Looking for a laptop with gaming possibilities

[goddess40]

We have a desktop but it gets a lot of use and I'd like a second computer but don't want another computer desk.

My niece suggested a Mac as they are virtually virus free. My son, who does way too much gaming, will be upset if we get a new computer that doesn't allow him to play once and a while. Maybe that would be a good thing but I'd still like to be able to play Bejeweled.

[democracyindanger]

1. Macs no good for gaming

because there aren't any games.

Look here:

http://www.alienware.com/Product_Pages/notebook_all_default.aspx

[goddess40]

2. My son want to "build" a computer

I put a good video card in this one, and many advertisements don't even list what type of video card is even included in the system. I may not be very smart when it comes to computers but I do know that if they aren't saying what it is, it can't be good.

[democracyindanger]

4. Actually, building your own PC isn't hard

While I don't think it's possible, yet, to build your own laptop, you can easily build your own desktop.

[goddess40]

5. looks like I might end up with two desktops after all.

Maybe I could get a used or lower end lap top to DU on my own.

[RoyGBiv]

8. You can ...

Build your own laptop, that is, but unlike desktops, the frustration and cost factors can outweigh the benefits.

An associate of mine who builds machines for a living built a few. He refuses to do it again. It about made him crazy.

[RoyGBiv]

7. Let him do it ...

If you can afford it and don't mind a little potential frustration, build it.

It's a good learning experience that will help him and you in the future. You know exactly what is in your machine, and once you have gone through the process of a build, you tend to know better how to fix things that go wrong, saving you money in the long run.

It's normally a bit more expensive to build your own machine these days due to various reasons, among them he fact that large assemblers like Dell and Gateway get bulk pricing deals on hardware and Windoze, but imo, it's worth it.

[tkmorris]

13. I strongly disagree with that

The part where you say that it is more expensive these days to build your own.

I recently built a desktop for my wife for about $500. Every single component in it is superior to anything Gateway puts out and it will outperform any Gateway computer up to around 12-1500 dollars in value.

Part of the reason for this is the increasingly misleading information put out regarding Pentium 4 processors versus AMD's. Her processor for example is an AMD Athlon 64 3000, which runs at 2 Ghz. Sounds slow right? Except it isn't. AMD recently began to realize that there is more to a processors speed than simply it's clock. Factors like the size of it's L1 and L2 cache, as well as the way it processes data, actually matter more than it's clock. As a result that Athlon 64 3000 will outperform a Pentium 4 running at 3.4 Ghz on any benchmark you care to name. What good after all is a Model T with a turbo? Fast clock speeds do NOT neccessarily mean better performance.

She has that processor sitting on a DFI Lan Party Motherboard, which is just a dream to fiddle with. You would not believe the options available to you to tweak this board. Overclocking is as easy as 1-2-3 and you could spend all night fiddling with voltage levels and bus speeds etc. Or you could simply stick it in the box and go, it's rock stable.

I put into it a Radeon graphics card, the 9600 XT. It's not at the high end of video cards on the market these days but it will run any game out there and do it well. Most of the "cutting edge" graphics cards out there are really ahead of the curve as far as gaming goes. They are more than anyone really needs and the number of games that can take advantage of their capabilities is vanishingly small. In any case the 9600XT is a better card than anything Gateway uses except in their highest dollar machines.

The whole thing sits in an Antec case with enough fans to cool your house if you lose power. Plus, unlike most "packaged" machines, she can upgrade any component in that box as easy as pie. The power supply is an Antec 'True Power' and will take anything you throw at it unlike the generic crap that a Gateway or a Compaq comes with. If you upgrade ANYTHING in those machines the power supply overloads and you need a new one. Which you can't get because they build them to be proprietary and they don't offer upgrades for what you want most often.

Build your own. It's easier than you would believe and it's cheaper too.

[RoyGBiv]

14. I don't disagree ...

I've made the same argument myself, actually.

The only reason I say it tends to be more expensive is that you actually can find new machines out there for around $300. They're crap machines, of course, but they work, at least for awhile, but I've come to realize that some are simply interested in "bottom dollar," not what's actually in the machine in question.

As a sideline, I build machines for people, and even including my labor cost, which is modest since I tend only to do this for people I know or who know people I know, I've built some pretty decent machines for under $500. I built one for my boss for about $450, and it out-performs all of the low-end systems put out by Gateway and many of the mid-range that cost more. My boss wanted me to do this and wasn't too concerned about the price, but I had to convince her husband why he should spend that much when he could get a Dell with what he thought were equal or better stats (the Pentium vs. AMD and power supply things) for a hundred dollars less. Thankfully, he actually listened and got a better graphics card as a bonus.

Anyway, there's no disagreement here on my part. I just have started to acknowledge that, yes, you can get a cheaper machine than what I can build. However, what I can build isn't going to be a piece of garbage.

[RoyGBiv]

6. I'm not a Mac person, but ...

That is completely untrue. Granted, it is sometimes harder to find titles specifically for the Mac. The aisles at Best Buy, for example, aren't filled with Mac version of anything unless the discs on which they come are hybrids, but you can get Mac versions of most popular games.

Emulators are also available.

Alienware, imo, is way overpriced. I've also been witnessing some horror stories in the past couple years. They seem to be going the way of Gateway.

[democracyindanger]

9. Not "completely untrue."

Sure, there are Mac versions of games. But of the hundreds of titles released every year, only a fraction are ported for the Mac. If she's looking for a computer mainly so her boy can play games on, he's more likely than not to be disappointed when he goes to the store and finds out the game he wants isn't available for the Mac--and if it will be, it's some months in the future.

It's all about primary use. If you're buying from scratch, and your main goal is multimedia and graphics editing, I'd say Mac. But if you're looking for something that your kid can play games on, get a PC, especially if your kid already has a bunch of PC games.

[RoyGBiv]

10. I understand what you're saying ...

And I agree to an extent. I would certainly recommend a PC, for all the reasons you cite.

I was responding to the "no games for the Mac" comment, which is in fact completely untrue since there are games for the Mac. Halo, Doom3, and Sims2, three very popular games, are available for the Mac.

The reason I responded is that the "no games" canard is something that also affects GNU/Linux and any operating system that's an alternative to Windoze. That's what we're really talking about here -- Windoze vs. other OSes because the games are written for PCs running Windoze, not PCs in general. It becomes a Catch-22. Game publishers don't publish as soon or as often for the Mac or other operating systems because the market is smaller. So, if people shy away from those systems for this reason, the market will remain small, thus providing no incentive for the publishers to care about those systems. Etc ...

Anyway, like I said, I'd recommend a PC myself and one running Windoze for that matter if the primary use will be game playing, but I do admit I'm part of the problem by offering such a recommendation.

[democracyindanger]

11. You're right

Didn't mean "no games" to be taken literally, more of a figure of speech. My bad. :)

[RoyGBiv]

12. Not necessarily ...

I'm way too literal sometimes. :-)

[jayfish]

3. Here Is A Nice One.

Product http://us.acer.com/acerpanam/page4.do?dau22.oid=7985&UserCtxParam=0&GroupCtxParam=0&dctx1=25&CountryISOCtxParam=US&LanguageISOCtxParam=en&crc=2424625818

Review http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/acer_mobility_8100/default.asp


Jay

EDITED TO ADD REVIEW