Laptop Recommendations

[jimmyl930]

<SPAN class=ip-normal-font>I'm looking for a laptop for school work/ Internet/ light gaming (Warcraft III-ish stuff, not too demanding)/ music.

DVD/CD-RW drive.

Weight: less than 7 lbs.

RAM: At least 256mb or I could add more myself later.

Price: As cheap as possible.

USB 2.0.

Wireless is optional but okay to have. I'll probably just add a wireless pc card if the laptop doesn't have integrated wireless.

What kind of video card would be sufficient?

Thanks a lot.</SPAN>

 

[kayatai]

probably most discrete (not shared) video cards will be enough. I would shoot for at least a nVidia gForce 4200 go or ATI Radeon Mobility 9000. They are not the 'newest' mobile graphics out, but they are fairly new and will probably do alright in most new games. I would go for a 64mb version or higher.

Personally I have a Dell 600m, I think it meets all of your specs, + wireless. Mine was 1250 (had a 20% off coupon though) with 3 year warrenty. You should spec some out and see what the cost is.

You may also be able to get away with something with an ATI 7500 graphics or nVidia 440 go. Definately stay away from integrated/shared memory chipsets if you are serious about getting good performance in games. For example my wife got a sony with 512mb ram, 2.66ghz p4 proc, ATI 345 integrated video w/ shared memory. She scored around 1700 in 3dMark2001, I scored about 6900 with slower proc and less ram.

the compaq x1000 also seems to be popular right now, if you are interested in something heavier with widescreen, comparable to the dell 8500 or 8600.

 

[jimmyl930]

I'm trying to lower the cost. So what's the cheapest laptop with a Radeon 7500?

Thanks.

 

[jimmyl930]

I'm trying to lower the cost. So what's the cheapest laptop with a Radeon 7500?

Thanks.

 

[Matt84]

I just picked up a Toshiba 1410 for bout $1500 Australian which is very cheap for a brand new notebook.

Mobile Celeron 1.8GHz, 256K
256MB DDR SDRAM
16MB nVidia Geforce4 420GO
Yamaha Hardware Audio
30GB HDD
10/100 LAN

I got a pretty good deal for what I paid, average value notebook in Australia comes in at about $2200. Im not using it for heavy games or very demanding applications so it is quite ideal. XP was pre-loaded and I tried games like ViceCity, RTCW, UT2003 (yes it ran) and they all ran fine. Removed XP and installed Linux to since my IT degree course is primarily using UNIX/Solaris, to better fit in with the University's lab environment.

 

[jimmyl930]

Thanks.

Originally posted by: jimmyl930
I'm trying to lower the cost. So what's the cheapest laptop with a Radeon 7500? Thanks.

Anything else?