Laptop of the year?

[telon2222]

I am down to my final choices, a dell Inspiron 9300, 17" inch screen with a Intel® Pentium® M Processor 750 (1.86 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB) and a 256MB NVIDA® GeForce? Go 6800 video card, an HP zd8000 series, 17" inch screen, with a Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 640 w/HT Technology, 3.2GHz, and a 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) X600 video card or a Sager, 17" inch Screen with a AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Processor with AMD Powernow Technology and a ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9700 128MB DDR video card. This laptop will be plugged in 95% of the time. The screen pixels are similiar. Which of these will have the sharpest graphics with streaming, dvd's and games, and also which one will run the fastest with streaming, dvd's and games and surfing the net?Is the difference between the 256MB NVIDA® GeForce? Go 6800 video card and the ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9700 128MB DDR video card that much noticeable since the ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9700 128MB DDR video card is in a AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Processor with AMD Powernow Technology processor? Thank you for your opinon's and help!

 

[fbrdphreak]

Wow, dude; break that up a little bit

Out of those the best is definitely the 9300. The GeForce Go 6800 smokes there rest of those for gaming. In terms of general usage, all three will be comparable.

The Sager isn't worth it 'cuz the GPU is really old.

The HP is nice, I like the screen & keyboard, but it will run very hot and the GPU will be a good deal slower than the 9300.

Go w/the 9300

 

[Mike01]

The 9300 is the best for games only. The 6800 is a lot faster than the other two graphic cards, alhtough either of other two will play all modern games, though on some games like Doom 3 you will be looking at aroudn 20fps average...very playable, but not exceptional.

The Sager has the most powerful CPU, but not by much.

It all depends on what you use it for.

If I wanted to play games on this thing at all, I'd get the Dell. Though why anyone who has any kind of choice would want to play games on a laptop is beyond me...

 

[ShellGuy]

I would go with the Dell as well just for the fact that the HP is just a nice lap warmer and will still underperform both others. I am going to be lookin at the new Ferrari commin out end of june? good luck with your quest though...


Will G.

 

[Artek]

I will be getting the Dell 9300 in 2 months. I think its a great laptop. Ana a bargain with the dell coupon

 

[telon2222]

Whats the deal with no amd 64 w/256 video card??

 

[ShellGuy]

Because the new amd 64 and PCIE are just commin out.. Check out this.


Will G.

 

[boggsie]

Originally posted by: telon2222
I am down to my final choices:

• Dell Inspiron 9300, 17" inch screen with a Intel® Pentium® M Processor 750 (1.86 GHz/2MB Cache/533MHz FSB) and a 256MB NVIDA® GeForce? Go 6800 video card

• HP zd8000 series, 17" inch screen, with a Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 640 w/HT Technology, 3.2GHz, and a 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) X600 video card

• Sager, 17" inch Screen with a AMD Athlon 64 3400+ Processor with AMD Powernow Technology and a ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9700 128MB DDR video card.

This laptop will be plugged in 95% of the time. The screen pixels are similiar.

1. Which of these will have the sharpest graphics with streaming, dvd's and games?

1. Which one will run the fastest with streaming, dvd's and games and surfing the net?

1. Is the difference between the 256MB NVIDA® GeForce? Go 6800 video card and the ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9700 128MB DDR video card that much noticeable?

 

[telon2222]

Thanks for the editing.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: telon2222
Whats the deal with no amd 64 w/256 video card??

Been there, answered that; three times

AMD notebook mobos are just getting PCI-E, currently all mobile video cards with 256MB RAM are PCI-E.

 

[ssvegeta1010]

Get the 9300. Best graphics, and a great CPU.

The HP will not be a lap-warmer. It will be a lap-burner. (I have a M-P4 @ 3 GHZ, and the bottom of my laptop reaches 120F-125F easy.)

 

[railer]

Originally posted by: Mike01
Though why anyone who has any kind of choice would want to play games on a laptop is beyond me...

Because we can Mike....because we can...

My former gaming rig (Athlon 3200, gig of Ram, Radeon 9700, 19" CRT) is collecting dust in my spare room since I got the 9300. Why should I spend any time on that when my 9300 blows it away? Spend $300 on a vid card for it so it keeps up with my laptop...I don't think so. I just took the 9300 over to my buddy's house for some portable gaming last week. Again, because I can. The question should be: "Why would anyone choose to game on a desktop, when they have a 9300?".

 

[RobsTV]

Originally posted by: railer

Originally posted by: Mike01
Though why anyone who has any kind of choice would want to play games on a laptop is beyond me...

Because we can Mike....because we can...

My former gaming rig (Athlon 3200, gig of Ram, Radeon 9700, 19" CRT) is collecting dust in my spare room since I got the 9300. Why should I spend any time on that when my 9300 blows it away? Spend $300 on a vid card for it so it keeps up with my laptop...I don't think so. I just took the 9300 over to my buddy's house for some portable gaming last week. Again, because I can. The question should be: "Why would anyone choose to game on a desktop, when they have a 9300?".

I agree.
I have a choice here of using desktop with 21", HTPC with 100" or laptop with 17".
Laptop wins.
It is the largest!!!!!!!!!
Why go smaller to 21" or 100" viewing area?

How is a 17" larger than a 21" or 100"?
Simple. Distance from your eyes!!
A 17" notebook will usually be placed about 2' away.
21" may be 3' away. 100" will be 14' away if set up properly.
You can compare the viewing area using many methods.
Using you hand as a guide, and you would see that the screen with the largest viewing area is the 17" laptop.
If you set laptop an a coffee table, or about 3' away, sure it is only the same as a 17".
Add a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, SB Audigy 2 ZSN, FF USB wheel, and you are done.

Not to mention LAN gaming. Laptops RULE this area.
Also, I am not confined to computer desk.
I let the other LAN gamers use desktop and HTPC setup, while I am comfortably gaming on my plush sofa.

So the question really is, why would anyone use a desktop for gaming any longer?

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: RobsTV
So the question really is, why would anyone use a desktop for gaming any longer?

Because next year when the 9300 doesn't run any new games at that WUXGA res, I can drop a $500 video card into my rig and game away. You gotta drop another $1500+ into a notebook to do that
But they are all good points Glad to hear you enjoy 9300 gaming, I wish I had a 9300 to game on simply because my girl bitches at me when I disappear to my computer desk, hehe

 

[railer]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
[Because next year when the 9300 doesn't run any new games at that WUXGA res, I can drop a $500 video card into my rig and game away. You gotta drop another $1500+ into a notebook to do that
But they are all good points Glad to hear you enjoy 9300 gaming, I wish I had a 9300 to game on simply because my girl bitches at me when I disappear to my computer desk, hehe

I'll just sell this and and use the money to buy a new lappy when the time comes, and that won't cost me anywhere near $1500. Just last week I got around to FORCING D3 to run at 1920x1200, because it doesn't support it natively. Before that I ran at 1024x768, 1600x1200, and others, and the game looked fine at any res I tried. The notion that a modern lcd needs to run at its native res to look good is a myth.

 

[knightc2]

Because we can Mike....because we can...

Nice. Aint that the truth. I am sure it is an nice luxury to play games wherever you go instead of waiting till you get home.

 

[IEC]

Originally posted by: railer

Originally posted by: Mike01
Though why anyone who has any kind of choice would want to play games on a laptop is beyond me...

Because we can Mike....because we can...

My former gaming rig (Athlon 3200, gig of Ram, Radeon 9700, 19" CRT) is collecting dust in my spare room since I got the 9300. Why should I spend any time on that when my 9300 blows it away? Spend $300 on a vid card for it so it keeps up with my laptop...I don't think so. I just took the 9300 over to my buddy's house for some portable gaming last week. Again, because I can. The question should be: "Why would anyone choose to game on a desktop, when they have a 9300?".

I wish I could Poor college student = build a mATX rig for gaming using my old R9700P...

 

[roguerower]

I'm putting up my Dell Precision M70 up there. The computer is awesome and the video card, while optimized for OpenGL work, is just as good if not better than the old 9800 Pro that I had.

 

[deathwalker]

I have had a 9300 for about 2 months and all seems to be ok with it...but...all is not roses in all of the land of 9300's...many reports of problems with certain games or game engines. I believe it is mostly driver issues as Dell is still shipping this model with 67.71 drivers. I have a set of 3rd party drivers based on 72.01 and have no problems..BTW...this puppy runs great.

1.86 proc
6800 go graphics
1 gig ram
80 gig HD
1920x1200 display