Lappy CPU question

[shortyes]

Okay I have narrowed my search down to a Centrino 1.6 or the 3.06 PIV with HT

The question I have is those that have a 3.06 w/ HT how is it? I do not care about battery life. This will be my primary computer since I am in school all day.

The difference in weight is also about 1-2 lbs heavier.

I am thinking 5150 or 8600 from Dell

Dell owners input would be awsome. Real experience plz.

How does it do on games? Aka UT2003? SWG? CS?

I laptop I have has integrated so I can not get the high FPS but I can run all those games.

Is upgrading to a 7200 RPM HDD worth 150 dollars? again battery is not the issue.

What about resolutions? I am staring at this thing for 8 hours a day. I program a lot. How is the difference between XGA, SXGA UXGA? is it wortht he 100/200 repectively?

 

[Steve978]

whereas battery life might not be an issue the pentium 4's do have a reputation for getting a little hot in laptop's I just ordered mine witha 3.0 so I still have faith in them, the 7200rpm just like the cpu is gonna get a little hot, personally I'd say dont go with the 7200rpm hard drive but get the p4 kind of a trade off in heat. I looked into the different displays, and the SXGA seem the best bang for the buck, the UXGA is mainly aimed at people planning on watching alot of movies. Mine I ordered from http://pctorque.com after looking into all the different laptops and asking a bunch of questions on here. Dell just didnt seem to cut it when it came to video cards, HP seemed to have better choice of video cards but are rather well known for causing lots of problems. Check out the sager's on pctorque

 

[shortyes]

Dell has the ATI 9600 128 mb in stock but it is 200 dollars and not worth it for me to shell out the bucks

another thing is that I looked at the computer and it is not what I want. The first thing is the battery. It is big and ugly. It is also close to 10 lbs. It is not easily replacd.

Yes the Lap top get hot, I expect this.

Another thing about torque is that although they have a great reseller rating, I am not confident about 3 years down the line. I am buying Dell for the long run and although torque computers are VERY nice, I am looking at warranty and replacement if something goes wrong.

 

[attack]

Short eyes....why do you need a laptop that can play games when you got your 2 rigs above....also your current laptop is pretty decent as is.

Reason I ask is if your in school or at school wouldn't all you do is study? then when you get home if your done studying, then play games...

 

[shortyes]

The laptop I have has integrated graphics, the FPS is very low with only 16mbs of ram going to video. Can't play any FPS really well.

I have been at school for so long and going home and back to school is a hassle sooooooo I want a laptop that can play games.

 

[Dc5e]

laptops won't run games as well as desktops unless you shell out alot of money, my laptop is decent right now.... its not that great and i play most of my games at 1024x768. mobility 9000 is ok... but 9600 probably quite a bit better but it'll probably cost alot more to upgrade.

i'd rather play on a desktop than a laptop, but thats mostly your decision.

Dell laptops are ok... they're not bad becasue of all the coupons you can use. They're not extremely well built compared to IBM laptops, but if you take good care of it, it can probably last quite awhile.

also... like all computers, the hard drive is a huge bottleneck, but its even worse in laptops. My laptop takes alot longer to load games compared to my desktop when i had it.

my laptop specs are
1.3ghz P-M
4200 RPM 30gb
mobility 9000 32mb
384 PC2100 DDR
SXGA i believe

its about 6lb and i wish it were lighter.... but this is my first laptop. my brother had a compaq around 7-8 pounds and he wants to trade laptops with me.

although you mainly want it for gaming, you may want to consider something powerful and light, because your going to be stuck with this for awhile. I'm satisfied with my laptop but i wish i had a better graphics card in it or at least 64mb... but it costs too much and a desktop is quite a bit more powerful for the same price.

 

[shortyes]

thanks all...after much consideration I went with the centrino. Best Buy has a deal tooo good to pass up

for 930 AR and tax I got a

Compaq x1050us
Centrino 1.4
40gb HDD most likely 4200
256mb 2100
32mb Radeon 9200
SXGA

I rather buy parts to upgrade than let someone else do it so I am spending the extra cash on a 60gb 7200 HDD and 512 of pc2700 for the lappy. Someday will upgrade the OS to professional.

If I can ever find a play that sells the 9600 pro for the lappy I'll upgrade that as well

 

[Gnufsh]

Make sure you get parts that will fit in the laptop. AFAIK, there are no 2.5" 7200 RPM HDDs... and you will probably have to get RAM in the DDR SO-DIMM format.

 

[shortyes]

LOL Gnufsh I know that. I am getting pc2700 from Crucial it is in the Sodimm format and Yes there are 2.5 HDD at 7200rpm...Been out for a few months now, almost a year

 

[Gnufsh]

Really... THat is fast for a laptop drive. Do you know the platter density on those?

 

[shortyes]

25 to 30 right now..max is 60 gb.

Toshiba is 50gb and Hitachi s 60 gb