Gaming laptop advice

[Glayde]

Hey, my brother called me wanting me to help him pick out a laptop for gaming, to play recent games.
He wants me to go to bestbuy with him....

I told him I'm sure we could find something better then bestbuy.

I haven't done much laptop research myself, im a desktop person but he needs a laptop since he travels for work. He's also never owned a computer before.

So I have a couple of questions,

What brands are recommended? I've had experience with dell desktops.


What processor is better? the mobile ones? or a P4 or athalon64?
(the mobile ones are underated by about 33% vs a p4 clock speed?)

512 or 1gig of ram? video card suggestion?

Screen size and type?


Thanks, any help is appreciated.

 

[Mik3y]

what's the budget? and go with the athlon 64 ones. they are the fastest cpu's currently for laptops and are the best for gaming.

 

[jpeyton]

If you're buying a gaming laptop, the CPU is the LAST thing I would think about. A64, P4 Mobile, Pentium M, are all good enough for gaming.

The difference in laptop gaming is going to come in the video cards. If he's a serious gamer, he'll want a Mobility 9800. Mobility 9700s are also great, but the 9800's are 8-pipeline versions of the X800 desktop GPU, so they are next-generation compared to the 9700/9600/9200/9000 line.

GeForce 6800 Go are also top of the line mobile video cards.

ATi Mobility 9600 are good enough for most current games, but I suspect newer games will get bogged down.

Another big thing is the hard drive speed. Try to get a 5400RPM drive at least, and 7200RPM if possible. This also speeds up laptop gaming, because laptop hard drives are a big bottleneck.

 

[Mik3y]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Another big thing is the hard drive speed. Try to get a 5400RPM drive at least, and 7200RPM if possible. This also speeds up laptop gaming, because laptop hard drives are a big bottleneck.

it doesnt speed up gaming. it only speeds up load times, and hard drives are not a big bottle neck when it comes to gaming.

 

[Glayde]

He said he had $2000 to spend, but he was also looking at an overpriced laptop at bestbuy for $1500,
celeron 2.4 10gb hd(wtf) 512ram no idea on video card. I'd hope he could get something omre around $1500 but with decent specs.

He mentioned something about a 2 year tradein program at gateway or bestbuy as well.

I looked around the dell site at the 9200 and the 8600's. If it were me i'd go 9200 and get the larger display but that's just me.

(can laptops run to an external lcd ok with games? If so he could get a smaller screen for normal use and an lcd for actually playing?---laptop displays are lcd anyway so refresh time wouldn't be a big factor if he gets a decent lcd?)

He basicly needs it to be a laptop because he travels from place to place for work and has to pack light, not so much he only wants to carry around just a slim laptop i think.

 

[bigal40]

Originally posted by: Glayde
He said he had $2000 to spend, but he was also looking at an overpriced laptop at bestbuy for $1500,
celeron 2.4 10gb hd(wtf) 512ram no idea on video card. I'd hope he could get something omre around $1500 but with decent specs.

He mentioned something about a 2 year tradein program at gateway or bestbuy as well.

I have the emachines M6805 and it games pretty well. it has an A64 3000+ and a 9600. YOu can get the newer versionthe m6811 with a A64 3400 and dvd-rw at bestbuy for less than 1500 after rebates.

 

[Glayde]

Laptops do have lcd problems with refresh rates for games? And are they like lcd's where you are basicly tied to a single resolution?