After going back to Fry's today, I'm back where I started.  I'm always very wary and distrusting of salesmen, but they proved especially worthless today.  They all seemed determined to sell off their HP/Compaq notebooks.  I know where they can put those notebooks...

Anywho, I'm having to rethink my budget here; I think I'm still thinking in desktop terms.  Perhaps I need more than one grand?  All I want my notebook to do is play music and run games at low/medium settings.  Is a dedicated graphics card neccessary even if you're talking about a game like F.E.A.R. (granted, the setting seem very scalable)?  How about a gig of RAM, is that really neccessary?  And what's a good brand to shoot for?  I feel so helpless since everything I know is blown out of the water; all the notebook components have "mobile" tacked onto them somewhere.  The one thing I did pick off one of the scumbags was Fujitsu used high quality (AKA not refurbished crap) parts.

Oh poo.

I've heard good things about Dell Inspiron XPS gaming laptop...very expensive mind.
Oh and sorry for saying the "D" word...wash my mouth out...
Rob.

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I know nothing of notebooks but Scorp is in the US. £1,000 converts to something like $1,900 - although this is not really anything to go on. We would usually pay £1,000 for something that costs $1,000 over there. It's exactly the same product & I don't know why we put up with it.

They used to be called laptops.... I don't know why they changed.  I didn't know what a notebook was at first when I bumped into it. I saw the pics and thought, what on earth! Hey that's a laptop!

I've been mulling over Toshiba and Fujitsu quite a bit, but I'll give Asus a go as well.

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That's a question I oft ask myself over many a topic. Civilized society (if we still are that) seems to be very subservient.

So Saitek, would it be an incredibly bad idea to find a pretty one within my budget and make sure it's not a lemon?  I thought the same thing about the word though.  As far as I knew they were always laptops.  Perhaps laptops is too... suggestive? Now that's my kind of computer!

Like mentioned above, Dell XPS gaming laptops are very good. One of the best, if not the best gaming laptop out there.

For a shader intensive game like FEAR, a dedicated gfx card is absolutely required. A gig of ram is definitely recommened for FEAR or any modern game. In fact games like battlefield 1942  perform with 2 gigs, so sprulge a little on the RAM.

I have only 2 notebooks which i would consider gaming notebooks. One is from dell, its an XPS. The other is from gigabyte. Gigabyte notebook's are solid workhorses, but performence is below the dell one. Both were top of the line when purchased about 2 months ago.

There are some important issues to consider in the light of recent notebook technologies.

If it's a desktop replacement and battery power is only used briefly, then your options are open a bit.

If you need a power conservative laptop, then you need to  go straight to a "Sonoma" chipset based laptop.

If you don't need the Intel/Sonoma solution, then AMD based notebooks become a cost effective solution. Acer make some reasonably powerful 64bit notebooks with basic dedicated graphics for a budget price. The thing I didn't like about some Acer's is that they were fitted with SIS chipsets, a cheap alternative.

LG have an exceptional laptop/gamer out now as do Asus and Toshiba........... there are others.

I'm not even aware of the details of the Dell XPS, because i don't research such pricey items, there are no decent graphics options in the otherwise attractive range of reasonably priced Dell products. ( I think they offer an X300). If Dell would bundle or offer the option of a dedicated G card on their other products, they would lead the world in providing a decent and affordable laptop solution............... but then, heads would surely roll..............

Send Dell a clear message......... Buy something else.

It's an absolute shame they are holding back the PC world they way they always have with this sort of marketing attitude, when they should and could be providing a mass marketing and technology solution to half the planet with benefits to so many. It's just plain mean spirited and misguided business policy.

Dell is so close to finally providing a mainstream mobile solution but they can't get past their greedy small thinking. Other than decent graphics, they provide some outstanding and very up to date products for the price..............   Shame!  

As with all PC purchases, the chipset fitted to notebooks is of paramount importance and determines performance, function and lifespan.

Researching laptop chipsets is somewhat more complex than normal PC's and it's often difficult to read "between the lines".

There is a pattern of what graphics solutions are provided with certain mobile chipsets, and yet there appears to be some odd variations within those generalisations.

I would like to know a lot more about mobile PC solutions, but it is difficult to know where to get the information from. Mobile PC technology is still very much a "discrete" industry and this relates to the excess profits generated by a more or less clandestine industry pushing products to a tax deductable business environment or Yuppies wanting to display fashion sense with their name brand mobile solutions.

I am of course, not privvy to the inner workings of the mobile PC industry, but I predict that we may soon see the emergence of some mobile solutions more closely resembling the sort of open market we see in the conventional home PC industry.

It would be in the interest of a company like Dell to lead this revolution in available mobile technology, as they are well placed with a ready made distribution network and market name. Once this occurs, however, there will be no turning back, and I suspect they will drag out current practices to maximise unit profits until some real market threat offers a better solution.

What the major players don't realise is that there is a mass market just waiting for a competitive mobile solution to transform the way we see our hardware options.

It doesn't take a genius to see the advantages in offering a mobile desktop replacement solution aimed at the massive home market, it just takes the forsight and balls to step outside the box and make it a reality.

Whoever does it first will make a fortune.   

Yes, the power requirements are hefty, hence my reference to "desktop replacements". Weight and size are also major factors to consider, especially when the screen size gets up to 17".

This doesn't seem to be a barrier, however, and I suspect it is because the mobility factor relates more to portability......... ie. the pc may be used at home OR office, with less importance placed on battery operation in the field, where plenty of alternatives currently exist.

I would have prefered to have a nice big notebook PC on my desk for example, had a suitable and affordable solution been available, instead of the cumbersome equipment I just purchased.

I just lost a client for Dell because they couldn't provide the graphics solution the client required. He was quite willing to upgrade ram, cpu, HDD, battery packs etc. ...... but Dell simply didn't offer the graphics he required in the product range he was originally attracted to.