Hi all,
 
I'm going back to school and thinking of getting a laptop.  I already have a home-built desktop, so that will take care of all my quantitative modeling and heavy gaming needs (and seeing as how I'll be in political science, I think it'll mostly be for gaming).  
 
I want a laptop, however, for taking notes in class and also to play some older games (Civ 4, FEAR, Total War: Medieval 2, etc.).  I've come down to essentially two laptops:  a Dell Vostro 1400 which I can get for under $700 and a Dell Latitude D630.  The latter I can purchase through the school, but I don't know how much it is.
 
So, assuming that price is equal, it comes down to graphics.  The Vostro has a 128MB GeForce 8400M GS.  D630 has an integrated GPU which I can hopefully upgrade to a 128MB Quadro NVS 135M.  It's the same chipset as the 8400, but does anyone have any thoughts on if the Quadro would be able to play those games well on low (or possibly mid) settings?
 
Other comparisons:
 
Vostro - 5.7~5.9 lbs., slower CPU (C2D 1.4 Ghz), larger hard drive (120~250 GB)
D630 - 5.2~5.3 lbs., faster CPU (C2D 1.8 Ghz), 80 GB hard drive
 
If the Quadro would work for the games, that's going to tip in the D630's favor.  Any thoughts?
 
Thanks in advance!  This forum always has great advice!

I saw a guy benchmark the D630 with the Vostro on Notebook Review, and he got a score of 888 on 3DMark06...so...no FEAR. Should be fine for Civ 4 on lower settings though, I think.

The likelyhood of upgrading the integrated graphics in a laptop are close to nil. If you think that you need dedicated graphics I would strongly recommend that you get it now. But remember dedicated graphics=1/3 less battery life on the average. If you are getting this laptop for school use you may want to go with integrated graphics. A lot of these older games will play just fine.
Good luck.

Thanks for the replies, guys.  I've seen some 3DMark06 #'s come in around 1500 for the 8400.  It won't even touch my 8800GT, but I think that might be enough for FEAR at minimal settings.
 
Both computer's should have pretty good battery life, but thanks, Acron, I'll definitely keep that in mind.  Hmm...you think the integrated graphics will work?  My girlfriend kind of got burned with her laptop, which also has an integrated chip.  However, after I got her hooked onto Civ 4, we found that she couldn't play it on her laptop.  That said, the Intel GMA numbers aren't bad:
 
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel [...] 176.0.html
 
Any thoughts?  I'm not sure this could handle Total War: Medieval 2.

I would just get the 8400mGS at the very least. Intel's newest GMA, the X3100, scores a third of what the 8400 does in 3dmark06. I doubt an integrated solution could handle any of your games well.

That's what my Lenovo R61i has the Intel X3100. Intel's drivers leave a lot to be desired but battery life for me hovers around 4.5 to 5 hours with Wi-Fi on(7 cell). I don't play any games but I've read that for basic older games it's OK  

Hey everyone,
 
Thanks so much for all the replies.  They've been extremely helpful in figuring out what to buy.
 
So, going for the Vostro.  I figure if I have a backpack, I really won't notice a 0.5 lbs. difference on my back.
 
Thanks again!

Yeah, probably not. Messenger bags however, it's like you can feel every bit of extra weight....backpacks rule!

The quadro is not for playing games...

The Vostro he's looking at is equipped with the 8400m GS. Again, not great for games, but it's not a workstation card.

I priced out my dream laptop (17" 1920 x 200, desktop replacement for CAD) some time back over at WidowPC, Falcon Northwest and Voddoo PC....all came in at about the same number ...$4700.  I finally found out that they were all OEM'd from Clevo so I found myself a good Clevo distributor and bought the same exact thing, component for component for $3190 .. haven't looked back since.  BTW, the only laptop vendor I am aware of right now that actually builds and sells under the same name is Asus.
 
Can get a list of Clevo vendors here:
 
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=91510
 

MSI does as well and I think (check me on this) Acer does too.

Asus, Sony and Apple are the notable exceptions.....Here's some info but it's pretty old.....many vendors have shaken out of the market since then.  Reportedly Lenovo and Toshiba still make soem but most are made by ODM's.  Acer is questionable also as can be seen here:
 
http://www.laptoplogic.com/forums/ [...] t-909.html
 

 
http://gen-x-pc.com/laptopmanu.htm
 
"

 
This is more recent:
 
http://www.answers.com/topic/laptop?cat=technology
 

 
http://reviews.ebay.com/What-to-co [...] 0002536988
 

Here's a decent one too:
http://www.xoticpc.com/laptop-manu [...] ip-11.html
 
I was right about MSI, but wrong with Acer, I had them mixed up in my mind with Asus.

MSI is mentione dhere:
 
http://www.xoticpc.com/laptop-manu [...] ip-11.html