Solved! Buying new notebook, need help choosing

[Guest]

I am looking for a nice laptop that I can keep for a few years without getting too obsolete, and want decent battery life and gaming performance.

Ive been looking at the HP DV6t Quad (15.6 inch screen 1366x768, i7 720, 1GB GT 230 M, 4GB RAM, 320GB 7200rpm HDD) I think it really looks good, and ive seen good prices on it at various places, but Im unsure how long the battery will actualy last for things like websurfing, watching video, or games (HP just gives a time for it sitting there with wifi off) so if anybody has any suggestions, I also filled out the little survey too. thanks!


1_What is your budget?
prefer to keep it around 1000, 1200 max

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
less than 7 lbs

3_What screen resolution do you want?
no preference

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
prefer it to be portable, I carry it around campus for most of my day, in addition to textbooks

5_How much battery life
as much as possible, at least 2.5 hrs of web surfing/video playback would be good, (i realize gaming will most likely not last so long, so i dont care too much bout lifetime for that)

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Id like to be able to play most games cyrrently on the market at top quality, and still be able to play games comin out over the next couple years at usable quality as well

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
need to be able to output video to my (older) tv, so some video output is gonna need to be able to be converted to composite (yellow RCA jack). preferable with a simple cheap adapter. if its more than 20 bucks its not a good option. seen a few VGA to composite adapters, but they said it only works with some video cards. if anyone knows more bout this, plz tell me

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
320GB 7200rpm

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.
anything is fine

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
3 or 4 years, longer if possible

11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
DVD burner is fine. dont rely care for bluray.

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
ive been told (by my father who works IT) to stay away from sager because hes never even heard of em before. also, no apple. Your opinions on sager are welcome, your opinions on apple are irrelevant (they dont even hav an i7 machine)

13_What country do you live in?
us

14_Please tell us any additional information if needed.
if anybody knows stuff like "this brand is horrible" or "that brand has a realy good customer service dept" etc, that would be good to kno. also anything bout video adapters for composite, and remote controls i can get that work with a wide variety of programs (somethin where i can change a button to send this keypress insted of that etc would be nice)

 

[Maziar]

The DV6 Quad edition is good but GT 230M is a mid-range card and can play current games at medium settings

 

[Guest]

so what kind of GPUs should I look for? im relatively familiar with nvidia, but lamost clueless when it comes to ATI. also, would a cheaper core2duo laptop at 2.53GHz still be good enough?

 

[Maziar]

Yes a 2.5GHZ C2D is still a good option,take a look @ Gatway P-7915u FX Edition which has good specs and price
http/www.gateway.com/systems/product/529668355.php

9800MGTS performs a lot better than GT 230M in games too .

 

[Upendra09]

currently ATI has better gfx caards than Nvidia and also has better offerings in the mobility gfx than Nvida

 

[Guest]

the gateway unit is well beyond my weight limit, also im looking for a 15 or 16 inch system. which ATI cards are the good ones (as opposed to the low end or midrange cards)

 

[Maziar]

No it depends on the model you are considering,also please post something related to the topic,the OP is asking about a new notebook for $1200 not specific VGA models

 

[Maziar]

the gateway unit is well beyond my weight limit, also im looking for a 15 or 16 inch system. which ATI cards are the good ones (as opposed to the low end or midrange cards)

If so then go for the HP model because in your price range only the gateway model has a good GPU for gaming,all the other models including the HP one have mid-range GPUs.

PS the SAGER NP8662 and MSI GT 729 are a little bit out of your budget but they are well worth it:
SAGER NP 8662:
http/www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8662-built-clevo-m860tu-custom-gaming-laptop-p-2564.html

MSI GT 729:
http/www.xoticpc.com/gt729-wsxga-order-p-2633.html

 

[Guest]

any suggestions regarding hooking up the video output (presumably VGA) to older tvs that only hav a composite input?