AMD laptops...

[SaturnBeat]

Not twice the price, the XPS 2 is fairly reasonable as this version cost me 1100 pounds although I've added ram and plan on upgrading a couple of other parts. The desktop wasn't that far off the price, in fact the price of a 2005fpw and 6800 Ultra alone aren't far off the cost of the XPS 2.

The screen is a 17 inch WUXGA panel which runs at 1920x1200, the difference basically is that everything is a lot smaller so you have a lot more screenspace to work with.

If your panel is a widescreen on, you need to find its native resolution and run it at that, the typical resolution for a WXGA panel is 1280x768.

John

1100 pounds is still a lot of money! Ohh ok forget the prices lol.

Mine still looks a bit crappy at 1280x768. By the way, do you know what's WSXGA+ ? Because apparently I have that as well, but no idea what it is.

[Damo]

John where did you get the Dell XPS 2+ for £1100?

[Johnmcl7]

Given the specification, ignoring it's a laptop it's not a lot of money for the spec. WSXGA+ should be 1680x1050, which laptop model is this?

Damo: From the Dell Outlet.

John

[Damo]

Did you use some sort of voucher John? Minimum price I can seem to find is upwards of the £1500 mark.

[Johnmcl7]

No, I bought it from the Dell Outlet as I said already, minimum prices are 1500+ plus if you buy the XPS 2 through the standard Dell site.

John

[Damo]

Yeah sorry, too much beer at lunch time.

I found the outlet store but they seem to have none in stock at the moment!

[Johnmcl7]

They rarely do, took me two weeks of refreshing the Outlet to get mine.

John

[SaturnBeat]

Given the specification, ignoring it's a laptop it's not a lot of money for the spec. WSXGA+ should be 1680x1050, which laptop model is this?

John

But you see I have WXGA and WSXGA+ ... well at least that's what it says here on the sticker of the laptop. It's a Samsung X30. And a resolution like this doesn't exist here on mine.

[Chuck232]

Samsung actually makes some pretty decent laptops. They look very nice and sleek too. However, depending on what you're doing, the X30 may not be the right choice. As far as I know, the video card isn't very powerful (especially depends which model X30 you're looking at) and if you're gaming, it won't even come close to your desktop. WSXGA+ is 1680x1050 as John said. That's what I've got on my 15.4" screen and I have to say, it's a lot better than the WXGA. WUXGA on a 15.4" is pushing it although the 17" XPS2 should be a lot better for that high of a resolution.

[SaturnBeat]

Samsung = poop! But that's only my opinion. I didn't buy that laptop, it was my dad's choice. I wouldn't be stupid enough to get a Samsung for any type of work or gaming. They do have a nice design, but I've had so much bad experience with Samsung that I get turned off even when I hear the name of that company. And you're right, the video card sucks, it's a GeForce FX Go 5200 64MB. I used to game on it, because I didn't have a desktop, now that I do I don't even come close to the laptop.

[thefatty369]

Hey guys, I'm new to the whole forum thing. I've viewed them before, but only as an outsider. I'm now a member and I have some comments/ questions.

As I understand, Centrinos are not good for gaming. They have a low FSB, and are designed for efficient power use. I'm not AMD biased. I think the Centrino is great, and I helped my girlfriend get a Vaio with a 1.7ghz Centrino.

But for me, I'm getting an A64 4000. The only thing I worry about is the graphics card. I've had trouble with ATI. I'll post the specs of my purchase:

HP Pavilion zv6000 customizable Notebook PC

– Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home Edition with SP2
– AMD Athlon(TM) 64 4000+ (2.4GHz/1MB l2 Cache)
– 15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen (1280x800)
– 128MB ATI RADEON(R) XPRESS 200M w/Hypermemory(TM)
– 1.0GB DDR SDRAM (2x512MB)
– 100 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive
– DVD+/-RW/R & CD-RW Combo w/Double Layer Support
– 54g(TM) Integ. Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN & Bluetooth
– 12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
– Microsoft(R) Works/Money
– hpshopping in-box envelope
$1,594.00

What do you think guys? Good deal? Or not?

[Johnmcl7]

Absolute nonsense, the centrinos are perfectly capable of gaming, the XPS 2 with a Pentium-m is one of the most powerful gaming laptops there is. Currently the Pentium-ms (centrino is a platform name, pentium-m is the actual processor) hold all the top superpi records beating even the AMD FX-57's. All this and it can still run cooler with better batterylife than pretty much any other processor out there. The sooner Intel brings the Pentium-m to the desktop the better.

The machine you've listed is not great, the hard drive is extremely slow and the graphics card is an integrated one so it's going to be pretty much useless for gaming.

If you must go AMD, I'd consider Turion, desktop processors in laptops are generally noisier, poor batterylife and can lead to overheating problems longer term.

John

[Johnmcl7]

But you see I have WXGA and WSXGA+ ... well at least that's what it says here on the sticker of the laptop. It's a Samsung X30. And a resolution like this doesn't exist here on mine.

The laptop was shipped with either the WXGA screen (1280x800) or the WSXGA+(1680x1050), obviously it can't be both. If you can't go any higher than 1280x800 then it must be the WXGA screen.

John

[thefatty369]

I don't see how the pentium M can game so well with such a low FSB (compared to AMD64 1600MHZ) and lower clock speed 1.7 v 2.2. Maybe I just don't understand the crazy way they label these things, but I thought that higher numbers were better.

I admit, I don't know much about the Turion. I just knew the AMD64's reputation. I put a 90nm 3500+ in one of the machines I built, and it was balls to the wall performance, with the ASUS SLI deluxe board, and a Raptor drive. The 6600GT had something to do with that also, but that was still a good proc.

Besides, I got the 12cell battery, instead of the 8cell, so what's a little battery life?

[freedon]

Absolute nonsense, the centrinos are perfectly capable of gaming, ...John

I agree with John. I have a Dell Latitude D810, pentium M 2.0Gh and a Radeon x600. Though it ain't as powerfull as the one offered in the XPS line, I can play WoW with almost max settings and AA and AF turned on (with Ati's control panel). I've also tried Half life 2, not enough settings that on WoW, but it still plays great.