Yep, I need a laptop. Going to college next year, so I'm getting a little treat. My budget is $2000, and this is basically what I need: Decent battery life, hopefully at least three hours of intensive use or significantly more of just writing documents. It should be small; I'm thinking 13 or 14", and leaning towards the former. It should have decent graphics capabilities; I basically just want it to run SCII on low settings at 25 FPS (though the more, the better. And I know that battery life will be reduced while playing like this, this is so I can play while traveling and the like). It should have a decent processor (no atoms pl0x). I'm generally looking for 4GB DDR3 RAM, 300+ GB hard drive and a 2.5GHz dualcore or better (not that I understand much about different processors, mind). Among highly-appreciated opionals are webcams, fingerprint sensors and... anything else shiny you can stick in a laptop. I'll highly appreciate it if someone can find something along these lines. I'm looking, but nothing perfect yet.

EDIT: Naturally, a lack of a tendency to overheat and an optical drive would also be awesome. Though I suppose I could get an external drive; not like I use my regular one often anyway. It'd be nice if it had some ninja-like cooling mechanism.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 1 2010, 8:09 pm by Centreri.

... in a 13 inch laptop? Good luck.

You may want to bump it up to 15 inch, much better screen, much more capability for hardware. Also, be careful about who you buy from, because these douchebag companies are really stingy when it comes to making good on their warranty promises.

Eh. I believe Vaios and some others can do it. Just looking for alternatives at this point.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834127020

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834127032

Bottom one's probably what you want.

Yeah, I'd come up with a similar configuration on Sony's website. I actually got something nice on their 13.3" one, too, but I wasn't completely sure about the graphics card. I know Blizzard's games are graphics unintensive, but I'm hoping someone with more experience can help out with that.

Thanks, though. I looked at Newegg, though I haven't finished scans on tigerdirect or amazon yet. Also, if a '9400G M' card can run SCII decently, a nice Dell fits as well.

EDIT: Also, an optical drive would be nice. As would a lack of a tendency to overheat.

Blizzard shows Nvidia 6600/ATI 9800 as minimum requirement. This site lists some stats:
http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=88&pgno=7
Those are desktop cards though. 6600 has 1200 Mpixel/s and 2400 MTexel/s rating, so anything above that should be fine.
Here's the laptop graphics section:
http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=98&pgno=7

(that website has ATI stats too, I'll let you find em if you want em)

Ah, that's awesome. So, the 9400 would probably work; despite being N/A, the MTexel of the surrounding 9300 and 9500 seems to work. Thanks for the link; I'll look around at it with more detail when I get back (Two more days).

$2000 is macbook quality, fyi. However the macbook pros suck, so it doesn't really matter.

VPCZ1190X CTO has everything for $1800. (128 GB SSD though, sorry) i5 with GT 330

Alienware M11x is much worse in the CPU department (similar graphics) for $900, 11 inch screen. 1.3 GHz Dual core with GT 330. Rather poor implementation of graphics tech, IMO, and non-removable battery.

Some others I've found with not terrible graphics cards (9400 is same as nVidia ION, and worse than the HD 3300, which is the best integrated onboard on the market).
Asus U6v A1 - Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26 Ghz - 12.1" - 9400 GT
Asus F8sv-b1 (core 2 Duo T7700 2.4ghz, 3gb Ram, 250gb Hdd, Vista Home Premium) 8600


Under a power search on your screen size parameter (the most important part), and decent graphics around the board, I only got a few bites on newegg.

To put it simply, you can't find a decent laptop with a small screen. Nobody makes them.

Get a netbook and a desktop and enjoy having an 8 hour battery laptop and a kickass gaming system. Otherwise, get the M11x, it's the best buy in this case (and customize it).

They should send you a new laptop of slightly better quality since they won't make the M11x anymore.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Apr 2 2010, 2:05 am by rockz.

I have a separate fund for upgrading my computer, and I don't expect to play anything more graphically intensive than DIII for the next two years. I'm a blizzard fanboy. I'll be looking at macbooks, and... I'm trying to avoid alienwares, because they'd look silly in college. I'll see if I can customize it to look normal, but I've avoided them (edit: it doesn't look like they have a 'remove unnecessary LEDs option )

So far, I have the Toshiba U500, 13.3" with a 310M GPU, the Dell Studio 14z, a 14" with a 9400G M GPU, and the Sony Vaio CW, a 14" with a 330M GPU as decent-looking builds. The 330M looks like the strongest GPU, having 3x the mtexels as the 310, but the 310 seems faster (according to Vrael's chart), so I really have no idea how to compare them. I'll try to find some ASUS when I get back; again, thanks for the help.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 1 2010, 9:03 pm by Centreri.

You can turn those off. A keyboard backlight is nice too.

The 9400 is on the same tier as the 9800 pro, so it could theoretically play it, but I think you will be severely disappointed.

Here's a chart of the relative performances. Note that I wouldn't recommend you get anything lower than a 5450. The GT 330 is a rebrand of god knows what card (really each 330 is different) but they have similar performances. As far as the ratings go for the four I'd recommend: 220<320<240=340. The 320 IMO would be the best overall, especially if you can find one with hybrid graphics (low power integrated plus high power graphics). Scratch that, I'm looking at the wrong chart.

I dont understand how you could recommend that piece of crap alienware. No cd/dvd drive, junk processor, with even the slightest bit of customization the stupid price goes up. +50 for 4gb ram, +75 for 320GB hard drive, +100 if you get the better processor, which is overclockable but who wants to do that in a laptop, and the un overclocked speed is only 1.3ghz, will it get above 2.0? The 335 is only slightly better than the 330 (use the techARP site, I don't think the one rockz provided distinguishes between mobile and desktop GPUs). As with any Dell product, you're paying for the name "Dell" and the color of the paint on the damn thing. The newegg deals look much better.

Also, Centreri, when it comes to the GPU stats, don't just look at core speeds. 310 has a higher clock frequency, but almost half the data bandwidth of the 330 since its memory bus width is half as big.

I wouldn't overclock laptops because they already have enough heat problems.

At least my Dell XPS M1530 has heat problems...
It's a big issue for me, if I play. You better inform yourself about that with your laptop.

I recently bought a 2gopc, and have been thoroughly impressed.
Oops, I forgot, your looking for a laptop. This is a netbook, so you probably want to ignore it.

Specs
Intel Atom Processor 1.6GHz
8.9'' LCD, 1024 x 600 Color LCD
2GB RAM
60GB 1.8" 4200RPM Hard Drive
9.5''(W) x 7.5''(H) x 1.5''(D) and 2.8 Lbs
Built in webcam and microphone.
Gyroscopic detection capabilities. (Detects tilting.)
Tablet screen capability.
and most importantly:
$500 ($499)

I always travel with an external hard drive anyway, so I store all my stuff on there.
It's worked really well for all my school stuff, although I really don't use the tablet as much as I would like to. (Text recognition software rocks, btw.)
Also, it has a handle, and chicks dig a guy with a tiny laptop that he carries as a briefcase. (I don't know why.)

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 2 2010, 1:22 am by Rantent.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/alienware-m11x-review/
It's quite good for an 11" computer. Nobody uses optical drives anymore except in rare circumstances, in which case you have slim externals for $15. You're paying for the 11" gaming laptop with quality. The 13" viao is $2000. There are NO other 13" laptops with decent graphics. Literally all of them have Intel graphics which won't run SC2 or a 9400, which will barely run SC2 (enough to the point where I wouldn't bother). You want battery life? you get a low power processor, like the 1.3 GHz dual core. If you get an i3/5/7, it eats through your battery.

Note you can probably get a WD Scorpio 640 GB for ~$90 and install it yourself (make sure you ask dell before you buy it though).

almost the same specs as an eeepc 901, which was $500 last year when it came out. It's amazing the markup companies get away with for smaller sizes and tablets.

The 14'' vaio is only $1100. I guess the alienware will win out when it comes to battery life, maybe I'm just biased against Dell (which I am).

But, I still use my optical drive plenty. That, and I like the added security of being able to reformat/reinstall whenever/wherever I need to.

If ex was here he would say something like: if you have 2k might just get like a mid range laptop cause your not really gonna get high end stuff with 3 hour battery life.

http://www.amazon.com/Republic-Gamers-G51JX-X3-15-6-Inch-Gaming/dp/B00361G0ZO/
get the G51JX-A1 even though it has like 1 hour battery life.
Newegg has like no good laptops so I would wait?

I feel your pain. My M1530 actually died out on me while playing L4d.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/optimus_technology.html

ASUS U30Jc when it comes out if it has a decent processor. 13.6" screen, 310M plus some other low power chipset. Apparently the *10s aren't as bad as I'd thought. You won't be able to play oblivion well on them, but they should handle SC2.

I'd just shy away from the 9400.

I just recently used an optical drive to boot into linux to try out ubuntu again. Then 3 months ago I ripped a bunch of CDs. About a year ago, I installed a wireless driver. That's 3 times in a year. You can install OSes on thumb drives now. I guess I'm just biased. An external dvd burner is so simple to use, and works just as well. Plus, you only have to plug it in/mess with it when you need it, rather than it taking up space/weight in your laptop. Optical data is dying quickly, much like floppy support did.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 2 2010, 3:49 am by rockz.

Cent, Rockz has been trying to tell you, but I'm going to make it abundantly clear:
You are not going to satisfy all of your criteria. You can have a laptop that's powerful enough to play SC2/D3 on above minimum, which I think if you're going to buy new hardware you'd want, and we aren't talking high or ultra, we're talking for medium. Or you can have one that's portable with good battery life and will struggle with what you want it to do performance wise. You cannot have both. When you decide which is more important, let me know and I'll find you something.

If you do choose performance over battery life, as I believe you should, because a 500$ netbook could handle all your battery life / class note needs:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115733

DDR3, good i5 CPU, GPU is more powerful than a GTS 250M which is roughly a 9800GT IIRC. Check here: http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5650.23697.0.html

I think if you customized the power saving options on it after you get it, you may be able to squeeze a good bit of battery life out of it. But be forewarned, if you do silly things like overcharging the battery, you're fucked.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Apr 2 2010, 8:20 am by Excalibur.

I know it's really $$-inefficient, but if it's to last several years and remain awesome, might as well go for something really nice - what about the Sony Vaio Z-series? Despite my dislike of how alienwarelike (again, Rockz - the Alienware looks like an... alienware, and is good for little more than gaming. I'd rather forgo gaming on a laptop altogether, honestly) the logo is, it has a 13.1 inch screen, i7 processor, weighs three pounds, 1600x900 resolution, keyboard backlighting, SSD drive, optical drive, and an advertised six hour battery life on default settings (which I assume is at least three hours in reality, and more with limited brightness, etc). According to every one of these on newegg or tigerdirect, it also comes with the 330 GPU (except one on Newegg with a 9300, which is rated down because of it. How odd) (I couldn't find it under the specifications while customizing it on the Sony website, which was rather odd; anyone know why this is, or should I contact Sony directly?). Now, the 330M looks nice and can apparently even play Crysis (on low settings, I assume). It looks like the Z would be very fast, and I honestly shouldn't need more the 128gigabytes anyway (+$200 per 64 gigabytes, so... keeping that on minimum); I'll get an external drive for movies and the like.

The Asus U30JC rockz showed seems very nice as well (comes out in a few days, according to one being 'presold' at excaliberpc); I'll look at its availability and compare it. However, again, I have a budget of $2000+, and the Z seems to be a bit nicer in all categories. Maybe if the battery life of the ASUS is 2x as good... Well, I'll look into it.

I'll probably be spending some time deciding. Need to visit best buy and see if I can work nicely with a 13" or if I'd prefer a 14". Ex, I appreciate it, but... the shiny Vaio really seems to fit my requirements nicely, despite your pessimism. Unless you believe that Sony is very much exaggerating about everything. Still, if I start going into 15"+, that's another story altogether, and I'm looking for something mobile. I have a desktop PC, you know. . This is so I could do some gaming and minor modeling while traveling or visiting my parents, as well as to take notes and do work and all that. I'm not planning on anything 15"+; I'm currently on a 15" macbook, and there seems to be a lot of wasted room on the sides of the keyboard where Apple stuck speakers. Hell, it looks like I could trim off three inches without impacting the keyboard.

I agree that I don't really need an optical drive, I'm just biased strongly against the alienware (imagine me walking around with that. Plus, 11" is probably too small). The 14"s are a bit bigger than what I want (admittedly without touching them first; will do soon) and don't seem to have any advantage. Any part of the Vaio Z less idyllic than it seems to me?

It's under "specifications". You can always talk to sony. They actually have a pretty good site.
The problem arises when you start paying for quality at an exponential rate. The sony Vaios are actually better than macbooks in terms of price/performance, but I would think their quality is about the same. Asus/Dell makes very nice laptops, but skimps on a few things to make it cheaper so they can sell it to you for cheaper. Sony and Apple are in the game of quality, and they are high up there, but their price/performance is terrible (much like fermi, 5830, dual gpu cards, EXTREME Edition CPUs, etc...).

The difference between a $1000 and a $2000 laptop is all in build quality. The parts are going to be more or less the same (SSD costs a lot, I'd recommend a hard drive). Unless the money is really burning a hole in your pocket, I'd save the $1000 and use it for something else, like retirement.