PowerNotebooks Users - Laptop & Notebook Forums

[JLogan2005]

I am currently looking to purchase a laptop and have been looking around for days at tons of stores/online sites. I have asked tons of questions but had most of them unanswered by other help sites. Finally I got a link to this site from someone who suggesting my next purchase be here.

My computer knowledge pretty much is based on desktops so I dont know much about laptops accept what I have been reading over the past few days. As I understand it if you want a laptop you pretty much want pentium m but will pay an arm and a leg for it.

#1 Is pentium m really the way to go?

I will be using this laptop (my first) as a replacement for my current poor quality eMachine desktop which barely runs some of the newer games.

Current specs are as follows ...

AMD Athlon XP 3000+
512MB Ram
And I think I have some kind of GeForce FX 128MB video card inside.
Resolution set at 1280x1024 on a 15' old style monitor.

For this laptop I will be playing games like City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Doom 3, and some others. I will want to burn cd/dvd's, watch full movies, hook it up to my tv to watch the dvd's(not main concern), upload images from my digi cam, edit photos with adobe photoshop, and surf the net from anywhere in my house/on the go.

#2 Is there much of a difference between ati and nvidia graphics?
#3 Which would be better for gaming/overall performance?

Features such as weight and battery life don't concern me too much but I dont want a lot of weight nor do I want under 2.5 hours battery life.

A HUGE!!! concern of mine is the type of screen. No one on other sites seems to be able to understand what I am saying with this but I will try here ... I do NOT want the old type of screens that look like faded plastic and when you look to the side the image get darker. I DO want the newer type screens I see in stores that look like glass and have reduced that problem with darker images. I am looking to get a clear picture and hopefully good resolution. I would like to get higher resolution than I currently have but something either close or the same would be more than fine.

#4 What is do you call the newer glass looking screens?

Right now my max budget is around $1900(which is a huge stretch) but if its honestly worth it I can raise it to $2000. All-in-all I would prefer to stay around $1700 but I want to get something that will last a good while in the computer world and meet my needs for a long time.

As for hard drive space, I currently only use around 30gb. I would think a 60gb would meet my needs for some time but not 100% sure.

Lastly, I am worried about getting a quality product in the end. I know some companies like emachine pretty much use the lowest quality items they can to meet the lowest price they can and I am not interested in something like that in this case.


All this brings me to this site in hopes of not only finding the information I need but the perfect computer for me. The computers here look very nice and very well priced.

Thx for any info/help

Oh, and sorry for all the reading material.

Edit : Forgot to add ... Feel free to explain anything in detail if you want I am looking to learn anything I can I also just noticed the knowledge tab up top and will give that a better look tomorrow

[JLogan2005]

Ok, after reading what was under the knowledge tab I understand a little more about questions 1-3.

Still trying to figure out which direction I should go but a lot closer to doing so.

[paladin44]

I would recommend the Sager NP3880 with the 15.4" WXGA (1280x800) "Glare-Type" LCD (this is the one you are asking about, and this resolution is the only one that has it). I also think that a 60GB 7,200RPM hard drive will be plenty for you. The 1.86GHz processor is the "sweet spot". You are getting plenty of power, without wasting money. Get 1,024MB system memory.

All of this plus XP Pro, Combo Dual Layer DVD burner combo drive, 802.11 a/b/g wireless card, and a spare AC Adapter is still only $1,826 with free Ground shipping until May 31st.
_________________
Donald Stratton
PowerNotebooks.com
Donald@PowerNotebooks.com

[JLogan2005]

Cool, I just check out that setup and I like it

Was wondering though, since you said that is the only resolution that has it ... that would mean the others are all the faded/rippled plastic type?

If so, do you have any other pentium m with higher resolution that would include the "glare type" display?

I am interested in both a higher resolution and the glass looking screen but if there arent any I would be more than happy with at least the one you pointed out

Also, do you guys have any shipping or other specials going on next month?

I wont be able to purchase the laptop till that time


Thank you very much for the help btw

[SoliS]

from my personal experience nvidia is better than ATI. Before getting my desktop videocard (Gigabyte 6600GT), i read a LOT of reviews and lots of info on graphics cards and stuff, and the 6600GT beat the x700XT in everything, and it wasnt by only a few frames, it was usually by at least 10%.

mobile cards are slightly different, but the technology is the same, and i would say go with the go6600. it plays doom 3/halflife 2/far cry for me on max settings at 1280x1024 to give you an idea.

however, if the screen is really an issue and you cant get a 6600 with it, the x700 will still be good for games, just not quite as fast. (it does win by a few frames in HL2, but with the new drivers i think nvidia caught up)

[belisarius]

Even at 10%, the noticeable difference is negligible. Performance wise, there is very little "real-world" difference between the current crop from nVidia and ATi, fanboys aside.

The only real difference, to my mind at any rate, is the quality of the drivers. nVidia has, over the better part of a decade, put out really, really good drivers. When I had an ATi card (9700Pro) I've had stability problems with games (Rome: Total War, Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2) that basically forced me to upgrade to nVidia if I wanted to play them. And I have not been alone - these games have *known* problems with ATi cards. Never had an issue with nVidia.

[SoliS]

well i like to turn my games as far up as i can while still getting 'playable' framerates... so 10% is a lot to me.

heres a few reviews you might want to look at:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/content/165/1/
http://www.guru3d.com/article/content/174/

please keep in mind the two products are not exactly on the same level; the HiS has much better cooling, and IIRC its overclocked out of the box. you might compare it to the 6600 256mb, but remember: there is no way you're going to get a HiS x700 in a laptop. i think a 6600 128 or 256 will hold its own with any laptop x700. the 6600 256 and 128 beat the x700 in a lot of games, doom 3 being one that you want to play. also, these reviews are kind of old, so new drivers are out, and the two companies have been able to get closer and closer to each other in games.

i pick nvidia because i too have had problems with ATi, and none from nvidia. let me tell you that my 6600GT runs doom 3 on high quality at 1280x1024 with 4aa at VERY respectable framerates. i wouldnt consider myself a fanboy, i read reviews and buy what i think is better. i think you'd be pretty happy with either card, but nvidia works great for me, so thats why i recommend it. (6600 is a VERY popular product line because of the price to performance ratio compared to other stuff)