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Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: Lucika on January 23, 2011, 06:33:15 am

Title: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Lucika on January 23, 2011, 06:33:15 am
I am currently planning to get a new computer (and for those of you who watch my LPs, that should have a proper microphone at last) and I've heard good things about the Fujitsu LifeBook NH570. It is basically the top of the price range I can currently afford, so I am not looking for an Alienware or anything :D

Can some of the more experienced guys around here give me some suggestions as to what kind of a laptop can I get for ~max. $1500?
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Admiral LSD on January 23, 2011, 06:41:42 am
I'm not a huge fan of surfboards like that, tbh. I believe at those kinds of sizes you're better off with a desktop in terms of price and performance. That said, however, for USD$1199 (http://store.shopfujitsu.com/fpc/Ecommerce/buildseriesbean.do?series=NH570) it doesn't look half bad spec-wise, though the graphics seem a little weak for a panel that size. Realistically though, I recommend you hold off for a little bit longer and see what comes out in terms of Sandy Bridge lappies.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Fury on January 23, 2011, 06:44:02 am
Ugh, not really a friend of so-called "gaming laptops". If budget is $1500, get $1000 gaming desktop and $500 laptop and you should get both mobility as well as gaming PC. Until we see AMD's Bulldozer, getting Sandy Bridge based Intel desktop PC and waiting for Sandy Bridge based laptop is smart choice.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Jeff Vader on January 23, 2011, 07:05:18 am
Yeah. I have the impression that when you cram gaming hardware (or close enough) into a small box, or a laptop that is, heat will be an issue. Either it burns you or the hardware itself to death.
And if you're getting an 18" laptop, you don't really care about mobility (really, you don't take that with you, you drag that with you).
I'm with Fury on this one. If you need mobility AND performance, get a cheap notebook or a netbook for mobility, and a desktop for performance. Everyone wins.

(Plus, I'm biased against Fu****su, because my previous ****ty laptop made by them died exactly because of heat issues. It derp'd at 80 °C when idle, and at > 90 °C under stress. Does wonders to a GPU on the long run.)
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Lucika on January 23, 2011, 07:18:46 am
PC is not an option, due to family issues I am constantly on the move between houses so I have to keep with a laptop.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Pred the Penguin on January 23, 2011, 07:20:44 am
If you do get a laptop I wouldn't recommended getting one from Toshiba. There's have... weird issues, specifically problems with Win7.

And if you need a good microphone just buy it separate, which will almost always be better than integrated microphones. As an added plus you get to use it anywhere.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Lucika on January 23, 2011, 07:28:37 am
If you do get a laptop I wouldn't recommended getting one from Toshiba. There's have... weird issues, specifically problems with Win7.

And if you need a good microphone just buy it separate, which will almost always be better than integrated microphones. As an added plus you get to use it anywhere.

I am not THAT moronic to buy a new laptop just so I get a new mike. I am not Bill Gates. :D
And just to clarify my above point, I can drop a laptop in the car and drive from point A to point B (unlike a PC), making an 18" possibly a viable option.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Admiral LSD on January 23, 2011, 07:43:22 am
If you do get a laptop I wouldn't recommended getting one from Toshiba. There's have... weird issues, specifically problems with Win7.

I've worked with a couple of Toshibas and they haven't had any major dramas with Win7. One (a brand new Satellite L650) shipped with it from the factory, so you'd expect it to run fairly well and the other (a Satellite A100 circa 2006) is one I upgraded myself and aside from some weirdness with the bluetooth and the lack of a 64-bit driver for one of the BIOS level things on it, it runs 7 fine too. The latter on isn't built half badly either. It was dropped, thrown about and generally abused by one of its previous owners for 2-3 years and only suffered a broken screen.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Pred the Penguin on January 23, 2011, 07:45:46 am
Guess it's my own experience then... well actually not mine, but a family members. Toshiba laptops do have nice screens and not half-bad speakers, though.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Mikes on January 23, 2011, 08:03:10 am
As a rule... i found that gaming laptops, especially the real expensive ones...  just suck, badly.

Heat issues... fan noise that rivals the vacuum cleaner... build quality issues...   my conclusion after extensive research is to never ever buy a laptop that is advertised as "gaming laptop".
There doesn't seem to be a single company that doesn't have some kind of huge flaw in their design.

And the problem with "non gaming" laptops, well, usually is that they aren't that good for gaming ;)
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Lucika on January 23, 2011, 08:45:23 am
This was not specifically advertised as such IIRC but it looked good as I searched.

I forgot to post the specs:

Intel Core i5-450M 2.40GHz
4Gb DDR3 (not that important, I can always extend it later)
18,4 screen
500 GB HDD (again, unimportant, 1 have a 1 TB external if needed)
nVidia GeForce GT 330


So, how would these specs fair in your opinion?
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Hades on January 23, 2011, 10:57:47 am
There's this, which all around has way better specs that that Fujitsu at the same price.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115869
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: dragonsniper on January 23, 2011, 11:08:23 am
A quick run down from the most obvious specs to me:

The I-5 line is not a bad line by any means, they are equivalent or better than the quad cores in many ways. I personally know someone with a processor a step lower than the one you have listed, and it runs most things like a charm.
As for the RAM, remember that W7 requires atleast 1.5GB just to run it's operating system (say 2gb to be safe), which would only leave you with 2GB for gaming, encoding etc. 6-8gb would be best, but that shouldn't be a prob if you can upgrade later.
As for the HDD, just be sure that it's of a somewhat respectable company, and not a no name HDD...
The graphics card is without a doubt the big question here, as a good 80-90% of games rely on graphical speed and not processor speed. If I have time later I'll do some comparisons, or you could. Remember this isn't going to be your huge crazy awesome gaming machine, but if the graphics are respectable, it seems pretty decent. Just my two cents worth.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Admiral LSD on January 23, 2011, 11:10:29 am
There's this, which all around has way better specs that that Fujitsu at the same price.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115869

It's also an Acer, which generally means it's lacking in quality :P

Seriously though, I wouldn't buy a machine with one of those quad core mobile i7's unless you have a clear and present need for more than 2 cores. If you aren't routinely stressing all the cores, the CPU will end up spending most of its time in either it's dual- or single-core turbo modes with the rest of the cores powered down defeating the point of getting a quad core in the first place. Trade down to an Arrandale i5 and you're likely to get a higher quality machine (since they aren't cutting corners in other areas to make u for the additional cost of the CPU) that's better at what you need it to do.

Again though, I wouldn't buy anything until the various manufacturers get their Sandy Bridge models finalised and launched.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Hades on January 23, 2011, 11:12:27 am
Actually, Acer, at least the models they put out couple of years ago, isn't/aren't bad, I've had two laptops of differing size and configuration from them and they both work fine after two years of service. I can't say that for sure for their newer models but yeah.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Admiral LSD on January 23, 2011, 11:30:06 am
Maybe they have improved, especially now they've absorbed eMachines and Gateway meaning they can use those brands to cover the "cheap and cheerful" segments and reestablish themselves as a higher quality brand, but in this specific case I think they're cutting more than a few corners. A Clarksfield mobile i7 isn't cheap, nor is a Radeon 5850 Mobility so seeing both in what isn't that expensive a machine makes me think it's too good to be true.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: bobbtmann on January 23, 2011, 11:32:12 am
I'm using an acer laptop right now, and it has been running well for the past five years.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: newman on January 23, 2011, 11:32:40 am
Actually, Acer, at least the models they put out couple of years ago, isn't/aren't bad, I've had two laptops of differing size and configuration from them and they both work fine after two years of service. I can't say that for sure for their newer models but yeah.

Agreed, I've been using an Acer 6935g for over two years now, no issues. Acer was the only one that offered that sort of performance for the price I paid for it, and the reviews were good so I went with it and haven't come to regret that choice. They may have been lacking in quality before but I honestly can't say that I've had any issues with Acer since I've been using one of their laptops.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Fury on January 23, 2011, 11:35:50 am
As for the RAM, remember that W7 requires atleast 1.5GB just to run it's operating system
:wtf:
No it doesn't. I've used Win7 with 512MB RAM.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: General Battuta on January 23, 2011, 11:39:54 am
God, $1500? That's insane for a laptop. Just be aware you could spend that much for a desktop and have a rig that will run everything on max for years.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Admiral LSD on January 23, 2011, 11:49:32 am
As for the RAM, remember that W7 requires atleast 1.5GB just to run it's operating system
:wtf:
No it doesn't. I've used Win7 with 512MB RAM.

That's a little on the low side considering a fresh install will sit in about 600-700MB and it only goes up from there. 1GB is the absolute bare minimum I'd try running it in with 2GB being better, but the more the merrier.

I'm using an acer laptop right now, and it has been running well for the past five years.

That far back they actually were quite dodgy. I have one from around that time, maybe a year or two older and it makes me glad I never recommended them to anybody. They do seem to have lifted their game in recent years though.

Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Fury on January 23, 2011, 12:49:35 pm
That's a little on the low side considering a fresh install will sit in about 600-700MB and it only goes up from there. 1GB is the absolute bare minimum I'd try running it in with 2GB being better, but the more the merrier.
The point is, required and recommended are different. Dragonsniper was speaking of required, and even in that case saying 1.5GB is required is a bit too much. Win7 runs surprisingly well on 512MB.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Lucika on January 23, 2011, 01:04:37 pm
There's this, which all around has way better specs that that Fujitsu at the same price.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115869

What. The. [insert long swear here]. On the local market this costs ~2600$!!!

And even looking at other english-speaking sites the price is similar, ~1200$ for instance.

I live in Robbyland.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Hades on January 23, 2011, 02:34:17 pm
I forgot to ask, what country are you in? newegg doesn't ship internationally so you might need someone on hlp you trust well enough who lives in America to act as a middle man.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Lucika on January 23, 2011, 02:35:49 pm
Definitely not America. I'm living in the far far faaaaar little pothole known as Hungary (you know, that country with the media law :P).
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: JGZinv on January 23, 2011, 03:25:49 pm
I prefer Asus laptops myself. They've got a good rep among gamers. Best Buy in the USA has models around the $1100 range
that have decent specs. There are other places to get newer models, but they tend to cost a little more.

Example of a Asus specs:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220861
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220921

Unless you really need the screen real estate, a 15 inch screen I have found to be ideal for travel
and it puts less load on the GPU.

I use a far older C2D G50VT-X5 model, but they've been pretty consistent over the years.

My best recommendation would be to get on these forums and 1st ask in the what system should I buy thread,
then camp the section of choice for the brands you're interested in and read up on what other people have had to say
on a particular model.  http://forum.notebookreview.com/what-notebook-should-i-buy/

Worst case scenario, I could ship it long as you take care of things. There's custom laptop builders out there too that'll ship
internationally.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Ghostavo on January 23, 2011, 06:26:11 pm
If you decide to ship it, beware of foreign keyboard layouts.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Pred the Penguin on January 23, 2011, 06:40:44 pm
That's a little on the low side considering a fresh install will sit in about 600-700MB and it only goes up from there. 1GB is the absolute bare minimum I'd try running it in with 2GB being better, but the more the merrier.
The point is, required and recommended are different. Dragonsniper was speaking of required, and even in that case saying 1.5GB is required is a bit too much. Win7 runs surprisingly well on 512MB.
The main issue is that he's using it for gaming. 2GB just isn't enough with Win7.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: CP5670 on January 23, 2011, 09:28:00 pm
For gaming laptops, the Asus G series mentioned earlier is a good bet, and MSI's lineup is also supposed to be well built and packs in strong GPUs for the money. Several boutique builders such as XoticPC also sell customized Sagers with high end GPUs. See this list (http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.130.0.html) to check how the laptop video cards compare, as the names are confusing and have little in common with the desktop cards.

Also, wait a few weeks until all the companies update their lineups with the Sandy Bridge CPUs. Those just came out and there are only a few SB laptops out there at the moment. As for the memory, just about anything over $700 or so will come with at least 4GB these days.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Unknown Target on January 23, 2011, 09:58:09 pm
A couple friends of mine game on this;

http://www.amazon.com/G73JW-XA1-Republic-Gamers-17-3-Inch-Gaming/dp/B0044BCZ0E/ref=dp_cp_ob_pc_title_0

Well, not that specifically, they have a Radeon chip in theirs, but they do excellent and can run all the best games out there.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: JGZinv on January 23, 2011, 10:07:47 pm
I've used XoticPC and one of the others (can't recall the name) previously for purchasing some high end laptops.
To be honest, after everything said and done... the price doesn't make it worth it. There's not a discernible
enough difference to say a $4000 laptop is better than my year later $500 laptop.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Unknown Target on January 23, 2011, 10:16:22 pm
Found the laptop they use, specifically. It's huge but it looks great and runs games extremely well - it's better than my current desktop.

http://www.amazon.com/G73JH-X5-Republic-Gamers-17-3-Inch-Gaming/dp/B004CYEY9I/ref=pd_cp_pc_1
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Mikes on January 24, 2011, 02:00:00 pm
Just keep in mind.... when comparing all these "cool deals" ... that if you go with the laptop that has the "best specs for the lowest price" you will pretty much always get to enjoy these features as well:

- garbage build quality
- overheating issues
- fan noise rivaling the vacuum cleaner.

Enjoy your new Laptop, ...  try to wear headphones at full volume, ignore the smell of burning plastic ... and just reboot like a man everytime it crashes or freezes ;)


Seriously... don't buy Laptops just going by "specs"...  and if at all possible test them in person before you buy.
The amount of misdesigned garbage on the laptop market... even from "decent brands" really is unbelievable.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: dragonsniper on January 24, 2011, 04:17:49 pm
As for the RAM, remember that W7 requires atleast 1.5GB just to run it's operating system
:wtf:
No it doesn't. I've used Win7 with 512MB RAM.
Ok... :wtf: I've never had my RAM use less than 1.2GB on my machine. Well, assume between 512Mb and 2Gb, but the more, the better.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: JGZinv on January 24, 2011, 05:46:48 pm
Just keep in mind.... when comparing all these "cool deals" ... that if you go with the laptop that has the "best specs for the lowest price" you will pretty much always get to enjoy these features as well:

- garbage build quality
- overheating issues
- fan noise rivaling the vacuum cleaner.

Enjoy your new Laptop, ...  try to wear headphones at full volume, ignore the smell of burning plastic ... and just reboot like a man everytime it crashes or freezes ;)


Seriously... don't buy Laptops just going by "specs"...  and if at all possible test them in person before you buy.
The amount of misdesigned garbage on the laptop market... even from "decent brands" really is unbelievable.



Asus has had a few models that have had heat issues. But they are also the first to typically offer a new chipset line.
Within a revision or bios update they typically have it fixed. Not every laptop manufacturer produces junk day in and day out.
If you're going to run down to Staples and grab yourself an off the rack HP, expect to get HP's well known build quality.

Either way, it's best to do your research on a particular model you have your heart set on before taking the plunge.
Computers are like cars... there are recalls and lemons. In the end you're responsible for taking care of it and changing the oil.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Unknown Target on January 24, 2011, 06:55:41 pm
Her laptop's quieter than my little Lenovo 15" (which is a few years it's senior, granted).

As for build quality, nothing particularly stuck out at me whenever I used it. I know she carries it with her all over the place.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Kolgena on January 24, 2011, 08:40:56 pm
I've had friends cycling through Asus, HP, Dell, and Toshiba, and all have run into serious heating/noise problems.

My VAIO on the other hand, though ridiculously overpriced (I didn't pay for it), has a GPU overclocked by 45%, and has never run into any noise/stability/heat issues.

So yeah, Sony makes seriously overpriced hardware, but they must have done something right, at least for my model.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Unknown Target on January 24, 2011, 10:41:21 pm
So then it's probably not overpriced? :p I still love my Lenovo Y530 though, it's been all over the world with me and it's still spittin' a mean game.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Fury on January 25, 2011, 12:02:20 am
Ok... :wtf: I've never had my RAM use less than 1.2GB on my machine. Well, assume between 512Mb and 2Gb, but the more, the better.
I actually once tested how much RAM Win7 actually needs to operate. It went as low as 128MB RAM, I fired up a few basic apps including Adobe Reader which worked too, it wasn't exactly fast though. With 96MB RAM Win7 refused to even try to boot and instead greeted me with a message saying there is no enough RAM to boot. Sure, officially Microsoft's minimum requirements say 1GB and it's probably true for any decent performance with some apps open and in use.

Today anything less than 4GB RAM for gaming purposes is silly.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Admiral LSD on January 25, 2011, 12:22:27 am
So then it's probably not overpriced? :p I still love my Lenovo Y530 though, it's been all over the world with me and it's still spittin' a mean game.

Those non-ThinkPad Lenovos are probably among the most underrated machines out there IMO. They're reasonably priced, have decent specs and the build quality isn't half-bad either. Get the right deal and you can have an i5, 4GB RAM and a decent sized HDD for under a grand. The catch, though, is they mostly have Intel integrated graphics which makes them unsuitable in this case, but for a large chunk of the market, they're brilliant.

My sister has an older model, a 3000 C200, that she paid about AUD$735 (sticker price was 899, but she got employee discount on it) for about 4 years ago and it's been a great little machine for her. Initial spec wasn't great: 1.6GHz Celeron M, 512MB RAM and a 60GB HDD, but it was par for the course at the time and almost enough for what she needed. It's still going strong, though I've since upgraded it with a 2GHz C2D, 4GB (though due to chipset/BIOS limitations, only 3GB is visible to the OS) RAM and a 250GB HDD which made it more than a match for anything in the same price bracket prior to the arrival of i3/i5 models.

As for the RAM, remember that W7 requires atleast 1.5GB just to run it's operating system
:wtf:
No it doesn't. I've used Win7 with 512MB RAM.
Ok... :wtf: I've never had my RAM use less than 1.2GB on my machine. Well, assume between 512Mb and 2Gb, but the more, the better.

I think there's also some kind of pre-caching and allocation voodoo going on in the background that self-adjusts based on how much RAM the system has as well. Vista had something similar, but it had a tendency to go overboard leading to higher than expected memory use. I hardly ever see it drop below 1GB on my 4GB systems either, but on 2GB machines or below it sits around 600-700MB...
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Kolgena on January 25, 2011, 12:38:26 am
Yeah... Vista's a ***** about memory allocation. I'm currently running 2.26 gigs/4 gigs for having FF, acrobat, word, and some common bg processes up.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: CP5670 on January 25, 2011, 01:32:58 am
Those non-ThinkPad Lenovos are probably among the most underrated machines out there IMO. They're reasonably priced, have decent specs and the build quality isn't half-bad either. Get the right deal and you can have an i5, 4GB RAM and a decent sized HDD for under a grand. The catch, though, is they mostly have Intel integrated graphics which makes them unsuitable in this case, but for a large chunk of the market, they're brilliant.

This one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246006&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-Notebooks-_-Lenovo-_-34246006&AID=10440897&PID=4109400&SID=) is a pretty nice deal and includes both a Sandy Bridge and a decent GPU. I'm looking to buy a laptop myself and would have gotten this, but I want a full size keyboard.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Admiral LSD on January 25, 2011, 02:01:28 am
This one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246006&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-Notebooks-_-Lenovo-_-34246006&AID=10440897&PID=4109400&SID=) is a pretty nice deal and includes both a Sandy Bridge and a decent GPU. I'm looking to buy a laptop myself and would have gotten this, but I want a full size keyboard.

I wonder if it has switchable graphics, because that would just be awesome. I'm still not 100% sure I'd go for the quad core in a laptop to be honest, but for that kind of money (and the fact it's only about 80% the speed of the dual cores, unlike the previous-gen Clarksfields) I'm not sure I'd complain terribly much.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: CP5670 on January 25, 2011, 09:35:16 am
I see people saying that it doesn't have switchable graphics but still manages to get about 4 hours on internet browsing. The Sandy Bridge quads are generally a lot better than the old Clarksfield ones in terms of battery life. The quads also turbo up to the same speeds as the duals when fewer cores are in use.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: dragonsniper on January 25, 2011, 03:56:46 pm
Ok... :wtf: I've never had my RAM use less than 1.2GB on my machine. Well, assume between 512Mb and 2Gb, but the more, the better.
I actually once tested how much RAM Win7 actually needs to operate. It went as low as 128MB RAM, I fired up a few basic apps including Adobe Reader which worked too, it wasn't exactly fast though. With 96MB RAM Win7 refused to even try to boot and instead greeted me with a message saying there is no enough RAM to boot. Sure, officially Microsoft's minimum requirements say 1GB and it's probably true for any decent performance with some apps open and in use.

Today anything less than 4GB RAM for gaming purposes is silly.
Wow, I didn't know it could run under such conditions, even if it is slow. And yes, I agree with your final comment... the more the better.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Nuke on January 25, 2011, 06:27:17 pm
when i buy a laptop i dont normally buy a gaming laptop, but i do buy a laptop with a decent gpu that is kinda sorta in the same price range of your typical laptops.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: Admiral LSD on January 25, 2011, 08:36:11 pm
I see people saying that it doesn't have switchable graphics but still manages to get about 4 hours on internet browsing. The Sandy Bridge quads are generally a lot better than the old Clarksfield ones in terms of battery life. The quads also turbo up to the same speeds as the duals when fewer cores are in use.

Battery life is only part of why you want switchable graphics with Sandy Bridge. You can't use any of the media features, in particular the Quick Sync (http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/the-sandy-bridge-review-intel-core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/9) transcoding engine, when you're on a discrete GPU so you need a way to switch between them if you want to use them.

As I mentioned earlier, the thing with the Clarksfields was they had relatively anaemic base clocks, 1.6GHz or 1.73 for the 720QM or 740QM most of the cheaper machines had. Sure, they Turbo'd out to between 2.4 and 2.93GHz, but if you were doing that a lot then you may as well have bought an i5 for less money since you were paying the premium for the quad only to have it spend most of its time as a single or dual core. Sandy Bridge is better here with 2.0GHz being the minimum base clock on the quads which isn't entirely terrible compared with the dual cores. The range of turbo modes is better too: 6/7/8/9 for 4/3/2/1 core operation in this case instead of only 1/1/6/9 for its predecessor. I still don't think the quads are worth any kind of premium over the duals, but for USD$899 this machine is a steal, quad core and all.
Title: Re: "Kindasortof" gaming laptop for $1500 - How are these specs?
Post by: CP5670 on January 26, 2011, 11:42:40 am
Yeah, I wouldn't pay a big premium for a quad in a laptop either, especially since there is very little software that uses more than two cores. However, the prices tend to be comparable to the duals among laptops that also include decent GPUs. The Sandy Bridge duals also won't be out for a few weeks, and the quads are the only thing you can get right now.