New laptop

[Husar]

A dedicated graphics card is not an integrated one and I do not see any problem with Vista or Vista + 2GB RAM.
The laptop has a NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GT 256MB, that's not integrated and it's pretty much a low-cost dedicated card, could play some older games well but for newer games you can forget it unless you like low settings and a bit of lag.

[JR-]

the new nvidia integrated 9300M/9400M will actually be ok compared to low end dedicated graphics of yesteryear like the 8400GS.

but i wouldn't recommend anything less than a nVidia 9600GT or AMD 3670 if you want to do some gaming.

[LittleGrizzly]

Firstly i want a laptop simply for the ability to watch movies when im out, its something i have got used to from having a laptop the last 2 years and its essential really more so than the gaming so i will stick with a laptop

On vista... personally i would prefer XP, but the only seem to sell new pc's at currys with Vista so i was going to either try requesting XP instead or if they can't do that, theres a guide somewhere on here about downgrading vista to xp... would that save on computer resources or would it still eat up as much power as regular Vista ??

The newish games part wasn't exactly clear.... i don't expect the latest call of duty to work on it but less demanding newer games... TBH the newest game i currently own is RTW i don't expect i would want anything much more demanding than that....

Edit: it doesn't mention anything on the 3d card bar its dedicated and 256mb....

[naut]

The upgrade to XP would be a major bonus. Dell's Studio 15 and 17 are nice, and can run most older games very well and newer games decently (got CoD4 running well on almost full settings on my brother's Studio 17). Plus the actual machine as a whole is very nice. Only problem with Dell is they don't offer XP, (well they may do, but you'd probably have to request it).

Major problem I've found is that companies that provide XP with their Desktops/Laptops usually don't offer ATI graphics cards. This is incredibly tedious, since the incompatibility issues of nVidia with older games is notorious, (and the newest games I have are FM2008, CoD4 and Oblivion ).

[edyzmedieval]

For gaming I would recommend 2 choices - DELL XPS M1710 or DELL XPS M1730. I have the M1710 and I play M2TW almost on max with huge unit size. Watch out, the support for M1710 has been discontinued and in the future M1730 will experience the same.

For everything else, get the new Apple MacBook Pro. 17", it has everything you need, including a nVIDIA 8600M GT 512MB dedicated video card, which would give you the chance to play CoD4 for Mac without any problem at all.

[Husar]

The problem with Dell, if I read that correctly, is that he would throw 500 pounds out of the window.

[LittleGrizzly]

The problem with Dell, if I read that correctly, is that he would throw 500 pounds out of the window.

Yes, it basically has to be from Currys, PC world.... *finding voucher* Dixons or.... the link ? (is that a phone shop ?!) with my budget being 500 - 700

The COD4 thing, not something im expecting in my price range for a laptop.... especially because im looking for at least a 17" screen... i could probably make do with a 16" something.... something that could play ETW would be great... but the only new game i really had in mind was the new fifa or new pro evo... im pretty sure they're a little less demanding than COD4

Could someone clarify the vista issue.... if i use the downgrade to xp guide on here will that mean the os will only use up as much power as regular xp does ? (im not a big fan of vista in general from this laptop (my mums) and friends pc's... theres just too much crap...)