Looking for a okish gaming laptop (Budget 1000)

neil_hosey

Hi Guys,

Just looking for some advice on a laptop for a friend, i said id ask here.

Basically he will be wanting to play games such as Counter Strike: Source (doesnt need to be high detail). Was looking at the a cheaper XPS but not so sure on laptops?

Any advice/suggestions is greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Neil

AlmightyCushion

For a grand you should be able to get a dell vostro 1500 with an 8600gt or a vostro 1400 (smaller and lighter) with an 8400gs. The 8600 is a great card but the 8400 should be able to handle cs: source pretty well. Which would your friend prefer, the smaller laptop with a decent graphics card or a bigger laptop with a better card.

neil_hosey

Id say he would go for the better graphics card. Thanks for the advice i will have a look at it now.

AlmightyCushion

This should do him brand. Upgrade the graphics card to the 8600 for €60. It should still be under a grand with vat and delivery added on.

You can also go for this. The spec isn't as good as the one above but it will do for his needs. Upgrade the graphics card to an 8600. Use the link provided in this thread to buy the laptop and you'll get a 10% discount and free delivery.

sei046

i was looking at that system there but it doesntm mention the boards discount. what is the code so i can enter it?

AlmightyCushion

sei046 wrote: »

i was looking at that system there but it doesntm mention the boards discount. what is the code so i can enter it?

http://clkuk.tradedoubler.com/click?p(3466)a(1441723)g(25432)

It will only work on home systems. It won't work on business systems or in the dell outlet.

sei046

I can only see the 70 euro discount which ends today and the free shipping. Is that the offer? should i not see something about the 10% off? its an inspiron

AlmightyCushion

sei046 wrote: »

I can only see the 70 euro discount which ends today and the free shipping. Is that the offer? should i not see something about the 10% off? its an inspiron

Add it to your basket then use the coupon W5JSH?7F7RM2BJ The link just lets dell know that the orders are from people on boards. The more orders through boards the more likely this will be made permanent and the better the chances the admins can get more discounts in the future.

TerrorFirmer

If it's only Source he's playing then Laptopsdirect have some good older stock for cheap prices.

This for example will play Source at relatively high settings, and you've saving a shed load of money to boot.

This one too would be perfectly good for 550 odd quid, might need a ram upgrade but overall wouldn't cost you more then 650 to call it even, would also be fine for Source based games and it's a Lenovo, far better build quality then anything else mentioned on the thread so far.

Just a few to keep in mind, considering the modest gaming needs.

Though if he's looking for top end performance in Source then the 8600GT is the best choice. Here's screenshots of it on my 8600Gt. As you can see it runs incredibly well even at 1280x800 maxed out including AA and AF, so running at 1680x1050 should be no problem either if you opt for a higher res screen. For comparison, I've included screenshots of it running on my old Go7400 as well, which is about 75% as powerful as the 8400GS to give you an idea of what he can expect from both cards. The first two are 8600GT, the second 2, 7400. I didn't have any AA or AF on with the 7400, but the card can handle it fairly well in Source, but at 1280x800 with AA on, the difference between it and the 8600GT is massive.

Still, both cards (8600/8400) should perform equally well at 1280x800 high settings with no AA/AF (1500's native res), the difference in frames being beyond your perception. It'd start to hurt though with AA on or at higher resolutions. So really, I think if all he's playing is Source, the 8400GS will be perfectly fine unless he's a freak about having everything notched up.