A 'Help Me Buy a Computer' Thread

[Lorizael]

I've had a Dell Inspiron 600m for two years. Recently, it decided that it had had enough of this cruel world and sadly took its own life.

There were warning signs which I shouldn't have ignored: turning off randomly (charged or not, plugged in or not); rapid clicking sounds when I pressed the power button, followed by nothing or an aborted attempt to start up.

But then it finally came. I went to turn my laptop on, heard an unpleasant crackle from within and then smelled ozone. Now it's off forever.

(Dell offered to fix it, but because I don't have a warranty, their offer was less than appealing. They would charge me five hundred in advance and then, if they didn't have to replace the motherboard (what are the odds?) they would refund me three hundred (cost of new motherboard). I decided I wasn't going to drop five hundred on a two and a half year old laptop, especially when I was planning to replace it in the next six months anyways.)

So, I'm in the market for a new laptop. I'm not buying from Dell again. What I want is a better version of what I have right now.

I'm fine with a 14.1" screen and I don't want it to weigh much more than five pounds. But what I do want... is for it to be able to play Civ 4.

Is it possible to get a smaller-ish laptop that can play modern, 3d games? Is it possible to get a smaller-ish laptop that doesn't come with Intel's crappy integrated graphics? What brands would people recommend?

[Jon Miller]

My laptop, with intel's graphics, can play some 3D games. It can play HL2 (poorly) but not CS:S for example. As far as energy and size, you can't beat integrated graphics.

I think currently the top manufacturers are:
Asus
Fujitsu
3. Lenova (was better as IBM)

Other decent manufacturers are Toshiba and Apple. I was looking around at laptops 7ish months ago.

Jon Miller

[Lorizael]

I've not heard much about Anus computers. What makes them good?

[Jon Miller]

teh butt sexors

JM

[Fake Boris]

Civ4 doesn't play on Intel integrated graphics.

You should definitely consider Apple. I made the switch last year and since then I've only wondered why it took me so long to realize the obvious. The downside is that you'll have to shell out $2,000 for an Apple laptop that runs Civ4 (the non-pro MacBook has got Intel graphics).

If you absolutely want a PC, I'll let you get your advice from more qualified posters.

[CrONoS]

Originally posted by Oncle Boris
Civ4 doesn't play on Intel integrated graphics.

yeah sure... And I'm a man, who is hallucinating playing Civ4 on his laptop for 1year and a half.
(Pentium M 2.0ghz and GMA900 from Intel)

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Oncle Boris
Civ4 doesn't play on Intel integrated graphics.

It does on mine.
JM

[Lorizael]

cronos_qc, JM: How well does it play? Did you have to jury rig it to make it work? Do you turn off unit animations? Does it miraculously function flawlessly and you don't know what everyone else is complaining about?

[LordShiva]

You can get the best deals on Dell, and I have a 5+ year old P3 laptop that still works fine.

[CrONoS]

It works flawlessly;

It's playing smooth on Standard maps, 1152x864, graphics option to medium.
Pentium M 2.0 Ghz(=~ Pentium4 3.2ghz), 1GB of Ram Memory, and GMA 900.

But anyway, you can picks a ATI mobility solution, they're becoming pretty powerful.

[snoopy369]

Civ4 plays on some Intel IGA and not on others, but I wouldn't trust IGA unless I knew that a particular chipset played it

[Lorizael]

Most of the laptops I'm looking at seem to come with the Intel GMA 950.

Also, question. The Ghz numbers are lower than I remember because of the introduction of Intel's Core 2 Duo stuff. I had a Pentium M 2 Ghz processor on my old laptop; how does Intel's latest stuff compare to that?

[LordShiva]

Core 2 Duo spanks all else. Don't go with anything less.

[Lorizael]

*nod* yes, but are there rough estimates of how much more powerful they are? I'm trying to stay cheap (wasn't planning on buying the new laptop yet), which puts me in the range of 1.66 to 1.83 Ghz for a Core 2 Duo processor.

Is that a gazillion times more powerful than what I used to have (Pentium M 2 Ghz) or only a jillion? (Or less powerful?)

[LordShiva]

This may be helpful.