Gaming Laptop for £1200
- Thread starter Voltage
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Soldato
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Advent 7555GX
It's an MSI GT725 in a different shell with a 1440x900 screen (easier res to push anyway). Can be had for sub £900, which is brilliant.
Specs:
Q9000 (Quad, 2Ghz)
4GB RAM
320GB HDD
4850M 512MB (slightly stronger than a GTX260M, equivalent approximately to a desktop 4830 or 9800GTX/GTX+)
DVDRW
If I wasnt after a complete DTR I'd be buying one of these in a shot, but then Im looking to spend almost double this.
It's an MSI GT725 in a different shell with a 1440x900 screen (easier res to push anyway). Can be had for sub £900, which is brilliant.
Specs:
Q9000 (Quad, 2Ghz)
4GB RAM
320GB HDD
4850M 512MB (slightly stronger than a GTX260M, equivalent approximately to a desktop 4830 or 9800GTX/GTX+)
DVDRW
If I wasnt after a complete DTR I'd be buying one of these in a shot, but then Im looking to spend almost double this.
Soldato
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As far as I remember, the 4850m even as a single card is faster. The 8700s were basically cut desktop 8600s and were never that good.
As an example, on notebookcheck they're rated about 3900 in shader work with Cinebench, the 4850 is rated about 5500
As an example, on notebookcheck they're rated about 3900 in shader work with Cinebench, the 4850 is rated about 5500
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Kobalt have their G860, which is slightly above your specified budget (£1330 incl vat), but with a much stronger specification;
Core i7-720QM (quad, 1.6GHz with Tubo Mode up to 2.8GHz)
4GB RAM
320GB 7200RPM
GTX 280M
15.6" 1600 x 900
I have no experience with Kobalt but I remembered seeing it and thought you might like to know about it.
Core i7-720QM (quad, 1.6GHz with Tubo Mode up to 2.8GHz)
4GB RAM
320GB 7200RPM
GTX 280M
15.6" 1600 x 900
I have no experience with Kobalt but I remembered seeing it and thought you might like to know about it.
Soldato
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Kobalt are a good company, they're small but they have an exceptional reputation (they're pretty much the top UK and one of the top Europe Clevo vendors), Ive spoken with a few of thier customers and they're pretty glowing too, you know its a small company when its possible to go down and see your machine ready for boxing up and meet the MD etc. My next machine is likely to be a Kobalt (they're built around Clevo, same as OcUKs laptops btw).
Not to mention they're hiring new staff, and thats usually not a sign of a company dying haha.
Not to mention they're hiring new staff, and thats usually not a sign of a company dying haha.
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Soldato
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Weaker than the mobile 4850 of course, but it'll still play everything medium res and settings, its not terrible. Just that 4850 is in your budget
As I said before, if I didnt already have some HDDs which scream for RAID, and wasnt after a full DTR the 7555 is what I'd get right now with the price at 899. Throw in my X9100 and that'd be a nippy machine.
Even though its purple shirts, its pretty much the most affordable machine with that sort of spec available in the UK right now, unless you're willing to go abroad and bring a machine back.
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basically i play mostly wow
i want to run that on ultra with not problems
secondly, im getting modern warfare 2 for chrimbo and want to play that at decent quality.
i have a xps 1730 but the 2x8700gt gets pulled to its knees by wow's ultra mode.
i have seen this one around
HP HDX X16-1315E
i want to run that on ultra with not problems
secondly, im getting modern warfare 2 for chrimbo and want to play that at decent quality.
i have a xps 1730 but the 2x8700gt gets pulled to its knees by wow's ultra mode.
i have seen this one around
HP HDX X16-1315E
Soldato
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Well, to be honest that advent should play WoW at ultra fine if you knock the shadows down one notch (experimental doesnt look any better really but hurts framerate big time in my experience), the lower res screen on the machine will help keep it 'versatile' a lot longer, my desktop 4870 was 40-60+ with these settings at 1920x1200, and although I stopped playing WoW, when I had my M17 with dual 4850 mobiles, they were faster than my 4870 was.
WoW is also very CPU limited, so you could also buy an OEM/ES processor off ebay and fit that to improve your experience, your budget would allow you to pick up either an X9100 QS (2x 3.06Ghz) or a Q9300 (4x 2.53). Both will run warmer but nothing that wouldnt be liveable, as long as you were careful and put on decent thermal paste well
Modern Warfare 2 again should be fine. The 4850m is equivalent to a 4830, and thats still perfectly adequate at 1440x900, same as the 4850/70 at 1680x1050 and 1920x1200.
Only thing I'd mention is take off the stock drivers ASAP, and then download new drivers and get them mobility modded, the newer 9.8 Hotfix, 9.8 or 9.9 drivers will probably be 6 months or so newer than the machine default drivers!
Part of the problem you have with your 2x8700GT as well is that WoW generally doesn't work well with SLI, it doesnt cause major issues most of the time, but it doesnt really make use of the second card (even the devs have acknowledged this). So the likelyhood is you're basically running on a single 8700GT (desktop 8600), which would be why Ultra kills your system so bad.
The 4850m should be a lot faster, hell the 4670 would likely be faster than that.
Will go take a look at that HP for you
WoW is also very CPU limited, so you could also buy an OEM/ES processor off ebay and fit that to improve your experience, your budget would allow you to pick up either an X9100 QS (2x 3.06Ghz) or a Q9300 (4x 2.53). Both will run warmer but nothing that wouldnt be liveable, as long as you were careful and put on decent thermal paste well
Modern Warfare 2 again should be fine. The 4850m is equivalent to a 4830, and thats still perfectly adequate at 1440x900, same as the 4850/70 at 1680x1050 and 1920x1200.
Only thing I'd mention is take off the stock drivers ASAP, and then download new drivers and get them mobility modded, the newer 9.8 Hotfix, 9.8 or 9.9 drivers will probably be 6 months or so newer than the machine default drivers!
Part of the problem you have with your 2x8700GT as well is that WoW generally doesn't work well with SLI, it doesnt cause major issues most of the time, but it doesnt really make use of the second card (even the devs have acknowledged this). So the likelyhood is you're basically running on a single 8700GT (desktop 8600), which would be why Ultra kills your system so bad.
The 4850m should be a lot faster, hell the 4670 would likely be faster than that.
Will go take a look at that HP for you
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Soldato
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The HP isnt worth it at all.
It uses the GT130 mobile graphics chip which frankly...is poo.
The only benefit is it comes with a better screen, slightly better HDD and blu-ray, but without the hardware to drive it you'll find it becomes limited much much quicker than the Advent or anything else out there with a GTX260, 280 or 4850 mobile card.
You'd be better off buying the advent than that and upgrading some of the parts on the cheap haha you're paying for the name, nothing more.
The GT130M is about the same speed as your 8700GT SLI in a single card. The GTX260/280/4850 are all faster.
It uses the GT130 mobile graphics chip which frankly...is poo.
The only benefit is it comes with a better screen, slightly better HDD and blu-ray, but without the hardware to drive it you'll find it becomes limited much much quicker than the Advent or anything else out there with a GTX260, 280 or 4850 mobile card.
You'd be better off buying the advent than that and upgrading some of the parts on the cheap haha you're paying for the name, nothing more.
The GT130M is about the same speed as your 8700GT SLI in a single card. The GTX260/280/4850 are all faster.
Soldato
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Hmmm, there was stock earlier 
According to the website its due to high demand and temporarily out of stock so it might be back in stock soon (at 899 its pretty much the cheapest machine of its kind on the market so not entirely surprised). Even if you cant get the advent though, I'd advise opting for something with the better GPU.
As you're probably noticing, the UK market is a little bit rubbish for buying something in the mid and upper price range; we've got an abundance of low end and business machines, but little in the performance or DTR range.
If you've got the budget for that Kobalt I would keep it in consideration, the mobile I7 chips will help WoW considerably (as if they find an application demanding power, but not on all cores, they'll turn some cores off and overclock the rest), and the single GTX280m is a relatively decent card for a laptop (basically about the same speed as a 9800GTX/GTX+)
According to the website its due to high demand and temporarily out of stock so it might be back in stock soon (at 899 its pretty much the cheapest machine of its kind on the market so not entirely surprised). Even if you cant get the advent though, I'd advise opting for something with the better GPU.
As you're probably noticing, the UK market is a little bit rubbish for buying something in the mid and upper price range; we've got an abundance of low end and business machines, but little in the performance or DTR range.
If you've got the budget for that Kobalt I would keep it in consideration, the mobile I7 chips will help WoW considerably (as if they find an application demanding power, but not on all cores, they'll turn some cores off and overclock the rest), and the single GTX280m is a relatively decent card for a laptop (basically about the same speed as a 9800GTX/GTX+)
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Soldato
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How bizzarre, they havent had it long at all.
Still perhaps they're doing an 8555, there's already been a 6555 which was virtually the same.
The other thing is if you could find a 7555 in stock at any stores, it might be on last lot discount
If you haven't spoken to them though, Id also consider give it a week or two on the websites, I think it's more unlikely it's just out of stock til they get more. The last pricing was still .99, stuff that's gone clearance is usually .97 (I used to work there).
Still perhaps they're doing an 8555, there's already been a 6555 which was virtually the same.
The other thing is if you could find a 7555 in stock at any stores, it might be on last lot discount
If you haven't spoken to them though, Id also consider give it a week or two on the websites, I think it's more unlikely it's just out of stock til they get more. The last pricing was still .99, stuff that's gone clearance is usually .97 (I used to work there).
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