Okay, I've searched this forum and read the graphics card rankings. It's time for me to get a college laptop, and I'm trying to find one that can achieve the impossible: be both portable yet be able to muster the strength to play a game near the caliber of Unreal Tournament 3. My budget should stay somewhere close to $1500 (I can get an academic discount at both Dell and HP.)
Laptops I've looked at/am considering (I'd custom order each of these online, at mostly max options):
HP:
dv2700t - 8400M GS
dv6700t - 8400M GS
dv9700t - 8600M GS
Dell:
XPS m1530 - 8600M GT
Vista is fine at any flavor, but I'll go with Ultimate if it fits in there. 4GB memory preferable, a Core 2 Duo at 2.4+GHz, wireless and all that jazz. Any screen size is fine, but the more portable, the better - I want to be able to take this places with me.
It would seem the m1530 is the perfect match for me - 15 inch screen, 8600 GT - but I've heard about so many of those breaking and the build quality being poor. If possible, I'd like to not have to go through a single RMA process. I just want a laptop I can work on and depend on. I'd be willing to settle for a smaller graphics card to achieve portability + reliability, but I don't really want to. Any suggestions/recommendations are welcome.
Lastly, for anyone that owns a dv9700t, is it heavy? And is 17" too hard to carry around? I can't decide if it's worth the weight or not.
Laptops I've looked at/am considering (I'd custom order each of these online, at mostly max options):
HP:
dv2700t - 8400M GS
dv6700t - 8400M GS
dv9700t - 8600M GS
Dell:
XPS m1530 - 8600M GT
Vista is fine at any flavor, but I'll go with Ultimate if it fits in there. 4GB memory preferable, a Core 2 Duo at 2.4+GHz, wireless and all that jazz. Any screen size is fine, but the more portable, the better - I want to be able to take this places with me.
It would seem the m1530 is the perfect match for me - 15 inch screen, 8600 GT - but I've heard about so many of those breaking and the build quality being poor. If possible, I'd like to not have to go through a single RMA process. I just want a laptop I can work on and depend on. I'd be willing to settle for a smaller graphics card to achieve portability + reliability, but I don't really want to. Any suggestions/recommendations are welcome.
Lastly, for anyone that owns a dv9700t, is it heavy? And is 17" too hard to carry around? I can't decide if it's worth the weight or not.