Downsising - Do it?!

TheDean

TheDean

TheDean

Soldato
Joined
3 Oct 2004
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North East
Hi all,

I'm thinking about selling my desktop and buying a Laptop....I used to be a big Pc gamer back in the day playing a lot of CS: Source, HL 2 etc etc etc - but I'm slowly moving away from all of that and have a 360 for gaming. I have just started playing WoW however, so it is important that the replacement laptop will be able to cope with that.
I would flog all of my old Pc hardware and buy a laptop while I am over in NY in May. So far I have come up with the HP Pavilion dv2700t Special Edition. It looks the part and has options for wireless n, which will no doubt soon become the standard. It also has 128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS, but I'm not sure if that will be powerful enough.....

Any ideas? What options should I be looking at?
 
Well, Wireless n will not become an actual standard till at least the first quarter of 2009. I dont know about the 8400, but WoW is getting on a bit, and probably doesnt need much faster. How about asking on the WoW forums and asking if anyone uses the 8400 on it?
 
I suppose I'm more concerned what I'll miss from going from Desktop to laptop...I watch all films on my lounge Tv, which I burn from my desktop: so the laptop bust have a dual layer burner.
I have a large collection of movies & music which I need to keep - Could i set up some kind of server of something I can access wirelessly?

Anything else I may miss which I can plan for?
 
Use a Large NAS attached to your router for storage? Some of them are very good and have great speeds. Using a NAS will probably be cheaper than setting up a server and use less power.
 
pc-modd said:
Use a Large NAS attached to your router for storage? Some of them are very good and have great speeds. Using a NAS will probably be cheaper than setting up a server and use less power.
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Which NAS would you recommend? I have a 1TB HD that can go straight into it, and I could keep one of my 400GB HD's as well.....
 
I have a NAS, Wireless KB + Mouse and a Monitor that i plug my laptop into when im at my desk. I don't think a full desktop has anything over my laptop setup tbh.
 
Personally I'd go for a 8600M GT 256 mb DDR3. Who knows what you might want to run on it in the future. There's plenty of videos on youtube of laptops with 8400 and 8600 running various games - should give you a good idea of relative performance.
 
pc-modd said:
How much are you looking to spend on one?

Synology Disk Stations are very good i have the DS-207 and the transfer speeds are great! They are available in 1, 2 and 4 disk versions.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-004-SY&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=707
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Just to let you know - I went for one of those on your recommendation! I've set it to arrive on Monday, but I won't be getting the Laptop till the beginning of April. I'll be selling all my old desktop hardware before this to get money for the Lappy.

I guess I just need to be pointed in the right direction laptop wise, I almost had my heart set on getting the HP Pavilion dv2700t Special Edition. It has such a good write-up on Trusted Reviews and looks the business, but doesn't have the option of upgrading it's graphics to a 8600M GT which I feel I would need.

Any other ideas for laptops? I'll be buying it over in the US, New York specifically, so - What are my options in terms of makes etc?

EDIT - In saying the above I have just seen COD4 running on a 8400GS. I'm only really going to be playing the odd game on it at low settings & stuff....Would a 8400GS hold up with COD4 / WoW / Spore / Starcraft 2 etc etc etc?
 
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I really would plump up the cash and get the 8600gt over the 8400gt. Remember you wont be able to upgrade your laptops card so get the best you can afford.

My 9400 with 1.8ghz and 7800 could not cope with COD4 at 1280x800 low detail, it would lag in multiplayer. I have recently bought an xps M1530 with 8600gt and COD4 flies at 1440x900.
 
indeed, spending the little extra to upgrade graphics is a lot more economical in the long run.
8400 should be ok for wow, but lets face it.. isnt everything?
 
peetee said:
indeed, spending the little extra to upgrade graphics is a lot more economical in the long run.
8400 should be ok for wow, but lets face it.. isnt everything?
Click to expand...

Yeah...I suppose you're right. I'll keep looking for one that catches my eye
 
ninja2000 said:
Whats your budget and what size?
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Budget is roughly less than £700, but as I have mentioned, it's probably best if I buy it when I am over in the states. It does need to be light, I don't need a 17" screen as I have a 24" OcUK that I'll keep. It has to have a 8600GT or better.

I'll mainly be using it to watch movies, play a few games, surf the net etc etc etc. The hard drive doesn't have to be very big at all - maybe 80GB or something? I have a 1TB NAS which I'll connect through wirerlessly to up/download the relavant stuff I'd like on the machine.
 
uh oh, light? vostro ruled out then :D
Just wait till you are over there, i nearly got one half a year ago when my mate was there, get loads more for your money as far as laptops are concerned, problem was i couldnt afford any with decent onboard graphics that they had in stock, I should have done the order online get it sent to store thing :(
 
peetee said:
uh oh, light? vostro ruled out then :D
Just wait till you are over there, i nearly got one half a year ago when my mate was there, get loads more for your money as far as laptops are concerned, problem was i couldnt afford any with decent onboard graphics that they had in stock, I should have done the order online get it sent to store thing :(
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I'll be in NYC, so I'm sure they'll be plenty of choice. I'm leaning toward a Sony Vaio as they are stylish, light, compact and can have the GPU I need. Samsung are also looking good...
 
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