Thinkpads

[Dorkenstein]

I have abandoned trying to get a really powerful laptop in favor of just a passable one that will run games at minimum requirements. I am thinking of the IBM Thinkpad G41. Anyone ever get a look at it or use one? I am also considering Fujitsu, Gateway and Acer. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[WackyDan]

The G41 is the odd duck of the ThinkPad family. Remember, that the G41 has a DESKTOP Pentium 4 processor in it. Due to this, it's a thick chassis (cooling), and has low, low battery life as would any notebook running a desktop P4 in it.

The G41 at least has the Nvidia chipset as an option, and the G41 is also a Bargain..... It's 8 oe 9 pounds - power brick is HUGE..... So if you are not going to be toting it around with you all the time, it might be the machine for you. _

Plus, the G41 Floppy and optical bay is "fixed", meaning you can't remove the drives to upgrade/swap.

You need to run it open even when connected via KVM to another keyboard/mouse/monitor as it has venting not only on the side fo the chassis but also just above the keyboard.

 

[Dorkenstein]

Ahh, didn't know that. Any other suggestions?

 

[fbrdphreak]

Gateway 7426: A64 3700+, 1GB RAM, DVDRW, 15.4" WXGA, 64MB Radeon 9550 (underclocked 9600): approx $1300 on sale @ BBY :thumbsup:

 

[Dorkenstein]

Hmm.

 

[BlingBlingArsch]

Go for a notebook with 6600Go or X700 mobility graphic systems if u want good graphics. I wouldnt go for 9700 anymore since those books arent that much cheaper than those with better graphics. btw third quarter is starting and couple of new notebooks with AMD Turion are to come out soon. But since afaik the Turion is made in Fab30 which is in Dresden, Germany - and some german and british vendors that i do trust already listed these books -, my guess is that they probably will be available within next month in Europe and maybe some time later they come over to u (June, July?). Pricing from 900$ with UMA shared graphics to 1100,- with decent ATI x700.
models:
Averatec 4155
MSI M635 -> will be available as barebone aswell, incl. ATI x700, WLAN, keyboard, DVD burner, but without hdd, cpu, ram and whatever..
Asus A6700K
Acer Aspire 5021 and 5022

giyf

 

[nzimmers]

well, I can't recommend IBM thnkpads enough.....so many people, including myself, have good experiances with IBM thinkpads. I still use my 1999 570E that's 7 years old and it is a great machine.

games on laptops has always been dicey......no matter what you choose to go with you're probably going to be disapointed - save the gaming for the desktop if possible.

 

[trikster2]

Originally posted by: nzimmers
well, I can't recommend IBM thnkpads enough.....so many people, including myself, have good experiances with IBM thinkpads. I still use my 1999 570E that's 7 years old and it is a great machine.

games on laptops has always been dicey......no matter what you choose to go with you're probably going to be disapointed - save the gaming for the desktop if possible.

"Should rephrase that to "games on thinkpads have always been dicey......no matter what thinkpad you choose to go with you're probably going to be disapointed"

Or to put it the way my friend the old time beamer puts it:

"Thinkpads are great but their graphics suck".

Non-thinkpad notebook graphics have come a LONG way. I have a hard time believing anyone (except the most hardcore gamers) with the 6800 or x800 derivatives are disappointed. I own a fairly slow 6800 variant and I am thrilled with how seemlessly this laptop has completely replaced my main desktop.

All that said the OP just wants "a passable one that will run games at minimum requirements. "

That's a fuzzy statement, without knowing the game(s) it's impossible to know if he needs DX7 or DX9 GPU. Some games scale down way low to cover the largest market segment (doesn't HL2 have a seperate DX7 engine for slower GPUs?).

Depending on the game he may be able to get away with (gasp) integrated graphics on the $500 laptop dujour.....