[gkeuler8]

Ok, I Travel Alot and Im looking for A Laptop to play games with/ watch dvds on. Ive looked at the selection of laptops but Ive only become more confused, the mobile video card is important but Alot of the spec sheets only state that its a intergrated card but not how powerful it is. Anyone with a little expiernce in this could possibly shed a little light on the situation would be really helpful.

[Dc5e]

usually they're just some integrated intel or some other chip or they're a more powerful ATI or Nvidia chip. It really depends on the laptop. And its most likely you won't be able to upgrade the vid card once you get the laptop.

[T20]

If gaming to you is not important, you can get a killer deal on a great laptop with a DVD player.

If you must have games, other than solitare or starcraft, you will need to shell $$ out. Also, do not buy a widescreen laptop for gaming, very few games support widescreen res, plus puny GFX cards on laptops have difficulty rendering it too.

Basically right now what you want is one of these... not cheap huh?
http://www.alienware.com/system_pages/area-51m.aspx

[fuzzba11]

Gaming laptops are generally very expensive(as shown by the Alienware $2500 base price), but when searching, right now you want to make sure you find this graphics card:

ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 128MB DDR

Dell has a new system that is said to be equally as good as the Alienwares for gaming: the Inspiron 8600. You can customize it on the Dell website and the configuration below sells for $1648

Pentium®M Processor,1.4 GHz
512MB,DDR,333MHz 2 Dimms
128MB ATI MOBILITY RADEON 9600 PRO Turbo
40GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive
free 4X CD/DVD burner (DVD+RW/+R)
Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2100 WLAN (802.11b, 11Mbps) miniPCI Card

Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
15.4 in WXGA screen

[don256us]

Cost
Size
Speed

Select any two of the above three when it comes to laptops. If you select a low cost high preformance laptop, expect it to be big and heavy.

Good luck and Happy Holidays.

[Smartiepants]

Dell has one that does graphics stuff, its not too expensive but its a beast, like 8lbs w/o a battery and under full load battery life is like 30-40 mins.

[madcow235]

www.pctorque.com i think it is. They make high performance sagers, same as alienwares, but again these things get like 10minute battery life

[Ge|atinousFury]

Originally posted by madcow235
www.pctorque.com i think it is. They make high performance sagers, same as alienwares, but again these things get like 10minute battery life

I own one of these and I couldn't be happier. I was looking for a college/gaming laptop that wouldn't set me back $3000-4000 and I stumbled upon PCTorque's website. After much much researching and many questions such as:

1. Why haven't I heard of Sager computers before?
2. Is assuming they are a bad company just from lack of advertising a smart move on my part?
3. Since battery life is so low, am I after the portabilit or mobility of a laptop?
4. How much cheaper is this than a comparable Dell (or other premade system)?
5. Where can I get more info on these laptops?

Now I'll give you the answers I came up with:

1. Because they do not spend money on advertising. They have been around a long time and are still going strong
2. No, it is definitely not a smart move. The money you spend gets you the final product, not the company's advertising/lack of advertising.
3. I found that I was after the portability, not mobility, of the laptop. I wanted a computer that I could take with me wherever I go, and since 99% of the time I would be near an outlet no matter where I was, the 1 hr. run time off of a single battery had no bearing on my final decision.
4. It is SO much cheaper and SO much better that I'm lost for words....

Here is my post documenting my thought process from start to finish here on the forums. It even includes specs of the laptop I purchased and the final price.

Clicky

Let it be said, though, that PCTorque only makes higher end laptops. The bearing it has on my point is that a Dell system might be a better deal UNTIL you start piling on the options such as these:

1 GB DDR RAM: PCTorque's 1 GB upgrade is $155. Dell's upgrade to 1GB is $425

Video Card: Most of PCTorque's models come standard with the ATI Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo video card (the best that's out right now). Dell charges a $200 fee for upgrading to this card.

Dell gives you a HDD loaded with trash software that you'll most likely never use so it only serves to take away valuable HDD space. PCTorque gives you the option of ordering your laptop with a completely blank HDD so you can install Windows or another OS yourself and only put exactly what you want on your computer.

I've had no problems whatsoever and the laptop is very sturdy/rigid. The thing runs like a champ. Everyone who's seen it and got to play on it has been blown away


Oh, and P.S. -- I've never experienced the Intel integrated graphics like you're talking about, but the 9600 Pro Turbo is awesome. I'd definitely consider it
Hope this helps

[WildMonkey]

I don't cosider anything above $2500 as "budget" so the short answer is, no.
You are waaaaaaaaaaaaay better off getting a good laptop for work, and a cheap AMD system with a kickin' graphics card.