[Polydectus]

I build my own desktop systems, but know absolutely nothing about notebooks. I bought a Dell XPS M140 thinking it would be adaquate for my needs.. but I was wrong. I installed Call of Duty 2 on it but I get a direct x error. After doing some research and talking with dell, it seems that the crappy onboard video card isnt supported. I would like to get a notebook that can handle Call of Duty 2, has an AMD 64 bit processor, decent battery life, decent video card that is supported by call of duty 2 / direct x 9, and is future upgradable. ie: video card, CPU, and possibly motherboard. From what I have read, laptops are pretty much built and you cant do anything to them except replace a hard drive and add more ram. I would like to get one that I can upgrade when it becomes obsolete.

I have surfed newegg for their laptops and i found a few decent ones, but they all had Intel CPUs (death to Intel!) My price limit is about $2,500.

If you guys could give me some advice on where I can find a laptop that would fit these needs I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!

Edited by Polydectus, 09 July 2006 - 09:12 PM.

[Advertisements]

I know it is an intel, but you should get the Dell Inpsiron E1705. I got one with the Nvidia 7800 mobile graphics card, and it plays Call of Duty 2, Battlefield 2, Battlefront 2, etc. You can easily customize it to be a high-end for under 2,500.
http://www.dell.com/...amp;s=dhssystem

Edited by Anton1382, 10 July 2006 - 06:39 AM.

[Anton1382]

I know it is an intel, but you should get the Dell Inpsiron E1705. I got one with the Nvidia 7800 mobile graphics card, and it plays Call of Duty 2, Battlefield 2, Battlefront 2, etc. You can easily customize it to be a high-end for under 2,500.
http://www.dell.com/...amp;s=dhssystem

Edited by Anton1382, 10 July 2006 - 06:39 AM.

[Polydectus]

Is this notebook upgradable? IE: If I want to switch the CPU or video card in the future?

[Anton1382]

Yes it is upgradable. Before I ordered it I talked with Dell, and they said that is is upgradable.

[Polydectus]

Excellent! I will look into this system some more then. Thanks for the help.

[Polydectus]

I see that this one only has a choice of dual core processors. I have heard issues with Call of Duty 2 and dual core processors, or have they fixed these?

[warriorscot]

I wouldnt go XPS overpriced Junk mostly, if you are going for overpriced gaming laptops get an alienware at least it will look great.

Wait till the core 2s are more in the lappers, that one is a core 1 i think.

Also i dont know what dell told you but they were probably talkng out there [bleep], CPU yes you can upgrade if you are very brave on most laptops but it is prohibitvley difficult and thats assuming the bios supports it usually doesnt especially with Dell, motherboards on a laptop cant be changed more likely to get a new laptop. Ram you can add more up to the max but its usually 2-4Gb over two slots its pretty expensive, Video the really new ones can sometimes be upgraded but they are expensive the replacement cards are expensive and they are difficult to install.

Upgrade and laptop really dont go together, if you want to game dont get a laptop. With dual core a COD2 you just set the core affinity but they did fix it in patch to make it work better.

Really what you are after isnt feasible in the laptop format and what you will end up is will be so big youll wish you had just got a small desktop instead.

[Anton1382]

Just to let you know I can play Call of Duty 2 with no hiccups or lag at all. It is fine on my laptop.

Edited by Anton1382, 10 July 2006 - 01:43 PM.

[warriorscot]

Yeah, but hardly much of an achievement considering how expensive that hardware is, theres the fact of games in the future and upgrading its more expensive and less powerful that desktop equivalent hardware, also the heat output when gaming is very high as it gets older thats only going to get worse and same goes for battery life it wont be good and itll get worse, i spoke to a guy with one of those and if he plays it to long the keyboard actually melts above the gpu.