The Great 'Cheapest Decent Laptop' Hunt

HCDayantis

'Small amount of gaming' - what sort of games? Really old 2D ones, few years old strategy games, new games? Put it this way: What's the most graphically demanding game you'll want to play?

drunknmunky

I'll mainly be playing a football game called pro evo 5, which is a new game that is quite graphically demanding. Here are a few screenshots...

http://www.hmv.co.uk/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=-1;6;-1;-1&sku=408000

what do you think?

crayon_2

I have that game and it'll probably struggle on a lappy except for on the lowest resolution settings IMO.

HCDayantis

Well, yes. Playing a game like that on shared graphics is kind of a 'not really going to happen' kind of thing. You'd need a dedicated card for that, I think.

drunknmunky

This is going to sound like a stupid question, but could i install a dedicated card and use that instead of the shared graphics?

i-luv-free-stuff

well the comet laptop
http://www.comet.co.uk/cometbrowse/product.do?sku=363286&tab=specification
is nowhere in stock and comet cant say when they will get some in..but the LD one
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Aspire_Aspire_5101_AWLMi_Laptop_LX.ABH0J.083/version.asp
has been orderd and coming tomorrow.
when i ordered there were 25 in stock now they sold out!

magicrichard5

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_5101AWLMi_Laptop_LX.ABH05.237/version-1.asp

I have just bought the laptop in the link above, no problems so far, and they even matched a competitor (Technoworld) and gave me £20 off.

Processor: AMD Turion 64 MK-36 - 2.0GHz, up to 1.6GHz FSB, 512KB L2 Cache
RAM: 512MB DDR2-533MHz -
Hard Drive: 60GB
Screen: 15.4" Widescreen TFT (1280x800 - 16:10)with CrystalBrite Technology
Optical Drive: DVD±RW Super Multi Double Layer
Graphics: ATI Radeon Xpress 200M supporting 128MB
Wireless LAN: 802.11b/g - Call for advice on Wireless Networking
Battery Life (Depending on Use): 2.5 Hours
Weight: 2.82kg

List price £409.97 + 2% quidco. They will pricematch competitors though.

HCDayantis

magicrichard5 wrote:

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_5101AWLMi_Laptop_LX.ABH05.237/version-1.asp

I have just bought the laptop in the link above, no problems so far, and they even matched a competitor (Technoworld) and gave me £20 off.

Processor: AMD Turion 64 MK-36 - 2.0GHz, up to 1.6GHz FSB, 512KB L2 Cache
RAM: 512MB DDR2-533MHz -
Hard Drive: 60GB
Screen: 15.4" Widescreen TFT (1280x800 - 16:10)with CrystalBrite Technology
Optical Drive: DVD±RW Super Multi Double Layer
Graphics: ATI Radeon Xpress 200M supporting 128MB
Wireless LAN: 802.11b/g - Call for advice on Wireless Networking
Battery Life (Depending on Use): 2.5 Hours
Weight: 2.82kg

List price £409.97 + 2% quidco. They will pricematch competitors though.

*Chuckle*

They match competitors on the laptops themselves, but only the laptops. Accessories and RAM, they don't. *mumble-grumble*

I have yet to order a laptop, but I've been doing preliminary finding of total costs etc. I'm not actually allowed a laptop until 6th January 2007, due to a deal with my dad (he says that the prices will have fallen dramatically by then. Whether or not they do, he's paying the excess, so I'm not complaining! I like deals where the other person thinks they know better but don't.:rotfl: )

Browntoa

drunknmunky wrote:

This is going to sound like a stupid question, but could i install a dedicated card and use that instead of the shared graphics?

not in a laptop

HCDayantis

I think it depends on the laptop. Some have PCI Express 16x Architecture. The Lenovo 3000 N100, for example, does. The means you can fit in a graphics card that uses a PCI Express 16x connection. Of course, you'd have to check that the card was small enough to fit into hte laptop itself first!