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I made a "help me find a laptop" thread today, but I think I know what I want now..

post #1 of 12
2/14/06 at 1:43am
Thread Starter 
I think for my 1800 limit I'm going to get the Sager 5710 with these specs:

17" WXGA LCD (1440 x 900)
Pentium M (750) 1.86 Ghz 533MHz
ATi MR X700 w/128mb
60GB 7200RPM PATA
Wireless a/b/g

and it the price including shipping added up to be 1576 dollars.

So what do you guys think of this, and will it be capable of games like FEAR and HL2 at Low to Medium settings?
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post #2 of 12
2/14/06 at 1:54am
ya it will play those i am thinking of getting a 5320 just liek but i am going to get x700 256 mb but overall nice lappy
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post #3 of 12
2/14/06 at 2:02am
Thread Starter 
Does anyone have any clue how that screen resolution would look on widescreen?

I've never owned a laptop or a widescreen lcd before so I have no clue what that resolution is like in comparison to the other two steps up on the pctorque.com configuration, but the price increase is almost 200 dollars for both of the other selections.
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post #4 of 12
2/14/06 at 10:35am
Thread Starter 
Anyone?
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post #5 of 12
2/14/06 at 11:22pm
Do you really need a big 17" screen? That same video card can be had in a number of 15.4" notebooks like the 5320 that are smaller and lighter to carry around, yet still offer the same power.

And if you have a budget of $1800 and want to play games like F.E.A.R. and HL2 on your laptop, I would definitely go for the 5720 with the 7800GTX in it instead. You're already spending a lot of money on a new notebook, you might as well stretch it a couple hundred dollars more and get one with a video card that is a whole lot more powerful and will last you a whole lot longer. There's a huge difference between the X700 and the 7800GTX, and it's definitely worth it. 6 months to a year from now, a 17" notebook with only an X700 in it is going to look like a huge brick with little power to back up the extra size and weight. (exception: Asus W2V)

In short, if you only want to pay for the X700 video card and don't want to spend the extra money on the 7800GTX, get a 15.4" notebook like the Sager 5320 or the Asus Z70VA. But if you want a real gaming machine that will be able to run the latest games on high settings for the next 2 years, go for the 17" 5720 and get the 7800GTX. It's worth the price increase if you're serious about games.
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post #6 of 12
2/14/06 at 11:52pm
Thread Starter 
I'm set on the 5320 now.

Sorry I didnt elaborate before, but this is for mainly college use so a 15.4" is a better idea first off, and second off I'll be doing school work and internet browsing 90% of the time and the other 10% of the time will be for gaming. So this leads me to the conclusion that the 5320 is definitely what I need.

But thank you for the input.
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post #7 of 12
2/15/06 at 2:07am
Then I agree, you made a good choice.

If you're still wondering about screen resolution, I would definitely go with WSXGA+ for a 15.4" notebook. WXGA makes everything too big and you lose too much screen real estate on a 15.4" screen when the resolution is that low. WUXGA is an excellent choice for a 17" notebook, but everything will be really tiny and text will be difficult to read on a 15.4" screen. WSXGA+ strikes a perfect balance between the two, and is a great resolution for a 15.4" notebook. It'll save you some money too compared to WUXGA.
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post #8 of 12
2/15/06 at 2:29am
Thread Starter 
My planned setup for the Sager 5320 was this..

15.4" WUXGA LCD (1920 x 1200)
1 gig ram (1 x 1024)
ATi MR X700 w/256mb
60GB 7200RPM PATA harddrive


..but you're telling me I should axe the WUXGA (1920 x 1200) for the smallest resolution of WSXGA (1680 x 1050)? If I do that then I can up my memory to 2 gigs...
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post #9 of 12
2/15/06 at 2:40am
I would definitely do that. WUXGA resolution makes text way too small on a 15.4" notebook. You'll be straining your eyes to see anything. You'll definitely get more benefit out of 2 gigs of RAM than a higher resolution screen on a 15.4" notebook.

Also look at upgrading to the 80GB 7200RPM drive if you have the money, as I don't think it's that much more than the 60GB one, and you may find the extra space worth it. I have a 60GB 7200RPM drive, and I'm already starting to run out of space. The 100GB 7200RPM one is way overpriced though.
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post #10 of 12
2/15/06 at 2:43am
Thread Starter 
Nah I'll stick to 60gb. My desktop I'm on now has 200gb so I know how much value is in each gig :P


Thanks for your help though. Now on to my big question:

I know I said 10% of my time would be on games, but I have to ask this..

What kind of settings do you think this would run games like FEAR, Halflife 2, and Battlefield 2? (assuming I get the 2 gig option)
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post #11 of 12
2/15/06 at 3:21am
I don't play Battlefield 2 or F.E.A.R., but I would guess you'd be able to do high settings for BF2 and medium settings for FEAR, based off benchmarks I've seen and my own experience with the card. From what I've heard, 2 gigs of RAM helps immensely with BF2, as that game's kind of a RAM hog, whereas FEAR just requires a really powerful video card.

Half Life 2 will look beautiful on the 5320. I run it on my Z70VA, which has the same video card, with everything on high and at the native resolution of 1680x1050. At those settings, frames are in the 40's to 50's. You can turn a couple things off if you want it to hold above 60fps all the time. Either way, HL2 runs and looks great on this notebook, and I'm sure the 5320 would be no different.
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post #12 of 12
2/15/06 at 3:33am
Thread Starter 
Now my only problem is I'll have to buy HL2 again for my 3RD time to play on this laptop.

What happened a long time ago was I downloaded from steam then my computer crashed not too long after and I forgot to install it again. So about 3 months later I tried installing again with my account but couldnt remember the name, password, or email I had it set to. So I bought a 2nd download and I will never forget this account # on it.

Good thing is that I could run a dedicated server on my desktop and play it on my laptop now.

Thanks for your help dude. If you have AIM or Yahoo and you like bands like Megadeth, Dream Theater, and Symphony X then it would be a pleasure to jam to you online sometime.
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