New To the boards, looking for a lil' advice

Alright, well I'm very interested in getting/building an MSI laptop.

Personally, I would prefer to stay down in the 12.1 range.
So, I was mainly looking at the MSI 1057.

But first; some questions:

What would you consider to be the main competitors in this size range ? (11-13inches)

Would it be worth waiting to see the new X2 Turions? (I'd be getting a T2400 with the 1057)

Will the Intel Graphics Media accelerator have performance enough to play any games ? As in, could I perhaps play a game like Half Life 2 but on extremely low settings?

Would the Intel Graphics Media accelerator be much worse than say the ATI X200 offered on the 1013?

Where would be the cheapest place to get a barebones system (preferably white)?

Where would you recommend to buy parts (if bought seperately from system)?

THank you very much for your help.

 

Some answers:

1) Dell, Azus

2) It dependes on your needs. Do you do mult tasking a lot?? If not, just go for the single core.
BUt the recomendation is always to wait as much as possible or till you find an unbeatble offer.

3) It will play most games (not oblivion, doom 3, fear, ...) but hl2 it will play in a poor setting. For better information, check the specific HUGE tread about what the card plays in the GAminhg area of the forum.

4) For games, forget intel graphics, worst then that just the sis mirage.....

5) ----

6) Parts: www.newegg.com and www.tigerdirect.com. These sites are the chepest and most reliable around. Tiger direct is not very mentioned, but it has a good background (it's made by the SYSTEMAX company) and sometimes can beat newegg, specially in ram memory.

Hope it helps....

 

5) I picked up my 1057 at Buy.com for $658 after a first time customer 10% off coupon. Just dont expect any support from them. I don't think the white model will be out for another month or so.

 

in your size, you won't get a machine with a dedicated card unless you pay $2000+ for the sony sz. so basically, you're looking at models like the asus w5f to compete against.

if you can wait, you should. they supposedly have moved up the release of merom to august.

it should play hl2. however, the intel chip is not nearly as good as the 200m. the 200m is really good for an integrated card.