The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Try building a system at Gentech and then when your done, call Ken and he will match any price you get from someone else. I just used Gentech and their customer service was probably the best I've ever experienced. Not to mention, Ken (the main man at Gentech) views this forum every day.
Which ever one you go with, try to upgrade the processor to a i7. It should add noticeable performance.
I would highly suggest going with a quad core i7 processor and perhaps upgrading to the very popular 120GB Intel 510 Series Solid State Drive. Then, you can run a secondary drive for storage. This will issue a smoother running computer along with shortened boot times. Perhaps the best upgrade you can add is a Solid State Drive. Running the games you mentioned, this would be a good idea.
But, I agree with 'WhatsThePoint', in it's a good idea to answer all of those questions before configuring the perfect laptop.
Just a nice gaming computer for around 1100 was my point, dont really know much about computers, I just want to play some games that are out. I am trying to decide between this and the lotus p151 malibal. Also how big of difference will that 120GB Intel 510 Series Solid State Drive make? Because adding that puts the laptop out of my price ranges, i really did not want to spend over 1200.
If it is out of your price range then just don't add it. SSD's in general will add quite a bit of performance to the overall Windows experience but will not give you any type of performance increase during game play besides maybe some levels or games loading faster. They don't help with the frame rate. here are also cheaper SSD's out there that will get the job done but it sounds like they might all be out of your price range at this point. You could always add a SSD down the road. It is very easy to install.
I still do recommend upgrading to the i7.
I just checked Gentech and the upgrade to the i7 will bring the price to $1273 shipped. I'm sure if you call Ken, he will hook you up with a coupon code to bring the price close to your $1200 limit.
Here is the link, just upgrade CPU to the 2670 and don't forget to select a Windows operating system. A lot of people forget to check the operating system.
If that 120GB SSD erupts out of your price range, perhaps check out the 500GB (4GB Solid State) Hybrid Drive. It is a bit cheaper and would offer way better performance than a mechanical drives. It would make a difference with games loading faster, when playing those games often. Faster boot time + smoother overall performance when not gaming as well.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
