Laptop for £500 with decent GFX does it exist?

Euro_Hunter

Euro_Hunter

Euro_Hunter

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I have £500 to spend and would like a good looking laptop with decent spec & half decent gfx card.

Would be mainly used for internet & office apps but I would like to able to log into Warhammer online to setup auctions, hand in quests etc. wouldn't expect to take part in 100 man keep attacks though, lol.

I like the Toshiba A300's but the ones in my price range have onboard gfx:(

Any recommendations welcomed

Nige.
 
I just bought my mother an acer aspire 5920G
"Acer Aspire 5920 Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 2GHz, 4GB RAM 250GB HDD, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 15.4" TFT, Blu-Ray/DVD-RW, Vista Home Premium"

Just short of £500, only thing that's missing is the finger printer reader and bluetooth. Very nice lappy.
It got a vista rating of (from top to bottom) 4.9 - 4.5 - 4.0 - 4.1 - 5.2
 
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Neither of those cards are very good really. My lappie has an 8600M GT and it will only play L4D and CoD:WaW on low settings.

I don't really know what Warhammer is like for graphics though.
 
reflux said:
I don't really know what Warhammer is like for graphics though.
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If the OP is wanting to play Warhammer on medium to high end settings then obviously he will have to shell out a little bit more for maybe a class 2 or class 1 gpu at a higher price the £500. The prices of lappys that have near upto date mobile gpu's in them go up vastly, which is a seriously down point and a shame really.
 
not sure i should be recommending my own laptop when its having overheating problems but for slightly more than £500 (back in October 2008), I got an Acer 5930G with 2GHz Core2Duo, Geforce 9600M GT, 3GB RAM, 1066MHz FSB, 15.4", DVDRW
 
Thanks for the info so far.

Only really expect to be able to play Warhammer on Low settings on a laptop of this sort of spec, but obviously want the best I can possibly get for my money.
 
kwyjibo said:
not sure i should be recommending my own laptop when its having overheating problems but for slightly more than £500 (back in October 2008), I got an Acer 5930G with 2GHz Core2Duo, Geforce 9600M GT, 3GB RAM, 1066MHz FSB, 15.4", DVDRW
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Does anyone know if the acer 5930g is available anymore? I cant find it anywhere but the specs seem good for the price it was going for.
 
got offered Acer Aspire Gemstone 6930G 2Ghz C2D, 4Gb RAM, 9600M GT off me brother in law for couple hundred £, is it worth it? also does anyone know (no idea if this sounds nuts of anything, i know very little about laptops) if one could chuck another 9600M GT and SLI them? :confused:
 
slambo69 said:
Does anyone know if the acer 5930g is available anymore? I cant find it anywhere but the specs seem good for the price it was going for.
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Must've sold like hotcakes, the high street store I bought mine from is sold out even though i'm sure the laptop was only released last autumn. thats a shame, performace-price ratio was quite good, vista gave the following performance numbers when I first bought it with all the bloatware: 5.0, 5.6, 5.9, 5.5, 5.1.
 
Gashman said:
got offered Acer Aspire Gemstone 6930G 2Ghz C2D, 4Gb RAM, 9600M GT off me brother in law for couple hundred £, is it worth it? also does anyone know (no idea if this sounds nuts of anything, i know very little about laptops) if one could chuck another 9600M GT and SLI them? :confused:
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Sounds like a good deal tbh, 9600m gt is pretty decent as far as laptops go, 4gb ram and a c2d for under £500 is insane :)
 
Gashman said:
got offered Acer Aspire Gemstone 6930G 2Ghz C2D, 4Gb RAM, 9600M GT off me brother in law for couple hundred £, is it worth it? also does anyone know (no idea if this sounds nuts of anything, i know very little about laptops) if one could chuck another 9600M GT and SLI them? :confused:
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Unfortunatly not, the graphics chips in most laptops are soldered directly onto the motherboard with some kind of pressure welding business. I have a brand new sony with a dead 8400m gt that sony refuse to replace (long story), anyway there really is no way of changing the chips, or sli'ing them unless the manufacturer states that you can.

Btw I replaced the sony with an MSI gx620 with a centrino 2 and ddr3 9600m GT which is similar to your spec above, it cost me about 1k so you are getting a fantastic deal - I would go for it. For casual gaming the 9600m gt really is a superb little chip.
 
VinceB1 said:
Unfortunatly not, the graphics chips in most laptops are soldered directly onto the motherboard with some kind of pressure welding business. I have a brand new sony with a dead 8400m gt that sony refuse to replace (long story), anyway there really is no way of changing the chips, or sli'ing them unless the manufacturer states that you can.

Btw I replaced the sony with an MSI gx620 with a centrino 2 and ddr3 9600m GT which is similar to your spec above, it cost me about 1k so you are getting a fantastic deal - I would go for it. For casual gaming the 9600m gt really is a superb little chip.
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looks like a damned nice laptop but i heard few bad things floating around about acer, are these really worth listening to or is it like everything, people giving a company bad comments just because they personally don't like them?

Edit: by the way i discovered its a 9600M GS, not a GT, but i assume could easily clock the GS to GT speed, they don't generate much heat TBH
 
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I have 50+ acer machines mostly 57XX machines but I would say I probably have most of the range, in the older batches 1.5+ years ago there were common faults with them. The plastic hinges around the screen used to snap leaving the screen dangling off, recently there build quality has improved 10 fold.

I wouldn't believe all you hear, they are not all bad. mind you stay away from anything with this chassis:

http://katalognotebooku.cz/img/acer-travelmate-lci-4150-1.jpg

Almost every acer I had with that chassis, probably 10+ machines all developed the same fault.

The new black travelmate chassis is rock solid as are the gemstones. Can put some pics up of what to look out for if you would like?

Edit : I also have 5 asus machines which all developed the same fault so it isn't just the one manufacturer.
 
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well i have used adams before (my brother in law) it seems to have a proper sturdy barrel hinge keeping the screen on, seems solid
 
Its the plastic just above the barel hinge that snaps on the older models. Like I say with the newer ones you will have no problems.
 
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