[Sk0rch]

Hello, I am going off to college in like a week. I need to buy a laptop. My price range is 900-1200ish. I do not want to get ripped off so I came to the boards for help. I am kind of a gamer so I want one that is good for gaming along with everything else, so it has a good video card and stuff.

Here is two that I am looking at,

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16834114240

http://www.newegg.co...82E16834147255R

So please tell me if those are a good deal, and if not, please tell me where I can find good deals.

Please ask if I forgot to include certain information.

Thanks a lot.

[Advertisements]

Here be my two cents.

Get yourself a nice Dell (as you want to play games, otherwise I would have recommended a Macbook Pro, as they are beasts). Although Dell is usually a rip when it comes to desktops, the prices for laptops are reasonable for what you get (and I just like being able to tweak and custamize my laptops before getting them in terms of RAM and storage).

If you feel more daring you could build a custimized laptop from either CyberPowerPC or iBuyPower as well. A little more pricey but you're able to put very nice stuff in a small package (but be aware the bigger and badder the things, the hotter your laptop will get).

As for the ones you chose. I would not recommend buying anything open box ever, as Newegg doesn't test any Open Box products so they may not work as expected or be missing some components. As for the Toshiba, it has an internal graphics driver, which won't run you any games that you may want to play. So try and find a laptop with an actual graphics "card" like an ATI Mobility or whatever the nVidia one is called.

This is not relevant to gaming, but what kind of laptop to get, do you know what you are going to major in in college? (I leave on Thursday for my college and I know sophmore year I'm buying an Apple Macbook Pro because I'm going into college for graphic design.)

[BlackPandemic]

Here be my two cents.

Get yourself a nice Dell (as you want to play games, otherwise I would have recommended a Macbook Pro, as they are beasts). Although Dell is usually a rip when it comes to desktops, the prices for laptops are reasonable for what you get (and I just like being able to tweak and custamize my laptops before getting them in terms of RAM and storage).

If you feel more daring you could build a custimized laptop from either CyberPowerPC or iBuyPower as well. A little more pricey but you're able to put very nice stuff in a small package (but be aware the bigger and badder the things, the hotter your laptop will get).

As for the ones you chose. I would not recommend buying anything open box ever, as Newegg doesn't test any Open Box products so they may not work as expected or be missing some components. As for the Toshiba, it has an internal graphics driver, which won't run you any games that you may want to play. So try and find a laptop with an actual graphics "card" like an ATI Mobility or whatever the nVidia one is called.

This is not relevant to gaming, but what kind of laptop to get, do you know what you are going to major in in college? (I leave on Thursday for my college and I know sophmore year I'm buying an Apple Macbook Pro because I'm going into college for graphic design.)

[Sk0rch]

Yes I heard that macs are great for college. I am going to loyola university of chicago with a major as undecided.

I do not want gaming to my major pastime as it is now, I want to try to cut down once I go to college. So I just want a laptop that is fully capable of running games, but not it's main focus.

And I forgot to say that I don't really know much about hardware. What does "open box" products mean? I do not want anything too pricey as I am in debt up to my [bleep] already.

So you recommend just going to the Dell website?

[smalls101]

i would say if you are looking for a decent laptop that starts out at a lower price range, Dell would be a decent choice. None of the other major brands tend to have seperate graphics cards. Personally, i prefer cyberpower or acer. Cyberpower being much more powerful and higher end. Acer has a little bit of everything, and are more economical.

[BlackPandemic]

Open box means someone bought it, then sent it back unused. But it's never guarenteed that everything will be there except the actual main product, so I never trust open box.

Acer is also good, didn't even think about that (nice smalls!). Keep in mind though, that the more game capable it is, the more expensive it will get, so if you play games, they will be on low-medium or slightly older games if you get one cheap like you're looking for. Then again, if you just want basic games (Call of Duty, The Sims, etc.) then you can get a Mac as they are also made for Macs!

So shop around at Dell, Acer, and Cyberpower and link what you find that you like and we can help you from there! (I don't think CyberPower links will work but keep in mind that they are the pricier but more capable of the three).

[warriorscot]

Macs for the laptops at least cost a little more and you dont get anything extra hardware is just the same and the OS personally i dont like but some do, i like with many of the manufacturers now you get a choice of your OS now its possible to get the laptops no OS or with preinstalled linux.

Price no option alienware is still a great brand and will make systems to your spec like cyberpower at a similar price but you get the name and the great warranty service, BUT your price range really doesnt cover a high end laptop certainly not one with a particularly good gfx card as they cost ALOT best you can hope for is a x1600 or 7600 at a push you will be lucky at that.

[smalls101]

If i were you I wouldnt even consider a mac. They are extremely nice, and Call of Duty on my friends 17in display looked absolutely amazing, the downside, $2500. They do run Windows XP now, if you could call it that. Dualbooting screws up alll sorts of things so i really wouldnt reccomend it. Windows is still better for school in my oppinion, unless you are going into video production or graphic design.

If i were looking in your pricerange, i would probably go with this one:

Acer AS5672WLMi-ATI

its a bit large at 6.6lbs, but for a 15.4in display its pretty good. Nice harddrive and ram, webcam, and ATI Mobility Radeon X1600. The battery life is kind of on the short side, but you can always but a new one. I have one very similar to this and i love it. My only complaint is that it seems a bit flimsy, but its still an awesome deal.

[Sk0rch]

Yes I am not considering a mac at all. The only game I will most likely be playing is Counterstrike (1.6 probably) Which is pretty old.

Thanks for the suggestions I'll check them out and get back to you guys.

[BlackPandemic]

To be honest, your best bet is to go to a store (Best Buy, CompUSA, etc.) and just touch/look at the in store models. See what you like and don't like, then go online and find one that matches that. I always do this with keyboards and speakers and monitors so try before you buy if possible.

The Acer does look nice. And true, forget Mac unless you plan on doing something graphic intensive in school (like me, graphic design). And what was $2500? The new Macbook Pro 15.4 inch laptop is only $1700. Did he get a desktop?

[smalls101]

The mac pro 15.4 starts at 2000, not 1700, and his was the 17in for 2799. Suuuure is nice though

[BlackPandemic]

If you are going into college, like us, you get an education discount and the Macbook Pro's start at a mere $1700. Really they are only worth the money if you are doing heavy graphics, because besides productivity, they aren't good for much

And since 1.6 will be your heaviest game, you might not have to worry about finding a laptop with a ATI / nVidia card because I'm pretty sure integrated will run CS 1.6.

[Sk0rch]

Yes well on the current PC, (5 years old) I had an integrated graphics card. But last year it started to not even run CS. So I had tor replace the integrated with a Nvidia Geforce4 6200

[Sk0rch]

Okay well I went to Best Buy today and I saw this laptop that was a great deal. It was 849$ with an ATI Radeon x600 video card. 120 GB, 1024 RAM,Athlon 64 bit mobile processor. 15" screen 5.3 lbs. It is a Gateway.

They say that it might not be there when I go back tomorrow, so I called my dad and asked if I can get it, he agreed that it was good, but he didn't want to get it because it was gateway. He said gateways won't last long.

I am not an expert but to the best of my knowledge, the above specs all for 849$ is a great deal, anyways what is wrong with Gateway? What do you guys think?

I also saw a Gateway for 899$, ATI Radeon Xpress 200 with the same specs. I don't know which graphics card is better, do you guys? Also the first one was AMD Athlon, this one is AMD Turion, what's the difference?

[BlackPandemic]

The X600 is better and as far as I know Gateway is fine. And if I'm right, I think Turion is just AMD's new laptop processor *shrugs*

[Sk0rch]

So that laptop for 849$ was a great deal right? And can someone tell me which one is better athlon or turion.