I haven't seen a laptop thread in at least 2 weeks, so I figure the site is due for another one [lol]. Here's the deal, my desktop is getting old and I'm looking for a laptop to replace it. I want something fairly high-end, so that I can use it for gaming and playing around with DirectX 10, but I'd like to spend less than $2000. Right now, I'm leaning towards the Asus G2P. That particular model comes with XP Media Center Edition, but it's not a big deal since I can get Vista free through Academic Alliance. My biggest concern with the machine is its graphics card, an ATI Mobility X1700. I'd prefer an nVidia GeForce Go 7950, but I can't find a laptop that has one in my price range. So, can the X1700 handle DX10, and if so how well? Feel free to give other laptop suggestions. Thanks!

Nope, neither the X1700 or the Go 7950 can handle DX10. Only ATI's new HD 2xxx and nVidia's 8 series can, and neither are in laptops yet.

You're not going to get the 79XX for that price. You might be able to get a dell e1705 close with a 7900. I got the Asus G1 and have been quite happy with it so far. I didn't get the G2 because of the crappy resolution, video card was slower and it was bigger then the G1.

I do like the G1. If the 7700 is really faster than the X1700, then that's probably the laptop I'd lean more towards.

I also just speced out a desktop for around $1600 that's pretty high end (8800GTX, Core 2 Duo E6600, 4 gigs of RAM), so now I don't know whether I want to build that or get a laptop. The laptop would be nice for school, but I could play Crysis on the desktop, so I'm torn. Thoughts?

Quote: Original post by Driv3MeFar
I do like the G1. If the 7700 is really faster than the X1700, then that's probably the laptop I'd lean more towards.

I also just speced out a desktop for around $1600 that's pretty high end (8800GTX, Core 2 Duo E6600, 4 gigs of RAM), so now I don't know whether I want to build that or get a laptop. The laptop would be nice for school, but I could play Crysis on the desktop, so I'm torn. Thoughts?

That's entirely up to how you use it. Since I've had a son, I don't really have room for a desk and full blown desktop so that's why I opted for the G1. I really enjoy being able to work on things out on the porch, on the couch, or in bed. If things get too noisy at home I can take it to the coffee shop in order to get things done. I really appreciate the versatility even though it costs me in potential gaming performance (I just have a 7600GS in my desktop).

notebookforums.com is an excellent place to go for laptop research. Next month the new centrino pro "standard" stuff is supposed to be available for sale. Those require a DX10 part to get the badge among other things. btw. Another name for it when you are looking around is Santa Rosa.

Thanks for the help everyone. I think I've settled on the Toshiba P105-S9337. I do really like the Asus G1, but the Toshiba is about the same price and comes with a GeForce7900 (which beats the 7700 in fill rate and memory bandwidth, but is only a 256MB card [sad]). The HD seems woefully slow, and it can't support as high a resolution as the G1, but I think all in all its a pretty good machine for under $2k.

Has anyone had a good/bad experience with this or any other Toshiba laptops?

Quote:
Has anyone had a good/bad experience with this or any other Toshiba laptops?

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I personally collected a $500 settlement for my Toshiba a few years back. IMO, Toshiba makes some of the worst pile of crap laptops you can buy. However, in their defense, I can load Linux on it and the distro usually has all of the drivers for the video, audio, and network built-in, which is more than what I can say for Windows XP.

Might want to take another look at the Asus. If you're planning on running Linux on it though, look somewhere else because Asus "doesn't support open-source operating systems". Don't take me wrong, I'm a huge Asus fan and have Asus motherboards in most of the computers I build - but they do not test for Linux nor require critical OEM components to have Linux drivers.

To celebrate my return to the gaming industry, I'm buying a Macbook Pro. Runs Linux, OS/X, and XP either natively or through emulation.

Just my 2 cents.

There is NO DX10 card in stores except the NVIDIA 8800 series right now. The ATI R600 is allegedly shipping any year now, and NVIDIA is making noise about the 8600 and lower echelons, but none of them are in stores. And, even worse, none of them yet even have a laptop version.

I believe that if you want DX10 support in a laptop, wait for the back-to-school specials.

Quote: Original post by hplus0603
There is NO DX10 card in stores except the NVIDIA 8800 series right now. The ATI R600 is allegedly shipping any year now, and NVIDIA is making noise about the 8600 and lower echelons, but none of them are in stores. And, even worse, none of them yet even have a laptop version.

I believe that if you want DX10 support in a laptop, wait for the back-to-school specials.

[sad] That's disappointing, but I'll probably be too busy with school and whatnot to play around with DX10 for now anyway.

To those who are interested, I went with the Asus G1. I was tempted to get the Sager 5760, but in the end I didn't want to pay the extra $400 for essentially just a better video card.

Thanks for all your help!