Looking to buy a labtop any suggestions?

[ace_mason]

I am in the market for a new labtop. I curently dont own a labtop and never have. Does anyone have any advice on a good gaming labtop under $1000.00. Or a good websit to find one on? I checked best buy, and new egg. I found a nice labtop at best buy for $1149.00 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9172511&type=product&id=1218043606827
Any advice is appreciated. I dont need the best graphics or the fastest computer just enough to get by and not get frustrated.

[juniorpfactors]

I am in the market for a new labtop. I curently dont own a labtop and never have. Does anyone have any advice on a good gaming labtop under $1000.00. Or a good websit to find one on? I checked best buy, and new egg. I found a nice labtop at best buy for $1149.00 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9172511&type=product&id=1218043606827
Any advice is appreciated. I dont need the best graphics or the fastest computer just enough to get by and not get frustrated.

I know gantan just bought a notebook 2 days ago, you might wanta check with him and see what he got and how its performing, since its brand new, and find out what video card/ processor and amount of ram he got.

jrp

[Monkeytoe]

I am in the market for a new labtop. I curently dont own a labtop and never have. Does anyone have any advice on a good gaming labtop under $1000.00. Or a good websit to find one on? I checked best buy, and new egg. I found a nice labtop at best buy for $1149.00 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9172511&type=product&id=1218043606827
Any advice is appreciated. I dont need the best graphics or the fastest computer just enough to get by and not get frustrated.

Stop looking, that's the one.

Except for the not needing


...a rghhh cat!

[ace_mason]

Stop looking, that's the one.

why?

[Deadz]

If your a gamer buy a desktop so you can upgrade.. but...

If you buy a laptop, make sure you pay extra for a good warranty, the average lifespan on a GAMING laptop is a year, they generate more heat then they can handle.

exspecially if you have pets, blocked fans + heat = broken

[Deadz]

+ that laptop comes with vista 64, imo you don't want it, i owned it, it's a horrible os..
unless your good at tweaking /working around it's bugs.

[Arkat]

Lenovo (used to IBM) Thinkpad T61p.

I use it for business AND to play DDO while I'm on the road.

[Ironforge_Clan]

I am in the market for a new labtop. I curently dont own a labtop and never have. Does anyone have any advice on a good gaming labtop under $1000.00. Or a good websit to find one on? I checked best buy, and new egg. I found a nice labtop at best buy for $1149.00 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9172511&type=product&id=1218043606827
Any advice is appreciated. I dont need the best graphics or the fastest computer just enough to get by and not get frustrated.

Rev - unfortunately you are paying for the convenience and will sacrifice performance for that price tag. I currently play on either a Dell Inspiron 9300 or a 9400. They are decent but I'm not pushing the graphics to help with play-ability. I will comment that any laptop is going to run hot and will eventually wear out faster from game play then just normal usage.

I hate to say it but you can definitely get a lot more bang for your buck by staying with a desktop model, but if you are set on a laptop then I would look to a business class model since I have found, through work, that they tend to hold up to the rigors of 10 hour work days and an additional 8 hours of game play.

Oh one other piece of advice try your hardest to get the largest screen possible. My machinces have 17 in screens and sometimes I feel that even that isn't enough. One last thing double check the video card for compatibility and the about of memory on it. Most times they are built in or in best case a real hassle to replace.

Good luck.

[Monkeytoe]

why?

Video card and price.

If you're gonna play "windows gaming" games vista is a requirement anyway. I have vista 64 on my desktop and its ok. This laptop has more juice than my year-old desk top, about the same price too. My desktop runs DDO, Shadowrun, Halo II etc. No problem.

Only downside: NWN doesn't work with Vista.
With Gateway you will have to change some boot/bios settings to install a second OS if you wanna do that.

This is the laptop I intend to buy.


Look at the specs and compare them to other laptops: That is the best for the price, even at 6 months old.

[darkrhavyn]

I primarily use a laptop---desktop is hubbies for work and its not portable so I can play wherever I want so I like laptops, but in general desktops are more upgrade-able and usually cheaper for x amount of RAM/HD/processor speed than the equivalent laptop.

That said, I just bought a new Qosmio (a Toshiba brand) and love it-- huge procesor, great graphics card and amazing sound for a laptop-- but you're looking at $1700 to $1800

I had a HP that was decent but a word of advice about HP--they modify the graphic cards they use and after that you cant get the newest updates to a NVDIA card from NVIDIA--you can only get updates from HP when they decide to do one---that was a pain for me with gaming.

[ace_mason]

I have a nice desk top. I will be doing almost all my gaming on my desk top. I recently came into some extra dough and it is burning a hole in my pocket :D
I have wanted a laptop for a while and I have never owned one. I a mjust looking for the best bang for my buck. It doesnt have to be the best but I also dont want a P.O.S
I am not huge into the graphics I just hate load times and lag. I liked the 1gb for the video card with the one in the link. So far that seems to be the best one I have found. I figure with an online community of dungeons and dragons players there has to be someone that knows a good site or a great labtop :D

[Freeman]

One other consideration is what size laptop do you want? The one linked above is fairly large, with a 17" screen and weighing in at 9.1lbs. My wife had a Dell 1710 that had a large screen and high-end video card, but the thing was huge and had terrible battery life, making it great for gaming when sitting on a desktop, but not so good for carrying around or sitting in your lap surfing the web. Now she's much happier with a Dell m1530, which is smaller, has good performance, and a much longer battery life. I'm not sure what the battery life on the Gateway is, but you should definitely make sure you take these factors into account before you purchase anything.

[ace_mason]

One other consideration is what size laptop do you want? The one linked above is fairly large, with a 17" screen and weighing in at 9.1lbs. My wife had a Dell 1710 that had a large screen and high-end video card, but the thing was huge and had terrible battery life, making it great for gaming when sitting on a desktop, but not so good for carrying around or sitting in your lap surfing the web. Now she's much happier with a Dell m1530, which is smaller, has good performance, and a much longer battery life. I'm not sure what the battery life on the Gateway is, but you should definitely make sure you take these factors into account before you purchase anything.

That is the kind of info I am looking for. I have never owned a labtop and I am not sure what I am looking for. I would like a large screen. My wife keeps telling me bigger is better. :D
What in your opinions would be the minimum I could go with and still not have to worry about ****** load times and lag.

[Deadz]

Keep in mind, bigger screen = more pixels = more work on your videocard.. unlike a desktop where you can turn your resolution down, on most laptops, it only runs clear in the highest resolution..

I have had horrible luck with laptops for gaming, so maybe i'm jaded.. just make sure you get the best warrenty available.

[Freeman]

That is the kind of info I am looking for. I have never owned a labtop and I am not sure what I am looking for. I would like a large screen. My wife keeps telling me bigger is better. :D
What in your opinions would be the minimum I could go with and still not have to worry about ****** load times and lag.

Well, my wife uses the m1530 with an NVidia 8600m GT card as her primary gaming computer, and she doesn't have any trouble, even on high settings. It has been about a year since she bought it though, so I haven't kept up with what has been available more recently. I'll offer some good general tips I learned when trying to find her a laptop originally though:

Avoid any laptop billed as "Gaming". They are usually overpriced with poor battery life.
Make sure you get a 7200rpm hard drive. A 5400rpm drive will make the best system crawl.
The screen will be closer than if you use a desktop, so you may not need a large monitor. Just pick a good resolution.
You can sometimes find good deals on refurbished Dell laptops at their outlet site.(I've bought two computers there, one desktop and one laptop, with no issues)

[xman26]

I am in the market for a new labtop. I curently dont own a labtop and never have. Does anyone have any advice on a good gaming labtop under $1000.00. Or a good websit to find one on? I checked best buy, and new egg. I found a nice labtop at best buy for $1149.00 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9172511&type=product&id=1218043606827
Any advice is appreciated. I dont need the best graphics or the fastest computer just enough to get by and not get frustrated.


1. Dont buy from Best "**** you over without vasaline" Buy
2. Buy direct from the OEM, Dell or Gateway. HP/Compaq now has direct ording aswell. Only dell offers accidental coverage. This is by far the best warranty for a laptop by anyone. No questions asked, you phone them, say your kids tanked it of the kitchen table and broke the screen, they fix/replace at no cost.
3. You want something with a 780G HD3200(equal to about a 2400Pro in desktops) or a 9400/9500M graphics chip
4. 4GB memory
5. You dont need 64bit OS to use 4GB of memory, you just wont see it all
6. SATA HDD(most laptops ship with this now) 250-320GB range should do ya fine

Lastly, the laptop in your link will play **** near anything without much hassal at all. Battery life wont be all that because of the gaming card, but it will do, just follow rule 1 and you'll be ok.

[xman26]

+ that laptop comes with vista 64, imo you don't want it, i owned it, it's a horrible os..
unless your good at tweaking /working around it's bugs.

I use VistaU 64bit all time and have no problems, especially after turning off the silly Vista protection scheme which is easy enough to do.

[Taojeff]

I am in the market for a new labtop. I curently dont own a labtop and never have. Does anyone have any advice on a good gaming labtop under $1000.00. Or a good websit to find one on? I checked best buy, and new egg. I found a nice labtop at best buy for $1149.00 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9172511&type=product&id=1218043606827
Any advice is appreciated. I dont need the best graphics or the fastest computer just enough to get by and not get frustrated.

I got that one. It is nice when I cannot play on my main machine. Not much trade off in settings either. I looked for a while and this was the best one I could find for the money. You can get better but they are 17" and you will pay another 1k.

[Taojeff]

1. Dont buy from Best "**** you over without vasaline" Buy
2. Buy direct from the OEM, Dell or Gateway. HP/Compaq now has direct ording aswell. Only dell offers accidental coverage. This is by far the best warranty for a laptop by anyone. No questions asked, you phone them, say your kids tanked it of the kitchen table and broke the screen, they fix/replace at no cost.
3. You want something with a 780G HD3200(equal to about a 2400Pro in desktops) or a 9400/9500M graphics chip
4. 4GB memory
5. You dont need 64bit OS to use 4GB of memory, you just wont see it all
6. SATA HDD(most laptops ship with this now) 250-320GB range should do ya fine

Unless he goes extremely high end Dell, its not worth the money compared to the Gateway from BestBuy. You want 9800 or 8800 NOT 9400-9500. If you use windows xp the memory will show up, but the OS will not use all 4gb, talk to any tech that is worth their salt they will tell u this.

Best Buy now offers accident protection as part of their warranty. It is expensive though for 3 years like 250-300 extra.

Here is something most people do not know, you can go down to your local insurance agency (say State Farm), and pick up a grand insurance on the laptop for $50 bucks a year. Cool thing is if next year you want to get another laptop and do not care about the old one (yes some of us do upgrade every year). You do not have to renew the policy.

Sometimes, sam's club, or another wholesale club will also sell these gaming laptops. The warranty at these places is really cheap compared to Manufactorer or Best Buy.

Try to get a warranty that is only as long as you think you will keep the Laptop, be realistic. If you are a gamer you may just be upgrading in 2 years.

[xman26]

That is the kind of info I am looking for. I have never owned a labtop and I am not sure what I am looking for. I would like a large screen. My wife keeps telling me bigger is better. :D
What in your opinions would be the minimum I could go with and still not have to worry about ****** load times and lag.

most "gaming" laptop have 17" WXGA(wide) screen lcds. You might could find one with a 19" WXGA but you'll pay a good deal more for it. You want on that has atleast 2GB ram and 512mb video memory, shared(not preferred) or dedicated(preferred). 4GB or memory would be better. There is nothing wrong with Vista64bit, I would simply suggest making sure you get an actual set of recovery disks(most important is the actual OS disk) recovery partitions suck ass and if the drive dies, you are pretty much ****ed as far as getting the OS back on the machine with out the OS disk. Dell offers the disk for 25 bucks extra, hp/compaq loves to use recovery partitions and charge as much as 50 bucks for the disks. Gateway I am unsure of.

[xman26]

Unless he goes extremely high end Dell, its not worth the money compared to the Gateway from BestBuy. You want 9800 or 8800 NOT 9400-9500. If you use windows xp the memory will show up, but the OS will not use all 4gb, talk to any tech that is worth their salt they will tell u this.

You can install 4GB od memory into any system, but if you are using a 32bit OS, you will not see all of it, be it 2000, XP or vista because of this wonderful thing called windows memory addressing. Have a 512MB card, subtract 512MB of memory from the usable/seeable system ram. Having played this game on a gateway profile PC with 3GB ram, P4HT 3.0Ghz proc and 5500 256MB card at medium detail settings, a 9400/9500/780G(HD3200) can and will play the game very easily, without issues and decent settings to boot.

http://www.maximumpc.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=71236
The above link is for your and anyone elses viewing pleasure.


Best Buy now offers accident protection as part of their warranty. It is expensive though for 3 years like 250-300 extra.

Again, anyone wanting to not to have hassles and headaches or to get roaly ****ed over should not buy thing one from bestbuy.


Here is something most people do not know, you can go down to your local insurance agency (say State Farm), and pick up a grand insurance on the laptop for $50 bucks a year. Cool thing is if next year you want to get another laptop and do not care about the old one (yes some of us do upgrade every year). You do not have to renew the policy.

Good to know info


Sometimes, sam's club, or another wholesale club will also sell these gaming laptops. The warranty at these places is really cheap compared to Manufactorer or Best Buy.

True, but they also have limits to what they will cover.


Try to get a warranty that is only as long as you think you will keep the Laptop, be realistic. If you are a gamer you may just be upgrading in 2 years.

Sound advice.

[cpampine]

unless you want to be chained to an AC adapter, skip the 17" display and fancy graphics.

i would suggest 13.1" or maybe 15", make sure not to get integrated graphics

check out the lenovos, they are widely regarded as the best for enterprise solutions and are nice and portable, good battery life, and can easily handle most games as long as you are comfortable looking at a smaller screen.

[ace_mason]

A little cheaper. More in the price range I was looking for. Better bang for my buck?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834131026

[Freeman]

A little cheaper. More in the price range I was looking for. Better bang for my buck?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834131026

Not really. I don't know how that video card rates, but I wouldn't try anything below an ?400(8400, 9400, etc). Also, a 5400rpm hard drive will really hurt your load times.

[xman26]

Not really. I don't know how that video card rates, but I wouldn't try anything below an ?400(8400, 9400, etc). Also, a 5400rpm hard drive will really hurt your load times.

While I will agree the 5400rpm will hurt some, I've said this once before in this thread already. Anything new/current entry lvl will play this game fine. I say this because I have played this game on a Gateway profile5 PC with had 2GB memory, P4HT 3.0Ghz processor and a 5500 256MB AGP card. It could play the game at 1280x1024 with low-medium settings. Any new/current low/entry lvl gpu today will be able to do that easily and not a break a sweat.

9200M 06 scores and benches
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=298902
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=299785

5500 o6 scores and benches
http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/desktop-vga-charts-2006/3DMark06-v1-0-2,583.html
For above, anyone who thinks a 7300GS isn't newer than the 5500 needs help.

specs of 5500 and 9200gs

GeForce 9200GS/9400GT
55nm G96/D9M GPU
16 Stream Processors.
550 MHz core, with a 1350 MHz unified shader clock.
4.4 billion texels/s fillrate.
256 MB/512 MB/1024 MB 800 MHz DDR2 or 256 MB 1600 MHz GDDR3[4] , both with a 128-bit memory bus
12.8 GB/s memory bandwidth for boards configured with DDR2 800 MHz memory.
Support DirectX 10, Shader Model 4.0, OpenGL 2.1, and PCI-Express 2.0.
Supports 2nd generation PureVideo technology and Hybrid Power technology

5500 specs
0.14u process technology
- 128-bit advanced memory interface
- 256-bit graphics architecture
- 270 MHz engine clock
- 400 MHz memory clock
- 350 MHz internal RAMDAC
- 68 Million vertices/ sec
- 1.0 Billion texels/ sec fill rate
- 3.2 GB/sec memory bandwidth (64bit,400MHz)
- 6.4 GB/sec memory bandwidth (128bit,400MHz)
- 4 pixels per clock rendering engine
- 16 texels per pixel with 8 textures applied per clock

as you can clearly see, the 9200M is a far better performer than the 5500 is/was. And he'll have the added benifit of a dual core processor which does run circles around the profile5 I had played on.

[uhgungawa]

Double post

[uhgungawa]

here are 2 places for you to check out

http://www.ibuypower.com

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com

they will save you money over most, are gaming spec, and have lifetime tech suport

[Freeman]

I say this because I have played this game on a Gateway profile5 PC with had 2GB memory, P4HT 3.0Ghz processor and a 5500 256MB AGP card. It could play the game at 1280x1024 with low-medium settings. Any new/current low/entry lvl gpu today will be able to do that easily and not a break a sweat.

Have you played on that system since they upgraded the graphics engine to include DX10 capabilities? I had a guildie that played on a comparable system for a long time before that, but the game became virtually unplayable to him after the upgrade. I had a couple of others that had to upgrade their older computers since then as well. The computers here that run DDO are also putting more stress on the video card than they did beforehand. As I said, I have no idea of the capabilities of the 9200, but those numbers you linked to are fairly low. I think it would be worth the minimal extra cost for a slightly more powerful video card that will be able to handle newer and even future games, instead of basing it off the performance of a game that is almost three years old now.

[xman26]

Have you played on that system since they upgraded the graphics engine to include DX10 capabilities? I had a guildie that played on a comparable system for a long time before that, but the game became virtually unplayable to him after the upgrade. I had a couple of others that had to upgrade their older computers since then as well. The computers here that run DDO are also putting more stress on the video card than they did beforehand. As I said, I have no idea of the capabilities of the 9200, but those numbers you linked to are fairly low. I think it would be worth the minimal extra cost for a slightly more powerful video card that will be able to handle newer and even future games, instead of basing it off the performance of a game that is almost three years old now.


first thing I would ask is what settings where they trying to use? Were they trying to use DX10 or DX9, that alone will make a difference. I have a 6600GTAGP and a 9600XTAGP(both 128MB cards if I'm not mistaken) and a P4HT 3Ghz available I could toss together this weekend and give some numbers and setting with the current content if you reall need to know how it will do? Keep in mind the 9200M GS is more powerful than either of them. As would a C2 or AMD Turion X2 based laptop processor be more robust than the P4HT I'd be using.

[Arnya]

I have had 2 gaming laptops and they both really performed with DDO:

Sony Vaio VGN series - Centrino duo with Nvidia Geforce 256mb fx5700go card and 1.5gb ram.

HP Pavilion DV5 series - Centrino 2 with Nvidia GeForce 9600M GT 512mb card and 4gb ram. With this I can get 30fps in market on ultra high settings, on battery :)

The only drawback is that the built in mic is up by the webcam and is no good for DDO as it captures a lot of other noise.

[Freeman]

first thing I would ask is what settings where they trying to use? Were they trying to use DX10 or DX9, that alone will make a difference. I have a 6600GTAGP and a 9600XTAGP(both 128MB cards if I'm not mistaken) and a P4HT 3Ghz available I could toss together this weekend and give some numbers and setting with the current content if you reall need to know how it will do? Keep in mind the 9200M GS is more powerful than either of them. As would a C2 or AMD Turion X2 based laptop processor be more robust than the P4HT I'd be using.

He didn't make any changes to his settings, since he didn't have anything that could support DX10(Card or OS). I've actually had to lower my settings a notch since they made the changes, even though I'm not using DX10 either.

I'm not arguing whether a 9200 would run DDO, or beat a 6xxx card. Just about any video card made this year should be able to run DDO, and most would beat a card that is three generations old. My point was that a game may come out next year that you want to play on the laptop. A low-end graphics card may work now for a three-year old game, but for only slightly more money, you can get something that will likely still be playing games 2-3 years from now.

[jmonty]

BestBuy.

i also have to say stay away from BestBuy.

[xman26]

He didn't make any changes to his settings, since he didn't have anything that could support DX10(Card or OS). I've actually had to lower my settings a notch since they made the changes, even though I'm not using DX10 either.

I'm not arguing whether a 9200 would run DDO, or beat a 6xxx card. Just about any video card made this year should be able to run DDO, and most would beat a card that is three generations old. My point was that a game may come out next year that you want to play on the laptop. A low-end graphics card may work now for a three-year old game, but for only slightly more money, you can get something that will likely still be playing games 2-3 years from now.

Ok, now to tht I can agree, newer games may/will present a problem, but if he looking for it to play DDO and only DDO, it'll do the job. Although, I haven't had to adjust a single setting on either of the 3 rig I currently have the game installed on to play. C2Q6600@3.0GHz, 4GB, eVGA GTX260 Core216 SC, 8XAA, max AF, 1680x1050, XPPro/VistaU(I use VistaU this most often for my gaming needs) C2D E6400, 2GB, 9600GT, 4xAA and max AF, 1440x900 and XPPro or the C2D e6300, 2GB 9600GT(this last one connects to my HDTV and run the game at 1920x1200 with max in game setting in DX9 as the machine is XPPro and 4xAA and max AF). AGain, lastest DX10 updates and not a single need to adjust a single setting.

[Eldun]

I am in the market for a new labtop. I curently dont own a labtop and never have. Does anyone have any advice on a good gaming labtop under $1000.00. Or a good websit to find one on? I checked best buy, and new egg. I found a nice labtop at best buy for $1149.00 http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9172511&type=product&id=1218043606827
Any advice is appreciated. I dont need the best graphics or the fastest computer just enough to get by and not get frustrated.

You mean those dark black chemical resistant ones? They're just great ... you can spill anything you want on them like hydrochloric acid and such and not leave a mark. Great for when you want to make certain individuals disappear. Anyway, I don't think they sell labtops at computer stores. You'd be better off looking at places like home depot and lowe's.

[skyking613]

That is the kind of info I am looking for. I have never owned a labtop and I am not sure what I am looking for. I would like a large screen. My wife keeps telling me bigger is better. :D
What in your opinions would be the minimum I could go with and still not have to worry about ****** load times and lag.

That gateway laptop is the the best gaming laptop you will find in that price range. A friend of mine at work just bought 2 last week. I suggested that laptop. It will be the one i get when i do. He installed DDO on it while we were at work and the graphics and speed were great. The centrino2 is a great mobile proc, the graphics card is a 9800gts, awsome!, way more pipes than a lot of the other "gaming" laptops that come with the 9600. The only thing to be carefull about is the screen the first ones that they built with the centrino2 came with a higher res screen even though they didnt say it. He says the higher res was flickering and hard to see on a 17 in display, he toke it back to get one that has the lower res. He has had it for only a week, but so far loves it.

[ace_mason]

i also have to say stay away from BestBuy.

Please give me a link to a better computer for my money. If best buy is a rip off. There should be 100 other computers for cheaper and better. I havent found one yet. If I do I will with no doubt by that one. Thanks :)

[BattleCircle]

I have been running the Gateway FX since june of last year, I like it, but as some others have pointed out you need to turn off some of vista's fluff. MZ Vista Force is a good program to help with this.

[Yaga_Nub]

Please give me a link to a better computer for my money. If best buy is a rip off. There should be 100 other computers for cheaper and better. I havent found one yet. If I do I will with no doubt by that one. Thanks :)

I disagree with all the other guys. Best Buy isn't any worse (or better) than any place else. I've never had any issue with BB on anything that I've purchased there and in the last 5 or 6 years I've spent about $4k to $5k per year there (I addicted to buying bigger and better TVs and monitors).

The warranty will be higher at a Best Buy or store like that because that's where they are trying to make up for their lower margins on items.

Also laptops are covered under my renters/homeowners insurance for loss or theft and like someone mentioned you can add accident insurance as well to most policies.

[ace_mason]

Please tell me other than it being from Best Buy. Why should I not buy this labtop. I have more people that have said go with it than have said not to. Is there anything in here that would be a reason not to get it? Or is there another laptop out right now for less than $1200 that beats this one?
17' screen
Intel® Centrino® 2
Intel® Core™2 Duo Mobile
2.26GHz
4GB DDR3
Serial ATA (7200 rpm) 320GB
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS 1GB GDDR3
9-cell lithium-ion

[smyter]

I usually pride myself on being able to find good deals on computers. But at a glance, this seems to be a really good deal for this configuration. This is the exact video card I would recommend. Video card makes all the difference in this game. I would never skimp even a little when it came to this. It appears to have the T8400 processor, which also has great power consumption for laptops. Processor speed isn't that critical for ddo, but the fact that they put a 7200 rpm hard drive is definatley a ddo affecting stat. Thumbs up on this. And who doesn't have some sort of best buy coupon or gift card lying around.

[BattleCircle]

OH yeah

I forgot to mention battery life is about 60 minutes

[ace_mason]

I usually pride myself on being able to find good deals on computers. But at a glance, this seems to be a really good deal for this configuration. This is the exact video card I would recommend. Video card makes all the difference in this game. I would never skimp even a little when it came to this. It appears to have the T8400 processor, which also has great power consumption for laptops. Processor speed isn't that critical for ddo, but the fact that they put a 7200 rpm hard drive is definatley a ddo affecting stat. Thumbs up on this. And who doesn't have some sort of best buy coupon or gift card lying around.
I happen to have a $100 gift card. And they have it in stock 3 miles from my house. But I dont mind waiting. i just want good bang for my buck.

[Freeman]

I happen to have a $100 gift card. And they have it in stock 3 miles from my house. But I dont mind waiting. i just want good bang for my buck.

As I said earlier, it looks like a good deal for the price. The only issues that might come up were the ones I brought up before, the size of the laptop and the battery life. If those are acceptable to you, then give it a shot. One warning though, if you plan on playing DDO with the laptop in your lap, you might want to look into a USB cooling mat of some kind. It will help keep the laptop cool, and it will also avoid cooking certain body parts that can be somewhat sensitive.

[xman26]

Please tell me other than it being from Best Buy. Why should I not buy this labtop. I have more people that have said go with it than have said not to. Is there anything in here that would be a reason not to get it? Or is there another laptop out right now for less than $1200 that beats this one?
17' screen
Intel® Centrino® 2
Intel® Core™2 Duo Mobile
2.26GHz
4GB DDR3
Serial ATA (7200 rpm) 320GB
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS 1GB GDDR3
9-cell lithium-ion


NM, BB seems to be the only way to get that very nice laptop. Just please, do not buy any of BB warranty offers. Once you get the thing home, call gateway and purchase extended warranties from gateway directly. And also make sure you get actual recovery disks from gateway. DO NOT let BB talk you into not needing them or creating recovery disks for you, its a scam.

[ace_mason]

NM, BB seems to be the only way to get that very nice laptop. Just please, do not buy any of BB warranty offers. Once you get the thing home, call gateway and purchase extended warranties from gateway directly. And also make sure you get actual recovery disks from gateway. DO NOT let BB talk you into not needing them or creating recovery disks for you, its a scam.

Thank you. This looks like a monster laptop for the price . I was just worried that it had a history of burning up or something maybe didnt work well with something else. My experience is if something is to good to be true it pobably is.
Seems to have good reviews I am pretty sure i am going with that one.