Laptop choice advice

Hi all, I was wondering if I could get some advice on choosing a laptop. My tastes are more to the rpg / strategy end than any full blown shooters so it doesn't need to be foolishly resource intensive.

At the moment I've narrowed it down to two promising options, both have 17" screen size, same hard drive and RAM.

Option 1 - £525 HP Laptop, AMD Turion dual core 2.3GHz, High-Definition LED BrightView Display Colours, ATI Radeon HD 4530 512mb, link

Option 2 - £669 Dell Vostro, Intel Core 2 Duo T9550 (2.66GHz), Display 17in Widescreen WUXGA (1920X1200), Graphics 512 MB NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GS Black, link

Finding it really difficult to compare between AMD & Intel and Nvidia & ATI, all advice enormously appreciated

It all depends if you prefer performance or price…..

the 9600M has roughly 50% better performance than the 4530 though. The intel processor is a bit faster too, so yeah the dell will give you better performance, but it is quite pricy….

I'm not a fan of HP laptops, based on the poor reliability I saw when I was in the business. My opinion is anecdotal, but supported by other evidence.

http://www.squaretrade.com/pages/lap…iability-1109/

Since laptop video and CPUs can't be upgraded in most cases, any extra power means a longer usable lifespan. I see you've selected 17" models - you'll probably run higher resolutions, which will push the video harder. Even playing strat games, they'll look pretty ordinary if you need to run them at lower/non native resolutions on the 17" screen. So, the Dell out of those two.

If I had I a choice, I would stay away from Dell. Everyone of their high performance desktop replacement / workstation laptops has given me major headaches… Could be bleeding edge technology, or poor quality control (probably both). Not sure if HP laptops are any better, though…

I have some advice. Don't by a 17" laptop! Worst purcase I ever made.

Check out NotebookCheck.net. Very easy to compare components.

About HP and Dell. Quality differences between them varies from year to year.

I think I more recently suffered from Dell using Alienware manufacturers. Alienware was not known for reliable laptops… May have changed, though…

I'm with hishadow on this. 17 inch is really big, so you can't actually carry it around. I recommend 15 inch or 16 inch widescreen.

I have 2 17" laptops, the Dell being the heaviest by far. It's fine with shoulder carrying bag. I could never go back to a smaller screen.

My last Laptop was a HP HDX 16. Excellent 16" Widescreen ,Nvidia GT9600 Video and 4 GB RAM. The laptop is useful for both Work and gaming.

Others have reported problems with HP Laptops but I've had far more problems with both Laptops from Dell and IBM/Lenovo.

I have 2 Dell laptops which work fine, BUT their service is TERRIBLE!! Took 3 months, for example, to get a replacement battery from them, and an upgrade CD also took 3 months and a dozen emails after I was promised 3 WEEKS max!!

It could be due to your location. I had a bad graphics card installation, and a service tech came to my home in 1 day and replaced it! I think this was with their premium service plan, though.

I possess an HP TouchSmart Notebook PC and it's worked great for my RPGs. I love the Baldur's Gate series, and just replayed Throne of Bhaal a few months back, and my laptop ran it just fine.

Benedict how graphically intense your games are will determine what laptop you want, some rpgs/rts have some higher requirements. I've found that for older graphics, nvidea always had an edge. Its cheaper however to get a ati intergrated and meet your needs.