**Who Really Knows Laptops?**

[xclr8ted]

Whats up guys, Im looking to buy a lappy in the next week. So far Im leaning towards the Asus M51 SN-B1 for some light gaming, but will be using it more to store music/video/pix. Other Notebooks I like in terms of price/specs are:

Cyberpower, Prostar 6xxx series, and Sager!

Anyone have one or know of them, since I dont have one nor have seen one in person, I want to know how they hold up, are they sturdy, well built, etc......????

Thanx for any info!

 

[996GT2]

How much is the Asus M51 that you are looking to get? Full specs?

For light gaming in a 15.4" form factor I would recommend you look at models from well-known makers first, since you might have an easier time with warranty service than with a place like Cyberpower. The Lenovo Thinkpad T61p Mobile Workstation is about $1300 loaded with 2.4G Penryn, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, and Quadro FX570M graphics (which is the same as an 8600M GT DDR3 after driver change)...make sure you go to lenovo.com/cpp and use code 556655 to save an extra 15%.

Dell's XPS M1530 is also a good choice...similar specs to the Lenovo, and about 1200-1500 ish loaded (depending on what kind of coupons you manage to find for Dell's online store).

The Lenovo is said by many to be built like a tank, with carbon fiber reinforced plastic housing and full internal rollcage. The Dell had some problems with build quality early on in production (some of the early models had small parts falling off), but the current ones should have those issues fixed. Besides, Dell's return process is pretty easy to go through and they'll let you get a new laptop even for a small cosmetic defect (a few of my friends have done exactly this).

 

[xclr8ted]

"Asus M51Sn-B1 Intel Core 2 Duo T5550 (1.83GHz) 15.4" WXGA (1280x800) 3GB DDR2 250GB HDD DVD Super Multi Nvidia 9500M GS 512mb w/ Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium"

Its going for around $980 or so. I should have mentioned that Im looking to spend about $1000.

Is changing a Quadro FX570M via driver to an 8600M GT DDR3 as easy as it sounds?

 

[996GT2]

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=209796

Here's the thread on the Lenovo forums that tells you how to do the mod...it basically makes the FX570M in the T61p perform like an 8600M GT, since the FX570M is very similar hardware wise.

If you don't want to spend $1200-1300 or so, you can just uncheck some of the options...the $1200-1300 figure was for a pretty loaded model with 2.4GHz T8300 Penryn CPU, etc. The starting price of the T61p 15.4" with CPP discounts is $970, and even the base model is well equipped.

 

[xclr8ted]

Thanx for the coupon code and tips, I looked into the Lenovo Thinkpad, I can get one built to my specs for $1041, but then it adds $80 or so for taxes, kinda sux! So I got my choices down to the above and the Asus Notebook. Will the Lenovo doing the driver change beat the Nvidia 9500M GS 512mb in gaming performance?

 

[onlyCOpunk]

If it's worth anything, I love my Asus. Which is basically the same design as the one you are looking at only with a 14.1" screen and the build quality is A+++.

 

[996GT2]

Originally posted by: xclr8ted
Thanx for the coupon code and tips, I looked into the Lenovo Thinkpad, I can get one built to my specs for $1041, but then it adds $80 or so for taxes, kinda sux! So I got my choices down to the above and the Asus Notebook. Will the Lenovo doing the driver change beat the Nvidia 9500M GS 512mb in gaming performance?

See here for benchmarks of the FX570M and 8600GT M. The FX570M is actually faster than the 8600M GT in benchmarks due to slightly different hardware (faster GDDR3 I believe), and the gaming benchmarks are not bad at all, especially if you use the modded GeForce drivers. Overall, it should be faster than the 9500M GS, which uses slower DDR2 memory. The fact that the 9500M GS has 512mb ofvideo RAM is kind of irrelevant since it's not powerful enough to handle the high resolutions (e.g. 1680x1080) that really take advantage of more video RAM.

FX570M:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/N...ro-FX-570M.6938.0.html

8600M GT:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/N...e-8600M-GT.3986.0.html

I don't think these benchmarks there were done with the modded drivers for the FX570M, though, so with those you should get slightly better performance.

I'd say go with the Lenovo if you don't mind using slightly different drivers, or if you don't want to use a Quadro GPU I would get the Dell XPS M1530 for around 1000-1200 with coupons (Dell has a coupon deal going on right now I think...google around or look on Techbargains.com for the codes). The Dell has an 8600M GT option and also several other pretty useful options, like an LED backlit screen for better brightness and battery life.

If you really like Asus, their G1 comes with the 8600M GT by default, which should be better in gaming than the GDDR2 9500M GS.

 

[gtsing]

If you live in the US and are looking for a laptop to do some light gaming then you should definitely consider this laptop. It has an 8800M GTS for roughly $1400; not really much else to say.

http://www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668033.php

EDIT: Just saw your budget, never mind.