$1500 for the graphics...or for the brand? - Page 3

the 7900gs is not the bleeding edge, and frankly there is no problem buying a machine knowing that in a few months (not years) you are going to need more power to play the games you are going to want to play at the levels you want to play them. game specs have gone up and look to only go up from here as well. why would you buy something that is not as good as you can get, from a vendor like HP (who in my opinion are lacking anyway), when you can for not alot more get a much more powerful machine with a solid warranty that will actually last you longer before you hit the point where you are wanting to replace it with something else.

yeah sure you can take that money and put it towards a new notebook in the future, only the problem is you will want to start saving fast because unlike if you buy a better notebook which although it wont last forever will last a long time, you are going to be shelling out $1500 again in a year or less to just keep playing new games on middle of the road graphics. thats compared to spending a bit more now, and delaying that purchase.

In a year? I think not. I have had my Dell 8600 three years and until now have not had an issue with speed and graphics. The little go5200 served me well.

I saved well over $1000 by NOT buying a top drawer gpu based computer. .to get a speed demon today like three years ago you have to spend well over $2000. those who did so three years ago were quickly holding on to inferior $2500 machines within months. And although they lasted like mine has the buyers of such technology are left in the dust and are forced to spend another $2500 to "keep up"

But I could buy another $1300 machine today that will blow those three year old machines away. I played all the games on mine to pleasureable levels and expect to again.

Man if i would have listened to most of the posters i would have brick that is easily out performed by the lowest priced Core 2 based product today. And would have spent nearly $1000 a year for the provilage of being among the most powerful for five minutes..

no reason to buy for tomorrow. Because tomorrow reinvents technology to soon. Spend the minimum to do what you want to do TODAY and use the rest for another machine in a couple, 3 years.

Im going to have a core 2 notebook with a very acceptable video card for less then $1400. PLUS I still have the Dell 8600 for less money total for both then those who spent $2500 and up for their "gaming notebooks" three years ago that will want to replace them to run todays games acceptably anyway. The market for three year old P4 3.2 ghz/ notebooks is thin.

I gotta agree with kingfrog77. It's very difficult to "future-proof" a computer, especially laptop graphics. There's always new stuff coming out that current technology just can't handle. Take DX10 for example.

Here's a quick excerpt from my general rules for buying a laptop:

1. If the graphics upgrade is more than xx% the value of the laptop, then it's not worth it.

2. Never pay more than $xxxx for a laptop.

Those "x" values are different for everybody and changes over time. I find that for "hardcore gamers" (ie FPS whores, yeah I used to be one too) the "x" values tend to be a lot higher than I find comfortable.

This year, my "x" values are 15% and $1,500US.

YOu can get a nicely equipt notebook for $1500. Where else can one get a 100Gig 7200 SATA, 7900GS, 2 gigs 667 RAM, C2D 2Ghz, 17" Wsga+, BT, DL DVD RW on and on with OS for less then $1500....and what MORE could I have had had I spent $2000 for less with an ASUS or Compal or even an XPS??????

I spent less then $3000 and have Two useable notebooks. Many spent that alone three years ago and for what? for a brick today!!!!!Many of them thought all they would have to d is UG the VC!!

Always buy th sweetspot of technology for what you want to do today........You will have to buy all over again tomorrow anyway..so why not save as much as you can?

And I always had a problem with my HP dv5000. It was horrible and had to go through multiple replacements of the motherboard and other various problems.