Laptop.

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>I was wondering what specific laptop to buy. The budget I'm limiting myself to is around 1600 you can say? The reason I say that is I play the infamous mmorpg game, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King and I've experienced the major downtime it can lead when your computer isn't updated with moderate video cards, gigabytes, etc.</p>

<p>Basically, I'm wondering if you guys could give me a list of laptops that would be suitable for my needs. I've been looking up some alienware products, are they good?</p>

<p>Oh yeah, I plan on majoring in Computer Science or Computer Engineering (Technology). So I'm also looking for a laptop that would compensate for my gaming needs and my intended major.</p>

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<p>Apple.</p>

<p>MacBook.</p>

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<p>Can you link me to some specific apple/macbook laptops?</p>

4

<p>For gaming, you may want to try an Alienware laptop. Specifically, both the Area-51</a> m15x and the Area-51</a> m9750 begin below your price limit, but since they are customizable you will probably hit the limit fairly fast (you are looking to upgrade the RAM, the processor, and the video/graphics card).</p>

5

<p>Do not get alienware...</p>

<p>WoW is not an intensive game at all and alienware is incredibly overpriced.</p>

<p>Asus</a> G50Vt-A1 Centrino 2 15.4" WSXGA+/T9400/GeForce 9800M GS 512M GDDR3/4G 800/500G 7200/BT/Vista 64 : GenTech PC Store</p>

<p>For $1600 you get a 9800, 2.53 GHz dual core, 4 GB RAM, and 500 GB of 7200 RPM hard drive space.</p>

<p>To get all of that in the Alienware M15x you have to pay $2600, and the RAM in the alienware is at 667 MHz instead of 800 MHz so you're not even getting as good performance.</p>

<p>and Asus</a> N80Vn-GP011C 14.1" WXGA LED/P8600/NV 9650M GT 1GB/4GB 800/320GB/BT/WiFi/DVDRW : GenTech PC Store </p>

<p>would be more than enough to play WoW and its only $1,100 and nice and portable and doesn't look like a gaming machine</p>

<p>and Asus's come with a standard 2 year global warranty and 1 year accident warranty.</p>

<p>and for Apple's you would want the macbok Pro, which starts at $1999.99 or $1799.99 with the student discount, and then you would have to buy a copy of windows.</p>

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<p>WoW runs on Windows and Mac, so I wouldn't really need to buy a mac.</p>

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<p>Have you taken a look at the Dell XPS m1530?</p>

<p>2 weeks ago, i had it customized with a Intel T9300 2.5ghz dual core processor, vista ultimate, 128gb SSD for around $1600.</p>

<p>I was playing Supreme Commander on a friend's XPS with a T5750 2.0ghz processor and a 320gb SATA drive fine with settings on medium. (supcom's pretty cpu intensive)</p>

<p>IT comes with 4gb ram and a Nvidia 256mb graphics card. And choosign a regular hard drive instead of a SSD will cut the price by around 300 or so, and take of another 150 for vista ultimate.</p>

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<p>Consider a thinkpad, 1600 can get you a very nice one.</p>

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<p>Hm.</p>

<p>For Computer Science majors, are majority of the programs customized for Windows? I wouldn't want to buy a Mac and find out I can't do nothing while in school.</p>

<p>Edit:; And after you do the Boot Camp sequence, how long does it generally take to switch from Mac > Windows and Windows < Mac.</p>

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<p>macs are amazing because there is almost 0% chance of getting a virus or any problems with those computers.</p>

<p>They are also sturdy and macs are very advanced computers.</p>

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<p>for one that can run WoW and be under $1600 I would look somewhere besides a mac, but they are sturdy computers.</p>

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<p>Okay, changing my criteria a bit.</p>

<p>What about my budget is around ~2k.</p>

<p>Computer Science/Computer Engineer major.</p>

<p>World of Warcraft, but I plan on branching out.</p>

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<p>good god man. 2k !!!</p>

<p>I would buy a desktop and laptop and pocket the rest.</p>

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<p>I would too recommend the Dell 1530 laptop. The main reason is that it has 1920x1200 resolution, which is like SUPER AWESOME for a 15 inch laptop.</p>

<p>if you don't care about the resolution, ASUS makes many gaming laptops, go to Newegg.com</a> - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more! and search for ones with a good videocard.</p>

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<p>correct me if im wrong but: dont the new macbooks have EXCELLENT video cards?</p>

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<p>The new MacBook Pro only offers the NVidia 9400 and the 9600 which should be enough for laptop gaming.</p>

<p>But they only offer up to 1440x900 resolution. And I'm not happy enough with that resolution. :( I would really like 1920x1200 which is SUPER AWESOME.</p>

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<p>The 9600 card is not excellent by any means.</p>

<p>The best available in a laptop is a 9800 GTX which is hue step up from the 9600</p>

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<p>@Rahmel,</p>

<p>The switch from Mac -> Windows and the reverse takes up to 2 minutes at max</p>