[dj4monie]

I currently have a HP ze2000 Athlon XP laptop. It still works great, but one of the USB ports doesn't work and rather than have it repaired, I was considering giving this to my stepfather so he can play Poker online from his "Man Cave". I will have to boost the WiFi signal but that's for another thread.

Anyway, I am an AMD supporter for mostly to stay far away from Intel Graphics...

I was thinking HP/Compaq again, but we had problems with a Compaq desktop recently so I'm not too sure. I've had Dell's before and get a whooping 7% discount through my job.

I cam away with the idea of buying two since I also use Virtual DJ on this laptop.

Some type of Netbook just for VDJ, maybe some 16-32 Emulation when bored and the internet is not enough to hold my attention. Plus with long battery life, I should be able to play video, emus, etc for most of a long international plane flight.

For the heavy lift, I wanted to get a 17" monitor based Laptop, which would replace my desktop which is basically a Media Center PC these days and I rather do my video editing without sitting at my deck working on a video and have Live/Recorded TV in a Window. Leave the Media Center full screen (24") and just do my editing on the laptop.

So I guess I'm looking for a Dual Core AMD with either Nvidia or ATI chipset for the desktop replacement and the net book, I know dual core Atom's are coming but I don't think I need that much power and that will drop the price of current netbooks to below $300 before Christmas.

Just looking for suggestions, I am trying to stay under $1,000 for both, closer to $700 the better and I'll break up the purchases if needed.

Thanks.

 

[Spyhop]

Anyway, I am an AMD supporter for mostly to stay far away from Intel Graphics...

Buying laptops with Intel CPUs does not restrict you to Intel graphics. There's a variety of offering with ATI and Nvidia graphics as well.

 

[gamefreak94]

Some type of Netbook just for VDJ, maybe some 16-32 Emulation when bored and the internet is not enough to hold my attention. Plus with long battery life, I should be able to play video, emus, etc for most of a long international plane flight.

ASUS EeePC?

 

[dj4monie]

Been looking at EeePC's for the netbook...

Well to get under the $700 threshold and if the Netbook cost $300, that means the Desktop Replacement would run about $400 and that leaves me with IGP's and not discrete graphics.

I found a few refurb'ed Compaq's and HP's with 15.4/15.6 screens, when I wanted a 17" screen. I can live with that to keep the price down if that's the case.

I basically posted this in case some of you guys/gals have run into any bargains I have missed.

Compaq 215DX Refurbished Notebook PC - AMD Athlon X2 QL-62 2GHz, 2GB, 250GB HDD, DVDRW, 15.6”, Vista Home Premium at TigerDirect.com - Desktop Replacement

One other idea I had about the larger more powerful laptop is to use with a steering wheel and play my racing games on it. I could mount the wheel to any table or desk and just use the laptop for game play instead of my desktop. GRID is the newest racing game I have and runs at 30fps on a Dual Core AMD (2.9Ghz) with a HD4670 512MB. By upgrading the motherboard and adding a second HD4670 in Crossfire I know I can get 60+fps at 1920x1200 (My default resolution)

I feel I can get 50-60fps from a HD4350 and Dual Core Laptop, but the prices goes RIGHT up to $700-800 blowing my budget out of the water.

I don't do enough gaming to invest in a $1-2K gaming laptop. But I feel I need a dual core cpu for video editing/conversion in a timely manner.

 

[masta.g.86]

You're not going to find a laptop with a good GPU in your set price range, period. End of story.

You can either sacrifice more cash and get a good GPU or sacrifice the GPU and stay within budget.

 

[-StrikE-]

I feel I can get 50-60fps from a HD4350

4350 is a crappy low end gpu.

 

[DarkSamus]

The simple fact is that unless your willing to spend around double what you would on a desktop pc you ain't going to get a great gaming netbook!

Its just a fact!

 

[skoreanime]

Didn't know there were gaming netbooks Sure, some have the 9300 and 9400 in 'em, but it's mainly for HD videos.

 

[Phil]

And Hd on a 10" screen sucks

 

[DarkSamus]

I bet it would, it sucks on my old 17inch crt too!

 

[skoreanime]

Well, I have a friend who just uses the HDMI port to view stuff on his massive TV

 

[DarkSamus]

Yes! But the point of a netbook is portability!

I would love to see someone take a massive plasma/lcd on the train or bus! :lol:

And that's not even considering the power requirements for the tv!

Anyone got space to carry a generator with them too?:???:

 

[skoreanime]

Netbooks are really only for the small things. They're not really aimed for any kind of gaming. Of course people find ways to utilize them in unique fashions though.

If you plan on gaming, and want a laptop, I'd aim for at least a 14" notebook. A wide range of dedicated GPUs open up for you.

Head over to Notebook and Laptop Reviews , to their forum section dj4monie. They've got a forum dedicated for people like yourself, in the market for possibly a new notebook. Just fill out their criteria form and watch the replies come in. Lots of dealers hang around those forums too, so if you chat it up with one, might get a good deal going.

 

[dj4monie]

Thanks for the information about the Laptop Forum.

As for saying the HD4530 is crappy. Maybe for a desktop and trying to play Crysis which I have NO interest in, not even a little bit. With a smaller screen and lower resolution I don't see why I can't play GRID, Codemaster's upcoming F1 game based on the same engine and DiRT2 based on the same engine, all at 50-60fps on (1776x768).

The netbook would mainly be used for Virtual DJ, hardly a heavy lift for a Netbook since I won't be mixing video anyway. I'm somewhat of an audio purist when it comes to spinning the decks.

VDJ will run on all Atom' based netbooks without issue, the problem was there wasn't a skin available for the resolution. Once that was solved, it runs fine and no scrolling, it all fits on screen, though a bit small, I'm less than a foot away from it while mixing. Going down from 15.6 to 10.1 shouldn't be that big a deal.

AMD's HD3200/3300 chipset is fairly powerful for an IGP, good enough for 32-bit Emu's and likely both N64 and Dreamcast emulation if desired.

BTW, I am really loving Emu Control Center and would be great to final centralize all my game data files and make it all usable from one front end.

Oh an a Sanger Laptop with either HD4530 or 9600GT is $700-800 or about $300 more than I wanted to spend on one. I might be willing to up it to around $600 for the desktop replacement.

 

[skoreanime]

Heh, when people usually say desktop replacement, they mean beefy machines. Ones that cost well over a grand

The 4530/9600 range is more accurately stated as mobile performance.

 

[-StrikE-]

You said 4350 in the OP not 4530, anyway both are crappy since there 64 bit, the 9600 is clearly superior.