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The lovely wife's notebook is not up to snuff for WoW. She'd like a new notebook to replace the old one. I am am no longer up to date on what technologies are out there and would like board recommendations on what to look for.
Usage is such that it need not be one of the super slim model.
Suggestions?
-Clay
If your going to be gaming with this laptop, you want to invest in an Alienware laptop. They make a fantastic product. And since you are not really worried about size, you get get a very beefy unit for a good chunk of change that will last for a while. The MJ-12m 7700 is the top shelf model that they offer.
You could go with the normal base model, but you will want to bump the ram up another 512mb.
Alienware
I spent a while looking around for a high quality gaming laptop, while at the same time refusing to spend the extra two K that alienware and dell charges.
I came up with Sager.
And I purchased through PCTorque as they had some additional configuration offers (like, going without the OS, getting additional peripherals, etc.) Both Sager and PCTorque offer free lifetime tech support in addition to the warranty period of your choice/purchase.
And the tech support through Sager is performed by the people who configure and build the laptops themselves, not some barely understandable person from India.
I can confirm what Katanas said. I purchased a Sager notebook through PC Torque and received excellent service. I did purchase the extended warranty, which did help in the resale value when I sold it. It was a P4 3.0 Gig (Full P4, not a mobile) with 1 gig of RAM and an ATI 9000 mobile. At the time, it played most games without any problems.. although it was for my wife, so it didn't see a whole lot beyond the Sims. ;)
Thank you gents. If you go here...
http://www.sagernotebook.com/pages/web_specials.html
I'm seriously thinking about the third one, which at the time of this posting, is the NP4750. It has an ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 card (128 MB). Any loud warning alarms klanking on that choice?
Stay away from Alienware unless you're getting 3 year extended warranty.
Just be aware that these are desktop replacements. They are big, heavy, and hot. But they rock.Quote:
Originally Posted by [AK]Clay
Doesn't Sager actually make Dell's laptops?
Not only that, but I'm virtually certain that Sager manufactured Alienware's laptops as recently as three years ago.
I wouldn't stake my life on it, but I wouldn't be surprised if Alienware's stuff is still made by Sager.
When I looked into it a couple years ago, the only difference between what Sager offered directly and what you could get from Alienware was the neat-o pearlescent paint schemes.
That's what I thought. Glad someone else remembered it too. :bounce:
Yes... Sager makes/made many models of Dell and Alienware.
Thank you gentlemen for your advice. I went with a Sager, P4 3.0 GHz, Widescreen monitor, 1GB of ram and ATI Radion X800, w/ 256MB of Ram. This thing is nothing short of amazing. It completly blows away my desktop in capabilities. We maxed out the WoW resolution to 1900X1000 (I think it was that - the highest) with everything turned on. Smooth and silk in WoW. I ended up droping down to 1200X, just because everything was so small, it was tough to see.
The screen resolution is also 1900X1000. It looks really sharp, and now my desktop monitor on that PC looks pretty humble. But again, things are so small to see, I may need to adjust this somehow!
And yes, this notebook is Big, Heavy, and very very hot. I've never seen a notebook with 4 casefans built into it before. This thing runs WARM - which should be rather handy in the wintertime.
Biggest dissappointment - this is the wife's computer - not mine! Ack!!
Its ok Clay, ask for one from Nuts for christmas. ;)
Oh crap.
The notebook was 100% reliable.
however, last night, after playing for several hours without a hitch - something goes very wrong. Not sure what changed, but now the notebook locks-up in WoW very badly. Even in the sign-in screen, you can tell something's not right. There's random noise/flicker in the sign-in screen, and it's much worse in-game. In-game play-time is 20 seconds or less before serious system lock-up.
Why would something like this just, -BING-, happen? Nothing was installed or changed.
Virus?
Component burnout?
Other suggestions?
And yes, it's an ATI video card in the notebook.
-Clay
Try defragging. If that doesn't help you may try calling Tech Support.
Is it only WoW, or are there signs of other problems outside of the game? If it's only WoW, you may want to try cleaning out the 'cache' folders (its been so long I forgot which 2 they are - I'm sure a few others can remember). Worst case scenario, you could reinstall.
If it's outside WoW and in other applications as well, then obviously there is something else going on.
WBD and WTF folders.
LOL, empty your WTF folder...... WTF!Quote:
Originally Posted by [AK]Slaughter
You gentlemen have come to my aid yet again.
Clay tried all of the suggestions and now I am free to waste time on the computer again.
My personal theory was that Clay broke it to encourage my cooking skills that have been atrophying.
I appreciate the advice, now if only Clay's crashes were that easy to fix.
Beaker
I gave this advice about a 5% probability of success (defrag the HD and empty out a cache file? - come on!)
And to my surprise, it worked! Thanks guys.
-Clay
Glad to help a fellow addict. ;)
It would appear that I called it cured a bit too soon.
:(
Sager will send out a replacement video card tomorrow. Since it is the holidays, it unfortunately will not be here until Monday.
Ouch, that looks freaky.
How's the tech support coming, Clay? I ask because I got my 15" Sager 3880 laptop set up today. It's running Server 2003, but I've got Ventrilo running on it, and I'm going to see if WoW will run on it as well when I get home. If all goes well, I might be doing Strat from my couch tonight. :)
It really is sweet--2ghz Centrino, 1 GB RAM, GeForce 6600, integrated cam and mike for videoconferencing, 15" 16:9 aspect ratio screen--and net price of just under $2000. (Of course, I convinced the office to buy it as a mobile Ghost server/development domain, so the net cost to me was $0.) Now I just need to get a second desk in my office so I have enough space for all my computers! :)
Hi Beast,
So far, I am not sure what's going on with the Tech support. I'm beginning to wonder if I should be concerned.
At first they offered to start by just sending me a replacement video card, and see if that fixes the problem. So I filled out their form and FAXed it back to them last Tuesday. That's the last I have heard from them. They do not respond to any E-mails anymore, and now when I try to call, I connect directly to an answering machine - no humans are answering the phones anymore.
Maybe all is well and my card is on the way, but the fact that it is a week later with no card, and the fact that they are no longer communicating by any routes is not encouraging.
Beakers notebook was repaired with the NVidea card and all was well - until her day.
The notebook is toast, yet again. My opinion of Sager's product is falling.
Happy Birthday dear. :(