Intel HD?

[C@!]

I'm finally getting a new laptop this Friday (it's been about a month and a half since I've casually been on the interwebs) and it's a Dell Inspiron (since I have a $500 budget)

From what I see it's pretty nice, 500gb hard drive, 4gb ram, but here's my question: has anyone experienced an Intel HD graphics card? I don't know anyone who has, and I'm wondering if any of you have. Do you know how well it runs (FFR, newer games, etc?)?

By the way, here's a link to the laptop

Another question: Does any of you know of a better $500 laptop (Overall Performance wise) I can get, or do you think this is my best bet?

[Crashfan3]

From the experience of myself and two close friends of mine, I'm recommending you do not buy a laptop from Best Buy. They like to screw people over.

That laptop is very good for $500, but if you plan on playing newer games you'll want an integrated ATI Radeon graphics chipset.

I don't have a lot of time to look right now since I'm leaving in a few minutes, but have a look at this laptop: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834157516

It's re-certified but still a good deal.

[darkshark]

I wouldn't be worried about the graphics, that laptop still has a pentium processor in it. Which means everything is going to run slow, not just your games.

[WTFBrandon]

Well you won't be able to play ANY good games, well you will but... They really won't be worth the while... I doubt even Counter Strike: Source would be smooth.
I have the same chipset and i HATE playing games with it and im running a i7, and 6gb of ram. I have a actual video card in the laptop so i can switch at anytime freely making it worth the while.

So in all terms it depends what you're willing to do. I guess it's okay for $500, but my recommendation is saving up a tiny bit more and going all out on something you're going to use for a while to come, and not something that can be replaced in a month or 2.

But if $500 is your limit, i don't know... I can't say much because i'd never get a comp like that. I would say if you just want to play FFR/Stepmania and stuff like that, just get a laptop mini and spend not even 200. I did that and what i mainly play FFR/Stepmania on instead of getting 4gb of ram, 500gb hd, because it's basically sitting there being wasted, and it's super portable so you can bring it plenty of places.

Like i said in the first paragraph... All depends what you plan on doing with it, more details.

[kommisar]

I have a dell inspirion (netbook though). awesome for very small things. I wouldn't play any hardcore games on it. stepmania runs well (good luck with ffr it'll lag up shit creek)

the graphics card isn't stellar but it's alright. seems pricey for what it offers. my netbook was 250$



and keyboard is shit so get a usb one

[fido123]

That laptop looks like it would be good for doing schoolwork and playing games like Counter Strike (yes it will run smooth as fuk) and shitty Flash games. All an integrated Intel video adapter is going to do is provide basic graphics support. My laptop is pretty much the same build, my processor is an Intel Pentium processor running only slightly faster than what you have there, and I can run FFR with no lag, as well as pretty much anything else. Any games that require a graphics card like even World of Warcraft which isn't very intensive runs under 20FPS the settings turned down all the way. Ultimately if you want to play any games like Call of Duty you're going to need something with a graphics card.

At home I have a Duel Core which is only an eighth more powerful than your processor there with a high end graphics card (bought to be carried over to my new computer I will hopefully get enough money to buy), and I've yet to have a game bottleneck at my CPU to the point where I couldn't run it at max settings. TBH nothing against Darkshark but when you have a bunch of quad cores running at high speeds on the same rig, anything is going to seem slow lol.

If you're looking at actually playing games, this would be a much better investment although you could probably find better with some looking around. I know your budget is $500 but it just isn't reasonable. Buying a gaming laptop isn't really going to be cheap, and on top of that gaming on a laptop kinda sucks. If you want a gaming rig Id still stick with a desktop.

If you want me to be more specific what games do you want to play on it?

[ELRayford]

Intel® Pentium® processor P6100
Features 2 processing cores, a 3MB cache and 2.0GHz processor speed. It is 32nm dual-core so the heat will be less and power consumption will be less as well. The processor isn't really that bad. If you want to cut back on memory at purchase and go up to an i3 (maybe i5 if i look hard enough) you can always add more ram later on. You are stuck with the CPU/GPU. This CPU doesn't support VT, Virtualization tech, which most people do not use but if you are going to ever use a virtual environment other than VMWare this wont work.

As for that deal the same "newer" revision 14r from dell runs at 650. Price is decent although that is an older revision of an Inspiron. That CPU was released in quarter 3 of last year so maybe 6 months old.

Here are some of my findings and brief comparison towards your selection:


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220911
Asus A52, Same RAM, CPU and chipset(vidya) Smaller HDD at 320 (this shouldn't matter you can get external if you have 300GB of data you should already do this.)
Salespoint, 100 dollars cheaper for same system with a larger screen (500GB HDD cost 60 dollars) I would get this and save 100 dollars.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834200142
Another Dell, Same Ram, 320 HDD, Its an Athlon II P360 (similar to Pentium Dual Core) 15" LED Display and the sales point: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4250 512 shared GPU. Its not gonna Crysis, but hell, under 500 this is one of the few with a vidyacard.

Hope this helps some. Feel free to ask any questionis you may have!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834115863
Over budget, but a killer deal for a trip core with decent GPU! 1 gb GPU 17" Screen for a dedicated GPU laptop 599.99 these normally go for like 700-800 depending on deals.

Good Luck!

[Duplica]

I wouldn't settle for anything less than 1gb graphics card on any laptop these days. HD cards are a little weird though.

[darkshark]

Just build a desktop computer. Laptops are overrated.

[Izzy]

A nice desktop and a netbook is always the way to go. My netbook can play 720p video just fine, not sure why you would watch higher quality then that on the go.

[fido123]

Originally Posted by Izzy

A nice desktop and a netbook is always the way to go. My netbook can play 720p video just fine, not sure why you would watch higher quality then that on the go.

Agree'd. Why would games like Call of Duty be useful on the go? If I'm playing a video game I'm playing it in the comfort of my house lol.

[Izzy]

My netbook can also play n64 and ps1 emulators with no issues. It's pretty cool plugging in my usb 360 controller and playing zelda on my netbook. Touhou also works great. There are plenty of non intensive games that are more suited for being away from home.

[fido123]

Yeah that's another good point. Even an NES emulator that'll run on anything. I love Punch Out and Contra.

[C@!]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Honestly I'm not looking for the best notebook ever, it's just that I'm going to college after this semester is over and I'm looking for something that will last long, run well, and play some okay games on the side. I may just save up maybe $100-200 more.

I might just get that Acer Aspire that ElRayford mentioned. +1

[fido123]

If that's the case go for the Acer or Dell that he posted IMO.

[who_cares973]

elrayford saves the day again

[Izzy]

Why is your avatar so big.

[Crashfan3]

Originally Posted by darkshark

I wouldn't be worried about the graphics, that laptop still has a pentium processor in it. Which means everything is going to run slow, not just your games.

Oh shit, I was in a hurry when I was posting and I thought it said core i3. Wow, I'm blind or something.

No, don't buy that laptop, and if you do, burn it. Curse Pentium back to the hell from whence it came (and by hell I mean 2003).