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New laptop shower

G

gizbug

Platinum Member
Currently a pilot. Looking for a laptop to take with me on the plane/road. I hear the IBM are the most durable. I was looking at DELL's but I'm hearing IBM is a better buy. I don't want it to replace my home desktop...just beable to watch dvds on it, wireless, and play some games on it.

Any commets? I see IBM has a range of different types to chose from.
 
Stuff live civ 4, world of warcraft.
Screensize? Something decent to play a game, or watch a dvd.
Good battery life, since a pilot is always on the road.
Cost? Dunno, 1500 or less
 
ThinkPads generally aren't the best for gaming, but I'd say that a T43 would be great for what you need to do. The X300 should be quite capable of running Civ 4 and WoW.
 
Check out Lenovo/IBM's boxing day sales, last year they had $999 T42 and X series. Up here in Canada they already started some pre-boxing day sales.

 
Yeah, a T43 would be a great mobile desktop replacement choice, as long as you're not a hard core gamer. If you ARE a hard-core gamer, that new Dell XPS M170 gaming laptop is what you want. You're not going to get either of those for $1,500, though.

Oh, and why did you put the word "shower" in your title? I get a queasy feeling in my stomach any time someone mentions a laptop and something water related in the same subject. 🙂

 
laptop... shower? 😕


ps. the X300 is junk and already old, outdated tech. get something better


 
If gaming is really a priority, I'd have to say go with a Dell.
the ATI 7500 / x300 video is kind of weak. For all the other things, Thinkpad's fine.
I ran Civ4 on my T41 (7500 video) and it was painful to watch.

Especially since you're not looking for something to replace your desktop at home (which T4x line is excellent for).

Unfortunately, I can't really offer any help on what Dell models are good nowadays.
 
If you are always on the move, want something that will be durable and lightweight, makes you look professional and know what to choose, lasts for a very long time, plays those not so graphics demanding games , offers some kick ass screen quality, well you have T43 options renging from $ 1200 to $ 3899 here's a List of all the models and their prices, some good deals in ther IMO .
 
Originally posted by: skunkbuster
laptop... shower? 😕


ps. the X300 is junk and already old, outdated tech. get something better
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think I have to agree. The x300 has pretty horrible performance. You would even be better off getting the older t42 with a 9600 in it. IBM's are simply not built with gamers in mind.
 
Originally posted by: modedepe
Originally posted by: skunkbuster
laptop... shower? 😕


ps. the X300 is junk and already old, outdated tech. get something better
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think I have to agree. The x300 has pretty horrible performance. You would even be better off getting the older t42 with a 9600 in it. IBM's are simply not built with gamers in mind.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you're probably right. My T42p plays Civ 4 with no problems, and it came with the ATI FireGL T2 card.
 
Originally posted by: modedepe
Yeah, I think I have to agree. The x300 has pretty horrible performance. You would even be better off getting the older t42 with a 9600 in it. IBM's are simply not built with gamers in mind.
Click to expand...
While the X300 isn't great, it is about equal to a 9600. They seems to pull ahead in different scenarios, but are overall equal.

Personally I don't find a 15.4" notebook too bad to take everywhere I go. That may be different for you as a pilot.

Check out the MSI MS-1029: Turion CPU, 15.4" WXGA, X700 GPU, easily had under $1500.

The Asus Z71v is a 15.4" WSXGA+, Pentium M, and X700 GPU; costs a little more, but should be do-able at $1500.

There is also a cheap Acer (5002?) that has 64MB X700 and I think a 15.4" WXGA with Turion. I'd go with the MSI over that though.

There's a lot of MSI info here
 
Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
Originally posted by: modedepe
Yeah, I think I have to agree. The x300 has pretty horrible performance. You would even be better off getting the older t42 with a 9600 in it. IBM's are simply not built with gamers in mind.
Click to expand...
While the X300 isn't great, it is about equal to a 9600. They seems to pull ahead in different scenarios, but are overall equal.

Personally I don't find a 15.4" notebook too bad to take everywhere I go. That may be different for you as a pilot.

Check out the MSI MS-1029: Turion CPU, 15.4" WXGA, X700 GPU, easily had under $1500.

The Asus Z71v is a 15.4" WSXGA+, Pentium M, and X700 GPU; costs a little more, but should be do-able at $1500.

There is also a cheap Acer (5002?) that has 64MB X700 and I think a 15.4" WXGA with Turion. I'd go with the MSI over that though.

There's a lot of MSI info here
Click to expand...

Well, from what I've seen I think the x300 is closer to the 9200. It's pretty well crippled, only has a 64 bit memory bus, IIRC. Then again, it's hard to find any direct comparisons. At any rate, neither of them are speed demons.

I agree a 15.4" isn't too bad--if it's all you're carrying. If you're a student and carrying books it gets to be a bit much. The 15.4" market does give you a good amount more choices of laptops with decent video. I was briefly considering an MS-1032, which is essentially the Intel version of the MS-1029, which has slightly better battery life, although a weaker GPU.
 
Personally, I've fallen in love with my Dell i9300. While it is a bit of a beast at 17" widescreen, I really don't find it all that uncomfortable carrying around. OF course, I'm a big fella so that may enter into it as well. However, with the 6800 in here, I was playing Half Life 2 earlier @ 1024x768 w/ everything on high, and it was looking pretty. It would work for your games, and I got it for 1400 shipped with a coupon. You may even want to wait until closer to January when the Yonah core comes out, because I suspect prices will drop by then.
 
X300: 4 pipelines, 110nm, up to 230MHz core, 300MHz mem, 128-bit
9600: 4 pipelines, 130nm, up to 245MHz core, 350MHz mem, 128-bit
9200: 4 pipelines, 130nm, up to 230MHz core, 220MHz mem, 128-bit

(64-bit varities of all chips can exist)

Thinkpads T42 & T43, 1.6GHz, 1GB RAM, 7200RPM HDD:
3DMark05: 679 (9600), 708 (X300)
3DMark03: 2502 (9600), 1905 (X300)
3DMark01: 9787 (9600), 7087 (X300)

I didn't ever run any game benchies, but as you can see it kind of flip flops based on what type of graphics are being rendered.
 
Originally posted by: ultimatebob
Originally posted by: modedepe
Originally posted by: skunkbuster
laptop... shower? 😕


ps. the X300 is junk and already old, outdated tech. get something better
Click to expand...

Yeah, I think I have to agree. The x300 has pretty horrible performance. You would even be better off getting the older t42 with a 9600 in it. IBM's are simply not built with gamers in mind.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you're probably right. My T42p plays Civ 4 with no problems, and it came with the ATI FireGL T2 card.
Click to expand...

the t42p has a much more robust video, and would be fine for OP needs, but you pay for that video capability. (i've got a T42p, and love it)
 
Originally posted by: Busithoth

the t42p has a much more robust video, and would be fine for OP needs, but you pay for that video capability. (i've got a T42p, and love it)
Click to expand...


according to this link Text its based off the radeon 9600 gpu...which i would not consider 'robust' by any means of the imagination. fact is, ibm laptops are more business oriented, and not really suited very well for gaming.

 
WHY don't they put in a decent graphics card 🙁

Koing
 
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