Another 'Best Gaming Computer' thread... [Laptop Specific]
Discussion
Following on from the 'Best Gaming Computer Thread', I was on the verge of ordering a new Dell XPS laptop for £1.8k, until I saw in the other thread:
"If your spending big bux on a gaming rig today then hold of a month or two.
Nvidia's G80 line is almost out now, with leaked specs it looks stunning, will be fully dx10 and blowthe gf7 level stuff out of the water"
Does anybody know when this technology is likely to make it into Laptops specifically? - i.e. can I expect Dell to be advertising the new XPS (dx10) laptops in a couple of months time?.
I don't want to make a bad buying decesion so soon before the change.... but equally I don't want to wait 6 months for the new hardware to be available in Laptops when I could be playing some of the cool games due out soon... [e.g. Medieval Total War II].
Any advice very much appreciated. I will be using the Laptop for RTS. I have an XBox360 for driving and shooting, and am happy with the games available.... but not suitable for RTS.
"If your spending big bux on a gaming rig today then hold of a month or two.
Nvidia's G80 line is almost out now, with leaked specs it looks stunning, will be fully dx10 and blowthe gf7 level stuff out of the water"
Does anybody know when this technology is likely to make it into Laptops specifically? - i.e. can I expect Dell to be advertising the new XPS (dx10) laptops in a couple of months time?.
I don't want to make a bad buying decesion so soon before the change.... but equally I don't want to wait 6 months for the new hardware to be available in Laptops when I could be playing some of the cool games due out soon... [e.g. Medieval Total War II].
Any advice very much appreciated. I will be using the Laptop for RTS. I have an XBox360 for driving and shooting, and am happy with the games available.... but not suitable for RTS.
I expect Nvidia will have a mobile chipset version of their new cards avaliable along with the desktops.
I'm probably teaching you to suck eggs here but:
A card being DirectX version X compatible doesn't mean to say it can't run versions above (or below) that figure, it simply means that the card and it's drivers can handle off loading some/all functions of DX to the GPU rather than having the CPU do all the work.
If you had say a DX5 compatible card, then whilst being crap and old
A DX9 game would be able to off-load DX5 compatible calls to the card (remember each new version of DX contains the same calls and functions of the older one as well as new spiffy stuff and greater optimisation. If function X appeared in DX5, will do the job now and hasn't been superceded... it'll be used now).
So in real terms my XPS laptop with its 6800 Ultra will be quite happy with a DX10 game, it might not be as purdy or quick as someone running a 7000 or 8000 series card but it'll still get the job done.
To my mind there are two ways to play the technology game, either buy and then kick yourself when the new kit arrives in a few months (I got my XPS 3 months before Core 2 Duo arrived) or simply say "Bugger it" and go back to shooting things
I'm probably teaching you to suck eggs here but:
A card being DirectX version X compatible doesn't mean to say it can't run versions above (or below) that figure, it simply means that the card and it's drivers can handle off loading some/all functions of DX to the GPU rather than having the CPU do all the work.
If you had say a DX5 compatible card, then whilst being crap and old
A DX9 game would be able to off-load DX5 compatible calls to the card (remember each new version of DX contains the same calls and functions of the older one as well as new spiffy stuff and greater optimisation. If function X appeared in DX5, will do the job now and hasn't been superceded... it'll be used now). So in real terms my XPS laptop with its 6800 Ultra will be quite happy with a DX10 game, it might not be as purdy or quick as someone running a 7000 or 8000 series card but it'll still get the job done.
To my mind there are two ways to play the technology game, either buy and then kick yourself when the new kit arrives in a few months (I got my XPS 3 months before Core 2 Duo arrived) or simply say "Bugger it" and go back to shooting things
I have older XPS M1710 (T2600) but fully speced... its amazing
But check out the rock ones.... www.rockdirect.com << I'd get a CTX Pro now
But check out the rock ones.... www.rockdirect.com << I'd get a CTX Pro now
Hi Bez,
Interesting - do you mind me asking; what makes the Rock better than the Dell? Value for money or something fundamental?
I had shortlisted both Dell and Rock - reviews for both have been excellent and they appear to be at similar (competing) price points and I have seen each one declared as the best laptop for games in different mags ... so in the absence of seeing a review comparing the two in absolute terms - I was going to go for Dell... simply because it looked cool. Would happily get the Rock if it is better though.
Mindgam3,
Very wise words I think.
Ian
Interesting - do you mind me asking; what makes the Rock better than the Dell? Value for money or something fundamental?
I had shortlisted both Dell and Rock - reviews for both have been excellent and they appear to be at similar (competing) price points and I have seen each one declared as the best laptop for games in different mags ... so in the absence of seeing a review comparing the two in absolute terms - I was going to go for Dell... simply because it looked cool. Would happily get the Rock if it is better though.
Mindgam3,
Very wise words I think.
Ian
From experience dell aftersale is faultless...
hardware wise the rock has much better sound ie 7.1 output if your wanting to hook it up. The dell has 2.0 output... sounds fine with headphones but its not the same. You can have webcam built in and internal tv tuner.
The dell has sexy lights though... you can change colours and it makes the laptop into a total boy racer lol.
hardware wise the rock has much better sound ie 7.1 output if your wanting to hook it up. The dell has 2.0 output... sounds fine with headphones but its not the same. You can have webcam built in and internal tv tuner.
The dell has sexy lights though... you can change colours and it makes the laptop into a total boy racer lol.
bez_uk said:
From experience dell aftersale is faultless...
XPS support is piggybacked on the Gold service or used to be... dunno if it's been spun off to dedicated staff or not.
But when my unit suffered bad ram in the GFx module, I phoned gave them the diagnostic code and "An engineer will be with you Tuesday (which was the next business day) between 9am and 12:30pm" He bloody was as well, booted and suited with I.D. cards on display.
bez_uk said:
hardware wise the rock has much better sound ie 7.1 output if your wanting to hook it up. The dell has 2.0 output... sounds fine with headphones but its not the same. You can have webcam built in and internal tv tuner.
Don't quote me... but I think the XPS's have surround capabilities if they use the SP/DIF connector dodad? I'm sure mine came with a breakout box that I'm sure has svideo & SP/DIF on it... unless it's just a passthrough for whatever happens to be playing... or I'm talking out my arse
bez_uk said:
The dell has sexy lights though... you can change colours and it makes the laptop into a total boy racer lol.
Blue... White... Blue... Yellow... Purdy... now if only I could get them to flash in time to the music I'm listening to I could drive the whole room insane
Thanks, very helpful and much appreciated. I've been looking at the Rock vs Dell specs, and the Rock does look slightly better value... just looking at the specs on a 1.8k spend .... measured against the less tangible benefits of Dell aftersales & the cool lights on the XPS.
Only problem is, I've now ticked a few more options and will be spending nearer £2k now. Hurrah!
Only problem is, I've now ticked a few more options and will be spending nearer £2k now. Hurrah!
ive got a rock, its great, had it about 18 months now and spilt beer on it a few times, still working! although I dont advise spilling beer on it.
I paid about 2700 for mine raid 0 2 gig DDR2 go force 6800 ultra, and I replaced the 3.6 P4 to a 3.7 P4 EE, get a bit hot but its on all day from about 7:30 to about 10 at night (I work from home)
DX10 - dont worry about it, you will need windows vista anyways, XP wont be having DX10 (unles MS decide to change their mind that is)
I paid about 2700 for mine raid 0 2 gig DDR2 go force 6800 ultra, and I replaced the 3.6 P4 to a 3.7 P4 EE, get a bit hot but its on all day from about 7:30 to about 10 at night (I work from home)
DX10 - dont worry about it, you will need windows vista anyways, XP wont be having DX10 (unles MS decide to change their mind that is)
Many thanks for all the advice so far. Very much appreciated. Please may I ask one final question:
I have now specified my Dell XPS [the fancy lights won me over, but it was a tough decision as the Rock looks a great piece of kit too], key features are:
Graphics Card: 512MB DDR3 nVidia® GeForce™ Go 7950 GTX graphics card
Memory: 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x1024)
Processor: Intel ® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7400 (2.16 GHz, 4 MB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB)
I want to use this system 100% for games [primarily RTS, e.g. Medieval Total War II].
The Question:
Will I see a meaningful benefit from upgrading the processor, to:
Intel ® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7600 (2.33 GHz, 4 MB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB)
….. or is it largely irrelevant for my requirements [i.e. 100% games]? My simple understanding is that the Graphics Card does the processing for games and plenty of memory helps things along, rather than the CPU doing the work.
Upgrading the CPU will add about 10% to the purchase price of the laptop [currently £1.8k, with 1 year Dell support], so I will only do so if it will make a meaningful difference [a 3-5% improvement in play would be meaningful].
Thanks again for the help.
I have now specified my Dell XPS [the fancy lights won me over, but it was a tough decision as the Rock looks a great piece of kit too], key features are:
Graphics Card: 512MB DDR3 nVidia® GeForce™ Go 7950 GTX graphics card
Memory: 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x1024)
Processor: Intel ® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7400 (2.16 GHz, 4 MB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB)
I want to use this system 100% for games [primarily RTS, e.g. Medieval Total War II].
The Question:
Will I see a meaningful benefit from upgrading the processor, to:
Intel ® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7600 (2.33 GHz, 4 MB L2 cache, 667 MHz FSB)
….. or is it largely irrelevant for my requirements [i.e. 100% games]? My simple understanding is that the Graphics Card does the processing for games and plenty of memory helps things along, rather than the CPU doing the work.
Upgrading the CPU will add about 10% to the purchase price of the laptop [currently £1.8k, with 1 year Dell support], so I will only do so if it will make a meaningful difference [a 3-5% improvement in play would be meaningful].
Thanks again for the help.
ah, I might have answered my own question:
Per the comments above I can see that in some cases the CPU will do the work [depending on compatability to various games drivers], and this may happen increasingly as games progress [and my Gpu starts to look old hat]... so I might need to stump up the extra.
Would still appreciate any thoughts though.
Ian
Per the comments above I can see that in some cases the CPU will do the work [depending on compatability to various games drivers], and this may happen increasingly as games progress [and my Gpu starts to look old hat]... so I might need to stump up the extra.
Would still appreciate any thoughts though.
Ian
Edited by MTY4000 on Thursday 26th October 13:25
Until it was martyred in a road accident, my Rock gaming laptop was excellent. I would definitely recommend them. They have a good forum where you can discuss laptops & the moderators sometimes give clues as to upcoming machines - that way you can decide if it's a good idea to wait a couple of weeks before shelling out...
MTY4000 said:
ah, I might have answered my own question:
Per the comments above I can see that in some cases the CPU will do the work [depending on compatability to various games drivers], and this may happen increasingly as games progress [and my Gpu starts to look old hat]... so I might need to stump up the extra.
Would still appreciate any thoughts though.
Ian
Per the comments above I can see that in some cases the CPU will do the work [depending on compatability to various games drivers], and this may happen increasingly as games progress [and my Gpu starts to look old hat]... so I might need to stump up the extra.
Would still appreciate any thoughts though.
Ian
Edited by MTY4000 on Thursday 26th October 13:25
Faster CPU always good. However the Core 2 Duo's are leaps and bounds more grunty than the old 'Centrino' P4-M's. I think your spec is an utter monster and will happily conqure the known universe and hold it ransom for several years
Can I have a go please?
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