Msi M630

Hi,

I'm planing on buying this notebook and was hoping someone could has it and could tell me something about it.
What do you think, worth to get it?
I'm thinking of Sempron 3100, 1GB ram, 60GB, 8-cell battery, DVD-RW,..
the only thing that bothers me, is the graphic card. I'm in no way a gamer, but you I for instance plan Age of Empires 3 on this? (The reason I ask is, the game is included for free with the purchase, but I just can't figure it could work on it).
So, full price is around 800 bucks, which I think it's great for my needs. Just need to be mobile and do something in PS once a month.


Another thing I'd like to ask, is the 1280x800 resolution. Is it true, that this resolution will deform the picture, since it isn't the right ratio like 1280x1024 for instance? Will circles really become ellipses on the screen?

TIA!!

Mat

 

Well, depending on the price it is not too shabby a notebook. It looks a bit outdated and at 5.7lbs(2.6Kg) is pretty light weight for a 15.4" laptop. Forget gaming the SiS is a low end graphics solution, but it should be able to handle AOE 3. Just dont expect it to play any modern games and the GPU might not be capable of using all of Vista's features(Aero).

The 1280X800 resolution should not cause any such distortions. My laptop uses the same resolution and the circles look like a circles.

 

Thx for your reply Miner.
Full price is $845, Sempron 3100, 1GB ram, 60GB, 8-cell battery, DVD-RW,.. + bag, mouse, Microsoft Works and AOE3.

I work with graphics and internet design. I don't need my notebook for a working machine, have 2 desktops for that. I just need to be mobile. So 95% of the time my notebook would be used for web browsing, email, music, presentations and stuff like that. 5% of the time (which would come to about once a month) I'd like to do some minor photo retouching in PS or draw something in Illustrator or Corel. Oh, and I don't play games, at all, so I'm not worried about that.
I'm just wondering will I be able to do that 5% of work that I need with this card or not?

I really like this notebook: looks great, magnesium casing, dvd works without powering the notebook on, light, not bad specs, great price.. just that graphic card is cousing me a bit of concern. And I don't plan installing Vista, xp will do just fine


TIA!!
Mat

 

No because 1280x1024 is not a "right ratio"....

1280x800 is a Widescreen resolution, so naturally on a non-widescreen display it would "deform the picture".. The laptop has a widescreen display so 1280x800 IS the correct resolution for it.

 

@bsr5

Yeah, sorry, I used the wrong one. 1024x786 is the right one (4:3).
I asked that, cos I remember when I was buying a regular LCD and was reading about them, I saw a whole article how important it is, to get the right ratio or your picture will get distorted (ie: circles becomes elipses). 1280:800 is 8:5 (16:10) I believe, so I'm not sure if that's ok, but I trust you guys who have it.

Thx for helping

Mat