College Laptop?

[Izzy]

So, I stepped into an Apple Retail Store this past weekend. I can confirm that I have spontaneously combusted right as I crossed the treshold.

[e60.deluxe]

Originally Posted by NcA

Wrong.... If you want a PC for gaming look at paying $1000 and upwards, anything cheap and you'll be disappointed. And for the love of GOD... Dells are NOT built for gaming.

err um, if your talking about laptops, then yes. if you mean desktops, then your very wrong. $1000 gets you alot, $600-$700 will be enough to be firmly in the gaming pc segment.

oh, and Dells are probably the best 100% prebuilt computer for gaming for cost. if you hate dell, thats probably why you think you need to spend $1000+.

[nighthawk06Si]

i've had 3 dell pcs, in no way will those 600-700 pcs keep up in the gaming. the only dell that had no problem with gaming was my xps tower. the diminsions are crap if someone builds it that cheap, they're only good for web surfing and instant messaging.

[e60.deluxe]

Originally Posted by nighthawk06Si

i've had 3 dell pcs, in no way will those 600-700 pcs keep up in the gaming. the only dell that had no problem with gaming was my xps tower. the diminsions are crap if someone builds it that cheap, they're only good for web surfing and instant messaging.

about 6 months ago i helped someone configure a dell, it came to ~$750. it had a Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, DVD Burner, 19" LCD, and an 8600GTS graphics card. an 8600GTS, is not the best, but its definetly enough. youll be surpassing console graphics on half the games out.

the thing is, that you have to know what your doing when you configure any computer otherwise youll end up paying through your nose. too many people spend money on things like upgraded HDDs and CPUs, that dont make much of an impact of games, and then they dont even bother upgrading the graphics from integrated which is most important.

while if you were to do something like buying a $500 emachines, then add a 9600GT for $200, then change the power supply to a better one, youd be much better for rougly the same price, i said Dell is the best 100% pre built.

[e60.deluxe]

i just went to Dell right now, and now you can get a QUAD core CPU, an 8800GT, and a 19" LCD, 3GB RAM for $1039. this would be considered quite high end for gaming. and its just a hair over a grand.

[e60.deluxe]

Originally Posted by Futurepr3

get a black macbooooook! its right in your budget and its mega baller.

mac>>>pc anyday.

getting a black macbook is essentially the same thing as giving steve jobs $150 of free money.

[NcA]

The reason Dell is 95% of the time terrible for gaming comes down to 3 things... Firstly, they'll offer you a fantastic CPU as part of the bundle, however they'll skimp on the motherboard's FSB speeds, essentially bottlenecking the usefulness of having a processor that can handle that much information at one time. Secondly, they may give you 3Gb of RAM... But that RAM will be along the lines of PC5300 (falling in compliance with their limited FSB speeds), meaning that yes! You have plenty of RAM to access at all times, but it really isn't that fast. Thirdly... Lack of BIOS options. If you want to build a PC for performance and gaming, being able to tweak BIOS settings is invaluable. I'm not even going to get into the reasons why...

In all reality you could build a PC for gaming at around the $750-$800 mark, but it's worth spending the extra money so that you won't be regretting it 5 months down the line when graphics begin to 0wn your PC again.

/end threadjack

[e60.deluxe]

Originally Posted by NcA

The reason Dell is 95% of the time terrible for gaming comes down to 3 things... Firstly, they'll offer you a fantastic CPU as part of the bundle, however they'll skimp on the motherboard's FSB speeds, essentially bottlenecking the usefulness of having a processor that can handle that much information at one time.

false. totally false. if dell or any computer manufacturer were to skimp on the motherboard FSB but still give a good CPU, what would happen is that th CPU would underclock itself. see this is how it works. lets say you have a CPU with a 1336Mhz FSB and its a 2.66ghz CPU. that would mean that the multiplier of a CPU is 8. this cannot be changed. (well it can only in Intel Extreme additions)

Now lets say Dell is only gonna give it a 1066FSB. that means the internal speed is 1066/4 (its always divide 4) = 266Mhz. now take 266mhz times the CPU multiplier 8 = 2.13Ghz.


if Dell sells lets say a E6750, and then its really running at 2.13Ghz instead of 2.66 they'd have their asses sued in no time and michael dell would be living in a box.

its simply impossible to reduce the FSB but keep the CPU speed the same. for the CPU to be running at the full 2.66 ghz, it needs to run at the FSB it was designed for. 1333/4 = 333Mhz internal clock. CPU multiplier 8 x 333 = 2.66ghz.

finally, Dell generally gives higher end motherboard chipsets than other PCs in its class. for one youll never see Dell giving out a Via or Sis chipset.

Secondly, they may give you 3Gb of RAM... But that RAM will be along the lines of PC5300 (falling in compliance with their limited FSB speeds), meaning that yes! You have plenty of RAM to access at all times, but it really isn't that fast

.

err no. PC 5300 can support a FSB of 1333mhz without any bottlenecking. again, this shows how little you know about how computers work. see when you have dual channel ram your bandwidth is doubled. PC 5300 = 667mhz, which has same bandwidth as a FSB of double that 1333mhz.

think back to the DDR1 days. what was the P4s then? 800mhz fsb? what ram did they use. PC 3200, or 400mhz. what ram did the 533mhz fsb P4's use? PC 2100 266mhz.

when you run Dual channel you need to multiply the bandwidth by 2. only with DDR2 has much faster RAM been availible than the FSB. the reasoning for buying faster ram is for overclocking purposes, or if your not running dual channel. if you notice Dells performance Desktops 3Gb of RAM as 2x1GB and 2x512MB. that way you stay in Dual channel.

oh, and you can get 1066mhz ram in Dells, just not in the cheaper ones. in that 1039 quad core system for example has it.

Thirdly... Lack of BIOS options. If you want to build a PC for performance and gaming, being able to tweak BIOS settings is invaluable. I'm not even going to get into the reasons why...

uhh are you kidding me. you do not need to ever go into bios unless you want to overclock. and its pretty obvious you wouldnt know what your doing anyway. you probably use those easy overclock features where you just let the motherboard do it. also, this lack of bios options is gonna be there in practically every mass produced PC. get over it. its nothing specific to Dell. like i said before, Dell is the best bang/buck in Prebuilt PCs for gaming.

finally, the major thing that impacts how well you game is your graphics card. sure you can squabble over CPU's FSB and DRAM, and etc, but in the end, as long as you have enough ram, and as long as the cpu is decent enough (like any Core CPU will do) the graphics card is going to dominate 95% of the performance in games.

[nayilsi]

Originally Posted by NcA

Wrong.... If you want a PC for gaming look at paying $1000 and upwards, anything cheap and you'll be disappointed. And for the love of GOD... Dells are NOT built for gaming.

heres a Dell ....worth 877 bucks...laptop

Ive played modern warfare and crysis on mine with 8600M GT 256 turbo cached to 512.....

u can still play the latest games



YouTube - My New Dell Vostro 1500 Playing A Few Games-PART 1

YouTube - Playing crysis on Dell vostro 1500

[nayilsi]

Originally Posted by e60.deluxe

getting a black macbook is essentially the same thing as giving steve jobs $150 of free money.

[nayilsi]

Originally Posted by nighthawk06Si

i've had 3 dell pcs, in no way will those 600-700 pcs keep up in the gaming. the only dell that had no problem with gaming was my xps tower. the diminsions are crap if someone builds it that cheap, they're only good for web surfing and instant messaging.

what dell models are u talking about ?

u can customize Dell.... now if u put intel graphics....for sure u can't play games....

but u can customize thier vostros (cheapest line) and get nvidia gpus////which will play all the latest games.

[volvo9]

Originally Posted by NcA

Thirdly... Lack of BIOS options. If you want to build a PC for performance and gaming, being able to tweak BIOS settings is invaluable. I'm not even going to get into the reasons why...

VERY little store bought PC's let you configure advanced bios options, Dell isn't alone on this one.

And as said above me by e60, the multiplier on CPU's has been locked (except for rare occasions or special edition CPU's) since the late 90's. If you drop the bus speed down, the cpu's clock speed drops down since you can't bump the multiplier up, so Dell doesn't use slower bus speeds, they'd get sued once people realised their 2.2 ghz processors was running at 1.6.

Dell may not have the speediest motherboard around in benchmarks compared to a $250 Asus board, but for the money there's nothing wrong with it. Building a PC isn't much cheaper than buying a new prebuilt unit anymore, and in some cases is more expensive. I built my own a few years ago but could have gotten a Dell for a tad cheaper unless I went with bargain bin combos from NewEgg. I still decided to build my own just because I knew I'd be happier with it than a plain ol Dell box.

[Spud387]

Originally Posted by e60.deluxe

false. totally false. if dell or any computer manufacturer were to skimp on the motherboard FSB but still give a good CPU, what would happen is that th CPU would underclock itself. see this is how it works. lets say you have a CPU with a 1336Mhz FSB and its a 2.66ghz CPU. that would mean that the multiplier of a CPU is 8. this cannot be changed. (well it can only in Intel Extreme additions)

Now lets say Dell is only gonna give it a 1066FSB. that means the internal speed is 1066/4 (its always divide 4) = 266Mhz. now take 266mhz times the CPU multiplier 8 = 2.13Ghz.


if Dell sells lets say a E6750, and then its really running at 2.13Ghz instead of 2.66 they'd have their asses sued in no time and michael dell would be living in a box.

its simply impossible to reduce the FSB but keep the CPU speed the same. for the CPU to be running at the full 2.66 ghz, it needs to run at the FSB it was designed for. 1333/4 = 333Mhz internal clock. CPU multiplier 8 x 333 = 2.66ghz.

finally, Dell generally gives higher end motherboard chipsets than other PCs in its class. for one youll never see Dell giving out a Via or Sis chipset.

.

err no. PC 5300 can support a FSB of 1333mhz without any bottlenecking. again, this shows how little you know about how computers work. see when you have dual channel ram your bandwidth is doubled. PC 5300 = 667mhz, which has same bandwidth as a FSB of double that 1333mhz.

think back to the DDR1 days. what was the P4s then? 800mhz fsb? what ram did they use. PC 3200, or 400mhz. what ram did the 533mhz fsb P4's use? PC 2100 266mhz.

when you run Dual channel you need to multiply the bandwidth by 2. only with DDR2 has much faster RAM been availible than the FSB. the reasoning for buying faster ram is for overclocking purposes, or if your not running dual channel. if you notice Dells performance Desktops 3Gb of RAM as 2x1GB and 2x512MB. that way you stay in Dual channel.

oh, and you can get 1066mhz ram in Dells, just not in the cheaper ones. in that 1039 quad core system for example has it.



uhh are you kidding me. you do not need to ever go into bios unless you want to overclock. and its pretty obvious you wouldnt know what your doing anyway. you probably use those easy overclock features where you just let the motherboard do it. also, this lack of bios options is gonna be there in practically every mass produced PC. get over it. its nothing specific to Dell. like i said before, Dell is the best bang/buck in Prebuilt PCs for gaming.

finally, the major thing that impacts how well you game is your graphics card. sure you can squabble over CPU's FSB and DRAM, and etc, but in the end, as long as you have enough ram, and as long as the cpu is decent enough (like any Core CPU will do) the graphics card is going to dominate 95% of the performance in games.

Well said

The best option when it comes to a true gaming PC is building one yourself, but some Dell comps can be had that will run gaming decently. Upgrading a Dell can be tricky though. Usually their PSUs are only powerful enough to run whats in there, so upgrading to a graphics card that requires more power can be tricky.

[phunksound]

I would get a PC based if you are doing any kind of scientific/engineering major. You will most likely have to install some progs that will run into comapatability issues with a mac. I just got my moms an HP w/ 2.3GHz Core 2 duo that had a lot of free upgrades, the most impressive being 256Mb video w/ HDMI out. I got a 120Gb hard drive, 15" dis. webcam/mic, vista ultimate, 2Gb of ram, 6cell batt. and lightscribe DVDR for about $950 off HP direct. Plus Macs are taxed and proprietary as H**L. You can get some emulators to help but half of them work half as**d.

[BlaqkAudio]

Originally Posted by phunksound

I would get a PC based if you are doing any kind of scientific/engineering major. You will most likely have to install some progs that will run into comapatability issues with a mac. I just got my moms an HP w/ 2.3GHz Core 2 duo that had a lot of free upgrades, the most impressive being 256Mb video w/ HDMI out. I got a 120Gb hard drive, 15" dis. webcam/mic, vista ultimate, 2Gb of ram, 6cell batt. and lightscribe DVDR for about $950 off HP direct. Plus Macs are taxed and proprietary as H**L. You can get some emulators to help but half of them work half as**d.

I have a Macbook Pro and I used Boot Camp to install Windows XP; problem solved. Right now, I'm only using my Windows partition to game, but I have more than enough space for any programs I would need to use.

[dongerneedfood]

Originally Posted by phunksound

I would get a PC based if you are doing any kind of scientific/engineering major. You will most likely have to install some progs that will run into comapatability issues with a mac.

im an engineer major and i went with a dell xps 1710. i love it. no problems so far for the hardware/software and had it for about 1 1/2 years. my only complaint would be the battery life for the xps. by 9 months it couldnt hold a charge so i had to buy another one.

if you're planning to major in graphic design, media, music, or any of that sort go with a mac. otherwise get a pc for easy compatibility for softwares that you might be using.

[WiseGuyLX]

Get both. PC for gaming. Mac for everything else.



Lol kidding, but seriously, I love my mac. But I get really envious that some of my friends have built their PC and play all these games I don't get to play on my macpro. I'm actually planning of getting a PC as well just for the summer, then go back to school with my Mac. To be honest with you, you should just sit down and make a list of what you're gonna be doing in college. Will you be working? Do you have time to play games? Are you taking graphic design courses? Do you want to mod your car? Will you be rich? Or eat instant noodles everyday? Then from there decide how you will invest your money the right way. I'm a film major and I'm better off investing in a Mac. Sure I can use a PC and use Adobe Premiere/Avid to edit and do the same thing, but Final Cut being the majority of what hollywood uses to edit, I will probably get a job faster if I train myself with the Mac and it's programs. If it's nothing serious like that, buy a PC, they're cheaper, easier to upgrade but you have to take care of them a little more. And then use that extra money for books, bills, gas, food, mods, etc. Invest in what you NEED and plan ahead. Good luck.

[e60.deluxe]

^ if you have a mac pro, just buy an 8800GTS and a copy of Windows XP and youll be in gaming heavan.

[LC2ner]

I'm not reading through the 4 pages of responses, but heres my two cents.

Stay away from Mac, not only for the software problems you might run into, but also because you will not get any support in the IT dept if you have any problems.

Secondly, whatever you do, make sure your computer comes with MS XP Professional. Vista is still too much trouble, and with XP home, you can not set up all the settings for some college ethernets.

[WiseGuyLX]

Originally Posted by e60.deluxe

^ if you have a mac pro, just buy an 8800GTS and a copy of Windows XP and youll be in gaming heavan.

really?? hmmm...