Looking for laptop suggestions

[Kothnok]

The only heat problem I have with my laptop is the wrist rest area for my left wrist gets unbearably hot while playing WoW.  To protect myself so that I don't develop blisters from the hot case, I use the anti-static cloth that came with the laptop folded up and placed over the hot area.  This is enough to protect myself from the hot graphics card (it sits right under that spot) and not get in the way of my using the laptop.  I've not had any other heat related issues with this model in about 8 months of near continuous use in a variety of environments.

[Lord Entropy]

I've been playing WoW on a Dell Inspiron 9300 for a couple of years now that originally cost about $1400.  I've had no issues other than some low framerates in shatt and a few other places.  Here's a couple of things I recommend:

Get the 17" widescreen.  Worth every penny.
A top-end graphics card is not necessary unless you like all the pretty bells-and-whistles turned on.
Get at least 2gigs of ram.  Upgrading from 1gig to 2 in my laptop made a huge difference, particularly with my slower HD.  Zoning is much faster, framerate is better, etc.  Also, since Laptop ram is generally more expensive to upgrade, you're better off getting the max from the outset.
The Keyboard is important.  I have big hands and the Dell for me fit better than others.  If you use the ctrl, shift, ALT and function keys, make sure you can reach them on the laptop since they are small on many models. Touch and feel will take some getting used to. Also, check the prices of replacement keyboards - Between hammering keys, spilling wine, and two toddlers, I've gone through 3 keyboards already.

You should be able to get a decent laptop that will run WoW easily for well under 2k.

[Lynette]

I never bought a laptop - now looking at a desktop unit instead.

The XPS line from Dell seems to be going away & the high end gaming systems are too pricey for me (HP Blackbird is $6k). 

Any suggestions for desktops these days?

[Ity]

Well, I just change my computer. I have no more lag (in Shat too ).

There is some characteristics:

4Go of memory
641Go of hard drive
graphic card : Geforce 9500 GT
Windows Vista

this is not a laptop but that work pretty well

oh yeah and this is an HP that cost under 1000$CAN 

[JohnnieRat]

my heat related problems were also due to keeping it on too long on the lap Sad

it doesnt let the vents breath

Gentlemen of twilight, I would HIGHLY advise against this if you are ever planning on children. The extreme heat that the bottomsides of laptops can give off and the high sensitivity of nearby hardware to extreme temperatures (especially for prolonged periods of time) could adversely effect your capabilities of "data transfer" in the long run. It's essentially the same reason why boxers are a better (for people trying to have kids) choice than briefs... heat control.

Anyways, I'm also running a dell 9300 series laptop and after upgrading to 2g of memory, I run WoW with no problems as a result of my computer... my shared internet network is another story sometimes though. I run a 350gig external harddrive as well for my all to large music collection in order to keep as much free space as possible on the machine as well. The only complaint I have is that my audio plug in jack is FUBAR and I have no sound at all unless I use a USB headphone.

[Tolwen]

I got the Imac around two weeks ago and I can say that it's like playing a new game! If you don't mind using mac that is

[Avelandra]

I play on a Toshiba Satellite P200. Its a desktop replacement model, 17inch screen. It has a good gfx card in it (Nvidia 7600 256MB), and it came custom-made and new from China. I <3 Toshibas, I've had 3 and my old-old one (its pushing 7years now) is still working well and is now a Light board for a theater company.

When I had some issues (all things break), never had any problems that couldn't be fixed in < 1-2 days. Most Warranty service centers have 1-2 day turnaround for any hardware issues, parts in stock, and some even have a "while you wait" service. I highly recommend Toshibas.

[grunkatze]

Well well..... I don't know if its an affordable suggestion, but I play on a Macbook pro laptop, 17 inches, 2,4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo (u can run windows if u prefer.... yuk! heheh)
I never have any problems with the game, actually its really fluid.
On another hand, macs laptop have the tendacy of getting really really really really hot, i can't play with my laptop on my knees because i'm going to burn myself...
Still, if you have 2k $, mac are good machine, very efficient, good quality and very durable.  We even have a field mac book that doesnt give up ! hehe
Or as I saw in suggestion, u can go with the Imac, very good machine to keep at home ! You'll be surprise how Mac screens are relaxing for the eyes! They have the new technology in it that is brighter and relax the eye (many ppl spend hours on their mac non stop, so u gotta love that ) and which makes that when u are on the side of the screen and try to look its not all black-darkish so u cant see. I don't recall the name of that technology tho, sorry about that.
But if you are looking for a lower price / quality item, I would recommand any toshiba Laptop.  Marklor used his toshiba for very very very long time and never brought it to a technicial and it never broke... We even resold it 800 $.... thought he paid $1800 for it 3 years ago.  Again, very efficient machine, good quality and lots of fluidity for games (even if its not built for games, it gives a very good result). If i was still on PC, I wouldn't mind using a second hand Toshiba Laptop as a new laptop to play WoW.

Hope that helps !

[un4]

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20040703


Edit: continuing the hatefest.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEAGmBRC1dc[/youtube]

Mild profanity.

[Kothnok]

While my prior Toshiba laptop was good (though it was too underpowered to run TBC well at all), this last one I bought was a lemon.  It overheated two weeks ago, so I started dismantling it trying to find out the cause and see if it was repairable.  The P100-ST9772 has two fans, one for CPU and one for GPU, I know this because I've taken it apart a couple of times before to clean out the accumulated dust and hair from the fans and heatsinks.  What I realized after taking it apart this last time is that while there are two separate fans requiring two separate intake vents, the intake vent for the CPU fan was sealed shut instead of covered with a wire mesh like the GPU fan intake.  Not only that but a couple other vents over hot areas were also sealed shut.  WTF?

Anyway, enough about a bricked laptop.

Thanks to having just enough room on my Best Buy credit card and their special this month of 2 years 0% interest on any purchases over $1k, I now have a shiny new HP Pavilion dv7-1025nr (literally shiny).  It's hard to find a good laptop at places like Best Buy since they either sell crap for too much or grandiose machines that are insanely expensive - not to mention it's nigh impossible to customize.  I was quite surprised to find this HP there as the other machines I was looking at in this price range didn't come close to all the features this had.  I don't care for the chrome touchpad as my finger tends to stutter across it rather than glide, but since I use a corded USB mouse, I don't have to care about it.  The discrete vidcard used is faster than what my old Toshiba had, the 4gig RAM is very nice, Vista64 is... meh, the wireless n card is great, and what really surprised me was that it had 2 bays for hard drives!  I now have a total of just over 500gig of space on it. =)  WoW ran well last night with no lockups, no disconnects, no slowdowns, and the lowest frame rate I got in Hijal last night was 22fps.  Normally it fluctuated between 40 and 60 fps. 

It's good to be back and I look forward to playing again as I've not had a stable gaming platform all year.  Now that I have WoW installed and running, time to install all my career related software and get back to work.    Priorities!

[Tolwen]

While my prior Toshiba laptop was good (though it was too underpowered to run TBC well at all), this last one I bought was a lemon.  It overheated two weeks ago, so I started dismantling it trying to find out the cause and see if it was repairable.  The P100-ST9772 has two fans, one for CPU and one for GPU, I know this because I've taken it apart a couple of times before to clean out the accumulated dust and hair from the fans and heatsinks.  What I realized after taking it apart this last time is that while there are two separate fans requiring two separate intake vents, the intake vent for the CPU fan was sealed shut instead of covered with a wire mesh like the GPU fan intake.  Not only that but a couple other vents over hot areas were also sealed shut.  WTF?

Anyway, enough about a bricked laptop.

Thanks to having just enough room on my Best Buy credit card and their special this month of 2 years 0% interest on any purchases over $1k, I now have a shiny new HP Pavilion dv7-1025nr (literally shiny).  It's hard to find a good laptop at places like Best Buy since they either sell crap for too much or grandiose machines that are insanely expensive - not to mention it's nigh impossible to customize.  I was quite surprised to find this HP there as the other machines I was looking at in this price range didn't come close to all the features this had.  I don't care for the chrome touchpad as my finger tends to stutter across it rather than glide, but since I use a corded USB mouse, I don't have to care about it.  The discrete vidcard used is faster than what my old Toshiba had, the 4gig RAM is very nice, Vista64 is... meh, the wireless n card is great, and what really surprised me was that it had 2 bays for hard drives!  I now have a total of just over 500gig of space on it. =)  WoW ran well last night with no lockups, no disconnects, no slowdowns, and the lowest frame rate I got in Hijal last night was 22fps.  Normally it fluctuated between 40 and 60 fps. 

It's good to be back and I look forward to playing again as I've not had a stable gaming platform all year.  Now that I have WoW installed and running, time to install all my career related software and get back to work.    Priorities!

wb Koth, looking forward to raiding with you:)