New laptop help

[Royal Flush]

Hello geeky peeps, especially Nem.


I am looking to get a new laptop, it needs to have 1600x1200 resolution minimum and be fast enough to run 4/5 different poker sites at the same time with no lag, ideally it will be running Vista (whenever that comes out) but other than that it won't need to have any serious power behind it.

Any tips anyone?

[snoopy1239]

 

[the-oneeye]

when u do decide james let me know and you can put it through the cosmo club business account. If you buy windows xp now u get a free upgrade when vista is released. Just bought my daughter a viao with everything u asked for. Bit pricey but u can get it in pink mate

[LLevan]

Your main concern appears to be the resolution allowing you to use at least 4 tables without overlap on a 1600 x 1200. Unfortunately not many laptops come with graphics cards that run up to 1600 x 1200. From the top of my head the only laptop I can recall that definetely runs at 1600 x 1200 is an older Dell Latitude C640. They tend to have a mobile pentium 4 processor up to about 2.4 Ghz maximum and I think the maximum Ram they can run is 1 Ghz, they also have a spare mini PCI slot allowing an inbuilt Wifi card which will run faster than an external card(PCMCIA or USB dongle). Having said that if you are solely using it for playing poker and nothing much else, as long as you have a decent broadband connection you shouldnt really have any problems with lag as long as you stay clear of Ladbrokes which seems to use too much of most people's processor power for some unknown reason.
You should be able to pick up a Dell C640 on Ebay for something in the region of £200.00. it might not be the prettiest of laptops but it will be a solid workhorse and remember you will also be able to connect an external monitor and extend your desktop giving you the opportunity of adding another 4 tables without overlap on an external monitor with 1600 x 1200 resolution.

[Royal Flush]

when u do decide james let me know and you can put it through the cosmo club business account. If you buy windows xp now u get a free upgrade when vista is released. Just bought my daughter a viao with everything u asked for. Bit pricey but u can get it in pink mate

Ok cool, Jane has a Vaio, i don.t really like them, hers is always having problems and they are very heavy with short battery life. I have only ever had toshiba and gateway (back in the day) laptops, Toshiba i have never had any problems with. I would also get a Dell as they are pretty reliable PC's.

Your main concern appears to be the resolution allowing you to use at least 4 tables without overlap on a 1600 x 1200. Unfortunately not many laptops come with graphics cards that run up to 1600 x 1200. From the top of my head the only laptop I can recall that definetely runs at 1600 x 1200 is an older Dell Latitude C640. They tend to have a mobile pentium 4 processor up to about 2.4 Ghz maximum and I think the maximum Ram they can run is 1 Ghz, they also have a spare mini PCI slot allowing an inbuilt Wifi card which will run faster than an external card(PCMCIA or USB dongle). Having said that if you are solely using it for playing poker and nothing much else, as long as you have a decent broadband connection you shouldnt really have any problems with lag as long as you stay clear of Ladbrokes which seems to use too much of most people's processor power for some unknown reason.
You should be able to pick up a Dell C640 on Ebay for something in the region of £200.00. it might not be the prettiest of laptops but it will be a solid workhorse and remember you will also be able to connect an external monitor and extend your desktop giving you the opportunity of adding another 4 tables without overlap on an external monitor with 1600 x 1200 resolution.

I was looking on Dell and found a few which run at 1900x1200 i am just not sure about the other specs, i am so out of touch with laptop specs, is Vista going to be resource heavy? I won't be buyin it on Ebay thats something i know for sure. I forgot to mention before battery life is quite important too, i notice dell now say they have 5hr+ battery life, how correct is that? I use my current laptop with my monitor some times but it's a pain as if i am running more than 2 sites i get lag on it. I will almost always be using it away from home too so its not really an option. Price isn't really an issue, i guess i am after someone who is into all this lark to give me a few options and a price range, i know if i at least spend a decent amount it will last me a while!

[the-oneeye]

Only problem u get with sonys is they get very hot . they have positioned 6 capacitors right next to the processora which expell alot of heat. I think they have resolved the battery issues now. There are some nice ibms out there but they are serious money

[byronkincaid]

I'm a laptop fish I've never had one but I need to get one soon so I have been keeping an eye out. If you go for a Dell then one of the ones that comes with 1900/1200 has no PCMI? slot which I think means you can't plug a mobile phone sim card thingy in. the other ones they do are the XPS range I think which are rebranded Alien Ware laptops. These are meant to be hugely unreliable.

[Nem]

How much do you want to spend, fish?

Dual Core or (Quad core - if they're out yet). WUXGA screen. 2GB of RAM minimum with the option to increase it if you wanted to.

NVIDIA graphic cards have compatibility problems with Poker Tracker.

Dell's are good, Alienware are supposedly  better. I've been told MESH are good also.

[byronkincaid]

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showflat.php?Cat=0&Number=4216143&page=0&fpart=all&vc=1

9 second battery life

[totalise]

How much do you want to spend, fish?

Dual Core or (Quad core - if they're out yet). WUXGA screen. 2GB of RAM minimum with the option to increase it if you wanted to.

NVIDIA graphic cards have compatibility problems with Poker Tracker.

Dell's are good, Alienware are supposedly  better. I've been told MESH are good also.

every poker player I ever spoke to said Alienware is disgraceful. Small sample, may be results orientated.

[Royal Flush]

How much do you want to spend, fish?

Dual Core or (Quad core - if they're out yet). WUXGA screen. 2GB of RAM minimum with the option to increase it if you wanted to.

NVIDIA graphic cards have compatibility problems with Poker Tracker.

Dell's are good, Alienware are supposedly  better. I've been told MESH are good also.

I don't want to go crazy buying a top of the range gaming machine, but i want it to last for a few years without worrying about performance. I was looking at the dell inspiron 9400 and the XPSM1710 last night, would they do the job?

[M3boy]

Google for it ya lazy B'stad!!!!! lol

Plenty of sites m8 and reviews

[RobS]

How much do you want to spend, fish?

Dual Core or (Quad core - if they're out yet). WUXGA screen. 2GB of RAM minimum with the option to increase it if you wanted to.

NVIDIA graphic cards have compatibility problems with Poker Tracker.

Dell's are good, Alienware are supposedly  better. I've been told MESH are good also.

I don't want to go crazy buying a top of the range gaming machine, but i want it to last for a few years without worrying about performance. I was looking at the dell inspiron 9400 and the XPSM1710 last night, would they do the job?

I bought a Dell Inspiron 9400 with WXUGA in September. No problems at all with it so far. Four tables with no overlap (and a bit of spare room), it doesn't get particularly hot and a 3-4 hour battery life. I would definitely recommend getting it, it was about £900, and make sure you get WXUGA (which is basically the code for widescreen).

Rob

[Royal Flush]

Google for it ya lazy B'stad!!!!! lol

Plenty of sites m8 and reviews

Would rather get some first hand experience!

[Nem]

How much do you want to spend, fish?

Dual Core or (Quad core - if they're out yet). WUXGA screen. 2GB of RAM minimum with the option to increase it if you wanted to.

NVIDIA graphic cards have compatibility problems with Poker Tracker.

Dell's are good, Alienware are supposedly  better. I've been told MESH are good also.

I don't want to go crazy buying a top of the range gaming machine, but i want it to last for a few years without worrying about performance. I was looking at the dell inspiron 9400 and the XPSM1710 last night, would they do the job?

Yes and yes. Like Rob said, just make sure the screen is WUXGA and get 2GB of RAM.