New Laptop ideas...

Well I'm looking to buy a laptop before the beginning of summer and I'm starting to look... I'm interested in a notebook that'd definately be able to handle higher end graphics programs and games(ie. UT2007

). I'd like to keep the price under $1,500 and have started looking at Alienware first. I'm looking at these two below but I wanted to hear from some more computer savy people before I make a decision... I'm just learning the parts to a computer so some of the components I'm not really sure what they do, so any thoughts would be great! Also any suggestions on types of laptops too...
http://alienware.com/product_detail_pages/MJ-12_m5500i/mj-12m_specs.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-MJ12-M5500I-CP&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT

http://alienware.com/product_detail_pages/Area-51_m5700/area-51m_specs.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-AREA51-M-5700&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT

I'm not even going to bother to look at those. Why? Because it's *way* cheaper to put together any system than buy it pre-assembled. I'm getting the following system:

AMD Athlon Sempron 64 3400+
2 GB DDR400 RAM
256MB nVidia GeForce 2800 (SLI support, if I want to double that)
Some motherboard supporting all that
A kick-arse purple-lighted case
A rather nice power supply

All for under $600. Do you have any idea how much that would cost if I bought it as an entire computer at some retail seller? Yeah. The only reason it woes above $600 is because Windows XP x64 costs so much. In fact, XP is the most expensive thing on the list. RAM comes up second, being about 130 bucks.

However, I may look really stupid right now. Can you make your own laptop like you can a PC? If so, follow my advice. If not, carry on asking for valid advice.

From what I've seen, getting a laptop that will play the latest games will get pretty expensive. Alienware isn't cheap either. That price for those two laptops was just the base price. They are supposed to be good, but just pricey. I didn't customize it, but check out this dell XPS M140 laptop. The other ones are expensive, but maybe this one would work.

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/gaming_xpsnb?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Chameleon wrote:

From what I've seen, getting a laptop that will play the latest games will get pretty expensive. Alienware isn't cheap either. That price for those two laptops was just the base price. They are supposed to be good, but just pricey. I didn't customize it, but check out this dell XPS M140 laptop. The other ones are expensive, but maybe this one would work.

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/gaming_xpsnb?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

After taking a quick glance at that laptop, I don't think it would run UT with the video card it comes with. Gaming laptops are just expensive, unfortunately and you really can't build your own from what I've seen. I've never seen parts laptops sold anywhere except for hard-drives and RAM.

...So can you build a laptop as you can a PC?

I customized the dell to see what it'd come out too... I didn't realize how expensive actual "gaming" laptops were! But it ended up with a price of 1,160... with a 1GB memory, 60 gb hard drive. Now is there a major difference in performance if you went from a processor of 1.86ghz to 2ghz.. because it's 200 dollars extra to upgrade? So far this appears to be a better deal than the alienware, but is there something that I'm not seeing that I would need more of to play such games? Thanks for the suggestion cham!

Just a tip if you're getting a new PC for UT2007: It is said that UT2007 will take advantage of dual core processors. There are AMD X2 dual cores that are only a little bit more expensive I believe.

Kohan wrote:

...So can you build a laptop as you can a PC?

No, not really. That accounts for at least some of the price premium.

My only advice is that if you want a laptop in that price range that will play ut2007, you'll have to wait until it's actually out to see what performance you'll get.

You can get a laptop these days for 700-1000 that will handle all your non-gaming needs extremely well, so basically put, you are going to spend a lot of additional money on the luxury of making it a gaming rig. I think 1500 may be conservative, btw.

Given the price premium and the fact that once you buy this thing, your upgrade options are limited and expensive compared to a desktop, you're rolling the dice on whether it will play 2k7 at a framerate and detail level you'll enjoy.

If you really want to move forward and make a purchase, then I would suggest using Doom 3 as a benchmark. If it can't handle that game in 800x600x32 with moderate detail, I don't think it will handle 2k7.

Get your laptop from these guys...

http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.html

You can save upwords of 30% by going through Sager as they supply most of the high end laptops to everyone else and then everyone else rebrands them so you're basically cutting out the middle man.

I'm trying to compare the Dell's to the Sager models... I've customized both and wanted to know which one would be better because they're exactly the same cost as of right now...
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=iXM140S1&s=dhs

http://www.sagernotebook.com/pages/notebooks/product-price.cfm
(sorry if the link doesn't work anymore, it has a time constrant)
So does either stand out as being a better option?
I do know that you can't really upgrade laptops so I'm trying to get as much for the price, mostly in memory and hard drive space... also is there a major difference in a 1.83 ghz processor to a 2.0 ghz one?

I'm not sure how processor-intensive either of the UT200Xs are, so I wouldn't know if it was important. If it's an AMD processor, a 1.8 is somewhere around 2200+ actual speed, and the 'good' computer in this house runs UT2004 fine with a 2400+. You mainly want to worry about graphics. For '04, just keep it at 256 MB, and god knows what for '07.

So why a laptop? You could perhaps try building your own case to make a PC more portable, and get a nice flat-screen monitor, slap it all together and you have a ten-pound kick-butt relatively-cheap computer.

...Why a laptop?

well I guess the main thing is that this is for college which will be happening in august. I'd rather have a laptop because the whole campus is wireless capable and it'd be nice to be able to work from anywher.. or play. So that's mainly the reason for a laptop, however I am contemplating a workstation for your reasons, but I'd just like the mobility though.

That Intel graphics accelerator will struggle with video games, you should at least go with ATI or Nvidia if you plan on playing them.

Also, (though some may disagree) I doubt you'd see much of a difference between 1.83ghz and a 2.0ghz if they're the exact same processor.

From what everyone has said I still am leaving my options open to a workstation because of how much more I could get for my money, but also I'd be able to upgrade in the future. If the intel graphics will have a problem with such games then I may want to shy away from these laptops because they don't have another option, but I'm glad the processor doesn't make too much difference due to its price. So "if" I looked at a workstation would I want to build it by pieces or go through a site to customize it?