attn: Turkey / Geeks

[Duo]

I need a new laptop. My gaming laptop is nearly busted and I don't play enough to warrant spending a ton of money on a new one, so my budget is around $600 with some flexibility. However I do want to get the best bang for the buck as I don't want a turd-guzzling grandmamobile either. I want a reliable computer that can keep lots of things open at once and store lots of data without slowness or crashing. Large screen and keyboard are also pluses. Being able to play Source engine-level games at decent settings would be nice too, but isn't a priority and is probably unrealistic for my price range anyway. Work your magic, fiend. thx

[Magyk]

I'm actually pretty excited to see what the computer builders here come up with, as I just built a tank-of-a-laptop Sony Vaio F-Series a few weeks ago, and finally got it in this morning. Basically in love with it.

16.4-inch 1080p 1,920x1,080 display,
Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz
8GB ram
GeForce GT 540M
500GB Harddrive,
Dolby surround sound speakers,
and of course other bells and whistles like a BluRay player, hd webcam etc.

I got this as my laptop for college, so if you factor out the OS/Accidental Coverage/Blurayplayer/Webcam and stuff like that it probably clocks in at around $900-$1,100. (It cost me $1,436 - but the accidental coverage alone is an absurd $250 or something and I had a lot of extra shit as I plan on using it for at least 4 years.) Quite a bit over your price range, but I highly recommend it if you could find the spare cash.

edit: just kind of testing out it's limits I've run HL2, the Sims 3, and Oblivion all at highest quality with no slow down. I've also run Rainbow Six Vegas, which is an absurdly gorgeous looking game with just a tiny bit of slowdown at maxed settings. Again, it's well over your $600 dollar wish, but the thing is really kickass if you can find some extra dough.

[GUARD!AN]

I'm actually pretty excited to see what the computer builders here come up with, as I just built a tank-of-a-laptop Sony Vaio F-Series a few weeks ago, and finally got it in this morning. Basically in love with it.

16.4-inch 1080p 1,920x1,080 display,
Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz
8GB ram
GeForce GT 540M
500GB Harddrive,
Dolby surround sound speakers,
and of course other bells and whistles like a BluRay player, hd webcam etc.

I got this as my laptop for college, so if you factor out the OS/Accidental Coverage/Blurayplayer/Webcam and stuff like that it probably clocks in at around $900-$1,100. (It cost me $1,436 - but the accidental coverage alone is an absurd $250 or something and I had a lot of extra shit as I plan on using it for at least 4 years.) Quite a bit over your price range, but I highly recommend it if you could find the spare cash.

edit: just kind of testing out it's limits I've run HL2, the Sims 3, and Oblivion all at highest quality with no slow down. I've also run Rainbow Six Vegas, which is an absurdly gorgeous looking game with just a tiny bit of slowdown at maxed settings. Again, it's well over your $600 dollar wish, but the thing is really kickass if you can find some extra dough.

I have the F-Series laptop too! I've found that the 540M performs slightly better than a GeForce 9800 graphics-wise. This is based purely on my estimates after playing on a computer with a GeForce 9800, not based on the numbers on 3DMark or wahtever.

[Turquoise Dragon]

Not really that good with making a comp or such, but stay away from the Dell Vostro 1500. They got bad hinges. I've broken 4 so far

[Kerafym]

Just sayin', Intel's Integrated Graphics on their Sandy Bridge line shits all over source engine games.

This looks pretty good, but I'm pretty bad with laptops and it's slightly over your budget.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834215122

[Magyk]

I'm actually pretty excited to see what the computer builders here come up with, as I just built a tank-of-a-laptop Sony Vaio F-Series a few weeks ago, and finally got it in this morning. Basically in love with it.

16.4-inch 1080p 1,920x1,080 display,
Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU @ 2.00GHz
8GB ram
GeForce GT 540M
500GB Harddrive,
Dolby surround sound speakers,
and of course other bells and whistles like a BluRay player, hd webcam etc.

I got this as my laptop for college, so if you factor out the OS/Accidental Coverage/Blurayplayer/Webcam and stuff like that it probably clocks in at around $900-$1,100. (It cost me $1,436 - but the accidental coverage alone is an absurd $250 or something and I had a lot of extra shit as I plan on using it for at least 4 years.) Quite a bit over your price range, but I highly recommend it if you could find the spare cash.

edit: just kind of testing out it's limits I've run HL2, the Sims 3, and Oblivion all at highest quality with no slow down. I've also run Rainbow Six Vegas, which is an absurdly gorgeous looking game with just a tiny bit of slowdown at maxed settings. Again, it's well over your $600 dollar wish, but the thing is really kickass if you can find some extra dough.

I have the F-Series laptop too! I've found that the 540M performs slightly better than a GeForce 9800 graphics-wise. This is based purely on my estimates after playing on a computer with a GeForce 9800, not based on the numbers on 3DMark or wahtever.

Yeah, my desktop has dual nividia GeForce 7800 GTs in it, and I'd say my laptop is only slightly less powerful then my desktop from what I can tell anyway.

[Turky]

Okay, since duo and I are basically playing xfire tag, here's the deal.

Just go to Newegg.com, go here, give it a price filter (I did $214-814), and then under GPU type, tell it Dedicated Card. This will filter out all of the bullshit integrated cards.

You'll see a bunch of different kinds of GPUs. Like the 520M, for example. Go here and type in the GPU type, and it'll give you some benchmark scores so you can compare gpus. Higher is better. 3dmark Vantage is pertinent to DirectX10 performance.

Other things to keep in mind:

--Look for ones that are marked down. You'll see a higher price in grey up above. This will get you the most "bang for buck."
--There is also a Compare feature in Newegg. You can place up to 5 items in the little boxes at the top, and it will compare all the specs of the laptops you pick, side by side.
--Also note the Gaming Performance list, where you can enter a GPU and it will tell you what games you can play feasibly, and at what settings.

Good hunting! Post here with any questions, or just AIM me. I can keep AIM active on my phone no problem, but the Xblaze app literally has to be kept open to stay signed in. So that's not a good way to get in touch with me for something like this.

[Maximus]

After a brief look, there seems to be a huge difference across the 600 to 800 price range. At 600 it's pretty much intel or amd integrated graphics. At 800 it can be 500 series nvidia gpus (latest). You're at the point in the performance/cost curve where a little money gains a lot of performance. On first look I saw 3 options at newegg for 650; dell outlet has refurb xps 15 (L502x) in the 700 range. I've had 2 refurb dells that worked out well, turky has one also. Will post more this weekend when I get internets installed (yay 6mb dsl).

[Max Rambone]

My GF just got a $600 laptop with dedigraphics....It's an Acer, I think.

Can't remember the GFX chip, but it's an i3 and it runs crysis on the highest settings like a champ.

It's only got a 15" screen 'cause she didn't want to lug around a gigantic block like my 17.

If you're interested in getting one like it, I can get the model #.

~archi

[Turky]

dedicated gpu + i3 = :unsure