Looking for a laptop under these specs ...

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dragoon38900

New Member
I am trying to buy a laptop that is great for gaming and video/picture editing too (like making anime music videos). My budget is about a $1000 (+ or - 200 depending on the deals).

So far I think these are the specs I am looking for:
Processor:
Looking for a good processor for better video editing. Is upgrading cache from 2mb to 3mb a significant difference? I want to be able to run editing programs smoothly such as premeire pro, photoshop, after effects (simualtaneously). Is the p8400 core 2 duo good? or is it too much or too little for what Im trying to do on a laptop. (I wont be doing 3D stuff, but I will be doing alot of video rendering)

Video Card:
decent video card (all my desktops have nvidia, so im sticking with nvidia). Probably the only games I will be looking foward into playing later is diablo 3 or starcraft 2. As of now, I dont play too many intensive graphics games, but if I do, I should at least be able to play on normal/decent settings. I dont know if I should go for gforce 8 or 9 series and which model. How about NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT? compare it to the graphics cards I have written in my signature.

Hard Drive:
a 7200 rpm hard drive no less. space does not matter, I have external HDs.

RAM:
At least 3gb of ram.

Screen size:
no less than 15.4 inch (preferred 17 inch)


I know that my budget is very low, but if anyone can help me find something like or close to what I need, it would be appreciative. Thank you.

edit* I have searched some laptops online, and I can find some laptops that come close, but always lacks something. Like everything was good, but then the Hard drive was only 5400. Or if the HD was 7200, some other part was lacking, like the video card (being intergrated or something). Which is the most important aspect for a laptop?...
 
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This is very close to what Im looking for. However its a bit more priced than my budget. Is there a model with a lower video card? I wont be playing graphic intense games like maybe crysis.

Edit**

Nevermind about sticking with Nvidia. I'll try to widen my options like that because for some reason, almost no laptop with my specific specs exist. And its usually because of the fact that most of them out there have only 5400 rpm. The ones that do have 7200 are either way too expensive, or sometimes (most of the time they are more expensive, for some reason, those HDs comes with laptops that offers higher end cards and processors) does not have a good enough video card. Now Ive searched in this forum, and I remember someone saying that a 320 gig 5400 rpm will run the same as a 160 gig 7200 rpm. Is that true? Also, in a laptop, is the difference you'll find between a 7200 and 5400 the same as that of a desktop?
 
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Just wanna bump and add a few more things...

I decided that I will overlook the hardrive part, since it probably doesnt exist, or im not looking hard enough. My best bet is to buy a new hardrive and install it. I saw some sweet deals in newegg for 7200 rpm hds.
Therefore, my budget will change to a max of about 1100~1150.

Whats the best 15+ inch laptop that will do good for a person who is into video editing, playing mmorpgs, that doesnt need to play crysis, and should be able to play Diablo 3 in the future? Now I dont know the requirements for the game (D3), but if any of you guys seen the demonstrations, which is in www.diablo3.com, you can probably guess what kind of video card can play it smoothly. Since its been more than a year that Ive researched about video cards, and Ive never researched about mobile cards on laptops, I wouldnt really know.

With my changes, I would list my priorities as so:
1. Processor - Best possible CPU on a $1100-1150 laptop?
2. Video Card - A video card that can play Diablo 3, and thus it can probably play my current games as well (CS source, Fear are probably highest end games I have.... im behind, i know...). Ill go with Nvidia or ATI...
5. Size (no smaller than 15.4 inch)
4. Ram - At least 2, but if theres a good deal with only 1 gig, and buying a separate one is possible, then so be it.
5. I dont care about the HD anymore as I will just upgrade it if necessary.

One of the reasons I want to buy a new laptop is because of the power/electric bill.... I figured that sometimes, Ill just be using my desktop for something so simple and Im just wasting the electricity. I have 5 computers, including a laptop in my house, and there could be 4 people using them at once, and it really adds up. So I thought, maybe a laptop will do the trick... and its portable.

From what I found, theres a lot of deals with a 9600 gs video card and a Mobility HD 3650. How would these do? Or should I look for at least a 9600 gt (how much better is it from the gs?)?
Heres some that I found:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117832
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220340
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220395
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115507

The last one actually had the 7200 rpm I was looking for, but at the same price, theres an Asus that has a better CPU and Video card with a 5400 rpm. However, the price is a bit much still and over my maximum budget.

And finally, I have a bad experience with my Dell XPS laptop. I think its a rip off, and that Microsoft has made an ingenious marketing scheme with releasing something like Vista... I would get more into it but thats off topic. Apparently, vista, from what ive read, needs 2 gigs of ram to even have it run smoothly. 1 gig is just not enough, which is what my laptop has... and its really slow. Probably slower than my old XP laptop which had 512 mb ram. So I dont know the main reason why its slow... it has a core 2 duo 1.8 ghz, not sure what model. I dont want a laptop thats this slow, so Im not skimping out on CPU or Ram.

OH and black friday is coming up, so I'll probably buy the laptop on the huge sales. If theres no $1000-1200 laptop that fits my needs, just tell me what specs to look for so that when the sales come up, I know what to choose. Maybe those $1500+ laptops will come down to $1000-1200 :cool:
 
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