Which laptop?

[PCFanatic85]

I am often not at home and I was thinking of purchasing a laptop to cure some boredom issues (hehe). (I could not find a more appropriate area to post this question. If there is a better area, feel free to move my post as you wish o' mighty moderators.)

And, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions? I was looking for one that could play games reasonably well. World of warcraft, Rome total war, etc in particular. I was also looking for one that is reliable and yet not... incredibly expensive.

Thank you in advance.

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by PCFanatic85 I was also looking for one that is reliable and yet not... incredibly expensive.

Define "not incredibly expensive." Would you be willing to spend $2000? Less? More? Is battery life a priority? How about size and weight?

[Thebranded]

best to post what you need, screen size, budjet, dvd burners, tv? all that sort of thing, other wise you'll be recommend with everything from a $4K desktop replacement to a sub $1k lappy that "could" do what you want.

[mystvearn]

toshiba M series offers quite a lot. I am using the M50.

[Jaggannath]

Originally Posted by thefultonhow Define "not incredibly expensive." Would you be willing to spend $2000? Less? More? Is battery life a priority? How about size and weight?

I feel a Inspiron 9300 recommendation coming on (especially if weight and size aren't considerations )

[PCFanatic85]

Weight & size aren't much of a concern for me. I wouldn't mind a decent-sized screen but I used to game on a 15 inch CRT for a long time hehe. Umm. Less than 2,000 would be nice. Battery life isn't a huge concern as I will be returning to home most days.

[Jaggannath]

Well, as I often suggest for your very situation, a Dell Inspiron 9300 seems just the thing to hit that spot. It's got a very large screen, you can put a 6800 Go in it to replace the X300 for gaming, add a few sticks of RAM and a decent sized HDD, and you're good to go. The only downside is it's rather large, but the performance more than makes up for it, and it should also be roughly in your price range. Just wait for a good deal on Dell online like 33% off, I did that and got my swish new Inspiron for $3300 AUD, if I hadn't had the discounts it would have run to $4500 AUD.

[jayb1234]

If you go with the Dell, don't order it online. Configure it online and then call thier phone sales and see how much they will drop the price.

[thefultonhow]

Buying the Dell online is worthwhile if you can use their 40% off coupon. Otherwise call them up and say if they match the 40% off coupon then you will buy that day; if they don't then you will wait and get it from the website.

See this post for what I think the the optimal configuration:

http://forum.pcmech.com/showpost.php...63&postcount=9

When I configured it a bit more than a week ago, the cost with the 40% off coupon came to about $1700.

[PCFanatic85]

That's worth considering. Is there a better way to see when coupons become avail?

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by PCFanatic85 Is there a better way to see when coupons become avail?

http://www.xpbargains.com/dell_coupons/. Right now their best coupon is 30% off.

[HaloAddict19]

If you're want a laptop for gaming I would check out the Alienware 51m, turn a few of the features that are unnecessary off, and you can probably get one for around $2,000.

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by HaloAddict19 If you're want a laptop for gaming I would check out the Alienware 51m, turn a few of the features that are unnecessary off, and you can probably get one for around $2,000.

I disagree. I have heard horrible things about Alienware tech support, especially for their laptops, and the Area-51m uses a desktop P4 CPU, which means lots of heat and weight and very little battery life. Plus they're no longer competitive because they don't have the Go 7800 GTX yet; Dell does (in the XPS M170).

[Jaggannath]

Yup, I would avoid the Alienware too... they're very expensive for what they are. Definitely look at the Dells, I can personally recommend the Inspiron 9300, it's very good

[jayb1234]

Also Alienware is very overpriced compared to a Dell with the same specifications.

[kev7555]

Toshiba or ACER all the way. You can get a nice laptop with plenty of storage, dvd or cd for about $1300.

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by kev7555 Toshiba or ACER all the way. You can get a nice laptop with plenty of storage, dvd or cd for about $1300.

Toshiba is good, but they don't have anything that compares to the GeForce Go 6800 in the 9300. The closest they have is the $3000 Qosmio, which has a GeForce Go 6600. I'd stay away from Acer, especially because they don't really have anything that compares either, but also because of their reliability and support.

[Jaggannath]

Yup, Toshiba are good for non-gaming laptops. ACER I don't like. Sager are reasonably good too apparently, but the recommendation for the Dell stands