brother needs laptop for college-Anybody have a relatively new gaming laptop?

[iwantanewcomputer]

the only demanding things this will be used for are games...

how good are mid range laptops (under 1200) at gaming? is dual core worth it? overheating a problem?(I had an old P42.8 northwood, non mobile in a dell laptop...overheated and ground to a halt playing most games.)

i was also considering getting the cheapest laptop i could find and spending the other $700-800 on a desktop

any recomendations are welcome

edit...mainly RTS games, so it doesn't need great graphics, just needs to be playable, and most laptops in this price range are intel integrated 950 graphics...anybody know how good this is?

goober, if you have a desktop, the laptop could be only for office, instant messaging, music...so any pentium 4 or athlon64 should be good

 

[goobernoodles]

I'm in the same boat... sort of. I have a nice desktop, however, I need to get a laptop. I just need something for taking to class.... Any suggestions for el-cheapo laptops, what specs I shouldn't go under?

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: goobernoodles
I'm in the same boat... sort of. I have a nice desktop, however, I need to get a laptop. I just need something for taking to class.... Any suggestions for el-cheapo laptops, what specs I shouldn't go under?

You won't need a laptop in class. A laptop cannot replace a pencil and paper and you will just end up finding yourself tempted to play solitaire and/or IM people while in class. I guarantee it.

 

[Mikey]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: goobernoodles
I'm in the same boat... sort of. I have a nice desktop, however, I need to get a laptop. I just need something for taking to class.... Any suggestions for el-cheapo laptops, what specs I shouldn't go under?

You won't need a laptop in class. A laptop cannot replace a pencil and paper and you will just end up finding yourself tempted to play solitaire and/or IM people while in class. I guarantee it.

agreed. i'm currently in school now too, and i've only seen a couple people actually bring in their notebooks to class for notes, and i'm a 3rd yr. for the most part, notebooks for college is overrated, but hey, i still like em. 🙂

 

[goobernoodles]

Cool, Thanks guys. I deferred for a year after HS, and I'm headed to Drexel this fall. I'm going to a summer program starting next week for people who could use some brain tuning. For me, it'll just be a refresher course due to being out of school for over a year. However, I'll go into it without a laptop, and see how it goes. I can always try and get one for the fall if I feel like I need one.

Oh, and didn't mean to hijack the thread.

 

[Howard]

You can make a little bit of money if you bring a laptop and take notes for people.

I wouldn't get a gaming laptop since it could be stolen.

 

[DaveSimmons]

The GottaDeal main page has a _great_ $499 non-gaming laptop deal, including Pentium M (not Celeron), 1 GB, 60 GB HD, wifi. It's the Dell 10 Days listing.

There is also a $699 dual-core laptop link from the day before, that can be upgraded to Radeon X1400 graphics for $79, if this deal is still available that's probably good enough for RTS and light FPS gaming.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Go for the cheapest laptop you can find and buy some insurance for it. At college they disappear like popcorn. If your brother just has to game (I can't believe I'm saying this) get a xbox.

 

[Aluvus]

Originally posted by: PurdueRy

Originally posted by: goobernoodles
I'm in the same boat... sort of. I have a nice desktop, however, I need to get a laptop. I just need something for taking to class.... Any suggestions for el-cheapo laptops, what specs I shouldn't go under?

You won't need a laptop in class. A laptop cannot replace a pencil and paper and you will just end up finding yourself tempted to play solitaire and/or IM people while in class. I guarantee it.

Depends on the program. Usually the real value of a laptop to a college student is not that it can be taken to class, but that it can be taken to do homework someplace.

To the OP: El cheapo + desktop.

 

[iwantanewcomputer]

it seems most think the cheap laptop + desktop is a better idea for security etc., but i can get a better gaming system in a $1200 laptop than a $700-800 desktop+monitor no?

 

[DaveSimmons]

Today's Dell deal is $899 plus $299 for nv 7900 so for $1200 it's comparable to an $700 desktop but not really better. An $800-900 desktop would pull ahead with a faster graphics card.