Laptop.

College Life
1

<p>I was wondering what specific laptop to buy. The budget I’m limiting myself to is around 1600 you can say? The reason I say that is I play the infamous mmorpg game, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and I’ve experienced the major downtime it can lead when your computer isn’t updated with moderate video cards, gigabytes, etc.</p>

<p>Basically, I’m wondering if you guys could give me a list of laptops that would be suitable for my needs. I’ve been looking up some alienware products, are they good?</p>

<p>Oh yeah, I plan on majoring in Computer Science or Computer Engineering (Technology). So I’m also looking for a laptop that would compensate for my gaming needs and my intended major.</p>

2

<p>Apple.</p>

<p>MacBook.</p>

3

<p>Can you link me to some specific apple/macbook laptops?</p>

4

<p>For gaming, you may want to try an Alienware laptop. Specifically, both the [Area-51</a> m15x](<a href=“http://www.alienware.com/products/area-51-m15x-notebook.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-AREA51M15X-AI1&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT"]Area-51”>http://www.alienware.com/products/area-51-m15x-notebook.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-AREA51M15X-AI1&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT) and the [Area-51</a> m9750](<a href=“http://www.alienware.com/products/area-51-m9750-notebook.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-AREA51M9750&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT"]Area-51”>http://www.alienware.com/products/area-51-m9750-notebook.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-AREA51M9750&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT) begin below your price limit, but since they are customizable you will probably hit the limit fairly fast (you are looking to upgrade the RAM, the processor, and the video/graphics card).</p>

5

<p>Do not get alienware…</p>

<p>WoW is not an intensive game at all and alienware is incredibly overpriced.</p>

<p>[Asus</a> G50Vt-A1 Centrino 2 15.4" WSXGA+/T9400/GeForce 9800M GS 512M GDDR3/4G 800/500G 7200/BT/Vista 64 : GenTech PC Store](<a href=“NameBright - Coming Soon”>NameBright - Coming Soon)</p>

<p>For $1600 you get a 9800, 2.53 GHz dual core, 4 GB RAM, and 500 GB of 7200 RPM hard drive space.</p>

<p>To get all of that in the Alienware M15x you have to pay $2600, and the RAM in the alienware is at 667 MHz instead of 800 MHz so you’re not even getting as good performance.</p>

<p>and [Asus</a> N80Vn-GP011C 14.1" WXGA LED/P8600/NV 9650M GT 1GB/4GB 800/320GB/BT/WiFi/DVDRW : GenTech PC Store](<a href=“NameBright - Coming Soon”>NameBright - Coming Soon) </p>

<p>would be more than enough to play WoW and its only $1,100 and nice and portable and doesn’t look like a gaming machine</p>

<p>and Asus’s come with a standard 2 year global warranty and 1 year accident warranty.</p>

<p>and for Apple’s you would want the macbok Pro, which starts at $1999.99 or $1799.99 with the student discount, and then you would have to buy a copy of windows.</p>

6

<p>WoW runs on Windows and Mac, so I wouldn’t really need to buy a mac.</p>

7

<p>Have you taken a look at the Dell XPS m1530?</p>

<p>2 weeks ago, i had it customized with a Intel T9300 2.5ghz dual core processor, vista ultimate, 128gb SSD for around $1600.</p>

<p>I was playing Supreme Commander on a friend’s XPS with a T5750 2.0ghz processor and a 320gb SATA drive fine with settings on medium. (supcom’s pretty cpu intensive)</p>

<p>IT comes with 4gb ram and a Nvidia 256mb graphics card. And choosign a regular hard drive instead of a SSD will cut the price by around 300 or so, and take of another 150 for vista ultimate.</p>

8

<p>Consider a thinkpad, 1600 can get you a very nice one.</p>

9

<p>Hm.</p>

<p>For Computer Science majors, are majority of the programs customized for Windows? I wouldn’t want to buy a Mac and find out I can’t do nothing while in school.</p>

<p>Edit:; And after you do the Boot Camp sequence, how long does it generally take to switch from Mac > Windows and Windows < Mac.</p>

10

<p>macs are amazing because there is almost 0% chance of getting a virus or any problems with those computers.</p>

<p>They are also sturdy and macs are very advanced computers.</p>

11

<p>for one that can run WoW and be under $1600 I would look somewhere besides a mac, but they are sturdy computers.</p>

12

<p>Okay, changing my criteria a bit.</p>

<p>What about my budget is around ~2k.</p>

<p>Computer Science/Computer Engineer major.</p>

<p>World of Warcraft, but I plan on branching out.</p>

13

<p>good god man. 2k !!!</p>

<p>I would buy a desktop and laptop and pocket the rest.</p>

14

<p>I would too recommend the Dell 1530 laptop. The main reason is that it has 1920x1200 resolution, which is like SUPER AWESOME for a 15 inch laptop.</p>

<p>if you don’t care about the resolution, ASUS makes many gaming laptops, go to [Newegg.com</a> - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!](<a href=“http://www.newegg.com%5DNewegg.com”>http://www.newegg.com) and search for ones with a good videocard.</p>

15

<p>correct me if im wrong but: dont the new macbooks have EXCELLENT video cards?</p>

16

<p>The new MacBook Pro only offers the NVidia 9400 and the 9600 which should be enough for laptop gaming.</p>

<p>But they only offer up to 1440x900 resolution. And I’m not happy enough with that resolution. :frowning: I would really like 1920x1200 which is SUPER AWESOME.</p>

17

<p>The 9600 card is not excellent by any means.</p>

<p>The best available in a laptop is a 9800 GTX which is hue step up from the 9600</p>

18

<p>@Rahmel,</p>

<p>The switch from Mac -> Windows and the reverse takes up to 2 minutes at max</p>