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Old 05-25-2007, 05:00 PM
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Gaming Laptops: Buy now or Wait?
A few years ago I switched almost all my computing over to laptops - work, home, personal and gaming. I just found I liked the portability and now I pretty much can't do without it.

So, that being said, I'm shopping around for a new gaming laptop (budget under $3k prefer around $2.5k) and I realize a couple things. First, Santa Rosa is here\right around the corner. Second, DX10 is here\right around the corner.

SO, do I go for a Core 2 Duo T7200\NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950GTX 512MB - OR - do I wait a few more months.

I'm looking at a Sager or an ABS ... (or a Dell XPS M1710 if I want to go pricey/namebrand)

Thoughts? Hit me!
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Old 05-26-2007, 05:30 PM
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I don't think there is a clear > all choice here.

I use a DELL Precision M90 which is from their "small business" side of the site. Aside from looking less "toy like", it had nVidia's Quadro line of cards, which seem to be more performant in notebooks from my experience.

Gaming notebooks are always behind gaming desktops, BUT they have long been "good enough" IMO.

There will always be a new technology just around the corner that makes you current notebook less "shiny". While its obvious not to buy old tech when a good new tech release is immenent. I don't think it makes sense to wait a LONG time, IE 6 months. I would wait a month without blinking.

Santa Rosa is nice tech as are the whole 45nm line intel is moving to. A few things to consider.

1) Most new procs are introduces at lower clock speeds then the fastest "last gen" procs. This narrows the performance difference that's available for purchase at release.

2) The biggest weakness in notebook that I see right now is the lack of truely fast hard drives. This is becoming really noticable. My current Core DUO 2 T7600 notebook can run WoW in one window at 50-60FPS and a Linux Fedora Core 6 VM in another without the CPU even breaking a sweat.

Lastly, don't get Alienware. Its overpriced junk. Seriously.
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Old 05-27-2007, 07:12 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kamujin View Post

2) The biggest weakness in notebook that I see right now is the lack of truely fast hard drives. This is becoming really noticable. My current Core DUO 2 T7600 notebook can run WoW in one window at 50-60FPS and a Linux Fedora Core 6 VM in another without the CPU even breaking a sweat.
Solid State Discs to the rescue!
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Old 05-27-2007, 08:19 PM
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If you can wait...then wait. For the amount of money you are spending, you need full DX10 support.
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Old 05-27-2007, 09:57 PM
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Solid State Discs to the rescue!
Hopefully, but their speeds are still not thrilling. I think there is a ton of room for improvement, but the current flash technologies are just getting to the 20mb/sec level, most flash devices write slower then a modest hard disk.
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Old 05-28-2007, 08:28 AM
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Hopefully, but their speeds are still not thrilling. I think there is a ton of room for improvement, but the current flash technologies are just getting to the 20mb/sec level, most flash devices write slower then a modest hard disk.
The crop of SSD laptop hard drives that are newly out, or soon-to-be-out, are closer to 45MB/sec write. That's around 1.5x faster than the typical laptop HDD (5400rpm).
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Old 05-29-2007, 03:27 PM
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Looks like the Core 2 Duo (Santa Rosa) GeForce M (dx10) laptops are here\almost here:

Asus Laptops @ New Egg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...tk=&srchInDesc

Anandtech on mobile DX10
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2984&p=2

I'm going to hold out for a laptop with a 17" screen and at least an 8600GT or later chip.

Plus, there are 7200RPM HDD's out there for laptop's - my next one will have one. Or an RAID-0 if I can get it spec'ed out the way I want it (Sager has RAID-0 laptops w/ desktop quality equipment in them - call 'em lap burners)

One more month then we'll see.
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Old 05-31-2007, 03:40 AM
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I have a 7200RPM 2.5" HDD. The real write rate is WAY lower then 45MB/s for any OS I've tested.
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Old 06-26-2007, 02:57 PM
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I think it's here ...

http://www.sagernotebook.com/pages/go_np2090.html

Centrino Duo (aka Santa Rosa) and NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT (dx10) ... *twitch*
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Old 07-03-2007, 07:43 PM
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i agree with everything that has been said. I to think you should wait a while (beginning of 2008 probably). Ya DX10 is right around the corner but there are virtually no games that are made for it yet. Plus the only operating system that handles it right now (vista) is still very glitchy. Just wait a little longer and you will be rewarded, with a newer system with a much sturdier OS and a bigger selection of games made for DX10.
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