Is this a decent choice?

Manufacturer: HEWLETT PACKARD
Model Number: DV6812NR

Memory: 3GB
Processor Type and Speed: Amd Turion 64 X2 2.0 GHz
DVD+RW: Dual Layer
Video/Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce 7150M
Speakers: Integrated
Sound Card: Integrated
Modem: Standard 56K
Ethernet: Standard 10/100
Pointing Device Type: Touch Pad
USB Ports: 3X
Firewire Ports: 1 side
Media Reader Slots: 5-in-1
AC Adapter/Power Cord
O/S Installed: Windows Vista Home Premium
O/S License: Windows Vista Home Premium
Owners Manual
Display Size (Inches Diagonal): 15.4"
Hard Drive Capacity: 250GB
Wireless Networking: Integrated WIFI 802.11b/g

Is the graphics decent? and would you pay $500.00 for it?

Don't do it. Or be prepared to upgrade your graphics card.

I used to have the Go 6150, the one they compare it to in the article, on my laptop. It was complete trash. If you want more than 15 FPS in GW (which isn't even that graphics intensive), you'll need better graphics.

The rest of the computer is alright, and for $500 it's not a terrible deal. Just be aware of what you're going to have to deal with.

Link for article review the 7150M is here.

It all depends on what you want to do. If you don't plan on doing very much gaming and if you don't need to do graphics editing/manipulating (for work or play), then it's fine. If you do want/need to do those things, then you will be quite unhappy with it.

If the laptop is going to be your main computer, you'll want something with a bit better graphics to be happy with the gaming results. You'd want a separate graphics chip/card (not integrated) with it's own descrete video RAM.
Something like this for example:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...#detai lspecs

but it's only an example - I'm not specifically recommending that model, or even Gateways in general (nor am I not recommending it/them).

What about this one do you think it would be a still valid system when GW2 comes out?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220349

thanks

Just a random question about laptops I'm throwing out here: is it possible to buy a laptop WITHOUT an OS? I have it myself and those things cost ridiculous amounts of money...

...and I hate laptops but I'm going abroad 3 months and I can't keep up no gaming that long

Painbringer - Hard to say really. It'll play GW well enough, but without knowing GW2 specs no one could say for certain. I'd suggest looking for a 7xxx series or above really. Check the Dell outlet, they have some good deals on the odd occasion.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...CH&srchInDesc=

8400GS should be ok, but who knows until they release specs.

Aera - Yes. However, all the ones I've seen being offered without OS are from the expensive gaming boutique sellers.

Processor and memory wise, that will probably be ok. Graphics is anyone's guess. We don't really know, since there has been very little (if any) information passed along to us about it.

We're all just kinda guessing right now.

Sure you can get one without an OS. Go to Dell or HP (or a fancier custom gaming company if you have the cash for it) - just do a custom configuration and they usually let you select if you want an OS or not.

Thanks everyone maybe I will wait till closer to Christmas. Hopefully by then they will release some sort of idea on what is needed. holds breath. My current system was running great for GW but over the last few months the performance has been ruined by all the fricking Microsoft downloads. It is as if they want XP to be dependent on 1 GIG as Vista is. It did not just happen to me. It happened at work as well system ran great then went to stalls and slow performance. Begged IT for memory and performance went back to normal. I guess I could look at a $40 upgrade to hold me off.


PS. I used this site to look at cards and found it sorta helpful http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mob...50.8839.0.html

Not sure if anyone else has a better site but this one shows everything you would want to know in detailed specs on graphic cards and rates them by a couple different benchmarks. Lots of cards are listed.

My 2 cents:

NCsoft have not yet given final specs on GW2 hardware requirements, but they have said that they will be on the low side, not much beyond GW1. As usual, this is "minimum" specs. I suspect that the "recommended" specs would be below the specs of that laptop with the 3650 chip, however, so I think it would be a worthwhile investment.

Hopefully, GW2 will have extra graphics settings to enable better graphics on those systems able to handle it. Just as now, with GW1, there are levels of Shadow Detail, etc. And surely you'll be able to enable high rez textures in towns/outposts.

And, just to be picky - as far as I know, there is no such thing as a video "card" for a laptop. That is, there is no standard video card slot for a laptop. Most laptops have a micro-PCI slot, but this is usually used up by the WAN adapter. Laptops that have discrete video have either a separate graphics chip soldered directly to the motherboard, or else they have what best can be described as a "module" for the GPU. These modules, which are often erroneously referred to as "cards", are usually proprietary and specific to the particular make and model of laptop.