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Trying to Decide on Laptop for Work and Warcraft

post #1 of 15
2/7/07 at 7:33am
Thread Starter 
I need a good laptop for work along with the odd World of Warcraft session. I currently have a Dell with the Nvidia Quadro NVS 120M and it just doesn't cut it for WOW. I've looked at everything and the reasons I didn't choose certain ones are as follows:

Dell XPS - too big or too small, no 15.4" widescreen that weighs ~6 lbs.

Sony SZ - too small, only WSGA resolution

Alienware - m5550 - Sounds almost perfect, but I keep hearing the battery life is just way too short.

Lenovo Z61m or Z61p - These look like the best fit for me, perfect size, perfect resolution on the M (WSXGA+), maybe a bit too high for a 15" on the p (WUXGA), decent graphics cards. But the big question I would like to know is, how does World of Warcraft perform on the ATI Mobility Radeon X1400? And how does it perform on the ATI Mobility Fire GL V5200? I know they're not the greatest cards, but I can live with "pretty good" in exchange for longer battery life and a solid machine.

Thoughts or suggestions?
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post #2 of 15
2/7/07 at 7:47am
The Alienware m5550 would be a good choice for your needs ... it will handle WoW and more just fine.

Also, have you looked at the Asus models? They have some 14" and 15.4" systems that you can get with a decent graphics card. I'm not sure how they compare on battery power ... as this may be an issue with any medium/higher end graphics card, but imagine there is lots of info in the Asus review section.
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post #3 of 15
2/7/07 at 6:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by shazza
The Alienware m5550 would be a good choice for your needs ... it will handle WoW and more just fine.

Also, have you looked at the Asus models? They have some 14" and 15.4" systems that you can get with a decent graphics card. I'm not sure how they compare on battery power ... as this may be an issue with any medium/higher end graphics card, but imagine there is lots of info in the Asus review section.

The only Asus laptop with decent graphics power and a reasonable battery life is the W3J. Runs about 3 hours if you let the Power4Gear utility do it's thing. All the others have around a 2 hour life.
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post #4 of 15
2/7/07 at 7:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Labmouse
The only Asus laptop with decent graphics power and a reasonable battery life is the W3J. Runs about 3 hours if you let the Power4Gear utility do it's thing. All the others have around a 2 hour life.
battery life estimates from user reviews (all of the following have an ATI x1600 or x1700, or an Nvidia 7600 or 7700 graphics card):
A8Jm - 3:00
A8Js - 2:15-2:40
G1P - 2:45-3:31
G2P - 2:15-2:47
V1Jp - 2:15-3:00
W2Jb - 2:30
W3J - 2:30-3:30
Z92T - 2:37-4:09
Z96J - 2:15-2:50
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post #5 of 15
2/7/07 at 9:21pm
Have you checked out HP's. I got a hp dv6000t series. Love it, and it handles WoW great. It also only cost me 1100 at costco, and i have a 6month return , no strings attached policy. I also get tons of complimenets on it. Check it out.
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post #6 of 15
2/7/07 at 9:31pm
Djembe, are those numbers with 6-cell battery?
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post #7 of 15
2/8/07 at 10:06am
Those figures sound like they're using the optional battery or setting the laptop for battery benchmarking
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post #8 of 15
2/9/07 at 10:30am
A friend of mine just got a free upgrade from a Dell 9300 to a Core2Duo 9400... his new 9400 has the x1400 in it and he loves it for Warcraft...

I have 2 9400's, 1 with the x1400 and the other with the Nvidia 7900.

The 9400 is a 17" frame but the systems are awsome considering the pricepoint.

The x1400 has much better battery life and if you get the 9 cell.. your talking serious time unplugged.

Plus you have multiple options for screen res - XGA -SXGA-UXGA.
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post #9 of 15
2/9/07 at 2:30pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AirForceElite
Djembe, are those numbers with 6-cell battery?
Quote:
Originally Posted by labmouse
Those figures sound like they're using the optional battery or setting the laptop for battery benchmarking
I took them from several reviews posted on Notebook Reviews and Notebook Forums. As I don't own any of those systems, I can't tell you from personal experience, but I tried to include the widest range I could find. In other words, some people were able to get more battery life out of a notebook than others, depending on individual variances between their systems as well as usage. I believe they were all done with stock batteries for those systems (some are 6-cell, some are 8-cell)
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post #10 of 15
2/9/07 at 4:28pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by PcGeek04
A friend of mine just got a free upgrade from a Dell 9300 to a Core2Duo 9400... his new 9400 has the x1400 in it and he loves it for Warcraft...

I have 2 9400's, 1 with the x1400 and the other with the Nvidia 7900.

The 9400 is a 17" frame but the systems are awsome considering the pricepoint.

The x1400 has much better battery life and if you get the 9 cell.. your talking serious time unplugged.

Plus you have multiple options for screen res - XGA -SXGA-UXGA.

Cool! What resolution and video settings can you set in Warcraft with x1400? I can only get to 1280 with the Quadro and the other video settings are really low and it still isn't very smooth.
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post #11 of 15
2/14/07 at 3:31am
i have an HP DV5020US and i know that the new DV6000s use the exact same batt. i for one, get about 3.5 hours of run time working and gaming on this. I think thats pretty good off a 6 cell battery with a full charge. thats after about 10 months or so of use too. so the thing is great on a 6 cell batt, and HP offers a 12 cell batt for the same models i mentioned above.

ev
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post #12 of 15
2/14/07 at 12:41pm
how in the hell are you gettign 3.5 hours of use. with jsut web surfin in class, ill be lucky if i pull 1.75 hours. I do have a C2D, and GO 7400. Hell, Im looking at gettign a 12 cell battery jsut so i can use it a whole class session on battery.
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post #13 of 15
2/14/07 at 1:47pm
i have an AMD processor. this computer is GREAT on battery power. i love this thing. i get less time if im using the optical drive, but otherwise, this thing is really great on batteries. sucks that yours doesnt do so well.

ev
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post #14 of 15
2/14/07 at 2:00pm
Look at the Dell Lattuide D620. At under 5 LBS and can use a 9 cell battery, Core 2 Duo cpu's and has a 7300/7400 based card which would be enough for WoW.
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post #15 of 15
2/14/07 at 2:34pm
Thread Starter 
vengange: I have the Dell D820 and warcraft works OK, but not good enough. Have to have really low vid settings.
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