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General discussion

Laptop for business and some gaming

by millymm Oct 29, 2009 7:41PM PDT

I am an independent contractor and need to purchase my own laptop for business use. I'm currently using a 2-3 year old laptop that has trouble handling 100MB+ Excel files pulling data from various servers, desktop sharing, video communications, and some graphic design work. I'd like the new one to handle all that with ease and to be a worthy laptop for at least 2-3 years. The current one has a terrible graphics card, 2.0GB RAM, Pentium M 2.0GHz processor, and Vista, so shouldn't be too hard to get something better.

I'd also like to use the new one for some personal online gaming and home video editing. I want 14-15" monitor, not too worried about weight. I'd like to keep the cost under $1500 (not including software which I will not need to purchase myself). And I'd really, really like it to have a good cooling system, as it's on my lap a lot.

Without really knowing what to look for, I'm considering the Dell Studio 15, mostly because it is used a lot by employees of my client, so I know it will work with most/all their proprietary programs.

Here are the specs that come out to $1504:
COLORS Ruby Red edit
PROCESSORS Intel

Discussion is locked

3 Posts
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I'm writing no way.
by r. proffitt Former Forum moderator Oct 30, 2009 1:08AM PDT

All seemed good until I hit that it would be on your lap. No game capable laptop I know of will not have a too warm surface.

If I were to look for such a machine I'd stick to all non-3D solutions with a nod to the Intel 4500 solutions. That one has surprised me on how well it holds up under games. My kid had a simple Toshiba Celeron with that and now a faster C2D with that video solution and he plays a lot of games on it.
Bob

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I'm going to agree here
by RonS [WINDOWS-TEAM] Nov 7, 2009 2:35PM PST

That's the rub of these "gaming" laptops... you're not truly going to put the thing on your lap, unless you've got some bacon sitting on your thighs that you want to get cooked.

Cheers,
Ron

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I think you would see better performance getting
by orlbuckeye Nov 1, 2009 1:33AM PDT

the slower processor and more ram. To get 6 gig you need a 4 gig memory stick which is still expensive around 300 so that why 6 gigs cost so much. The battery question answer is the more cells the better battery life. 1080P is the resolution to watch bluray movies. 1080p is 1920 x 1080 resolution. It's hard to find a laptop under 17" with 1080p. They are out there but not many. Look at Newegg they have some good deals. You can't get a discount for multi configurations but they have some good systems at a good price.

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