Need advice about laptops

**station82o** · 25 Dec 2009, 09:39 AM

My desktop is old (2002) and I'm pretty sure its on the way out, and I've been wanting to get a laptop for quite sometime so I've hit a point where I wanna make a purchase now. I'm not caught up on technology at all thesedays and was hoping some knowledgable peeps here could give me some pointers and advice on what to look for in laptops when buying one in mind to handle not only regular internet, word processing, etc stuff, but also play graphically intensive games on (such as Halo PC, Quake Live, an occasional new mmo, Age of Mythology type games)?

I'm told that laptops heat up quite quickly if you play a game, but I'm not sure if thats just about certain laptops or all of them (the person who told me this had a pretty old one). Without wanting to spend anywhere near close to 1000 bucks on this thing, is it possible to have a quality laptop that can handle games without frying itself? Thanks TNL!

**koda** · 25 Dec 2009, 02:34 PM

Computer stuff always gets hotter the harder it works, it's just that you notice it more with a laptop because it's on your lap and there's not much room for a cooling solution in there. Doesn't mean it'll fry though, it might just be less comfortable. "Gaming" laptops are typically an expensive variety, you'll pay more than you would for the same performance on a desktop system.

Just look for something with discreet graphics processing as opposed to integrated video. The "GeForce M" and "Mobility Radeon" are Nvidia and ATI's line of cards, respectively. The higher the model number, the better, pretty much. You can see some stats and benchmarks here.

You could get a desktop put together that would blow through those games and more for 500-600, but I'm not quite as confident about getting a comparable notebook in the same price bracket. I don't know what those games actually require to run well, though, so maybe it won't be a problem.

**station82o** · 26 Dec 2009, 07:11 AM

hmm good advice about making sure its not integrated video - i will remember that. Thinking about buying from newegg b/c ppl have recommended it, ever bought anything from there?