gaming/size trade-off laptop advice pls.

Kern

Kern

Kern

Associate
Joined
6 Aug 2009
Posts
13
Hai peeps, i have a decent gaming desktop pc for when i am at home but due to my job i often "go away" for a few weeks at a time and miss hacking and slashing at zombies and the such on games.
So i have decided to buy a laptop, i mean theres only so much socilasing and being normal someone can take before they feel the urge to load up BF2 and "pwn nabzors" on their own in a poorly lit room with only a bottle of vodka and realisation of how sad their life has become.
So i ask your kind advice of how i can achieve this wonderful dream of mine!

Last year my mate spent very nearly 2grand on a awsome laptop that could run all the current titles at good settings, i was mighty impressed with it, and it dispelled my belief that laptops were only good for men in suits sitting on trains tapping away at MS word.
it was an awsome machine but had one major drawback for me.. the Size, this thing was huge and heavy, as i travel on planes quite often weight and size is a big issue (i gotta leave room for my speedos.. haha)

So i would kindly ask your knowledgable advice on what laptop would present a balance between- size & weight Vs performance on games.

i think its a bit of a balancing act between:
little laptops= great size but shiite performance only managing minesweeper
big laptops= far to big to be praticble but can run modern games
so i would like a compramise between the two if possible.
Musts:
must play Oblivion -awsome game and will take up 90% of the machines life.
must play Total Annihilation - old game and the best ever made by far, still love it.
must play LOTRO -for when/if i can get near to a decent inet connection.
must nots:
must not have a french flag sticker on it! nobody likes the frenchies!

i am pretty clued up on all the tech on desktop pcs i dont clam to be any sort of expert, i just have a fair understanding of them and know whats what, however.. i havent a clue about laptops as i havent kept upto date will all the latest brands/tech so am a little confused with it all, any light you guys could shead on the matter would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks a lot in advance, Steve.
 

Kern

Kern

Kern

Associate
OP
Joined
6 Aug 2009
Posts
13
uv said:
Acer 6930G with 9600mGT is a good balance between performance and weight.
Click to expand...

Yep that laptop seems excatly what im after thanks a lot, I am hovering my mouse over the "buy it now" option, is there any others peeps think i should concider? as i will most probably buy the one recommended off peoples great advice from this site.

tweakinfreak said:
What was that? I couldn't read it :p
Click to expand...

aucally for me i cant read black and white text, it makes my eyes go crazy with words jumping about the page and hard to concentrate (a form of dyslexia/dyspraxia) so pastel colours make things a lot easier too read cyan/light purple seems to be a good combo.

well done trolling.
 

iMacMart

iMacMart

iMacMart

Soldato
Joined
8 Jun 2006
Posts
12,643
Location
Hertfordshire
Wasn't meant to be a troll mate sorry!

I am actually colour bind so those colours are bad for me...

No harm meant ;) I have a 6930G though and I'm very pleased with it, although it has a dead pixel so going to send it back and get it replaced! :)
 

Kern

Kern

Kern

Associate
OP
Joined
6 Aug 2009
Posts
13
Is anyone else able to offer any advice please?
Ive been browsing OCUK and e-bay and am getting a little confused by it all, so any advice would be great as i dont want to end up with a bum deal.

thanks, steve.
 

lozza23_uk

lozza23_uk

lozza23_uk

Associate
Joined
23 Jan 2006
Posts
1,541
Hey juist to jump on the thread, I have been looking at these as I am working away quite a lot at the moment. I cant seem to find one with a 9600 graphic though, only 9300?

Do they exist with a 9600 under 500 notes?

Cheers!
 

Alexrose1uk

Alexrose1uk

Alexrose1uk

Soldato
Joined
26 Apr 2004
Posts
9,354
Location
Milton Keynes
Honestly mate, it really depends on what is 'too large' for you, your budget, and how much work you're willing to do yourself. I bought my M17, have upgraded it, and it's now strong enough it's replaced my desktop machine; and holds it's own against a desktop 4870 1GB and then some (Vantage GPU score of 9650), and I can play absolutely anything I want on 1920x1200/1080 at decent settings, Crysis included.

Downside is it cost me the best part of £2k, and weighs 5KG if you include the power brick. It really depends on what you're after.
 

Alexrose1uk

Alexrose1uk

Alexrose1uk

Soldato
Joined
26 Apr 2004
Posts
9,354
Location
Milton Keynes
Just a bit, absolutely love it!

It's quieter, more mobile, and packs just as much punch if not more than my old desktop, which is great, as I can take this to work on my evening shifts :o

Only downside is as I fitted the X9100 myself, I need to spend some time to jiggle it around a bit, as I need to get the contact sorted flush between the cooler properly, it's temp spiking far too much, but I'll get that sorted out with a few hours of testing and the laptop open, its worth the £300 I saved DIYing it! :)

That said for what I paid, Im happily within 5-10% of a kitted out M17x or one of the 280 SLI Clevo chassis, which would cost on average about another £500-750 for approximately the same spec :D Don't have much of an upgrade path; but laptop GPUs are not easy to get in the UK anyway, and this should last me the 2 years I intend to keep it as main machine.

@OP, as I say really depends on what you're after, and what you're willing to carry.
My laptop isn't light, but its by no means the heaviest out there, and is 17", not 18-20".
 
Last edited:

Alexrose1uk

Alexrose1uk

Alexrose1uk

Soldato
Joined
26 Apr 2004
Posts
9,354
Location
Milton Keynes
Oh and as a PS, Laptop optical drives are SLOW, especially on dual layer discs. If you use them a lot; I'd highly recommend an external drive, installing say Crysis from an 8GB disc, at 2.4MB per second tops...well it's not fun.
 

Kern

Kern

Kern

Associate
OP
Joined
6 Aug 2009
Posts
13
tweakinfreak said:
Have you looked at the Acer 6930G?

Is that what your thinking about going for?
Click to expand...

Yes mate ive had a look thanks, it seems a very good machine at a sensible price range too, i am giving it some serious thought.

Alexrose1uk said:
Honestly mate, it really depends on what is 'too large' for you, your budget, and how much work you're willing to do yourself.
Click to expand...

Ive purposly left out my butget, i just wanted to scope peoples advice first, although im not made of money i can stretch to £X amount if someone suggests a good one whereas if i said £X amount is my limit then someone might not of suggested said machine.

On the "work" side of i really enjoy tinkering and putting bits in and out, so in a weird kinda way i hope theres a little bit of assembly involved.
on that though, 90% of the ones ive looked at are "pre-assembled" and the ones where you can specify what you want all seem to be "assembled in factory" So im not quite sure how you guys are ripping out graphics cards and putting new ones in, in that sense i thought laptops were different from desktops, where in desktops you can pick n mix components to suit what you want/budegt i allways thought laptops were sold as seen and couldnt be upgraded except maybe more memory.

Im not sure if its against forum rules to post links but whilst picking components for my desktop PC i find this site invaluable, espically the charts http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/

Im about 10-15minuite drive away from OCUK in stoke for the next week, i think i may take a drive up and have a chat to the staff there for some advice, depending on how helpful they are i might be the proud owner of a new machine, looking at a pic of one over the net dosent quite compare to having a play with it in real life as i cant relate to Product Depth-27.75 cm etc etc without seeing it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom