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$2500-3000 Budget: Need Good Spring Gaming Laptop

Posted: 24 Aug 2006, 22:38
by skillz
I don't know if this belongs here, but I need a good gaming laptop that will play spring, all its maps, and mods well. Does anyone on here play spring on a good laptop? If so please provide its name and mabye a link to it.

Also, what should I shoot for, a gig of ram and what kind of processor?

Thanks for your time
-skillz

Posted: 24 Aug 2006, 22:48
by imbaczek
For $3k you'll have a machine on which supcom will run pretty decent :P For Spring, I guess just buy something that doesn't have an ATI and you'll be fine.

Posted: 24 Aug 2006, 22:52
by skillz
Thanks for the reply. Is this in the right place?

Anyways, I'm hoping to keep the price more like $2,000-2,500 but will go up to $3,000.

Posted: 24 Aug 2006, 23:14
by Sheekel
Is this going to be just for spring?

Caydr, I believe you have an argument to post here :-)


Basically, wait for windows Vista and Dx10 graphics cards if you plan on using this machine for future games.

Posted: 24 Aug 2006, 23:43
by imbaczek
I heard that Vista won't have OpenGL support, so playing Spring on that will be a bit troublesome if it's true 8)

Posted: 24 Aug 2006, 23:52
by espylaub
Heh, i've got a Notebook with a Mobile Radeon 9700 in it, plays spring wonderfully. If you want a brand recommendation, I would go with Asus, and avoid Dell like the plague. My Asus hasn't hat a single problem in the last 2 years, absolutely brilliant.

Basically, any current notebook without onboard graphics will play sping nicely.

This one sounds nice:

ASUS A6JA-Q076H

Intel Core Duo T2300 2x1.66 GHz
1024 MB DDR2 RAM
100 GB HDD
15,4" TFT WXGA Glare
DVD Double Layer Burner
256 MB ATI Rad. X1600
WLAN 802.11abg
Bluetooth
Cam
XP Home
2.9 kg
2.5 h battery life (okay, pretty meh, but evaluate how often you will be on the move. If you need it, more $ will buy better battery life)
2 years warranty/pick up and return service

1.134,90 EUR

That's about 1.391,96 US Dollars. You can get the same model with 2k RAM or an NVidia card if you want. Invest 300$ more and you can get one with the same stats but lighter or with longer battery life. Basically, this has all the performance you will need for quite a while. More cash will buy you less weight, better battery, more reliable components. Depends on whether you will be moving about a lot. You figure out your priorities.

If you really want to go nuts, they even have 17" laptops with tv receivers and all that.

Disclaimer: I am not an Asus shill. I'm just very happy with mine.

And for God' sake, please do yourself a favour and do not spend 3k$ on a laptop. Spend 1500-2000 tops, use the rest for a holiday, buy a good camera (you could get a digital rebel for the difference!) and do something creative, but don't buy one of those awful alienware gaming laptops for 3k. Really. Those are sad.

Just my 0.02$

Posted: 24 Aug 2006, 23:56
by NOiZE
moved to off-topic

Posted: 25 Aug 2006, 00:02
by Cabbage
move to the UK and buy a mesh! :P

Posted: 25 Aug 2006, 02:33
by Dragon45
2500 - 3000 dollars? Christ, you're loaded :P


Only things you really need to worry about:

1) Strong graphics card that is NVidia.
2) Lots of RAM
3) Big-Ass Screen (widescreen laptop ftw)
4) Warranty


Any of the highest-end models from Dell, Alienware, Gateway, Toshiba... basically any of the big names will fulfill all of these qualities and kick every game's ass for the next four years.

Posted: 25 Aug 2006, 03:14
by espylaub
Found an incredible one :shock:

ASUS A6JM-AP007H2

Intel Core Duo T2400 2x1.86 GHz
2048 MB DDR2 RAM
120 GB
15,4" TFT WXGA Glare
DVD Dual DoubeLayer Burner
512 MB Nvidia Geforce Go 7600
WLAN 802.11b/g
Bluetooth / Webcam / Works / XP Home
Card Reader 4in1 (MMC/SD/Memory Stick (Pro))
PC-Card Slot I/II
PCMCIA Typ I/II
USB 2.0 4x
DVI! And gigabit LAN
2 Year warranty/pick up and return

1.569,00 EUR

That is the second or third fastest notebook GPU on the market right now. Awesome. I want one :|

Argh. Really. Damn.

Man, this is just about the best you could hope to buy, and you'll still be about 700$ under your minimum estimate :D

Posted: 25 Aug 2006, 04:07
by skillz
Thanks for the suggestions, but...
I searched for ASUS A6JA-Q076H and all I got were German results. :(

I need a good laptop that I can find and buy in the US.

Posted: 25 Aug 2006, 04:36
by BlackLiger
For the kind of money you're talking, you can probably buy a system thats better than ANYTHING ANYONE here has at current, in laptop form...

Posted: 25 Aug 2006, 05:04
by Sheekel
I run spring on a cripple.

Celeron M @ 1.5 ghz, 512 ram, intel integrated graphics.

640x480 resolution FTW!

Posted: 25 Aug 2006, 06:21
by skillz
BlackLiger wrote:For the kind of money you're talking, you can probably buy a system thats better than ANYTHING ANYONE here has at current, in laptop form...
So if I drop it down to say, $1,500 I could still get a good system?

I want to avoid Dell but I do not know what company to trust. Do I want a nividia graphics card or whatever it is called..?

Posted: 25 Aug 2006, 09:39
by SwiftSpear
BlackLiger wrote:For the kind of money you're talking, you can probably buy a system thats better than ANYTHING ANYONE here has at current, in laptop form...
I doubt it, there are some dominating PC's in the spring community. Not that I have one of them :(

Posted: 25 Aug 2006, 10:48
by espylaub
skillz wrote:Thanks for the suggestions, but...
I searched for ASUS A6JA-Q076H and all I got were German results. :(

I need a good laptop that I can find and buy in the US.
Hmm, it is indeed quite hard to find an online shop in the US with Asus notebooks. Strange. Newegg has a few, but no similar model.

Pity :/


1,500 $ will buy you a good notebook.
Yes, avoid Dell.
Nvidia cards are currently the fastest. Here's a list with the current fastest Notebook GPUs, in order, fastest at the bottom (3dmark 06):

ATI Mobility Radeon X1600
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX
NVIDIA Quadro FX 2500M
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GTX
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX SLI

A regular 7800 go is still very very good. You might actually have trouble finding the faster ones.

Posted: 25 Aug 2006, 11:58
by Drone_Fragger
Seriously, Whoever said that Vista doesn't support OpenGL is Wrong. Nvidia put pressure on Microsoft to put in OpenGL support, Otherwise they wouldn't make DX10 cards (Which sounds inverse, But the idea being, Nvidia fanbois wouldn't get vista if they couldn't have lovely Nvidia cards), SO microsoft added in OpenGL suppoty.

Posted: 25 Aug 2006, 11:59
by Drone_Fragger
espylaub wrote:
skillz wrote:Thanks for the suggestions, but...
I searched for ASUS A6JA-Q076H and all I got were German results. :(

I need a good laptop that I can find and buy in the US.
Hmm, it is indeed quite hard to find an online shop in the US with Asus notebooks. Strange. Newegg has a few, but no similar model.

Pity :/


1,500 $ will buy you a good notebook.
Yes, avoid Dell.
Nvidia cards are currently the fastest. Here's a list with the current fastest Notebook GPUs, in order, fastest at the bottom (3dmark 06):

ATI Mobility Radeon X1600
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800
NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GS
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX
NVIDIA Quadro FX 2500M
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7900 GTX
NVIDIA GeForce Go 7800 GTX SLI

A regular 7800 go is still very very good. You might actually have trouble finding the faster ones.
Also, In 3 weeks, ATi will hold the fastest card again. The X1950 kills must sli Configurations, and the 7950 GX2 with over 170 FPS from quake four at max settings.

Edit: Just re read that and discovered you said "Notebook cards" >_<

Posted: 25 Aug 2006, 14:55
by PauloMorfeo
Qosmio, buy a Qosmio!!!!
Sheekel wrote:...
Basically, wait for windows Vista and Dx10 graphics cards if you plan on using this machine for future games.
Hahaha! Sure, wait for 1 year to buy a laptop with a grafics card that will only be usefull in 2 years.

Qosmio, i tell you!

Posted: 25 Aug 2006, 15:53
by Drone_Fragger
ACtaully, The next Tom Clancy game uses DX10, as does UT2007, and some parts of supreme commander (Water rendering and explosions)