Looking into new Laptops

[Mattaru]

Ok, so I have never owned a notebook, I have always been a desktop person for no particular reason, but I need to get a laptop for when I am in Japan next year and I have been looking around.

So I've come to the conclusion that if I could get a decent new laptop that could run ffxi for $1500 or less I would do it, otherwise I wouldn't bother and just get something pretty standard. My main thing is I don't want a laptop completely aimed at gaming, I want something that is fairly well-rounded but would not struggle at running FFXI. I pretty much came down to something like Dell XPS M1530 which I could get for with the setup I want around $1500. I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience with this model or anything else that is cheaper but still has performed well for them running FFXI as well as just doing other normal stuff.

 

[Faule]

Ok, so I have never owned a notebook, I have always been a desktop person for no particular reason, but I need to get a laptop for when I am in Japan next year and I have been looking around.

So I've come to the conclusion that if I could get a decent new laptop that could run ffxi for $1500 or less I would do it, otherwise I wouldn't bother and just get something pretty standard. My main thing is I don't want a laptop completely aimed at gaming, I want something that is fairly well-rounded but would not struggle at running FFXI. I pretty much came down to something like Dell XPS M1530 which I could get for with the setup I want around $1500. I'm just wondering if anyone has any experience with this model or anything else that is cheaper but still has performed well for them running FFXI as well as just doing other normal stuff.

If you're going to be anywhere near Tokyo I'd suggest just buying one there in Akihabara. You can usually barter prices a bit and some places have great point systems where you get a low price plus money off an accessory such as a memory card for a camera. Sofmap (http://www.sofmap.com/) is a great place to go for that. I got a $350 camera for about $150 there plus a huge memory card for $6 instead of another $125+. Especially if you're going to be there for an extended time and can last a day or so without communication (you could always go to one of many internet cafe places I saw) I'd highly recommend picking one up there. Just research what you would like beforehand so you know how much money you're saving or not saving. Remember that Japan's the technology market of the world. ;D

 

[Bajaratt]

$1500 would be overkill to run FFXI, the game is seriously dated in terms of it's requirements. I used to run FFXI on a laptop that cost maybe $1000 sixyears ago, so spending the same amount would get you much better performance today. Gaming is one of the most performance demanding functions for computers, so if you have a gaming computer, you can pretty much do whatever else you want with it.

I've been looking at getting another laptop(mine died 4 years ago), but I only want it for school, so I've been toning down my requirements. Even without going for a gaming laptop, the ones I'm looking at are around $600-$700 and I have no doubt they'd run FFXI just fine. As long as you don't go for a laptop with a Celeron or Sempron CPU, you should be fine for playing FFXI.

 

[Mattaru]

Thanks Baja, that gives me a better gauge, when I did play on PC I just had a lot of troubles with my comp and I'd like to avoid that. I have a better gauge of what I need now though.

I'm going to be in Hirakata City for 4 months(in b/t Kyoto and Osaka) and probably won't get a chance to get to Tokyo for a little bit. And its something that I'd like for now too because I just need a new comp anyway.

 

[Tagrineth]

I'm pretty happy with this HP notebook I'm using right now, 17" 1440x900 screen, 2.2ghz core2 duo, 2gb ram, geforce 8600m gs, and wireless N + bluetooth integrated.. was $1300 shipped and bought through costco.com

I'd suggest staying away from dell at the moment, i work a phone support job (incidentally for costco electronics, mostly computers) and one of our stipulations is dell support must be deferred back to dell if the system is in warranty. every time i've told someone to call dell they've given me a laundry list of complaints about how horrific dell's service is, a couple weeks ago i got a call from someone who called dell first and was told she had no warranty even though she bought the system only 1.5 months ago and her serial number was valid and my purchase validation tool showed it was definitely bought at costco 1.5 months ago.

mileage may vary but i'm really, really wary of dell at the moment.


edit: oh and this notebook runs ffxi great, but if you get one with a geforce 8x00 series graphics chip, you have to download a specific forceware driver version or ffxi will chug incredibly hard (think like sub 30fps in mog house staring at a wall, and gets significantly worse even when looking at your moogle).

 

[Bajaratt]

If you need a new computer anyways, I'd go ahead and spend the $1500 and get a nice laptop so it'll last you a lot longer; or take the difference and buy/upgrade your PC. You can get some pretty sizable upgrades for pretty cheap, as long as you don't go for the latest and greatest. I've just been looking at the lower end of the laptops since I'm only going to work on it.

 

[Anglis]

Thanks Baja, that gives me a better gauge, when I did play on PC I just had a lot of troubles with my comp and I'd like to avoid that. I have a better gauge of what I need now though.

I'm going to be in Hirakata City for 4 months(in b/t Kyoto and Osaka) and probably won't get a chance to get to Tokyo for a little bit. And its something that I'd like for now too because I just need a new comp anyway.

Matt, the XPS 1530 will struggle with XI if you go with the 8400 Geforce. Vista will bog it down a little. Make sure you get the 8600 Geforce in it, also don't go with the 1.5 Core 2. Go with about 2 options higher. Make sure you get at least 2 gigs of ram.


What I told you will run you around $1300

 

[CmdrFly]

I have personally configured some M1530s here at my office. Very sleek & sexy, sturdy feel. Very good laptop, from a mechanical perspective.

 

[Mattaru]

I think I'm going to go with the Dell, although honestly I never thought I'd say that originally.

I have a couple friends with Dell laptops - one is an Inspiron the other is an XPS and they both really like theirs. Also, Consumer Reports for whatever they are worth gave them some pretty good marks compared to other notebooks.

The only other thing I looked at that I liked laptop wise is not made for gaming really, and those were the Thinkpads. They just seemed like a good laptop to work with and what not, and if I still have a good amount of money after coming back from Japan and I can get some money selling my old PC or something I may pick up a slightly older model of those.

Here is my setup abbreviated:
IntelCore2 Duo T7500 2.2Ghz/800MHz 4Mb cache
2GB Shared Dual Channel @ 667MHz
256MB Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT

+some other stuff I put on there = 1,474$

Haven't ordered it yet. I'll let this sit for the evening to get some responses then I will.

 

[Tagrineth]

Those specs will run FFXI great with the right drivers, that's what my notebook runs.

You just have to have the right driver for it. I use the 169.17 set - you can get it and a modified .INF file to install it - from laptopvideo2go.net, great resource for drivers..