laptops and pc gaming

[mentalcrisis00]

I'm in the market for a laptop for my nephew, I've been looking at many video chips and can't find solid benchmarks for them so thought I'd ask the forums opinion.

The main ones I've been looking at are the geforce go 5200, ATI mobility 9600, and the ATI mobility x300. The laptops that run those chips are within my price range. The only game my nephew is interested in playing is Guild Wars which has played on almost every system I've used it on including a desktop running an FX5200. I would be happy if any of those chips would be able to run GW on low or medium graphics with at least 25 to 30 FPS. All the laptops I've looked at have roughly 1.6GHZ cpu and 512MB to 1GB ram.

If anyone has benchmarks or estimates with this game/chip combo I would appreciate any advice. My spending limit is minimal so I'm only looking for older laptops available on ebay or private sellers. The cheapest retail I found was the Dell Vostro 1000 and it's $400 with components that aren't much better.

 

[Skunkwourk]

My brother has a Thinkpad T42 with the 9600 and plays Guildwars on it just fine. I don't know the exact settings, but it still looked pretty good and there wasn't any noticeable drop in frame rates.

 

[IEC]

Of the ones listed, 9600 would probably be best. Mid-range of previous gen is usually still better than low-end part of the next generation.

 

[Nebor]

You'll want 2 gigs of ram on any new laptop. Probably cheaper to put it in yourself though.

 

[Bateluer]

The 9600 is the most powerful of the chips you listed. You will want to add more RAM to the notebook after you get it though, 2GB minimum.

 

[mentalcrisis00]

thanks guys would this Dell Inspiron 8600 be worth getting? I'm pretty sure I can get dell to send me a new shift key and possibly a new memory plate. Seller says everything works and comes with 1 dimm slot open so I could upgrade it with another 1gb ram stick. Has a 1.6GHZ cpu and a 9600 ATI chip.

Ebay: Dell Inspiron 8600 Laptop

 

[AntiFreze]

My fiance bought a Vostro 17" with an 8600m GT. It plays WoW at max with everything at full. That's the only game she plays but I would recommend that, unless that 9600 one isnt too expensive.

(look at the dell refurb store, great deals)

http://www.dell.com/outlet/

 

[mentalcrisis00]

yes I also have a Vostro 1500 15.4 inch laptop with an 8600m gt and it works awesome for me, they're cheaper now when i bought mine it was 1200 bucks and now they're alittle over 600. Thats still to much for me but I could handle the $350 for this ebay one.

thanks for the advice guys

 

[Jax Omen]

ugh, for the love of god, don't buy a used laptop. People abuse their machines so much, it's not worth it.

 

[Maximilian]

Im on a dell vostro 1700 with the 8600m GT and its great. Its replaced my desktop rig with a 7900 GTO because this 8600 plays everything i need it to play. Theres a new vostro line out, the 1705 or something, dunno what the difference is between the old 1700 but look into vostros anyways, mine was good value when i bought it.

 

[mentalcrisis00]

1705 has a new case design and maybe some slightly different components, otherwise it's the same exact thing.

Originally posted by: Jax Omen
ugh, for the love of god, don't buy a used laptop. People abuse their machines so much, it's not worth it.

Wow calm down

 

[SZLiao214]

I'm using my 1700 as i type this message.

The 8600m gt that is in it overclocks like crazy.

 

[styrafoam]

Originally posted by: Jax Omen
ugh, for the love of god, don't buy a used laptop. People abuse their machines so much, it's not worth it.

Seriously, this is 100% truth. Ebay is where defective, dying, or otherwise unusable laptops go to make mean people a couple hundred dollars.

 

[TheVrolok]

Originally posted by: SZLiao214
I'm using my 1700 as i type this message.

The 8600m gt that is in it overclocks like crazy.

Overclocking a laptop vid card just scares me. Eek heat.

Originally posted by: styrafoam

Originally posted by: Jax Omen
ugh, for the love of god, don't buy a used laptop. People abuse their machines so much, it's not worth it.

Seriously, this is 100% truth. Ebay is where defective, dying, or otherwise unusable laptops go to make mean people a couple hundred dollars.

So true. An old roommate of mine bought his laptop on Ebay prior to going to college. Then the battery died freshman year so he called Dell to get a replacement; a few days later he got a call from the FBI. Turns out the laptop was stolen. They took it from him (they agreed that he had nothing to do with it and was innocent) and he was SOL.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: Jax Omen
ugh, for the love of god, don't buy a used laptop. People abuse their machines so much, it's not worth it.

I think you'd be safe buying one from FS/FT. It's treated me well, and I've bought a few from members here.

 

[AstroManLuca]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: Jax Omen
ugh, for the love of god, don't buy a used laptop. People abuse their machines so much, it's not worth it.

I think you'd be safe buying one from FS/FT. It's treated me well, and I've bought a few from members here.

Yeah, that's a good middle ground. I would buy a used laptop from someone here, but never from eBay. NEVER.

 

[Skunkwourk]

Slightly off topic, but

Dell's Vostro with the 8066GS is about 849 with a Celeron D processor.
Lenovo's Ideapad Y510 series with an 8600GTS is 889 with a Core 2 duo 1.8.

Kind of makes that Ideapad a pretty good deal for a moderate gaming laptop unless Im missing something.

EDIT: I'll just restate that the 9600 will be just fine for Guildwars if thats all you plan on playing on the laptop.