Upgrading to a new laptop

[fitzilee]

hey guys maybe you can help me out with this one. I currently have a Toshiba Satellite A75-S209 with the following specs:

15.4" Trubrite WXGA 1280 x 800
Mobile Intel Pentium 4 3.06ghz HT
ATI Radeon 9000 IGP 128mb Shared
1GB RAM
60GB Hard Drive 4200RPM
DVD/CD-RW
Built-in 802.11g
Windows XP Home

I was thinking I could get maybe $800 for it on eBay. So that puts me at around $1400 to $1700 to spend on a new laptop. I am looking for one better suited for gaming. Here are my preferences:
No larger than 15.4"
Dedicated Video Card capable of decent gaming such as Age of Empies, Halo etc.
1gb RAM

I am not interested in Dells, HPs, Compaq, or Toshibas. I have my eye on an Acer Ferrari 4002WLMi for $1400. Located here TigerDirect Will this offer decent performance if I upgrade the RAM 1gb? I could use some help!

Tks
Mike

 

[HomeyFoos]

The most important thing for gaming is going to be the GPU. You, ideally, want an x1600 or greater, though it really depends on the amount of gaming you will be doing. I just bought a Dell because it was the only machine I could find that offerred the 7900GS. Out of the box I can play BF2 on medium settings with no AA and zero lag. If I tweak, I can probably get AA on and some high detail.

Light Gaming - integrated graphics (x200, x300, intel), GeForce FX, x600, GeForce 7300 Go, x1300
Medium Gaming - x700, x1400, 7400 Go, 7600 Go, x1600
Desktop-like Gaming - 7600GT Go (I'm pretty sure this exists as I came across it looking for laptops), 7800 Go, x1800, 7900GS Go, 7800GTX, 7900GTX

Now, what those things mean to you, who knows. And some will disagree with my classifications. But if your version of 'gaming' is WoW, you can probably get away with integrated graphics or one of the cards listed in the 'Light Gaming' section. If you want good frames in HL2 or CS:Source, you probably should look at machines in the 'Medium Gaming' area. If you want BF2 and Oblivion, the top end of the 'Medium' will get you in the door and a regular experience can be had in the 'Desktop-Like' section. The only problem is, the 'Medium' section is about all you can get in 15.4". If you try to get a 14.1" with, say, an x1600, you are looking at $1800 right now. And don't kid yourself. A 15.4" laptop is approximately 90-95% the size of a 17". That is why you find the best pricing on 15.4" machines. You really aren't getting any size benefit and they aren't quite big enough to house one of the really nice GPU's (or perhaps the larger GPU's don't ventilate in a 15.4" form-factor - either way, you don't currently find them).

There is alot of value in 17" laptops and they are about 10% (max) larger than 15.4's. But if that's just too big, then that is understandable. Mine is about 14x9x2 and weighs about 8lbs. However, it is very powerful. I could not find a 15.4" or smaller machine with the power to run BF2 w/ any kind of detail.

If you look hard, there is an Acer out there that was going for $1070 at NewEgg and it had the x1600 w/ a gig of ram and a T2300 (1.66 dual core intel) and all other kinds of goodies. I almost bought it but was deterred by the possibility that the x1600 wouldn't give me the performance I was looking for. That and the not-so-great screen (which happens to appear on the Ferrari you are looking at).

My friend has an Acer. It's ok. It feels a little cheap. He uses it every day and doesn't really treat it that well. But it is still a little more worn than I, personally, think it should be. Something to ponder.

good luck,