I need help on choosing my gaming laptop

[jianxiang]

I am currently looking for a gaming laptop that can play 3d online games smoothly like WoW(Defense Of The Ancients),GUNZ.
I WANNA ASK is DELL XPS M1530 suitable for me to play games well??
Processor:Intel Core2 Duo T5450
Windows Vista Home Premium
15.4" wide screen WXGA (1280X800) TFT display wth True Life
2GB DDR2 RAM
160GB SATA Hard Drive
128MB NVIDIA GEFORCE 8400M GS

1 of my relatives said that it isn't suitable because i play games on such systems will lag,he said that i need go for high end laptop because high end laptops are only for gaming.Besides,it is easy to become hot too..
Do i have the need to switch my target to a high end laptop?COZ IT IS QUITE EXPENSIVE
Any other laptops recommendations?

QUITE URGENT BECAUSE M1530 is doin promotion,free a wireless blue tooth mouse in 3 days time

Thankyou

 

[jaslyn]

The games you mentioned arn't gaming intensive.

Heck, I can run them smoothly with a 5 year old graphics card. An 8400M GS is more t han enough to run them smoothly.

 

[jianxiang]

LOL,how about running new games like hellgate?
Any more comments??

 

[lostandwandering]

Your two biggest weakpoints there are the 8400 and the low clocked T5450. If you can afford to, bump the CPU up to at least a T7250 (2.0ghz) and the 8400 up to the 8600 if you want to play Hellgate. If you can't afford that, what price range are you looking in?

 

[jianxiang]

i am living in Malaysia so i dun know whats currency is ur country.
i can afford around RM 5000,i think i will pump the processor to T7250,is it better?i will also get a 160 GB SATA 7200RPM HARD DISK DRIVE.WILL IT ENABLE ME TO PLAY ALL SORTS OF GAMES?
1 more question.should i change the batteries from 6-cell to 9-cell lithium ion primary battery?will it las longer and no need to be keep charging?this is my 1st time buying laptop,hope u all will tell me more details,thanks

 

[lostandwandering]

Yes, the added speed of the T7250 will be better than the 5450. As for the hard drive, I wouldn't be as concerned with that as I would the graphics card. Right now you have the GeForce 8400 selected and it's not a very game worthy card. If you can afford the GeForce 8600, I would step up to that as well.

As for the battery, it depends on how much time you want to spend away from an outlet. I read a review that showed the 9-cell as getting over 3 hours of battery life (3 1/2 I believe they said). I would imagine the 6 cell would get a little over 2 hours, but I can't say for sure.

 

[jianxiang]

but M1530 doesn't have GeForce 8600 for choice for buyer,it is fixed..

 

[lostandwandering]

Yeah, I kinda just noticed that on the Malaysian Dell site. They don't seem very open to customers picking and choosing their components. The first group of games you listed should run okay on the GeForce 8400, but I don't think Hellgate will do as well.

If you want to look, the Dell Inspiron 1520 is similar to the M1530, but Dell gives you more choices to configure it.

 

[jianxiang]

oh god...really cannot play Hellgate??

 

[lostandwandering]

Well, you may be able to play it, but you will have to deal with turning the resolution and effects down to minimum. In terms of graphical horsepower, the 8400GS is lacking a little.

 

[jianxiang]

so juz turb resolution to the minimum ok already? graphics is fixed,unchangeable,stupid DELL

 

[lostandwandering]

Like I said before, if you can live with a slightly uglier (not that bad) machine, the Inspiron 1520 lets you pick and choose your components. But yeah, if you turn the settings and resolution down in the game, you should be able to play it okay.

 

[jianxiang]

ur meaning to turn resolution down is to turn higher than 1280 by 768 pixels?Inspiron i had thought of it be4,but its hard disk drive doesn't show RPM,so, i would rather choose 2700 RPM hardisk drive from M1530??