so i got giftcards to bestbuy for xmas

[DjUnternull]

Roughly $300 bucks and i wanted to get a laptop to do excel and other work related stuff and when its not being used for work play some world of warcraft! can anyone recommend anything lets say below 700 that could work?( Im sick and tried looking but ive got a nasty stomach flu ) thanks!

 

[mpilchfamily]

A $600 laptop will barely be passible with WOW. Unless you get a great deal on a laptop with a decent vidoe card in it.

 

[DjUnternull]

sadface, hopeful thinking i guess none of this integrated ati mobility 4500hd cards with shared ram wont cut it?

 

[Skott]

The ASUS G60vx is the closest thing BB has to your budget but it would require you to increase your budget by $200.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+L...&skuId=9556072

 

[unfalliblekrutch]

I don't play WOW but my roommate does all the time on his MacBook with 9400m graphics. If that's an acceptable graphics card to play on, then perhaps consider the Dell studio 14z

 

[Skott]

BB doesn't sell the Dell 14z so it doesnt allow him to use his gift certificates. BB does sell a Studio 17 with a 9400m gpu but its above his budget and only available through BB's online ordering.

 

[DjUnternull]

How much is that one?

 

[Skott]

On further investigation its a 13.3" XPS Studio for $879. Its has a P8700, 500GB 7200 rpm hd, and a DvD. Kinda pricey though if you ask me but the smaller notebooks get the more expensive they get it seems. It has some nice components in it though.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dell+-+S...&skuId=9536451

 

[DjUnternull]

decisions decisions what to do >.<

 

[DjUnternull]

OK i think i found something if you guys can lend your opinion i think this meets my needs but im not sure about that processor( Im an Intel guy)

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Fac...&amp;skuId=9677294

 

[saratoga172]

Looks like it should work.
http://blogs.amd.com/play/2009/05/08/hp-pavilion-dv2-does-it-have-game/

 

[DjUnternull]

im worried about the processor though

 

[Decembermouse]

You don't need to spend $600 on a laptop to do spreadsheets and also be able to play WoW at decent settings!

Your needs will be more than served with one of these Athlon II laptops that has the Radeon 4200 graphics chip. You don't need a GeForce 260m just to play WoW (way overpowered for just WoW... maybe if you were into Crysis or something too and insisted on playing it on a laptop, but it doesn't sound like that's the case lol), but Intel graphics won't cut it.

The Athlon II (and Turion II... more expensive, not worth it for your purposes) processors are the same architecture that is used in AMD's Phenom II series. This is the K10.5 architecture, not the K8 which is in all Athlon/Turion (notice the absence of 'II' here) laptops since Summer 2004. I have been lusting after this new laptop platform for a while now and am waiting for a good deal to come along on one. They can definitely play WoW, and a number of other games too...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+...&amp;skuId=9553896

 

[DjUnternull]

i dont know i cant stand shared memory anything i mean, other than my spreadsheet work, the question is how WELL will it run? More importantly can i raid with it? ( If you are not familiar with the term "raid" , it is where groups as small as 4 or as big as 20-40 get in a zone and whack down bosses with tons of lights yelling and special effects

 

[Decembermouse]

I ran it just fine on previous generation laptops. These had Athlon I (not II) dual-cores at slower clock speeds, less RAM, and the older Radeon 3200 chip. This was at laptop resolution, I mean we didn't hook it up to a 24" HD monitor or anything, but it would run without any slowdowns at good detail settings. Keep in mind this is only WoW, which isn't incredibly intensive on graphics, but still as you know you want a graphics chip that isn't weak. Yeah, shared memory for WoW on the Radeon 3200 worked just fine, and memory timings have gotten slightly better since then, as has the graphics core and CPU.

 

[DjUnternull]

ok so i took your advice and i got an hp dv6-2088dx
8 gigs of ram
windows 7 home premium
ati 4200 hd

so far so good

 

[wwswimming]

be patient, those $800 prices for a basic laptop are higher than the sale prices.

they had dual core laptops with 17" monitors & decent video on sale sometimes for under $500 - last year.

just wait for the sales, they will happen.

 

[DjUnternull]

this laptop normally was 800 dollars, it was on clearance for 600 then we looked in the computer at bestbuy and found a store selling it for $525 brand new in box with my gift cards i spend 275 ^_^ for 275 i got 7 home premium amd 2.2 dual core 8 gigs of ram ati 4200hd with 128 display memory webcam 500 gig hard drive, overall im pleased

 

[ussfletcher]

sweet deal dude, that is great for that price.