Might be buying this laptop today.
Any thoughts?
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8907962&type=product&id=1213046785760
Gaming, Programming, and mobile work is what its going to be used for. Games include like HL2 and such. Nothing like Crysis on full res
Looks like it should be able to play all the steam games decent…
Not bad specs for the price.
How about modern games on high res?
again, not crysis on full graphics but you know, keep up with modern games without having issues
Itll be just fine with games like cod4 and ut3. Itll actually play crysis on medium with 30fps or so. Might have to drop the res a little tho. My old 8600m gt based dell ran it at 25fps or so, so ull do just fine with it. Buy it.
Well, any of the games coming out are going to be a struggle, but they will be with just about any laptop.
It would do most newer games fine, but i wouldn’t expect to be able to crank them all, you will have to turn the AA down if the games have 16xq or something crazy like that, if you kill the AA it should do most games great.
If you like the brand/layout of the laptop, the specs are very good for the price, get it.
You’ll hate yourself for buying an HP though…
Personally, i’d go with:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8892825&st=gateway+silver&lp=3&type=product&cp=1&id=1211587727985
DDR3 vs DDR2 ram, better graphics card, 7200rpm hdd…for 100$ more?! Plus it wont break on you as much! (in my experience)
edit
Let me expand on my hate for hp. Besides the massive amounts of hardware failures (esp in those models - network cards/sound/touchpad/etc…) HP is the WORST in terms of not only pre installed software, but pre installed software that you can not uninstall in order to keep everything working properly. Becasue all of hp’s quickplay/launch buttons are 100% proprietary (all other companies use vistas integrated ‘hotstart’ buttons) you have to leave all that software in, you cant disable/remove hp’s networking support tools, and just overall are loaded up with so much shit that it ridiculous (slingbox, ea crap, yahoo toolbars, total care advisor, etc, etc, etc)
id rather get a HP over a acer n e day of the week
i would put hp and acer on the same level of crap…at least acers software can be removed without causing any damage to the OS. But no, acers hardware is just as shitty as hp’s.
I had to use Linux to format my hard drive when I bought my HP laptop. Then I used my own version of vista. Just needed to install a couple drivers on it, and now I got none of that HP shit on here.
am i the only on that thinks that video card doesnt seem to impressive compared to the rest of the setup?
This is why you put a clean install with what you want on it…
We use HP’s laptops at work and never had a problem. 8510w’s probably one of the nicest laptops I’ve used before.
There are better GPU options but that CPU isn’t the best either. They have 2.8ghz core 2 duos for laptops now too so the 9600m gt is a good single card solution even tho a 9700 might fit it a bit better. You don’t see many good GPUsuntil you price out an alienware or xps
I know you can do a clean install on an hp…but if he’s asking for opinions on laptops he’s probably not going to want to do this. Plus it only fixes half the reason i dont like/recommend hp’s (especially those models)
Thanks for all the input. well software wise I am not too concerned. I am planning on putting Linux of osx86 on it so I can rip off hp’s software.
Just looking for a decent spec laptop for about 1k that I can see locally.
Really, nearly all laptops suck. Theres one, maybie two laptops that are decent enough to use. They all have poor trackpads, crappy keyboards that are loud, flex while typing, are hard to see/read, and have a poor feel. Screens look like crap with poor viewing angles, battery life sucks…
Its insane. You really need to physically use the laptop before you consider buying it. If you pick it up and it creeks, thats probably not a good sign.
Ya thats why I want to find one locally where I can see it powered up and feel it to see the quality.
Just lost track of CPU and graphics specs the past few years so wondering what the verdict was on AMD vs Core 2 Duo and graphics cards
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8780198&type=product&id=1204332501169
What about this in comparison?
starting today (4am on bestbuy.com) this laptop (the one i linked to at the top) goes on sale for 1250$. You will be waiting for a long time to see that good of a computer for that price again. it’s the last ‘back to school’ sale so holiday season is the next time before they’ll be on sale that much again.
again, 4gb ddr3, 200gb 7200rpm hdd, 9800gts w/512mb gddr3 dedicated, one of the best keyboards/touchpads available, nice battery life (for a 17", around 2-2 1/2 hours)…and a 1920x1200 resolution (>1080p, and better than the hp you originally posted up)…
lol, i know i’m a gateway whore…but you can’t beat that price.
This laptop is horrendously overpriced compared to the new gateway models, and old. Screen is poor resolution for a 17", and the CPU is old and what you would expect in a $600 laptop. Its quite poor all around.
The one linked to above by MKE is very good in terms of specs. But i know nothing about gateway laptops other than they have poor styling. But thats my opinion. Specs are good, price is amazing.
OMG Brian!!! Make sure it has a good warranty!!!