My New Computer

[DMiller]

So last weekend my friend and I tried to fix my old laptop. The power cord wouldn't charge unless I forced it into a 45º angle, which obviously wasn't good for it. So after some soldering we tried to turn the computer back on and only heard the faint sound of the harddrive attempting to start. RIP PowerBook G3. It was 5 years old, though, which isn't a bad age for a laptop. Anyway, I know there aren't any Mac people here, but I have to show off my new baby:



Relevant Stats:
2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 Ram
160 GB Hard Drive (Not much, but my media files are stored on external drives)
Built-In Video Camera (It took the picture)
The keyboard glows in low-light situations to make it easier to see
Multi-touch trackpad. Dragging two fingers horizontally or vertically simulates a scroll wheel.

The best part is I can finally play computer games again! I have to get myself an XP install disc so I can play the PC games that weren't released for the Mac. Yet another gaming platform I own and will have no time to play!

[A Black Falcon]

You can play some games, but given that it's a Mac and a laptop... that's two strikes against a decent video card...

[DMiller]

Yeah, I didn't mention the videocard. It's a NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GS with 128MB so it definitely isn't anything to write home about. I've been out of computer games so long, though, that I still have to get around to playing Warcraft III. Yes, Warcraft III, not WOW.

[A Black Falcon]

... yeah, the biggest catch in computers is the video card. Unless you really go out there and make sure that you get a good one you'll almost certainly get something bad... and with laptops I think it's virtually impossible to really get a good card (they're just too big... laptop cards aren't as good though at higher prices they get close). But as I said it's also true that Macs come with worse cards than PCs generally, for some reason... whatever Apple's reason is for not caring one bit about gaming, it's unfortunate for its fans.

[Dark Jaguar]

Sometimes NVidia's numbering of their cards is just plain confusing. I have two Geforce 7600 GTs and they work just plain great.

Anyway, they don't just put the WHOLE card in the laptop ABF, they just directly place the GPU on the main board. This makes it a lot easier to get it in there, make it fast (PCI-E fast), and get the power you would expect. However, the average laptop is made with the business person in mind, not the gamer, so they skimp on the graphics because most people, save CAD designers, don't need to have great 3D graphics.

That's why you have to make sure the laptop you get is specifically spec'd for gaming. Mine, for example, while very cheap and on the "low end" was still meant for gaming so I got a decent video card solution in there. Nowhere near enough for modern gaming, it was still a cheap laptop, but I can play Counterstrike Source and Warcraft 3 and most of my multiplayer stuff just fine, which is really all I wanted my laptop to be able to do. Oh, by the way, Steam now lets you play without it logged in. No more getting around it by starting it up before I lose my net connection, it now will just start in "offline mode" whenever it can't find a net connection. The only thing is the very first time I play any Steam game it has to authenticate itself one time online before I can play it. That's it and I can live with that.

So anyway, Alienware for instance makes gaming specific computers with multiple GPUs of the latest calibur and some nice video card RAM in there, so you can get a sweet gaming laptop that easily competes with desktop standards.

But it isn't cheap... not even close...

[DMiller]

Yeah, I didn't get the laptop for gaming. I was kind of forced to get a laptop since my old one died. Otherwise I had been planning on getting a new desktop. I'm pretty happy with it so far, though. All the web design apps I use (Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Fireworks) run great, and that is the main thing I use my computer for. Once I get Windows XP and get Visual Studio installed I'll have everything I use for work on my laptop.