New laptop for Diablo 3!

[j3thr0]

1. What is your budget?
$1000

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15'' max

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Err.. My current resolution is 1280x800 and I'm happy with it.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portable, please.

5. How much battery life do you need?
Doesn't matter, I'll mostly be plugged in. But of course, a long battery life would be a bonus.

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)?
Diablo 3 (Medium-High), Skyrim (Medium)

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Watching movies, minor audio/video editing, software like Matlab and ProE

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
Doesn't matter, I have 2 external hard drives.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
Amazon.co.uk? Lol

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
Preferably at least 4 years.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
DVD ROM would suffice. In fact, I don't even think I'll use it at all

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.
Dislike - Alienware (way overpriced)
HP (overheating problems, personal experience)

13. What country do you live in?
UK

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
After reading some threads around this forum, I found an alternative to buying a new laptop. I'm currently using the HP Pavillion dv-4, and the specs are:
2.53GHz Intel CoreDuo processor
4 GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce G 105M
Windows Vista Home Premium

What I discovered was ViDock, which allows me to kind of "upgrade" my graphics card. My current laptop isn't too bad really, but the graphics card is simply s***. Will I be able to run Diablo 3 decently using ViDock and save me a lot of money? Or are there any other upgrade possibilities?

Thank you all!

 

[Maziar]

With $1000,you can't find a gaming laptop unfortunately(in the UK),you have to at least pay around 1200 GBP in order to get a gaming laptop

 

[Chainzsaw]

I highly reccomend not getting ViDock....it's like spending extra money for very little performance gains.

Heck for 1000 you might be able to make a nice little HTPC that would be more powerful than a laptop - and if it's the right size would be portable. I've seen some HTPC cases that were slightly bigger than a gamecube, which looked very slick.

Just want to share my experience with a gaming laptop with you...i've got a Asus G73...good gaming laptop (although very outdated these days), but I wish I had gotten a HTPC or even a full desktop. It's nice to have around but the cooling is awful for it (i'm sure other gaming laptops have better cooling options). It auto shuts down if the GPU gets too hot which kind of sucks.

Well just wanted to give you my input, i'm sure your dead set on getting a gaming laptop though - so good luck! Ohh btw....MSI has some good gaming laptops - might want to look into those as well if they are inexpensive enough.

 

[Trist_58]

At this rate your new laptop will be outdated by the time Diablo III is finally released!

Sorry guys, couldn't resist...

Seriously though, unless you are desperate to jump into Skyrim I would wait and save a bit for something that will last. Also, as far as I know, D3 will require a decent net connection to play so (if you are planning on gaming while you travel) you have to think about a mobile solution.

It might be a good idea to do some research into the minimum specs you will need to get a decent experience out of these games and aim for that.

 

[j3thr0]

Oh dear.. That sucks. I do need a portable laptop and I don't have much space in my room so desktops and HTPCs are out of the question. How if I were to lower the requirements and say that I just want to play Diablo 3, regardless of quality. So, lowest specs and all that. How much would I have to pay for a laptop that can run it smoothly? Oh, and which game requires better specs? Skyrim or Diablo 3?

 

[WR2]

1. What is your budget? $1000
13. What country do you live in?

What is your actual budget?

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

The honest answer is that for high end gaming NO LAPTOP will even come close to a gaming PC....

All the best Brett

 

[shad0wboss]

I don't know what other people thought when they looked at your wish list but seriously these two laptops below are within your budget and they'll run any game you throw at them without any problem....i can run skyrim on med-high on a bit crappier card than HD 5650 and Gt 540m but i got intel i5 and these laptops got i7 so i don't see a reason why they can't be called "gaming" laptops...in case of heat, you might have to buy a cheap a$$ cooling fan for laptop which is necessary for any laptop when gaming...

Try to remove battery and plug in the AC power when gaming or else your battery would be ruined...

The acer one has got a bit more powerful GPU and CPU but you can look at other things and the body of the laptops and how much they weigh...Good luck !

http/www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-i7-2670QM-Processor-GeForce-Windows/dp/B005U9YA52/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328462751&sr=8-1

http/www.amazon.co.uk/Pavilion-DV6-3180EA-i7-720QM-Bluetooth-Fingerprint/dp/tech-data/B00440D928/ref=de_a_smtd

 

[j3thr0]

My actual budget is 650GBP, which is around 1000USD.

Those laptops are slightly above budget... but I might consider them if I get desperate enough. Haha

Thanks everyone for the feedback!