To make a long story short, I had a POS compaq laptop that Bestbuy has finally agreed to replace. So I've got 1600+tax to spend on a new laptop at best buy, although I do have money saved so I'd say 2000 or so before tax is the limit. My primary concern is graphics, secondary is memory, tertiary is hdd speed. I don't really have an opinion as per AMD vs Intel but faster the better provided that it won't scorch my flesh when I try and use it as an actual laptop. Battery life would be nice but it'll spend most of it's life plugged in, it should be able to play a movie (1.5-2 hours long) when I'm flying or what not.
The big thing I'm going to base my decision on is the graphics capability (as in games), from what I know there's no way to change the graphics card in a laptop... right? I also really want a 5400rpm hdd.
I can't stress how much I wish I could buy a laptop somewhere besides Bestbuy, like a sager but I don't think that's a possibility. Given the restriction of buying at bestbuy I found these laptops listed on their website;
The Gateway 7426GX-In the price range and has a Mobility Radeon 9550, but only 64MB on the video card. 100GB disk but no mention of it being 5400 or 4200rpm. Does have 1GB of memory and a DL dvd burner. Mobile A64 3700+ processor is cool but I'm not sure if it's something outstanding.
HP Pavilion zv6007us-Lower on price, has a A64 3200+ (not mobile A64 which scares me). 512MB of memory, 100GB disk @ 4200rpm which I'm not thrilled with. It however does have a ATI Radeon Xpress 200M IGP with 128MB dedicated to it.
There's also a couple of Sony Vaio's with GeForce Go 6200 chips but they're higher in price, doable but not ideal.
So as far as BestBuy's laptop solutions go, which would you go with?
How do the Mobility Radeon 9550 compare to the 200M vs the GeForce Go 6200?
Last question, BestBuy sells HP laptops but they don't list the zd8000 on their page which looks quite nice. Any thoughts on the possibility of getting BestBuy to order this laptop for me since they're an HP vendor?
The big thing I'm going to base my decision on is the graphics capability (as in games), from what I know there's no way to change the graphics card in a laptop... right? I also really want a 5400rpm hdd.
I can't stress how much I wish I could buy a laptop somewhere besides Bestbuy, like a sager but I don't think that's a possibility. Given the restriction of buying at bestbuy I found these laptops listed on their website;
The Gateway 7426GX-In the price range and has a Mobility Radeon 9550, but only 64MB on the video card. 100GB disk but no mention of it being 5400 or 4200rpm. Does have 1GB of memory and a DL dvd burner. Mobile A64 3700+ processor is cool but I'm not sure if it's something outstanding.
HP Pavilion zv6007us-Lower on price, has a A64 3200+ (not mobile A64 which scares me). 512MB of memory, 100GB disk @ 4200rpm which I'm not thrilled with. It however does have a ATI Radeon Xpress 200M IGP with 128MB dedicated to it.
There's also a couple of Sony Vaio's with GeForce Go 6200 chips but they're higher in price, doable but not ideal.
So as far as BestBuy's laptop solutions go, which would you go with?
How do the Mobility Radeon 9550 compare to the 200M vs the GeForce Go 6200?
Last question, BestBuy sells HP laptops but they don't list the zd8000 on their page which looks quite nice. Any thoughts on the possibility of getting BestBuy to order this laptop for me since they're an HP vendor?