Need Laptop Advice

Hey guys. This Christmas, I want to get a laptop so that I can play GW, code, and be in the same room as my boyfriend while he codes. Right now, I feel guilty every time I use his computer, because he doesn't seem to have much else to do.

I don't know what to get, though. I'm aiming for $800 or less, and what I've found so far is theGateway MX6424 AMD Turion 64 Notebook.

Specifications

Operating Systems Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Platform Learn More Notebook PC
Expansion Ports 1 - Type I/II PC Card Slot
CardBus Support
Processor Brand AMD
Processor Class Turion 64 ML-32
Processor Speed 1.8Ghz
Memory Type DDR
Memory Size 1GB (512MB x 2)
Memory Speed DDR333 (PC2700)
Memory Slots (Total) 2
Memory Slots (Available) 0
Capacity 80GB
Optical Drive Type CD-RW / DVD-ROM Combo Drive
Supplemental Drive Type Media Reader
Graphics Description Integrated Graphics
GPU/VPU ATI Radeon® Xpress 200M
Communications Description Integrated Modem
Integrated LAN
Integrated Wireless LAN
Interface Type 802.11g Wireless Networking
RJ-11 Phone Connector
RJ-45 Ethernet Connector
Width 14.09"
Height 1.4"
Depth 10.39"
Weight 6.27 lbs
Display Type Widescreen Ultrabright TFT WXGA
Viewable Screen Size 15.4"



Would this work for playing Guild Wars? Is there something better that I should be considering?

I work for a computer house (international) and in my opinion that laptop is bad overall the video card (xpress 200).
Take one with at least 128MB of dedicated video memory as ATI X1600/X1700or Nvidia GeForce series 7 (7600 is good). Do not buy a laptop with the video memory shared with the system memory.
Take a laptop with a 7200 rpm hard disk if you can

I currently own and use a HP DV8315nr. It has similiar specs as the one that you are looking for. The kicker is the graphics chipset. The ATI Radeon Express 200M has 128 megs of integrated ram so it will do fine, you will have to turn down the graphics settings some to allow Guild Wars to play well. I have posted what I run mine atwithin these forums somewhere ( sorry it has been a bit of time since I let another owner of a HP know what I set mine at). If I find the settings that I posted I'll put a link here for you. The other specs seem fine but the harddrive looks a litle small. Invest into an externl harddrive or if you can afford it get the internal one upgraded.

Mega Mouse

It will work for GW just fine..

but a side note I also agree about getting a more powerful on-board video card for better future proofing. One of things I would do is get the most powerful on-board graphics card available at the time.

I'm using a Dell Latitude C610 I purchased used. It runs the game just fine, and only cost me 400$. 2 ghz P4, 1gig Ram, Mobility Radeon 7500

Yay! I'll look into that. One of my best friends bought an HP laptop two days ago and he's absolutely thrilled with it.

And I used to produce a lot of music videos and documentaries for school/entertainment, so I currently have over 400 GB of hard drive space as it is. Since the laptop would be strictly for Guild Wars and coding, I'm not worried about a huge hard drive.

You guys have been really helpful.

Now should I go for Alienware if my Mom agrees to buy me something from them? Is there stuff that good?

I'm reluctant to use Windows Vista...

Anyway, I was looking at this.

Stay away from Alienware, they're nothing but expensive crap! Everyone I know with Alienware PC's have had nothing but bad things to say about them and in the end regretted getting one.

I think my boyfriend's cousins have Alienware laptops and also said they dislike them... Well I'm going to bed for now. Thanks for the help, again.

If you realy want a new laptop go to Best Buy (if there is one in your area), and look at the top line HP units the have there. That is where I got mine from a few months ago (cost at $1198 us, thats with tax) and they have updated their lines some. If you decide to go that route make sure the one you get has the Radeon Express 200M or better graphics card, don't settle for what the sales person wants to recommend they are just trying to meet a quota. They have been haveing some good sales (I am kicking myself for not waiting a month or 2) so you may get one cheeper. The exact model I have is the HP DV8315nr, here are a few other options for you from Best Buy:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....&type=category

The ones fetured in this link are all good units but check the specs out first to make sure the one you ccoose has dedicated video memory. The other route you can go is try a few boutique shops. Here are some links:

www.cyberpowerpc.com
www.tigerdirect.com (the systemmax line of gaming notebooks)
www.newegg.com
www.ibuypower.com
www.abs.com

All these offer some rather nice settups for decent prices. Have fun.

Mega Mouse

I run gw on a Dell XPS m140 and it works just fine althogh once i reached vabbi in nightfall i had to run the 3d analyze to trick it to think its better and i havent had any probs

I've used my Acer for GW (Sempron 2800+, 768MB, ATI X600 64MB) and it was fine, if not always impressively smooth - running a 1280x800 display. I did insist on leaving graphics settings quite high, though.

There's an article here which gives an overview of laptop graphics chipsets:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2526

It does look like the 200M is one of the lower levels - 2 piplines (you'd want at least 4 on a chipset for gaming) and the ram is only dedicated if you get the version with 128MB.