Need help finding a decent budget laptop.

[Reaper Man]

I need a laptop for school which would be relatively powerful as I want to be able to do Photoshop work and possibly Maya work on it. I know many low-end computers can run these two programs, but I want a laptop that will actually run them at tolerable speeds by current-day standards <_<.

My budget is ~$800US. I may be able to push it up a little but my parents are being really stingy about money (ironic, as some may know, they bought me a Nikon D80 without me even asking for one and even more recently they ordered a fucking huge 1080P TV without the monthly payment option; they just bought it straight up). I don't know much about current laptop standards so I'm hoping that you guys can help me out...

[Mr Buckshot]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834280004

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834210004

Both have AMD Turion 64 X2 processors and only 1 gig of RAM, but they're $780 and $850 respectively. Both have Geforce Go 7600s as well. The Geforce Go 7600 is a great laptop card for the price and can push high settings in games these days, and run your 3D programs very well. I'm afraid I couldn't get you any C2D-configured laptops (at least those with dedicated video cards) because they'd cost more than $1000. If all you wanna do is run 3D programs, though, you can find C2D-configured laptops with integrated Geforce 6150s for less than $800.

If you buy either I recommend you get a second gig of RAM too since they both have Vista installed (unless you have an XP CD). Personally, I'd go for the $850 laptop because it's 15.4" as opposed to the 17" notebook (first link), plus it has a webcam and other features that the $780 notebook lacks. Anyway, buying a laptop that is 17" and larger is kinda ridiculous since that huge size negates the purpose of a laptop - to be a portable PC that can sit on a small surface and run off a battery.

[Reaper Man]

I was looking at this one: http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/hk/en/ho/WF05a/1090709-1116637-1123071-1123071-1123071-80399812.html?jumpid=oc_R1002_HKENC-001_Compaq%20Presario%20V3419AU%20Notebook%20PC&lang=en&cc=hk (http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/hk/en/ho/WF05a/1090709-1116637-1123071-1123071-1123071-80399812.html?jumpid=oc_R1002_HKENC-001_Compaq&#37;20Presario%20V3419AU%20Notebook%20PC&lang=en&cc=hk)
But the ones you linked me seem pretty good. My one concern is the warranty, as I, as you already know, live in Hong Kong...

That Presario laptop comes with Vista Home Basic. I read that there's an easy way to enable Aero in Home Basic, but I was wondering whether or not it would effect the performance much? I don't know much about Vista...

[Mr Buckshot]

HP/Compaq are must-avoids IMO. My sister has already gone through two tablets from them while my dad went through one business laptop (he now has a pimped out Sony VAIO SZ).

Besides, the Presario still costs more than the two aforementioned laptops and it only has an integrated Geforce 6150. While the 6150 is good enough for your 3D stuff (hell, it's even powerful enough to run Doom 3 at 800x600 on medium, 30 fps), a dedicated card will serve you better in the long run.

I've seen cheap laptops for $600-$700 USD that have decent CPUs with Geforce 6150s. If you think you can survive with only the integrated 6150, look here: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3591 - it shows you what that card can do, so you can think about it.

www.notebookreview.com and www.notebookcheck.net are great sites to get up-to-date info on good deals.

[Reaper Man]

Meh, it seems my dad thinks that the Presario is the best choice. I may actually be getting it tomorrow, as I can just pick it up right at the store... The other ones you've mentioned would take a while to get here... I don't plan to be gaming on my laptop. I don't see what's so bad about HP... They seem to make really nice workstations and I don't really care about their tablets, as I'm currently using a Wacom Intuos 3...

[Mr Buckshot]

By tablet, I mean those folding laptops with touch screens. Gone through one from HP, one from Compaq, and both failed. My dad went through a Presario business laptop, which died within 1 month of purchase. Now my sis and dad both use Sony VAIO.

If you don't plan to game the Geforce 6150 is good enough I guess.

[Reaper Man]

By tablet, I mean those folding laptops with touch screens. Gone through one from HP, one from Compaq, and both failed. My dad went through a Presario business laptop, which died within 1 month of purchase. Now my sis and dad both use Sony VAIO.

If you don't plan to game the Geforce 6150 is good enough I guess.
If I did get bored outta my skull, how would the Geforce 6150 perform with a Source game? (i.e. HL2)

[Dr Dmoney]

Come out, HP sucks... Not me but my family has had atleast 2-3 of them and parts just kept failing left and right. I thing told them to let me help. A I got them a decent one for newegg a while back.

[kenney001]

If I did get bored outta my skull, how would the Geforce 6150 perform with a Source game? (i.e. HL2)

the Geforce 6150 is the lowest possible intigrated chip that will actually run HL2 at all, but on low settings @ 640x480. Get something that has at least a 7600 or Radeon x1600

[Mr Buckshot]

Actually, the Geforce 6150 should be able to hit HL2 at 800x600 on medium. HL2, like all Source games is more CPU dependent. If a Geforce 4 Ti 4600 can handle it at 1024x768on whatever the highest DX8.1 can push, the 6150 can do a little better.

Reaper Man doesn't really need a laptop for gaming (you should see his desktop). Gaming or not, never get a laptop with integrated Intel graphics. They own at solitaire but fail at everything else. Even the GMA X3100, which is Intel's first that offers hardware T&L, has serious compatibility issues.

The 6150 was the single best IGP out there until the Radeon X1250 (not to be confused with the Xpress 1150) released. The Radeon X1250 actually is on par with some AGP DX9 cards that were considered "midrange" back in their day, i.e. Radeon 9550.

But hey, read that article I posted a few posts back. It demonstrates just how "mighty" the Geforce 6150 is. If it can run FEAR playably without the game looking like an eyesore (though you lose a lot of the scare factor), it's not bad at all.

I still think those two Newegg laptops I suggested are the best options. AMD Turon 64 X2 cannot hold a candle to C2D, but is good enough.

[Reaper Man]

But they both only have a gig of ram :gonk:. The one I'm probably getting today, has 2 gigs. Also, the ones you mentioned are 1.6ghz, this one is 1.8.