Question:
A cheap and moderately portable gaming laptop?
I’m trying to decide between two notebooks which both fit my aesthetic requirements and my budget. The two models are the Dell Inspiron 6000D and the HP Compaq V2000Z, both configured barely above their base configuration with the only things added those that would be too expensive or annoying the upgrade later and the things I need immediately and would rather not put in the ‘upgrade later’ section.
The V2000Z would be configured as following:
Operating System - Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home Edition with SP2
Processor - AMD Sempron(TM) 3000+ (1.8GHz/128KB L2 Cache)
Display - 14.0 WXGA Widescreen (1280x768)
Graphics Card - ATI RADEON(R) XPRESS 200M w/productivity ports
Memory - 256MB DDR SDRAM (1x256MB)
Hard Drive - 40 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive
Primary CD/DVD Drive - DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
Networking - 54g(TM) 802.11b/g WLAN w/ 125HSM/SpeedBooster(TM)
Primary Battery - 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
The I6000D would be configured as following:
Operating System - Genuine Windows® XP Media Center Edition 2005
Processor - Intel® Pentium® M Processor 735 (1.70GHz/2MB Cache/400MHz FSB)
Display - LCD Panel 15.4 inch UltraSharp WSXGA+ LCD Panel
Graphics Card - 128MB DDR ATI's MOBILITY™ RADEON X300 PCI Express x16 Graphics
Memory - 512MB Shared DDR2 SDRAM 2 Dimms
Hard Drive 40GB 5400rpm Hard Drive
Primary CD/DVD Drive - Combo/DVD+RW Drives FREE! 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW)
Networking - Wireless Networking Card Dell 1370 Internal Wireless (802.11b/g, 54Mbps)
Primary Battery - 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (80 WHr)
(Just as an interesting side-note, Dell no longer has the WUXGA screen as an option when configuring the I6000… It did yesterday, though.)
The V2000Z comes in at around $600, while the I6000D comes in around at $800 AFTER the best coupon I could fine is applied. The V2000Z is much more portable than the I6000D, yet it has about 2 hours less battery life than the I6000D, though I probably wouldn’t care about the portability as much as the battery life, because I’m used to lugging around my 20 lb. Tower and 25lb. CRT monitor back and forth often.
The I6000D has a higher resolution, I like my desktop real estate and my vision is fine so small characters aren’t a problem.
There are three points on each laptop that will help me decide which best… The price, the video card, and the processor.
I’m 15 and I don’t have a job and as far as I know, the laws in my state won’t let me until I’m 16, and by laws I mean my parents because I somehow doubt they’ll be fine driving me to work. I don’t live close enough to anything that I’d want to work at to walk or bike there. Thus my budget is limited.
I do enjoy gaming on my laptop, or rather did until it basically was broken beyond repair… I’m sure it could be repaired to work fine, but for the price I’d rather just buy a new, better one; I never really liked how this one looked very much anyway. I do understand that the video card in the V2000Z isn’t meant for any hardcore gaming, but I have a different perspective of gaming than most. I don’t need everything turned up to the max and 100+ FPS to consider it playable. I’m just fine turning off every bit of eye-candy off and playing on the lowest resolution, as well as changing the Direct X version the game boots with. What I want is playability in a portable form factor with a bargain price… A bit much to ask? The games I currently play are FFXI, Neverwinter Nights, Halo, and Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind. I’m sure each of these will play with at least medium settings just fine on either computer, but I’m planning on purchasing some others. Those would be: F.E.A.R., Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Neverwinter Nights Diamond, Fable: The Lost Chapters, Guild Wars, World of Warcraft, Half-Life 2, and Halo 2 (when it comes out for the PC). I’m concerned that the Video Card in the V2000Z won’t play some of these, the main concerns F.E.A.R. and Oblivion, as well as Halo 2, but as far as I know no system requirements have been reported for it. As I said before, eye candy is not my priority, it’s nice, but not needed. I’m looking for playability, which, to me, is around 20-30 FPS.
The processor is the last main component that I’d like to know about. I plan on upgrading the V2000Z’s Sempron to a Turion 64 MT-40, which I would buy later this year. I’d also upgrade the I6000D’s processor if I decided to get it, though I’m not sure to which. As you may have guessed by me saying ‘Halo 2’, I’m planning on upgrading to Windows Vista soon after it comes out. Both of these computers will support it and its pretty Aero, especially after all the upgrades (I would also be upgrading to a 7200RPM HD with around 80GB or more of space later this year, as well as throw in two 1GB SO-DIMMs of Crucial RAM). I’m slightly worried about the Pentium M in the I6000D because of the fact that it is 32-bit. I’m not quite clear on how Vista will be released. I’ve heard it’ll come out in 32-bit versions and then 64-bit later, that some of the versions will be 32-bit and some 64-bit, as well as that only the starter edition will be 32-bit and all the others will be 64-bit only.
I’ve been searching for this answer without having to post this for a few weeks now, so I just decided I would post it. Thanks for all of the help I’ve been given here before and any help to come.
-Reize
Answer:
Re: A cheap and moderately portable gaming laptop?
I hope it's all right if I bump this...
Answer:
Re: A cheap and moderately portable gaming laptop?
You will need at least an x600 or 6400 Go to play the games coming up, such as Oblivion, the x300 or any onboard memory GPU will simply not cut it.
Sorry to break your bubble, but you may want to invest in a desktop instead. Or , if possible, see if you can wait, to increase your budget.
Best of luck.
Answer:
Re: A cheap and moderately portable gaming laptop?
Yes... Coriolis is right. The x300 won't do very well at all in newer games. The x300 wil be able to run most newer games at the lowest settings just fine. One thing that you might be able to get for around $800 would be the E1505 with the X1400 when that comes out. Right now you can get the Dell E1505 for around $650. Then when the X1400 is an option for the E1505 it will most likely be around a $150 upgrade.
Answer:
Re: A cheap and moderately portable gaming laptop?
I'm not entirely sure I will be getting Oblivion, I liked Morrowind, but I never was able to really get into it, I just played it on and off every now and then.
If I took that off the list would either of the laptops be able to play the other games I've listed? I've read that FEAR can play moderately well on an X300, but would it be able to play on the x200m with even everything turned off? All the rest, I'm pretty sure will play on either laptop as they're all older games (disregarding Halo 2) and aren't extremely demanding.
Thank you both for your help, I appreciate it very much.
Answer:
Re: A cheap and moderately portable gaming laptop?
Did you check the Sony SZ?
Answer:
Re: A cheap and moderately portable gaming laptop?
Did you check the Sony SZ?
Heh... Those look nice and would be better, but are a bit out of my budget ^^;
Answer:
Re: A cheap and moderately portable gaming laptop?
Well.. between the two in his post.. the x300 is godly compared to the 200m.
The last laptop I had with the ATI Chipset and Xpress200m.. Good thing it was an ultralight, because it was sloooooooooooow. (relatively of course)
You will need at least an x600 or 6400 Go to play the games coming up, such as Oblivion, the x300 or any onboard memory GPU will simply not cut it.
Sorry to break your bubble, but you may want to invest in a desktop instead. Or , if possible, see if you can wait, to increase your budget.
Best of luck.
Answer:
Re: A cheap and moderately portable gaming laptop?
Hmm...
Well, now HPshopping.com has taken away the instant savings of $150 on their V2000Z series so it's now at $650, which is annoying to me...
But on CompUSA.com they have a configuration of it that is selling there for $500, where on Hpshopping.com would cost around $750 now. It's configured the way I had it and wrote in my first post on this thread except it's without productivity ports, which, as far as I know, makes no change in the computer's performance itself. I don't though know if CompUSA also sends a WinXP recovery Disk as well as a disk with all the drivers like HP does.
Pretty much all I need to know anymore is if FEAR will run on the X200M, I doubt I'll be getting Oblivion, and I'm considering getting an X Box 360 after all the rumoured bugs have been fixed with it and if I wanted I'd just play it on there.
Thanks for all the replies.
Answer:
Re: A cheap and moderately portable gaming laptop?
Your best bet is to wait for the e1505 with the x1400 when it comes out (which wont be long)
the x1400 should be able to play all your games... (at mid to low settings of course)