Laptop Advice

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rcorporon

So Old I'm Losing Radiation Signs
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Looking for some advice... I need a new laptop (desktop isn't an option for me right now) and basically all I want gaming wise is to be able to play Team Fortress 2 & Europa Universalis III (as well as older games).

I haven't been keeping up with the latest technologies in terms of PC development, so I'm hoping some of you more savvy types can offer me some advice. I don't really want to spend much more than $500 or $600 and I priced a computer at Dell, which came up to $599. These are the specs:

Processor: Intel® Pentium® Dual Core™ T4400 (2.2GHz/800MHz FSB/1MB cache)
OS: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Memory: 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz
Hard Drive: 320GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
Video Card: 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD4330

You could fill a thimble with what I know about laptop video processors, so I'm not sure if that ATI one is decent... would something like this run TF2 decently?

Thanks!
 
For that price range, that processor is good.

I generally would take the Intel over the AMD processors anyways. I don't think you'd get much better than that on your price range.
 
If the most demanding thing you're going to play is TF2, don't even bother with 64bit... or win7 for that matter. XP will do you just fine. You don't need DX10, and you won't have to jump through all kinds of hoops to run older games.
 
Go all the way with Windows 7 64bit if you have 4gb RAM or more in your notebook.

If not stick to 7 32bit. There is no reason to stick to Xp.
 
Phil the Nuka-Cola Dude said:
If the most demanding thing you're going to play is TF2, don't even bother with 64bit... or win7 for that matter. XP will do you just fine. You don't need DX10, and you won't have to jump through all kinds of hoops to run older games.
Click to expand...

The only option Dell offers for most laptops it seems is this particular version of Windows 7....

Doesn't dosbox support Windows 7?
 
if you want to game on a laptop, you need a solid CPU and GPU.

and those are the 2 biggest things laptop makers try to skimp on as the more robust those 2 things are, the more it costs.
 
TheWesDude said:
if you want to game on a laptop, you need a solid CPU and GPU.

and those are the 2 biggest things laptop makers try to skimp on as the more robust those 2 things are, the more it costs.
Click to expand...

Wrong, if you want a laptop you need a solid laptop.

Laptop makers try to catch uninformed consumers with high CPU and GPU specifications while ignoring that they are selling a notebook not a desktop.

Things I would look for:

1) A good screen
2) a durable chassis
3) good keyboard
4) good cooling solution / how quiet is it?
5) How long is the battery life?
6) What warranty/ service do you get?
7)CPU
8) GPU (preferable a switchable solution)

That leaves me either with a Lenovo Thinkpad T400/410(s) or a Dell Latitude...
 
I bought a MSI GX620 one year and a half ago and I'm REALLY happy I did this choice, but it's not really in your price range (more in the 1000$)
Sadly I think the new MSI GX series are not as polished as they were when I bought it.

Basically the key features I was searching for were :
-Small high resolution screen (15'' 1650*1080) so it's both portable and usable.
-Overall ergonomy/durability/simplicity of the chassis
-Good GPU that isn't known for overheating (I don't even see the point of mentioning the CPU since basically any CPU will do the thing for games and bureautic nowadays)
-'Normal' keyboard with a numeric pad

In all this features the two that will basically determine the price are the screen and the GPU.
The most helping piece of information when buying my laptop was notebookcheck.net and especially the GPU benchmark comparison :
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

Looking at this chart I think you could easily find a better GPU than the Radeon HD 4330 in the 600$ price range.
 
I'm not looking for a powerful gaming rig... most of the games I'll be playing will be either Europa Universalis games or, probably the most graphically intese, Team Fortress 2.

Given the specs needed for TF2 (I can't post them here right now as I'm at work), would the laptop I initally posted do the trick?

Thanks for all the help so far guys!!
 
rcorporon said:
I'm not looking for a powerful gaming rig... most of the games I'll be playing will be either Europa Universalis games or, probably the most graphically intese, Team Fortress 2.

Given the specs needed for TF2 (I can't post them here right now as I'm at work), would the laptop I initally posted do the trick?

Thanks for all the help so far guys!!
Click to expand...

So how much is the Samsung R522 Ahadi in your country?
 
Hmm, I just googled a bit around and it seems that Samsung just entered the Canadian Notebook market last year... What a shame! the R522 still is the best budget gamer around.

How about the Lenovo SL510 with Ati Graphics?
 
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