Solved! Looking for a new laptop

[calmstateofmind]

So I'm in the market for a new laptop. Currently I'm using a netbook, but there are many restrictions with it (in terms of performance). I'm a little behind when it comes to laptops and whats hot or not, so I was hoping you all could help.

What's a pretty good laptop to get these days that can play games smoothly (around 30 FPS) and doesn't cost more than ~$700. I'm not a fan of Dell so anything other than that.

Thanks in advance!

 

[WR2]

Games and smoothly and $700 together usually mean games on low graphics.
Are you OK with that?

 

[WR2]

A couple options that might, depending on the games you play, let you move above low graphics settings:
Acer Aspire 15.6" Laptops with GT 540M mobile graphics and i3-380M CPU $650 or i5-480M CPU $700

 

[WR2]

 

[Fadekyn]

How about this Lenovo IdeaPad Core i5 Dual 2.66GHz 14" LED Laptop for $649?
http/www.dealstudio.com/searchdeals.php?type=id&q=d227010&ru=28904209
It's on big sale now. Good price for sure. It might worth u a peek. Hope u find the best bet. Good luck for u.

It doesn't say what the graphics card is. In your case you shouldn't settle for anything less than an ATI 5650 when spending $700. Nvidia equivalent is the GT 540M, or am I off on that? (not sure)

Take a look at new egg. Also, if gaming is your main need don't rule out refurbished. Usually all it takes is a little research on your part and a few software tweaks to make it as good as a brand new model.

Ex: I just bought the ASUS G73JH refurb and had to update the Bios and vBios to fix a driver conflict that caused grey screen of death. Other than that it's running like brand new now and I saved about $600-$700 going this route.


Sites to use for research:

notebookcheck.net--search card and you get a review. right side has column with tiered quality rankings

notebookreview.com--forums are divided by manufacturer and then divided by individual model. So you can reasearch nearly every laptop out there and get an idea of it's true performance.

tomshardware.com--better review articles for chipsets, graphics cards, benchmark comparisons. (Open up all graphics card articles and look for the World of Warcraft benchmarking. Great if not one of the best articles for understanding GPU performances.)

anandtech.com--good for some reviews and info too

 

[WindowsTeam_Kevin]

You can check out the Alienware M11x. It's little, 11.6 screen, 1.3 GHz Intel Core 2 duo su7300, and 4 GB DDR2 800 MHz RAM.

To be honest, it might be a little hard getting those high intense graphics under $700. This one has a 1024 MB Dedicated graphics Video card, and NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 335M.

Kevin
Windows Outreach Team

 

[WR2]

I'm not so sure I'd jump on a low power Core 2 Duo CPU for a gaming laptop.