Help with purchasing a notebook!

TheTank123

Junior Member
Aug 21, 2002
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I am looking to purchase a notebook that I can both use for school and effectively game on for about the next two years. I don't need anything thats going to be running Doom 3 at 900 FPS two years from now, but something that will be able to play all games, hopefully. I am thinking of going with a Dell, but am somewhat concerned about a few things. First, should I spend a little bit more and get the 2.4ghz over the 2.0? Second, if I decided to go with 2.0, is there a huge difference between a Pentium4-M and the regular Pentium4? Keep in mind this is a desktop mainly computer, I don't really care about battery life. Second of all, will the graphics card. a Geforce4Go 440 be obsolete in a week? Obviously better will come, but will it be good enough? Lastly, if not Dell, who does not offer anything better than 2. GHZ-M, where should I buy from? (Not alienware, bought my last comp, worked great when playing but broke down quite often.) Thanks for the help.
 

BuddyAtBzboyz

Senior member
Jul 19, 2002
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I was going to go and suggest alienware cause I'm rather fond of the 7500 mobile they put in their computers. However my recommendation if you want your laptop to last is get a G4 440 mobile or a Radeon 7500 mobile.... But make sure it has 64Mb of ram. However nothing you buy will get 900 fps in Quake 3 let alone Doom 3.
 

MWink

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
3,642
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I highly recommend the Dell Inspiron 8200. I have one and I love it. IMO of all the specs the CPU speed is the part I'm LEAST concerned about. I got the P4-M 1.4GHz and I think it's plenty fast. Whatever you do, DON'T GET A DESKTOP CPU!!! Not just do they cause poor battery life but they also create a LOT of heat. Since they get really hot that can cause them to drop to lower speeds just to keep from melting the laptop. I use my Inspiron 8200 just like you plan to use yours (as a desktop, not on battery much) and I still would not consider a desktop CPU.

I think the Geforce 4 Go should be plenty for now. The thing I like about the Inspiron 8200 is that the video card is upgradeable. In fact, almost everything is upgradeable in it (CPU, video, HD, RAM, CD/DVD drive, etc.). I have not found anything that is unplayable on a Geforce 4 Go. From what I've heard it can perform quite a bit better than the ATI Mobility Radeon.


Oh, also, has anyoned heard of Eurocom or Clevo?

Yes. Clevo = Sager = Alienware = TOTAL JUNK! I know someone who had a Sager laptop (from Powernotebooks.com) (it even had Clevo's name on it) and it was nothing but problems from day one. I would highly recommend you stay away from them.
 

BuddyAtBzboyz

Senior member
Jul 19, 2002
286
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I think the Geforce 4 Go should be plenty for now. The thing I like about the Inspiron 8200 is that the video card is upgradeable. In fact, almost everything is upgradeable in it (CPU, video, HD, RAM, CD/DVD drive, etc.). I have not found anything that is unplayable on a Geforce 4 Go. From what I've heard it can perform quite a bit better than the ATI Mobility Radeon

Of course the g4 go is better then a radeon mobility considering that vpu is like over a year old. The radeon 7500 mobile on the other hand performs almost neck in neck with the g4 go.
 

MWink

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
3,642
1
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Originally posted by: BuddyAtBzboyz
I think the Geforce 4 Go should be plenty for now. The thing I like about the Inspiron 8200 is that the video card is upgradeable. In fact, almost everything is upgradeable in it (CPU, video, HD, RAM, CD/DVD drive, etc.). I have not found anything that is unplayable on a Geforce 4 Go. From what I've heard it can perform quite a bit better than the ATI Mobility Radeon

Of course the g4 go is better then a radeon mobility considering that vpu is like over a year old. The radeon 7500 mobile on the other hand performs almost neck in neck with the g4 go.

I WAS talking about the Mobility Radeon 7500 64MB.