Performance laptops under 13"

ArphaRima

I'm in the market for a notebook/netbook fitting a profile 13.5" or less, preferably with a quality graphics card, with storage and ram not too important. Vista capable is an advantage, and a quick boot option would be nice.

My budget is around a maximum of 1500 euros, and I can buy from any source; ebay, collect from UK/USA etc.

The models I've seen so far include the Voodoo envy 133, the sony TT and Z series, forthcoming Dell Adamo, and lenovo. I'm leaning towards the Voodoo, but the lack of a decent graphics card is scaring me.
The Z series is nice, but ugly. I like the TT, but again the lack of graphics capability is a concern.
Also looking nice is a priority.

HELP!

besty

I just got a 13.1" Studio XPS last week and so far so good. It's a quality laptop with great spec. Mine has 4gb RAM, 500 HDD, 2.40 processor etc. This runs Vista and cost just over 1600 so it's around your budget.

AlmightyCushion

Graphics card wise the best you'll get in a 13" laptop is a low end card like the 9300 0r 3470 series cards. Any thing betted is too big or will be too hot to be put in there.

ArphaRima

Yeah Nvidia 9300 is the best I can manage to find. But form is the priority. I dont intend on using it for much other than the most casual of uses. I have a good desktop for proper gaming.

I think I've settled on the Sony Z series, configure-to-order. I'll send it to the USA and have someone collect it for me. Ill save hundreds doing that.

Voodu Child

fluffer wrote: »

Yeah Nvidia 9300 is the best I can manage to find.

LG do a 13.3" with 9600M GT (DDR3). Nearly 6000 3DMark06. That's pretty insane. It's called the P310.

ArphaRima

Christ that is nice. But how do I buy it?

I do have friends in Korea, but it might not even have an english/UK/US keyboard.

Voodu Child

I don't know about Irish dealers, but it's definitely available in Europe, i've seen plenty of German sites etc that stock it. There's a big thread on notebookreview.com and im sure there will be discussions there about European vendors. Or just ask the question there. I think it's somewhere in the €1200-1300 range.

Edit-
There's a German seller:notebook.de. Its €1150 for the P8400 CPU and €1350 for the P9500 model.

ArphaRima

This is excellent advice. I'm trawling the internet now. Notebook.de is high on the list, but around 400 euro dearer than canada and poland. Might get a Polish friend to order from there.

Let me know if you spot any more avenues of purchase. It's a nice machine.

AlmightyCushion

voodoo_child wrote: »

LG do a 13.3" with 9600M GT (DDR3). Nearly 6000 3DMark06. That's pretty insane. It's called the P310.

Damn. I stand corrected, impressive. I would be worried about over heating though.

Voodu Child

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

Damn. I stand corrected, impressive. I would be worried about over heating though.

It's pretty crazy to have that kind of GPU power in a 13.3" alright :pac:. But, the 9600M has a TDP of 23 watts, so you've got to assume they've just put in a cooling solution to match.

I don't think the 9-series are as succeptible to thermal fatigue as the 8-series anyhow.

There's one on the LG site with a T9600 in it (2.8Ghz, 1066FSB), that's some serious power. It's madness when you think about it, a 13.3" with more power than a 17" gaming laptop from a couple of years ago, and half the price.. we will be playing Crysis on netbooks in a couple of generations

AlmightyCushion

You could probably play crysis on a netbook now at a nice smooth 30 frames a year.

Yeah, it is a crazy amount of horsepower for such a small laptop. You just gotta love the computing industry.

Overheal

I was asked to shop for a light performance laptop lately and im still kinda shocked how much the price to Performance ratio varies between 15 and 13 inch. Youre talking about a difference of hundreds.

ozt9vdujny3srf

macbook 13 inch comes with 9400m which, while not setting the world alight, its pretty damn good for integrated graphics. I play pes 09, CoD:9 and source games on high settings comfortably.

ArphaRima

I've just ordered the LG P310 from www.notebook.de

I am getting the 1350 Euro model, +70 euro delivery. (p9500, 4gb ram, 9600gt, 320gb hdd, etc)
I'll change the hard disk drive for an ssd one myself at a later date.

Mad payment system. They only seem to accept bank transfers. Looks like I have to go to the bank damnit..

Voodu Child

Sariyah Great Termite the Uncivil wrote: »

macbook 13 inch comes with 9400m which

Just for reference, the 9600M GT is about 3x as powerful as the 9400M(G) in the Macbook. That's a fairly sizable difference.

I've just ordered the LG P310 from www.notebook.de

Congrats, hope that works out for you. Really does look like a very powerful machine for the size.

ArphaRima

-Just for anyone else ordering, the keyboard is German (QWERTZ) so I had to order a UK keyboard. It delays the delivery by 2 weeks and costs 89 euro.

Thanks voodoo_child

AlmightyCushion

fluffer wrote: »

-Just for anyone else ordering, the keyboard is German (QWERTZ) so I had to order a UK keyboard. It delays the delivery by 2 weeks and costs 89 euro.

Thanks voodoo_child

Could you not have just pulled the keys off and moved them into the qwerty position? Depending on the layout that may not be possible though.

ArphaRima

http://carbon.cudenver.edu/~tphillip/german-keyboard-a.jpg

I thought about that. The german keyboards are really mad looking. Wouldn't work unfortunately.
I'll let you all know how i get on anyway.

AlmightyCushion

I didn't think the differences were that pronounced. Yeah buying the uk keyboard was the way to go. Hope you enjoy the new laptop.

sonicthebadger*

It's a bit late to tell you possibly but I'm in Korea right now and there's no problem with the keyboard, it's the same except the space bar is narrower to make room for the key that switches to 한글. Hangul, Korean writing.

I presume the default language setting in windows is easy to switch but I've never actually done it so I'll not say I know.

ArphaRima

Ah yes, but that's the Korean keyboard.

The German keyboard is pure madness, second to the french one.

sonicthebadger*

fluffer wrote: »

Christ that is nice. But how do I buy it?

I do have friends in Korea, but it might not even have an english/UK/US keyboard.

Ah yes, sorry about that, I was responding to this but I didn't quote. Yeah the German and French keyboards are very different.