While I can play Empires in low-medium settings, it sucks that I cannot play some of the newer games. I'll be working again this summer so this will give me an excuse to get a new laptop. I know a desktop would be a lot cheaper, but I need something that I can carry around if needed. I wouldn't call myself a hardcore-gamer in the sense I want to play the latest games in maximum settings, so a laptop will due. Here is the one I'm checking out: Dell XPS 15-L502x (w/ Intel's "Sandy Bridge") http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=6020&review=dell+xps+15 (older XPS 15 w/o Sandy Bridge) http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-15-L502x.49945.0.html Current specs: Code: Operating System [INDENT]Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English [/INDENT] Processor[INDENT]2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2720QM processor 2.20 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.30 GHz[/INDENT] Memory [INDENT]6GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory[/INDENT] Keyboard [INDENT]Backlit Keyboard - English[/INDENT] LCD [INDENT]15.6 FHD B+RGLED TL (1920x1080) and Skype-Certified 2.0MP HD Webcam[/INDENT] Video Card [INDENT]NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M 2GB graphics with Optimus[/INDENT] Hard Drive [INDENT]750GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive[/INDENT] Color [INDENT]Elemental Silver Aluminum[/INDENT] Integrated Network Adapter [INDENT]Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Card[/INDENT] CD ROM/DVD ROM [INDENT]8X Tray Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)[/INDENT] Sound [INDENT]JBL 2.1 Speakers with Waves Maxx Audio 3[/INDENT] Wireless [INDENT]Intel© Centrino© Advanced-N 6230 & Bluetooth 3.0[/INDENT] Battery [INDENT]56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery[/INDENT] I can get Windows 7 64-bit Professional and Office 2010 from school so I got the cheapest software package. I forked over an extra $200 to go from i5 dual core to i7 quad core. The smaller, 1366x768 screen is too small for a 15' laptop. The solid state hard drive would be an extra $600, but that's just stupid. I personally don't like the bulky 9-cell battery design. With coupons, this laptop is under $1300 with free shipping. If you guys have any recommendations on different specs or laptops, I'm willing to look at it. Though lenovo continues to make a great thinkpad, I have read reviews that the Ideapad Y5xx series have a flimsy, plastic design.
I'm playing all games on medium high settings on a worse laptop then that, connected over hdmi to my 24" screen. Also I have the unresistable urge to tell you that I finally finished reading Catch-22. Edit I have this one. Double edit: I dislike notebooks over 13", anything over that is not really portable and I need it to be portable for university and stuff.
Yeah, I don't carry my laptop around to classes so I don't have a problem with that. My current 15.1' thinkpad t500 has a similar weight. As an engineer with a math minor, I'm already used to carrying around 20lbs of books. How is the quality of Acer? My friend has a older model of the XPS and he likes it. His previous HP laptop was horribly designed (heatsink on a non-elevated bottom), which melted the motherboard.
Its solid, but the material is a bit shit, because you will see fingerprints all over it. Also the screen is not excellent, but I guess I cant expect something better then a TN screen in that price range. Processing power is excellent. Keyboard is a charm. Trackpad is the usual synaptics faggotry. The hybird gpu technology is not very mature. Usually it works, but sometimes its stuck in either the intel or amd mode and only restarting helps. You can barely hear the fan noise but if are sensitive to such sounds you will notice it. It gets quite hot in dedicated gpu mode, I had the gpu peak at 100°C, thats when the gpu auto throttles and you get instable fps, but that happens only after quite some time and can be easily worked around fucking around with the powerplay settings, which is a bit of an hassle but nothing major. Battery life is nice at the beginning it was a solid 6 hours, nearly at 7. Now it get up to 4-5h, after half a year of daily usage. Getting ubuntu to not blast away all battery life in less then an hour needed quite some fucking around, but its nothing impossible if you know how to google. Overall I dont regret purchasing it.
Acer makes pretty bad laptops. They are cheap, but of so-so physicaly quality. They will be nothing like your T500. I would seriously suggest against getting a gaming laptop. They are expensive, hot, heavy and become outdated in six months. A gaming laptop gives up all the good things about a laptop to shoehorn marginally improved performance. Even the best gaming GPUs on the market can be handily outdone by a $200 desktop GPU. The only gaming laptop I like is the M11x. It's a unique and fresh look at the typically pitiful gaming laptop. It has respectable battery life in a portable package. Sure, it's thick, but that gives it character. The really funny thing is that is has the same exact GPU as the XPS 15 L502x. The 540M is as high as you can get in either machine. And that's pitiful considering the 540M gets its ass handed to it by any desktop card over $100. It's not even close. http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Mobile/156 http://www.anandtech.com/bench/GPU11/207 I just checked one game, but AT didn't have a single desktop card that scored lower than the XPS 15 L502x. And that's even sadder once you consider the desktop cards were only 1680x1050 and the laptops were all on 1600x900. The desktop cards were pumping almost 25% more pixels and still had better performance. Luckily, I am pure win and I put together a simple desktop for you. Add in this combo as well; I can't add combos to wish lists. After shipping and three rebates (worth $30, $10 and $10), your total is $732.18. Toss in $30 for Win7 and a disk drive (if you still use those...) and you're still under $800.
I agree that a desktop would be much better than gaming. I don't play the latest, graphic-intensive games nor do I mind playing in lower settings (hell, I have been playing Empires on a T500 w/ intel GPU). I could get a desktop for gaming and use my current laptop for travel, but I would much prefer getting a decent gaming laptop that can last for a while. Btw, your newegg wishlist link does not work. I'm curious on what you have suggested.
I've been playing on an ACER aspire 9920 for the past 2 years and it's still going strong although I can only start it with a hair dryer now and lost the caps lock button somewhere..and esc... right shift and S buttons died after I spilled cola on it...twice and some Pálinka too, shit I might need to buy a new one soon.
Damn, I must be spoiled with my thinkpad T500. Almost 3 years and it is just as good as new; quiet harddrive/fan, bright screen, doesn't overheat, best keyboard, etc. I do regret getting the Intel4500mhd (as it had a shorter shipping date and needed ASAP), but still able to play Borderlands at low settings. Too bad thinkpad laptops don't have decent mainstream GPUs. I'm just looking for a reliable-built laptop that could last for a few years. The XPS 15 specs should easily allow me to play mainstream games (I don't play graphic-intensive games like crysis 2 or far cry 2) on medium settings for the next couple of years. I have seen good reviews for the Dell XPS longevity, but wondering if any of you have one or a know any other decent gaming-ish laptops.
My mistake: http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=14049711 If you didn't already have the T500, I would say, "sure, go for it." However, of all laptops, you already have a Thinkpad! It would be silly to get another laptop at this point, especially a cheap "gaming" laptop. That's before we talk about the enormous performance canyon between desktops and laptops. I have a desktop with an only Penryn E8400 and a 4890. The 4890 was at the $200 sweet spot three years ago. It's still playing Crysis at 1080p (under modest settings). I'm getting close to the point of needing to overclock to play newer games. My E8400 will do 3.6GHz (400x9) and the 4890 is good for at least 10% all around. Moral of of the story, desktops already dominate laptops out of the gate. After considering overclocking and upgrades, desktops are an enormously cheaper way to get a much more satisfying gaming experience that can last three and four times as long. And oh yeah, you already have that T500... (can you tell I want a Thinkpad?)
Im not going to get a desktop again. Im happy with my notebook and I just connect it to screen, keyboard and mouse when I'm home.
It is something I would consider if I had a smaller laptop or had the time, but I need something already built. From my understanding, a mainstream "gaming" laptop (I use the term lightly as I don't mean overpriced Alienware) should do fine for most of the type of games I play for quite a while. As long as the company/series has a reputation of decent build and can last a few years, I'm fine with that. As for my thinkpad, I'll probably sell it. If I'll get a smaller Thinkpad in the future if I need one for travel/work. If you are interested in buying it, I can make you an offer
You're selling that T500? Well damn, if I were in the market, I might take a closer look. If you're planning on getting rid of the Thinkpad, then buying that XPS 15 is a good idea. Go forth, receive thou Empires Machine.
Thinkpads have a decent return. Hell, my friend's IBM Thinkpad from over a decade ago still works. It is the only thing that has ever gone Chinese and not gotten worse. I'll miss the blue button though (saved my laptop within the first year when trying to install McAfee and Windows died on me) I'll probably buy the XPS 15 unless someone has any other suggestions by this weekend. If I need a small notebook, I will definitely look at the Thinkpad X series. Those laptops still have the same design from 20 yrs ago :D
The X220 is fucking boss: 8+ hours of battery life, IPS screen, full voltage processors, etc. It's too bad it's stuck with Intel's integrated graphics. Granted, they have gotten worlds better with the Sandy Bridge generation, but they are still integrated graphics. If you're used to playing on low settings, you'll be able to crank out 40 fps @ 1366x768 (both the X220 and XPS 15 use that resolution). If you're replacing your laptop and you only play old Source mods, then the X220 and it's HD3000 could get the job done. The XPS 15 isn't a bad choice if the X220 doesn't work out. Good luck with your new machine!
I thought the same when Intel 4500MHD came out, but then regarded it afterwards. It is good enough to play most Steam games but it sucks when I want to try out any new games. If not a Lenovo X-series for travel/work, I would get a Asus Eee netbook as I have heard nothing but good reviews since they came out.
I strongly dislike netbooks, there is nothing good about that form factor. If you want something that size, look into either android tablets or an ipad. I don't think netbooks deserve to exist. Maybe look into the upcomming chromebooks, I have no opinion about those yet thhough.
I was going to order the XPS 15 but then realized there were more coupons for the XPS 17. I configured a XPS 17 with better spec and it is A LOT cheaper than the XPS 15: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M 2GB graphics with OptimusTO NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M 3GB graphics with Optimus 15.6 FHD B+RGLED TL (1920x1080) and Skype-Certified 2.0MP HD WebcamTO 17.3" FHD (1080p) with 2.0MP HD Webcam 56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary BatteryTO 90 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery 6GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 MemoryTO 8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory 750GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard DriveTO 500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive The only real downgrade is the screen quality (500GB harddrive is enough for me), the rest is much better and it is less than $1,150 (~$150 less than lower-specced XPS 15). I won't be able to carry it around (thus would probably need to keep my thinkpad for a bit until I buy something smaller if needed). You can easily google "dell coupon" and find a $350, $150, and free shipping coupons (Expires June 15th) for a XPS 17 that all stack with each other. I'll probably wait off until tomorrow as I need to check out the reviews on the XPS 17.
