looking for...

[KoRn_BoYz_5]

a new laptop, i was lookin for speed and mobility and able to play some games , like call of duty 1 and 2, halo. the price doesn't really matter because i can save for it (ah the luxery of being a kid w/o bills) i was lookin at the Alienware line v.s. the Dell XPS laptops does anyone have any like tips i can use?

thanks guys/girls

timmay boy

 

[Kangaroo]

If you plan to game make sure the video card uses discrete memory and not shared memory.

Usually your lower cost laptops use shared but that is not always the case with high end cost so watch for that.

Discrete memory use it's own video card ram and add's cost to the laptop due to heat and other design but it runs graphics and overall gets better performance. I have this argument all the time at work (I work in the Oil industry we do not use just email on them we run apps like trinity; fracpro and tons of other stuff)

Shared memory uses part of the ram thats right part of your ram to perform graphics function which actually hurts overall laptop performance but keeps the price down for most people.

I have not supported Dell equipment in about 5 years since my current company is an HP shop.

If you can swing the cost upgrade to 2+gb of ram now the only laptop I have seen unless Dell XPS has step up is Ailenware has a laptop that supports 4gb of ram and I know someone that has one the dam thing is one honkin laptop it has 2 big fans on the bottom and stuff.

Your mobile workstations usally are bigger and heavier than your normal laptops


Hope this helps

 

[KoRn_BoYz_5]

Thanks Kanga, you gave me some good information to look out for

tim

 

[Yeagermeister]

I have an XPS laptop and except for the weight it's awesome. The one thing that is a pain is that it doesn't have a docking station but it has plenty of ports to plug in all of your equipment.

 

[jterrell]

how much do you want to spend?
www.alienware.com is a good place to look.

Dell is decent but ina recent test all their pre-loaded crap caused games to lock up. Remove all of their various spam from affiliated partners like aol and all will be well.

 

[jterrell]

http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=M&Category_Code=notebook

 

[jksmith269]

Avoid Dell I don't know much about the other systems but Dell products are restrictive on Upgrades. The Video Card is key not only do what Kangroo said but make sure the system doesn't use a minimum power supply. IE a lot of times a company will put in a nice Video card but only enough power source to run it on it's lower end. and you can tell when your games hang up and freeze or your PC\LT shut down for unexplained reasons. A lot of times this is because you don't have the power supply you need. {Tim Taylor Grunt AAHH AAHH More Power} Home Improvement gotta love it....

Alienware is supposed to be one of the best for game play and they take all this in when making their systems from what I've heard.....