Just a bit of Advice please

eezarthegreat

Starting college back in maynooth soon and doing multimedia. Need a good powerful laptop, what do you guys and gals think of this? Any good?

http://www.pixmania.com/ie/uk/592553/art/hp/pavilion-dv9572ea.html

Thanks

AlmightyCushion

Nice processor, big hard drive (I'm jealous), graphics card wouldn't be that good if you are gaming but other than that it's fine, built in bluetooth is handy. It seems like a good price too.

eezarthegreat

AlmightyCushion wrote:

Nice processor, big hard drive (I'm jealous), graphics card wouldn't be that good if you are gaming but other than that it's fine, built in bluetooth is handy. It seems like a good price too.

I thought the graphics card was great? goes to show what I know eh? I would be gaming too...thats the problem

AlmightyCushion

eezarthegreat wrote:

I thought the graphics card was great? goes to show what I know eh? I would be gaming too...thats the problem

What type of games? Would it be new games or old stuff?

This is pretty much the same laptop with a better graphics card.

eezarthegreat

AlmightyCushion wrote:

What type of games? Would it be new games or old stuff?

This is pretty much the same laptop with a better graphics card.

Sadly the funds won't allow anything higher than 1300, well because I have the xbox 360 I wouldn't bother with too many games-I know I literally hand myself by saying this but stuff like the sims2, something easy going to wind down after work, nothing super modern

AlmightyCushion

The sims 2 should work fine on the laptop you picked.

eezarthegreat

AlmightyCushion wrote:

The sims 2 should work fine on the laptop you picked.

Thanks for the advice man, I was set on it but your advice has really set me alight for it :P

Much appreciated ok? Take care

AlmightyCushion

No bother man. Glad I can help.

koneko

1300 is a solid budget, you can get something for that price with better (8600) graphics if you need to (like the Vostros or some great laptops on the Dell Outlet store).

That said, 8400M GS is fine, particularly if you're playing Sims 2, most games but the latest & greatest would do fine. I tried out WoW and Half-Life 2 so far and both ran very well at my native res (1280x800), that laptop has a higher native res though and ideally you need to run games at that res. You might have to turn some details down on some games.

AlmightyCushion

koneko wrote:

1300 is a solid budget, you can get something for that price with better (8600) graphics if you need to (like the Vostros or some great laptops on the Dell Outlet store).

But they probably wouldn't have as big a hard drive or good a processor as the one he has linked to.

koneko

Yeah you can't beat that harddrive, but other than that the specs should be close, except for graphics which would be better on another system (this link should work if you do want to check out the Dell Outlet store)

AlmightyCushion

Man there are some good deals on there.

This for example is a great bargain. OP if you're still about get this before it gets snapped up.

koneko

Seee! You doubt, but now ye are converted

TerrorFirmer

The Vostros with 8600GT can be gotten for in and around 850 notes if you stick with basic warranty, good for games, and if your budget is 1,300, you could kit it out with alot of extras and upgrades for a killer laptop. Even if you only plan playing the Sims 2, it's nice to have as good as you can get. The 8400 would be fine for Sims 2, don't get me wrong but if suddenly decided to play anything new (as people nearly always do) it's ****. To say you might have to turn some games down is an understatement, the latest games like Bioshock and Airborne will only run on the lowest possible resolution and lowest quality settings - and barely at that. You can imagine how terrible that would look on a 17" screen.....or pretty much any size screen in fact.

The first laptop though as well is really huge, is a 17" screen necessary? Battery life, portability go down.....you really need to consider whether its absolutely necessary.

When you say multimedia, what exactly do you do? Because if you're absolutely sure about the Sims 2 being the limit of it games wise, it'd be a lot cheaper to get a laptop with a very fast CPU, high storage and memory in a much more portable package but with integrated graphics, which will drastically improve your battery life, will make any laptop considerably cheaper and again allow you to focus on the really important parts - as well as still running stuff like the Sims 2 fine.

eezarthegreat

HavoK wrote:

The Vostros with 8600GT can be gotten for in and around 850 notes if you stick with basic warranty, good for games, and if your budget is 1,300, you could kit it out with alot of extras and upgrades for a killer laptop. Even if you only plan playing the Sims 2, it's nice to have as good as you can get. The 8400 would be fine for Sims 2, don't get me wrong but if suddenly decided to play anything new (as people nearly always do) it's ****. To say you might have to turn some games down is an understatement, the latest games like Bioshock and Airborne will only run on the lowest possible resolution and lowest quality settings - and barely at that. You can imagine how terrible that would look on a 17" screen.....or pretty much any size screen in fact.

The first laptop though as well is really huge, is a 17" screen necessary? Battery life, portability go down.....you really need to consider whether its absolutely necessary.

When you say multimedia, what exactly do you do? Because if you're absolutely sure about the Sims 2 being the limit of it games wise, it'd be a lot cheaper to get a laptop with a very fast CPU, high storage and memory in a much more portable package but with integrated graphics, which will drastically improve your battery life, will make any laptop considerably cheaper and again allow you to focus on the really important parts - as well as still running stuff like the Sims 2 fine.

I run alot of programs like 3ds Max and photoshop, to be honest id love NOT to spend 1300 but as a noob to buying laptops I REALLY need some solid advice. It must be quick, reliable and an all rounder. I took a goo in pc world to check out the competition and so on but wasn't impressed...

My head is fooking melted

RoyalMarine

for what you want, and for your budget, id really reccomend going with a dell vostro.

exact same specs except

the dell has a better graphics card.
256MB nVidia® GeForce® 8600M GT

and you would have a smaller harddrive, the dell has 240GB.

the price for the dell including delivery and vat = € 1,232.49
but seriously, you really could haggle the price with dell.
i bought my laptop which was online for 2150 or something similiar.

the agent on the phone dropped the price down to 1900.60 including delivery and vat.

the hp laptop is 1292 not including delivery.

with the dell laptop, you could lower the price by 190 euro and get the 160GB hard drive, but then when your funds are better, you could easily replace the harddrive.
dell will provide help on doing so and its piece of cake.
that would lower the price down to 1042. which im sure with enough haggling with dell you could get it for about 950.

eezarthegreat

RoyalMarineComm wrote:

for what you want, and for your budget, id really reccomend going with a dell vostro.

exact same specs except

the dell has a better graphics card.
256MB nVidia® GeForce® 8600M GT

and you would have a smaller harddrive, the dell has 240GB.

the price for the dell including delivery and vat = € 1,232.49
but seriously, you really could haggle the price with dell.
i bought my laptop which was online for 2150 or something similiar.

the agent on the phone dropped the price down to 1900.60 including delivery and vat.

the hp laptop is 1292 not including delivery.

with the dell laptop, you could lower the price by 190 euro and get the 160GB hard drive, but then when your funds are better, you could easily replace the harddrive.
dell will provide help on doing so and its piece of cake.
that would lower the price down to 1042. which im sure with enough haggling with dell you could get it for about 950.

Was just checking the dell website...wow...that Vostro is fantastic and I could save 300euro for the exact same machine....

Thank you guys, eveybody, I will be buying a Vostro!! Will send a message here to let you know how I get on

Thanks again.
Joe