Computer arrive - thanks for the help!

[Magister Lajciak]

My new laptop computer has finally arrived! I want to thank all of you who have given me advice as to how best to chose a new notebook. I really appreciate it and the new notebook is great!

[samm]

Let's hope it'll stay good

[Magister Lajciak]

Let's hope it'll stay good

 

I sure hope so!

[Gorth]

Congratulations

 

Ahh the smell of new computers is only rivalled by the smell of new leather

[Tigranes]

Intel Core 2 Duo P8100 2.1GHz

4GB 667MHz DDR2 RAM

500GB HDD

NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTX

17" WUXGA

 

This is it, right? Looks great, and the proc is a P-series too.

 

I'm looking at laptops right now, though my budget limits me to something like 9600M GT. D'you mind letting me/us know how your laptop performs with the newer games? I can never trust benchmarks.

[Magister Lajciak]

Congratulations

 

Ahh the smell of new computers is only rivalled by the smell of new leather

 

Indeed! I am enjoying it immensely. I have already installed Windows XP on it and the computer works like charm.

[Magister Lajciak]

Intel Core 2 Duo P8100 2.1GHz

4GB 667MHz DDR2 RAM

500GB HDD

NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTX

17" WUXGA

 

This is it, right? Looks great, and the proc is a P-series too.

 

Yes, that's indeed it! I did make a typing error with the graphics card though - the suffix should read GTS (not GTX). The two letters (X and S) are next to each other on the keyboard, but of course in this case it makes a difference.

 

I'm looking at laptops right now, though my budget limits me to something like 9600M GT.

 

May I ask what is your budget? If you look for good deals you can probably go higher than you think. I scoured the web for deals for weeks (or maybe even months) and asked for lots of advice on this forum and on other fora on all sorts of things related to purchasing a laptop - including quality of the build, because I want it to last.

 

In the end I got the Sager NP5793. It is currently on a $600 off sale here: http://www.pctorque.com/sager-5793-gaming-computers.php

 

It's a great deal and still available until stocks run out, since the model is about to be replaced by a newer one (which will be without the $600 off ).

 

The base price is $1360, but you can configure it in various ways. My configuration cost something under $1600, but it has a Blu-ray drive and that's already including shipping and handling, taxes and the charges I had to pay for an international wire transfer (since my bank is back in Slovakia and I had to wire the money from there - that alone cost me about $40).

 

You can also go for a 6MB cache processor, but I was advised that this is not that useful for gaming or normal applications and is mostly only good for encoding of video and so on.

 

D'you mind letting me/us know how your laptop performs with the newer games? I can never trust benchmarks.

 

I have only installed 2 games so far (I have only had it for basically one day):

 

King's Bounty: The Legend

Fallout 3

 

Fallout 3 can run on ultra high settings at 1920x1200 resolution, but at that point the responsiveness does seem rather deteriorated. I cannot judge the framerate, since I don't have a program installed that would measure it, but it would probably be low. At lower resolutions and settings, it of course, runs better - I am currently playing at 1600x1200 resolution and medium settings and it seems to work fine. I have not yet tried tinkering to find out what is the maximum resolution/settings it can pull off while retaining performance.

 

King's Bounty: The Legend runs at 1920x1200 at the highest settings for everything, though at those settings there is a slight but noticable delay between me clicking somewhere and the character moving there, but I like the graphical beauty of it at those settings and the issue is not gamebreaking so I am sticking to those settings.

[Magister Lajciak]

King's Bounty: The Legend runs at 1920x1200 at the highest settings for everything, though at those settings there is a slight but noticable delay between me clicking somewhere and the character moving there, but I like the graphical beauty of it at those settings and the issue is not gamebreaking so I am sticking to those settings.

 

Scratch that thought - I must have been running something in the background, when I last tried that last time, since I just fired up King's Bounty again (still 1920x1200 and highest settings) and it works like charm without so much as a single slowdown.

[Pidesco]

Congratulations

 

Ahh the smell of new computers is only rivalled by the smell of new leather

 

 

There's always the smell of a new girlfriend.

[Magister Lajciak]

Congratulations

 

Ahh the smell of new computers is only rivalled by the smell of new leather

 

 

There's always the smell of a new girlfriend.

 

Well, than we can all compromise and say that new computers, girlfriends and leather articles have a great smell!

[Tigranes]

Thanks for the info ML. That's a good bargain on your link. Unfortunately I can only buy from Korea (visiting now) or NZ when I get back home, and the range of models and bargains available are much more limited. I'm braving a famous electronic goods market in Korea (lots of bargains in the hundreds, but sometimes second-hand or modified goods) with an expert, and probably looking at something a step below that - penryn, 3gb ddr2 ram, 9600m gt 512mb ddr2, etc.

 

I'd have thought you could pull a bit more than that out of your laptop regarding FO3, but I suppose you haven't pushed it yet. Sounds fairly promising though, I'm not that bothered about massive resolutions.

[Walsingham]

Congratulations

 

Ahh the smell of new computers is only rivalled by the smell of new leather

 

 

There's always the smell of a new girlfriend.

 

Well, than we can all compromise and say that new computers, girlfriends and leather articles have a great smell!

 

Now there's a fun evening.

[Magister Lajciak]

Thanks for the info ML. That's a good bargain on your link. Unfortunately I can only buy from Korea (visiting now) or NZ when I get back home, and the range of models and bargains available are much more limited. I'm braving a famous electronic goods market in Korea (lots of bargains in the hundreds, but sometimes second-hand or modified goods) with an expert, and probably looking at something a step below that - penryn, 3gb ddr2 ram, 9600m gt 512mb ddr2, etc.

 

I'd have thought you could pull a bit more than that out of your laptop regarding FO3, but I suppose you haven't pushed it yet. Sounds fairly promising though, I'm not that bothered about massive resolutions.

 

Yeah, as I said, it turns out I was running something in the background that slowed it down. But I have been so absorbed in King's Bounty: The Legend since then, that I have put Fallout 3 on hiatus until I complete that game (and it is huge)!