Laptop for gaming?

Luz · Post by **Luz** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 8:06 am

Yuho.

so basicly I wanna get some advice on laptops when talking gaming.
I want to be able to drag it along to friends and play games ofc, I have about "1 822,02 GBP" to spend on it

I was looking at a "Dell XPS M170".
It is configed with:

NVIDIA® GeForceTM Go 6800 256MB
Intel® CentrinoTM Mobile ~2.16 GhZ I think it was
2GB RAM

Seems like pretty cool specs to me and just in the budget, but then I heard some bad things about Dell as a company

(in this topic ex.)

Anyone ideas?

Killder · Post by **Killder** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 10:33 am

I bought a Dell XPS M170 2 months ago and would recommend it to anyone despite the complaints recently posted about Dell's. It easily handles dual-logging DAoC accounts which is my normal 'benchmark'.

One word of warning is that the wider than normal (for a laptop) screen on this model seemed to force re-sizing the DAoC install screens during my Darkness Rising install resulting in unclickable check boxes and radio buttons but I put that down to a software bug/oversight rather than a problem with the laptop.

Geralt · Post by **Geralt** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 12:56 pm

I have got Asus A6Va as my work notebook and it's ok notebook to play Lineage 2 and Everquest 2 in 1280x800 resolution. Ati X700 is ok card for that

I have version with 1.7 GHz processor only, but it's enough. More important is memory, unfortunately they didn't agreed to get me at least 1GB of memory, which makes EQ2 a bit painfull in city

Other than that i have no trouble, it's fast, nice screen, it's playable even when using touchpad, it has integrated microphone, simply ready to play.

On bad side - it does quite heats up on left side of notebook, where heatsink is, when gaming it's dangerous to keep notebook on leg, it can burn it, so hot it is. But when you find right position or, like me, have notebook on special pad, it's no problem.

Good sie - it's much cheaper than dell

Post by **Xest** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 6:09 pm

The Dell laptop is certainly a nice machine, but if it arrives faulty (as a lot do), or if you need any help with it, for example if it breaks then you can expect to be without it for over 4 months. Be very careful of how much you pay also, because Dell adverts often say one price, whereas the actual cost is often a whole lot more.

pikeh · Post by **pikeh** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 9:47 am

got a 1.8ghz (2mb cache so effectivly its 3.6)
1gig ram
256mb ati 9700 card,
80gig hard drive
got it from Novatech for around £1000, and it runs quake4 very well except on the highest graphics setting which is unreal anyway.

Mojo · Post by **Mojo** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 10:00 am

Get the XPS imo, dell ship a lot of units and of course some will be faulty, but no more than any other manufacturer i would imagine.

You could also get the extended on site warranty.

I am on my 3rd dell and I have only had 1 major problem, and it was fixed in 2 weeks.

Cromcruaich · Post by **Cromcruaich** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 11:52 am

Dont buy dell, not just because of the bad experiences IT professionals have had with them, but also because you should give some of the smaller players a bit of business.

Also I wouldnt use any company that uses call centers abroad.

Luz · Post by **Luz** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:23 pm

bah you all confuse me

Mojo · Post by **Mojo** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 6:02 pm

Cromcruaich wrote:Dont buy dell, not just because of the bad experiences IT professionals have had with them, but also because you should give some of the smaller players a bit of business.

Also I wouldnt use any company that uses call centers abroad.

As an IT professional I can say I have never had a problem with Dell's. Small players in regards to gaming laptops make either sub standard laptops or way over priced custom jobbies with perlesant(sp) paint jobs. Oh and they all use off the shelf chasis generally so all look the same (cept for the overpriced paintjobs)

The only Real options ---->IMO<---- are the Dell XPS or one of the alienware laptops and Dell wins on price and looks, although the Alienwares are looking hot these days.

Post by **Xest** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 7:43 pm

Mojo wrote:Get the XPS imo, dell ship a lot of units and of course some will be faulty, but no more than any other manufacturer i would imagine.

You could also get the extended on site warranty.

I am on my 3rd dell and I have only had 1 major problem, and it was fixed in 2 weeks.

Over the last year the average rate of problems on laptops we've received in Dell (and we've had a few thousand in the last year) I'd say is about 1 in 5. Problems from faulty hardware, to being completely dead on arrival to not being brand new - some have clearly been sold before, returned for some reason then sent out without being cleaned up.

Mojo wrote:The only Real options ---->IMO<---- are the Dell XPS or one of the alienware laptops and Dell wins on price and looks, although the Alienwares are looking hot these days.

Dell are cheaper because they have non-existent support nowadays. As I say the machines aren't bad but if you have a problem good luck getting it resolved. From my experience I think the way Dell's hardware faults system works is that their repair technicians aren't allowed to diagnose the fault and repair as needed, it seems that the indian call centre staff decide what the problem is on the phone, what part needs replacing and then someone non-technical simply replaces the part. The problem is the call centre staff don't understand English and aren't in the slightest bit technical, this is the only explanation I can possibly gather for the fact that my laptop went back with a faulty video card 4 times without being fixed - any competent technician who was allowed to diagnose and fix problems themselves would've resolved it immediately. Essemtially it means that Dell are paying for very few technical staff and just play for clueless drones, that's how they're able to cut their costs so well.