Gaming laptop

[Vivienne]

Hi

We are ready to buy a gaming laptop. There is a place here that builds laptops according to your specifications - called Eurocom. Their website with all the different components are at http://www.eurocom.ca/ . It is international so perhaps some of you have heard of it.

After Wednesday night's discussion on laptops, I tried to put one together. All the components can be changed. As I'm not sure of *anything*, I would so very much appreciate your advice and suggestions.

EUROCOM M570U DIVINE $2,689 CAD

System and Display EUROCOM M570U DIVINE DUO; 17-inch; WXGA 1440-by-900 pixels; Widescreen; Glossy Surface $2,199

VGA Technology 512MB GDDR3; Nvidia GeForce Go 7900GTX; 16x PCI Express; VGA Module $195

Upgradeable Processor Intel Core 2 Duo® T5600; 1.83GHz; FSB667; 2MB L2 cache; 65nm; 34W

Memory Configuration 1GB; 1x 1GB; DDR2-667; 200pin; PC2-5300; 1 SODIMM

Hard Drive(s) 60GB; SATA; 5,400rpm; 8MB cache; 2.5-inch

Operating System English; Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 $180

Optical Drive Tray-based; 8x Multi DVD +-RW/-RAM Burner; Dual-Layer; with Software

Wireless LAN 802.11b/g WLAN SuperG @ 108Mbps; Gigabyte; GN-WI01GT AirCruiser G; NAPA; mini PCI-Express $115

Internal Card Reader 4-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MS/MMC/MS-Pro)

Standard Battery (internal) 8-cells Smart Li-lon Battery

Standard AC Adapter 120W auto-switching AC Adapter

Warranty Plan 1 Year Return to Factory Depot with 1 Year of Tech Support

[jflan]

It appears to be a Clevo.
See here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/archive/index.php?t-49738.html

[Vivienne]

Hi jflan

[QUOTE=jflan;16626]It appears to be a Clevo.
[QUOTE]

Thank you very much for the website. I had never heard of Clevo before. I read the review and the comments on the Forum. It brought me to look at the Dell website where I *think* I am getting a better computer. The url is :

http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/features.aspx/nb_xpsm1710?c=ca&cs=CADHS1&l=en&s=dhs

The only thing I changed was the video card from 256MB to 512MB.

Please can you look at the system and see if you think this is the one that I should go with.

Thanks very much!!!

Vivienne

Dell XPS M1710 - $2859

System and Display 17-inch; UltraSharp Widescreen; UXGA Display with TrueLife

VGA Technology 512MB Nvidia GeForce Go 7950GTX

Intel Core 2 Duo® 7200; (2GHz/667MHz/4MB

Memory Configuration 1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz 2 DIMMs

Hard Drive 100GB; 7200rpm;

Operating System English; Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

Optical Drive Tray-based; CD/DVD Burner (DVD +-RW) With double-layer DVD+R write capabilities

Wireless Intel Pro/Wireless 3945 802.11 a/g Mini Card (54Mbps)

Battery Whr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery

Warranty Plan 1 Year Return to Factory Depot with 1 Year of Tech Support

[jflan]

Hi Vivienne,

I'm no laptop expert, but I would say that the specs you list describe one Big Dog of a machine. It would crush many a desktop.

Unbeknownst to many is the fact that most all of the big name laptop makers use chassis that are built by Clevo, Compal, Asus, Quanta and MSI.
The Dells and HPs don't like to advertise that fact. They want us consumers to think that they are indeed very clever and have built whatever laptop from the ground up :-)

If it were me I would peruse those notebook-specific forums and see what the track record of that M1710 is.
Also, someone here at KH might know of this machine.

JF
Edit1: I would go 2GB on the memory for a machine of that caliber and purpose.
Edit2: Googled around a bit and found these amongst several other reviews:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2887&review=Dell+XPS+M1710
http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=2742

[Vivienne]

Hi JF

I'm no laptop expert, but I would say that the specs you list describe one Big Dog of a machine. It would crush many a desktop.

:-) I read the reviews that you pointed me to and it sounds great! Thank you very much for finding them. They had a lot of tests that backed up their conclusions. Mind you, I didn't understand the tests but I trust they did. :-)


Unbeknownst to many is the fact that most all of the big name laptop makers use chassis that are built by Clevo, Compal, Asus, Quanta and MSI.

I found that most interesting. I had no idea!


Also, someone here at KH might know of this machine.

That would be real nice!


Edit1: I would go 2GB on the memory for a machine of that caliber and purpose.

I will do that but I really do not understand why everyone is recommending the 2 GB. The most intensive games that I can find have 512 MB ram requirement so I had thought that 1 GB was plenty. Why is 2 GB the recommended size? For the future maybe?


Edit2: Googled around a bit and found these amongst several other reviews:


Thank you so very much!! The reviewers seem to be 'reputable' and there was quite a lot of detail.

The only thing that bothered me was the battery life. 2 hours max for a movie on a DVD, 1 1/2 hours for gaming. That doesn't seem like a lot but I have no laptop experience and perhaps this is normal.

Another question - there is a $50 difference between:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7200 (2GHz/667MHz/4MB) [Included in Price]
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7400 (2.16GHz/667MHz/4MB) [add $50 or $1/month1]

Is there a noticeable difference between the two?

Thanks very much again, JF. I so appreciate your advice and the time you took to check it out for me!!

Vivienne

Edit: I had checked HP as Rich had recommended but they had no gaming laptops in Canada. The HP website is different here than in the States and you cannot customize! But as I googled I came across news that HP was acquiring Voodoo so perhaps they will get some real good gaming laptops. Maybe then there will be more competition and prices will go down. I cannot wait that long, though!!

[kern]

HP Canada has the "business" class nx9420 which imho is a better deal--->

http://shopping.hp.ca/cStoreCA/BaseDetails.asp?PType=58&ProductLineId=25&FamilyId=99&BaseId=2781&PView=S&BEId=5&Lang=EN

[Vivienne]

Hi Rob

HP Canada has the "business" class nx9420 which imho is a better deal--->


It certainly would cheaper!! Thanks for giving me an alternative!!

I was told that I could not upgrade by a salesman in one of our stores. I shall phone HP directly and speak to them.

What upgrades should I ask for? I believe I need 512 MB video memory?

Do I need 2 GB memory with that?

Re: the processor - it has 2MB cache and I believe Dell has 4MB? Does all this matter?

Thanks very much, Rob.

Vivienne

[dbarrow]

Gaming is relevant... what games?
If you want all the bells and whistles of the newest game engines (an not all games are using them yet),
first consideration is the vid card.
512 and the highest grade available for that machine.
Differences between laptop cards and desktop cards require some research.

If you are getting the top of the line vid card, then it would be worth the upgrade to 2g of ram. The newest games, playing on a top end card at the highest settings, will benefit greatly from 2g.
A mid-range card that can't play at the same maxed settings would not require or use it.

The cpu... may be worth a trip to the Intel site and some of the major reviews to narrow down choices.
Some of these mnfr "upgrades" offer little gain for the bucks. If there is a distinct difference in the reviews, then consider if the price is worth it.

[kern]

What upgrades should I ask for? I believe I need 512 MB video memory?
Do I need 2 GB memory with that?
Re: the processor - it has 2MB cache and I believe Dell has 4MB? Does all this matter?

the answers depend on the games you will be playing, and the level of "detail" you want displayed.
for example:
if you want to be able to play up and coming games with the highest possible detail, go for the notebook that offers a video card with the fastest graphics processor and the most video memory you can get, along with 2gb of system memory.
if you just want a notebook thats capable of playing most games with a fair amount of detail, then a notebook with at least an ATI X1600 or nVidia Go 7600 vid card with 256mb "dedicated" video memory, and 1gb system memory, will do.

[Vivienne]

Doug, Rob, JF:

Thank you all so much for helping me!

Gaming is relevant... what games?.

Games like Star Wars: BattleFront 2 and Quake 4. Although the boys do not mind playing at minimum requirements, I would like them to experience what games are like played with all the bells and whistles as they are both very interested and involved in computer programming for games. When all is said and done the difference in price will not be more than about $500 and it will bring them a lot of pleasure and learning.

After reading Doug's response, I have decided to go with the Dell laptop and using Doug's parameters, I will get:

Nvidia Geforce GO 7950 GXT - no other choice was given for 512MB

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7400 (2.16GHz/667MHz/4MB) - this is $50 more than the 2 GHz one and is the one that used for testing in the reviews that JF pointed me to. I could not find a PC comparison between the two but found a MAC one where there was a substantial difference in performance - more than the 8% expected.

2 GB DDr2 SDRAM at 667 MHz, 2 DIMMs - no other choice in 2 GB memory

It blows my mind to pay so much for a laptop but everyone - my son, my grandsons and my husband and I are all going to chip in for it. And I know they will love it!

Once again, I really appreciated your input!! Thanks very much!

Vivienne

[dbarrow]

Should be an awesome machine!
Get them Oblivion. Good game, great graphics.

[Vivienne]

Hi Doug

Should be an awesome machine!

:-) :-)

Get them Oblivion. Good game, great graphics.

Thanks for the suggestion. Will do! By the way, they downloaded Tortanick's recommendation demo of Dominion 3 and they *both* love it even though one of them does not like strategy games generally.

Thanks, Doug!!

Vivienne