Buying first laptop ever!! ***Help please***

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Ark94

Junior Member
Feb 15, 2010
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Hey everybody, so I am looking for a laptop for my 16th. First laptop my parents are going to be buying me, and my first laptop ever.

Basically here is what I am looking for –
Price: 500-700 CAN
Speed: Preferably fast. Able to multi task, and have a game open and not slow down much
Graphics: Looking for some good graphics. Just enough to play Wow at max, and play Sims 2 maybe.
Memory: Not much of a concern, have a 500GB external harddrive but bigger would be better.
Outputs: Does not matter much, some HDMI, VGA or DVI would be nice but doesn’t matter.
Screen Size: Something that is good for watching movies on, and playing Wow.
Brand: Anything if you can help prove it is reliable. I hear a lot of good things about Toshiba.

So I am going to be using it for school mainly, and maybe Wow if I can. Just would like it to be the BEST bang for the buck. Nothing online, I am going to go to either futureshop or bestbuy and buy one. I live in Canada so if you can go on the sites and maybe search around and help. I will also post some maybe you can give some suggestions.
Futureshop.ca
Bestbuy.ca
Amazon.ca
Newegg.ca
Amazon.com (if they ship to Canada)
Newegg.com (if they ship to Canada)

Here are some I found. Let me know which is best bang for the buck. Need to know before Wednesday as my b-day is on Friday.
1. http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16834220694
2. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220640
3. http://www.amazon.com/K40IJ-E1B-14-I.../ref=de_a_smtd
4. http://www.amazon.com/K50IJ-X8-15-6-...6246347&sr=1-2
5. http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...8fd1207bd8en02
6. http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product/...049baea437en02
 
Decembermouse

Decembermouse

Member
Dec 18, 2009
141
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If you'd like to potentially do some WoW, then you'll want to avoid laptops with Intel integrated/chipset graphics. They have improved over the years, but are still not able to match offerings from Nvidia and ATi that were offered generations ago. Some of the new ones are able to support HD video, and you will hear some people say you can do basic gaming on them. In my experience, and from what I read all over the place, with Intel graphics it's kind of luck of the draw. Either you get barely passable framerates, at low-detail settings, or you get a good framerate, which will alternate between good and extremely choppy.

The i3, Athlon II, Turion II, and C2D's are nice processors, and I would avoid these:

-Pentium anything
-Celeron anything
-Atom anything
-Athlon/Turion dual core where the part number starts with QL, TL, RM, or ZM.

If you are looking for maximum bang for your buck, and also want something that is capable of games, then you have two options...

Intel-based laptops. Get either a Core 2 Duo or an i3/i5 processor, and make sure it has either Nvidia or ATi graphics. Anything with one of these processors as long as the graphics are by Nvidia or ATi, you don't need to worry about whether the graphics are capable of playing games (although keep in mind the Nvidia GeForce M3xx series are based on technology from the GeForce 8 series, which has been getting tweaked for years. Personally if given the option I'd go for ATi graphics rather than something that's been rebranded for 4 years... although it's still far better than Intel graphics)

or

AMD-based laptops. Again, avoid the processors above. They are based on the once-revolutionary-but-now-old K8 core. Look for their new ones, called "Athlon II" and "Turion II" which are far better than the K8's. They are built on the K10.5 technology you see in AMD's latest desktop processors, the Phenom II and Athlon II's. These have model numbers like M300, M320 (M3xx is Athlon II), M500, M520 (M5xx is Turion II), M600, M640 (M6xx is Turion II Ultra). How are they different?

Athlon II has a 64b FPU and 1MB L2 cache.
Turion II has a 128b FPU and 1MB L2 cache.
Turion II Ultra has a 128b FPU and 2MB L2 cache.

All come with Radeon 4200 graphics, which is basically a Radeon 3450 with DirectX 10.1. This will play WoW and Sims no problem. I have a laptop with the Turion II M500 (2.2GHz) in my lap right now running Sims 3 World Adventures quite smoothly. Fyi, the M500 is the slowest Turion II that AMD offers. It is comparable to something between Intel's Core 2 Duo P8400 and P8600 laptop processors.

If you get an Intel laptop, it will cost a couple hundred more for some thing that can play games. This is because Intel provides the CPU's, which are nice, and a bit more expensive than AMD's, and they provide the motherboard chipset. However, in order for it to be a laptop that'll play games, the manufacturer (HP or Toshiba or whoever) must put in a discrete graphics card, which drives up the cost. Whereas, AMD's laptop offerings come with AMD chipsets, which already have adequate graphics built in. And, their processors are cheaper. Don't expect to be playing Crysis at high detail settings obviously, but you're not looking for that kind of laptop anyway.

Intel makes faster laptop processors than AMD does, if you compare what is top of the line from both companies. The i3 will be a bit faster than the Turions from AMD, but it is not the processor which will bottleneck you for the games you listed. Unless you get a Celeron or something lol.
 
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Ark94

Junior Member
Feb 15, 2010
6
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Hey thanks man. I am pretty damn confused with that though =( I want to play WoW i guess, but like not as a base for my laptop. I want to use it for movies, and school and WoW. So all around, but must have a dedicated graphics card.

So what do you suggest with all that you said/ I was pretty confused with some of the stuff you stated, so would http://detonator.dynamitedata.com/c...oduct/Product.aspx%3FItem=N82E16834220694 be a good buy?

EDIT: just realized that laptop is pentium.... then wtf would i get if i want a good bang? Anything in futureshop or bestbuy, or amazon or newegg?
 
Decembermouse

Decembermouse

Member
Dec 18, 2009
141
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0
Sorry for flooding you with text man! I got excited, lol.

That Sony would be pretty cool. Honestly I think it's a bit of overkill for WoW and everything else you want to do though. There's such a thing as future-proofing, yes, but I made the mistake of getting a laptop that was way more powerful than I needed. What an absolute waste of money. To summarize what I would recommend for you, and definitely in terms of bang for your buck, I'd go with this bad boy:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Gateway+-+Laptop+with+AMD+Turion%26%23153%3B+II+Dual-Core+Mobile+Processor+-+NightSky+Black/9739334.p?id=1218164387626&skuId=9739334&st=turion%20ii&cp=1&lp=4

Graphics are more than powerful enough to play WoW, processor likewise. 500GB hard drive, 4GB of RAM, about 3.5 hours of battery life- 4 if you tweak Windows, get rid of crap, and undervolt a bit (more about that if/when the time comes). That Sony's mobile i5 processor is a beast, as are the graphics. Yes, it's very nice (drool worthy, even), but it's way more than you need. And it would have a significantly lower bang-for-the-buck.

(edit)
Ark94 said:
.... then wtf would i get if i want a good bang?
Click to expand...
ROFL
 
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