If you are into retrogaming, you do not want an AMD chip, from what I can see. It appears that none of the XP processors will provide expanded memory under Windows XP. I believe the A64 is even worse in this regard... in 64-bit mode, a lot of the old addressing modes just go away. Windows XP 64-bit version won't run old games well at all.

      You can kind of limp along with DOSBOX, but that's slow. I was hoping VMWare might

      • Re:Problems with AMDs (Score:3, Informative)

        by bhtooefr ( 649901 )
        No, if you're a true retrogamer, you want one of these [cpu-museum.de], and that's most definitely an AMD chip. 386DX-40, and that's 40 FSB * 1, w00t! If you can't find the 40MHz chip, then Intel's fair game too - their chips are identical to the AMD chips.

        It also seems that other PGA132 chips (even 486DLC chips) had the same Dhrystone performance at the same clock speed, though, on this benchmark [alphatek.info] (reading graphs, don't know French).

        If you need a 486, it gets trickier. Intel was probably the way to go at a certain clock
      • Set the CPU cycles for DOSBOX, I run 40K cycles per second and MOM plays just as fast as it did on my 486-SX 33. It won't play any faster no matter how many cycles above that I throw at it, seems to have a delay loop built it. Also have you tried virtual PC, I think the sound emulation is better there.
  • Seems to get pretty high marks [resellerratings.com] (though I've never bought from them.)

    They sell the Sager laptops that I believe Alienware sells, but without fancy paint jobs, for a grand or so less. I've done price comparisons but don't really need a "gamer" spec laptop.
  • I have a Sager 5670, but I just got [tersesystems.com] an Athlon 64 to play games.

    The Sager is good for things like Half-Life, but anything recent like Far Cry will kill it instantly. There's just no comparison between graphics cards for FPS. However, it plays Total Annihilation like no-one's business.

    If you want a games machine, get a small form factor PC. Arstechnica has a handy buyer's guide [arstechnica.com], and the hot rod comes out to less than 2K (although w/o monitor).

  • An Old Maxim (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Prien715 ( 251944 ) <agnosticpope@@@gmail...com> on Friday August 06, 2004 @11:23PM (#9906348) Journal
    Generally you pay 2X for a laptop what you'd pay for a PC equivalent. For $2000, you'd be better off just buying a $1500 gaming PC and a $500 laptop to do work on. Towers, especially with LCD displays, can typically be carried in a backpack (normal cases) or smaller (small form factor). Battery life really isn't an issue since a gaming laptop dies after about an 1-2 hours anyway.

    That, and you can't upgrade laptops easily. It's cheaper to go buy a reasonable GFX card (~$200) and then buy a new one when you need it for a game than buying $600 card to start out with. You don't have that freedom with a laptop.
  • If I had the money, I would seriously consider a laptop from Hypersonic-PC [hypersonic-pc.com]. They seem to have decent priced gaming laptops.
  • The other day I was amazed to find a sweet widescreen (15.4") laptop with an AMD 64, 512 MB of ram a Radeon 9200 mobile (or something similar) for around $1400 (if you trust the rebate). Perhaps a bit underpowered for Doom 3 but it looked decently mobile enough. Might be a bit lower than what you were shooting for but it would certainly be close, and you could by several games/accessories with the savings.
    • It was this guy [e4me.com] with a $200 or $250 rebate. I didn't even need a laptop and almost bought it. Still trying to decide whether to get a g5 system or build my own AMD 64 system. Any advice?
    • Get an A64 3200+, 512MB RAM, an 80GB HDD, and an ATI MR9600 64MB for $1399 after rebate. There's a catch, though - the maker's eMachines.
      • All laptops are third party designed and bilt by one of several Taiwanese firms. The US branded company largely slaps a logo on it (Dell & HP order the parts from suppliers). Besides eMachines has gotten a whole lot better in the last few years, completely new management team and they got bought by Gateway earlier this year.
        • I know eMachines did do a complete turn around from the daily new PSU days in 2001. However, I'm still going to be cautious when it comes to eM (I didn't get burned because I didn't give them a chance, but they did use the Trigem Cognac motherboard also used in several HP models, and it's SHIT. I know from personal experience after having gone through two.) However, that's not the main reason I wouldn't buy the M6810 (can't afford the 6811) - the main reason is that they used an MR9600. It's not the perform
  • There is no such thing as a "High Performance Gaming Laptop On A Budget"
  • As several other posters have noted, eMachines offers zippy laptops well under $2000 (under $1500 with rebates from Best Buy). I've been running a model M6805 since January; it's my eighth laptop and it's by far the best I've had (including Apple, Compaq, Dell, and HP). Memory board shorted out in March -- cause it wouldn't be a computer if I didn't have to have it repaired/returned within the first 90 days -- and had to ship it back for remplacement, but turnaround time was 48 hours. Other than that, it's
    • As of the 2.6.7 kernel, all of the stupid bios issues with this laptop are fixed, so you can turn acpi and speed governing on and it works. The only problem I still have is that it doesn't know when I plug it in or unplug it without restarting acpid (doesn't affect charging, just power profiles and the battery meter)
  • High performance, laptop, cheap. Choose any two.
  • Excellent performance for an unbeatable price! Check out the all-new series of P-P-P-Powerbooks! [dotsomething.net]
  • You should check out the Acer Ferrari 3200. I know, you're probabbly thinking Acer? WTF? But it's just under $2000 and has everything your looking for. Check out these specs:

    Operating System:

    Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional

    Processor:

    Low-power mobile AMD Athlon(TM) 64 processor 2800+

    Memory:

    512MB (256/256)

    Hard drive:

    80GB

    Optical drive:

    (Slot loading)Super Multi Write Plus (DVD -RW, +RW, -RAM)

    Display:

    15.0" TFT SXGA+ (1400 x 1050)

    Graphics:

    ATI® MOBILITY(TM) RADEON(TM) 97

  • $1700? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by bersl2 ( 689221 ) on Saturday August 07, 2004 @04:09AM (#9907452) Journal
    CyberPower Xplorer X64-8000 [cyberpowersystem.com]

    I don't know about tech support or quality (never bought from these guys), but you could configure a nominally good gaming laptop for about $1700.

    Athlon64 3200+
    1GB RAM (the low-latency Corsair stuff, even)
    Radeon Mobility 9700
    802.11g mini-PCI
    XP Pro (wimp...)

    $1774.00
    Again, on paper this is a steal. YMMV.
    • After reading the rest of the comments:
      I agree, SFF is a better route to go for "mobile gaming only" machines.

      OK...
      One of these [iwill.net], $499
      Two of these [google.com], $250.98 x2
      And so on...

      Come on, be the ultimate performance whore. Take the performance hit of registered RAM. Spend the $3500-4000 for one bitchin' portable system. Just wait until the dual-cored chips; you'll have four effective processors. Don't listen to those who say SMP doesn't isn't worth it. If even the sound mixes in a different thread, even if the othe
      • Surprised nobody's come up with nothing but AMD SFF PC's - remember that the P4 EE came from the Xeon core. I'd not mind a SFF 2x socket 604 533 FSB system that do PCI-E and AGP at the same time, powered by a pair of SL6RQ's.

  • Sager.... Cringe...... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by LWATCDR ( 28044 ) on Saturday August 07, 2004 @10:27AM (#9908341) Homepage Journal
    My company used to seel Sagers about 10 years ago. Yes they have been around that long. We had to take back more systems with them than I can count. It was a nightmare to deal with them. Unless you know for a fact that they have changed I would stay far a way from them.

  • Not happening. (Score:3)

    by supabeast! ( 84658 ) on Saturday August 07, 2004 @04:14PM (#9909826)
    Fast / Cheap / Good

    Pick two. You cannot have all three. This is a universal law of computing (and life in general).

  • PC Torque (Score:4, Informative)

    by Rinisari ( 521266 ) on Saturday August 07, 2004 @06:22PM (#9910469) Homepage Journal
    PC Torque has about the best customer service in the laptop industry. They sell both Sager and Acer notebooks. I got a Sager 5680 from them a year ago and it has been the most solid machine I've ever owned (and I've owned A LOT of machines, from Macs to store-boughts to homebrew). You aren't going to find a better place to discuss laptops than NotebookForums.com [notebookforums.com].

  • Ok (Score:1)

    by veritron ( 637136 )
    First, understand this -

    For whatever amount of money you spend on your laptop, a desktop built with the same amount of money will be roughly 1.5x - 2x as powerful, no contest.

    However, you can still have a very decent gaming experience with a laptop.

    First decision - Screen Size.

    If you get a laptop that has a widescreen, some games will support it natively - but MOST WON'T. Either your game will be distorted, or you'll have vertical bars on the side of your game. Look for the W in front of the descripti
    • I mean the Pentium-M in the above post. No point in going past a 1.7 ghz Pentium-M with a Radeon 9700, all games will be GPU bound using any faster processor.

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