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Aravan wrote on 2010-09-21 19:51
My aunt is buying my son a laptop for christmas. She only buys Dell, from their website, and she is willing to spend up to $1,000. (Edit, $2K, with the taxes included. MUST be Dell.) But i have to give her the specs, so she knows what he needs.
Like I have any idea. I don't know hardware.
Obviously, mini-me is a gamer like his momma, so he'll need a decent graphic card. But a top of the line one isnt necessary. The most graphic intense game he owns is Spore. And RAM, i have no clue what is current minimum these days. He saw a terragig external drive he drooled over in Staples (and i was surprised that it was half the size of my own 80gb), but do laptops have that kind of space?
Help me out here?
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Lolikitten wrote on 2010-09-21 20:22
A few months ago, 1TB 2.5 HDD's came out. but they're on the expensive side. Laptops with 17+ inch screens sometimes have dual drive bays also. Dell Has a tendency to fail. and right now the HP Envy Line-up is amazing. For $999 you can get a HP Envy 15. Which has a switchable graphics card. For $100 less there's another laptop which wont live up to the Envy series but is good enough. The Dell Studio 17 1749, offers an HD Intel graphics chipset, which is Kind of bad.... and for $200 ontop of the $889 With the dell you can get an ATI Graphics card. My point is... Convince her not to go with Dell this time.
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Aravan wrote on 2010-09-21 20:33
i personally prefer HP too. I think its because she has credit line with Dell. But perhaps I can convince her that a GAMER needs an HP. ;)
I'm completely open to suggestions, but an older woman will likely only go with name brands she has heard of on the TV. So a Frankenstein made with parts around the 'net won't happen, even if it would be a superior machine.
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Lolikitten wrote on 2010-09-21 20:42
Quote from Aravan;162193:
i personally prefer HP too. I think its because she has credit line with Dell. But perhaps I can convince her that a GAMER needs an HP. ;)
I'm completely open to suggestions, but an older woman will likely only go with name brands she has heard of on the TV. So a Frankenstein made with parts around the 'net won't happen, even if it would be a superior machine.
My Uncle works with Dell so I get discounts, so I got a desktop once...and Nowadays it sounds like a dying puppy. but my HP setup which is 3 years older is silent. Plus every machine I've owned is HP, even with their steep prices within the last 3 years. nowadays they're much better though.
The Envy Lineup got itself in Game Informers Gadget list, thats how good it is :)
For dell gaming-wise with laptops It'll always be over 1k
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Osayidan wrote on 2010-09-21 20:43
Alienware is a child company to Dell, try to convince her with that.
Alienware Landing
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Aravan wrote on 2010-09-21 20:50
Eee! But what kind of specs should I be looking for? At mimimum?
Oh, Alienware looks fancy. Rather masculine fancy. i guess my boy would love that. XD
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Lolikitten wrote on 2010-09-21 20:50
Quote from Osayidan;162206:
Alienware is a child company to Dell, try to convince her with that.
Alienware Landing
Totally forgot about the m11x Lineup. But they're a bit chunky to my liking.
Alienware M11x Laptop Details | Dell
$949 M11x
Quote from Aravan;162211:
Eee! But what kind of specs should I be looking for? At mimimum?
It depends. 512MB+ On the GPU for good performance in most games nowadays. 1GB+ For optimal. 4GB+ Of ram, obviously. Either an i5 Core over 2ghz or a i7 core of 1.8+ I'de also reccomend a laptop with a 15' screen. If he tends to move with it.... 17' can become a hassle.
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Aravan wrote on 2010-09-22 02:01
Edit: Make that about $1800 ($2k with the taxes). But it *must* be Dell, my aunt said. Just spoke to her that one that will last five years is around $1500 so she upped the limit!
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Osayidan wrote on 2010-09-22 02:09
Lucky for you the alienware m11x is listed on the official Dell website so technically it's still a possibility. No one can say it isn't a Dell if it's listed there.
Performance Laptop Deals | Dell
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Lolikitten wrote on 2010-09-22 03:09
Quote from Aravan;162532:
Edit: Make that about $1800 ($2k with the taxes). But it *must* be Dell, my aunt said. Just spoke to her that one that will last five years is around $1500 so she upped the limit!
Amazing aunt. Most expensive thing I ever got was a PS2 ._. I've had to work for all my things lol. we'red you get 1.8k? A stock M11x shouldn't be that expensive at all
@ The alienware site checkout goes right back to the dell website so its all integrated, so as Osayidan said. It's a possibility.
I'de like to see your sons face when he opens his presents and finds one of the most coveted laptops on the market in the box lol
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sakraycore wrote on 2010-09-22 03:56
gaming laptop is almost an oxymoron. but i recommend the macbook pro.
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Aravan wrote on 2010-09-24 22:29
lol @ "gaming laptop".
TECHNICALLY, it's "for school." That graphic card is for online video tutorials for science class... History, first hand re-creation! How to conquer an empire! *slash! defend! wmwmwm!*
*cough*
I'm leaning towards the Alienware M15x. Stats are as follows, at $1,824. Looks good? (And thanks for all the input!)
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7 740QM Quad Core Processor, 1.73GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6M Cache
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
VIDEO CARD 1GB DDR3 ATI Radeonâ„¢ Mobility HD 5730
LCD PANEL 15.6-inch WideHD+ 1600x900 (900p) WLED
MEMORY 6GB Memory (1x 2GB, 1x 4GB DDR3)
HARD DRIVE 500GB SATAII 7,200RPM
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Osayidan wrote on 2010-09-24 22:41
Looks good and it'll perform well. The only suspicious thing is the RAM.
The i7 is designed to work with DDR3 RAM, which needs to have 3 RAM sticks in 3 slots to technically be triple channel. The one you have there is 2 sticks. At that price you should technically have a better memory config, but this is Dell so things get weird.
It'll still work, I just find it weird and not sure how it will affect performance. It'll be fine for 'school' though.
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Aravan wrote on 2010-09-24 22:52
The options for that were as below. My aunt glanced over my shoulder and told me to up the RAM from the 6g to 8g dual channel. I'll leave that to you if/what that changes.
Dual Core Processors
Intel® Core™ i3-350M 2.26GHz (3M cache) [subtract $300.00]
Intel® Core™ i5-540M 2.53GHz (3.06Ghz Turbo Mode, 3M cache) [subtract $100.00]
Quad Core Processors
Intel® Core™ i7 740QM Quad Core Processor, 1.73GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6M Cache [Included in Price]
(everything else was more expensive) And thanks again for help. Technology is growing too fast for someone who was happy playing Oregon Trail. *cough*
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Osayidan wrote on 2010-09-24 23:29
Oregon trail is still awesome D: You make me feel like playing it now, except I always died crossing the river :(
Sticking to what you had in your previous post or getting one of Dell's famous memory upgrades will be fine either way. Those specs will last him a long time for casual gaming, and even future generations of games will run with lowered settings.
The only thing you have to do when you get a laptop is get rid of all the useless junk that's installed on them by the manufacturer. Free trials of whatever and bunches of tools that slow you down more than anything else. Performance really suffers because of things like that.