I'm getting a laptop, and I'm too stupid to tell if the one I like is any good

[Lemur]

The graphics card is prolly going to be the deciding factor. According to this site, the GTX 280M (for mobile) is roughly equivalent to a desktop 8800 GTS, which should handle EB and RTW easily.

Nice thing about the two laptops you specced out is that they have 15" screens and good video cards. Most laptops that have high-end video cards sport 17" screens, which is a bit much for a mobile card. You should probably be able to play just about any AAA title for a while with that rig.

-edit-

By way of comparison, the current iteration of the Macbook Pro only sports a 9600M videocard, which is a steep step down. As nice as Apple laptops are, I wouldn't recommend it over the Novatch you linked.

[Subotan]

Get the new macbook, put windows7 on, and it eats Crysis for breakfast

http://www.apple.com/macbook/

NEVER

The graphics card is prolly going to be the deciding factor. According to this site, the GTX 280M (for mobile) is roughly equivalent to a desktop 8800 GTS, which should handle EB and RTW easily.
.

Cool. Generally, I'm semi-knowledgeable about hardware; it's just graphics cards that let me down. And what about MTWII (Not that I'd play Vanilla, of course)?

Nice thing about the two laptops you specced out is that they have 15" screens and good video cards. Most laptops that have high-end video cards sport 17" screens, which is a bit much for a mobile card. You should probably be able to play just about any AAA title for a while with that rig.

Why's that?

By way of comparison, the current iteration of the Macbook Pro only sports a 9600M videocard, which is a steep step down. As nice as Apple laptops are, I wouldn't recommend it over the Novatch you linked.

Hehe, my prejudice is now justified.

If you were to pick one of the two, which would it be?

[Fragony]

If you need it to be a working machine as well, well. Good laptop needs good battery as well I get almost 10 hours with light usage, so far it runs everything just fine and I'll take this 13 inch screen over any 19 any day it's fantastic. I am really pleased with the new macbook and it's priced pretty competively.

[Lemur]

And what about MTWII (Not that I'd play Vanilla, of course)?

Any machine that can handle RTW should be able to handle MTW2 as well. Just don't ask me about the original MTW; apparently there are unsolved driver issues with modern video cards. Haven't tried it meself, but I hear it's quite the problem.

Why's that?

Bigger screen = more pixels to push around. The more pixels, the more work for the graphics card. Big screens plus mobile graphics cards usually equals teh suck.

As for which machine I'd recommend, obviously I'd go with the fifteen inch version, with Windows 7 Pro 64-bit preinstalled. Shame you can't opt out of the Blu-ray drive, but then you can't have everything.

[pevergreen]

As for which machine I'd recommend, obviously I'd go with the fifteen inch version, with Windows 7 Pro 64-bit preinstalled. Shame you can't opt out of the Blu-ray drive, but then you can't have everything.

This.

[Lemur]

If you were to pick one of the two, which would it be?

Just to clarify, I'd pick the 15" model with the 280M graphics card, this one, were I buying for myself.

Well, to be honest, if I were buying for myself I'd wait and see what the Jan 27th refresh of the Macbook Pro line brought, then I'd take the plunge. Apple makes a nice, nice laptop, and the ability to boot seamlessly into OS X and Windows would be very nice. Plus, Apple and Intel have some sort of mutual beard-soaping thing where Apple gets the newest mobile chips first, so some sort of really hot-to-trot i5 mobile is prolly going to show up real soon.

[pevergreen]

Just to clarify, I'd pick the 15" model with the 280M graphics card, this one, were I buying for myself.

Well, to be honest, if I were buying for myself I'd wait and see what the Jan 27th refresh of the Macbook Pro line brought, then I'd take the plunge. Apple makes a nice, nice laptop, and the ability to boot seamlessly into OS X and Windows would be very nice. Plus, Apple and Intel have some sort of mutual beard-soaping thing where Apple gets the newest mobile chips first, so some sort of really hot-to-trot i5 mobile is prolly going to show up real soon.

See, you say all this nice stuff, then you go ruin it by suggesting Mac.


Why can't you be consistant!

[Subotan]

Just to clarify, I'd pick the 15" model with the 280M graphics card, this one, were I buying for myself.

Cool

Well, to be honest, if I were buying for myself I'd wait and see what the Jan 27th refresh of the Macbook Pro line brought, then I'd take the plunge. Apple makes a nice, nice laptop, and the ability to boot seamlessly into OS X and Windows would be very nice. Plus, Apple and Intel have some sort of mutual beard-soaping thing where Apple gets the newest mobile chips first, so some sort of really hot-to-trot i5 mobile is prolly going to show up real soon.

I could never bring myself to be a Mac user, so that's out of the question.

[Fragony]

I could never bring myself to be a Mac user, so that's out of the question.

Why is that, it runs windows much better and you have a much better looking/feeling (yes feeling I love that keyboard and touchpad) machine to run it on. The latest line are also equipped with a solid graphical card have yet to see a hick-up. Awesome gaming machine means poor working machine, if you also want to use it for university I would get a good desktop and get a cheap wordpad for your notes.

[Beskar]

You need faster processor speeds. I believe Sims 3 for example needed 2.4 Dual Core as minimum, for example. The speeds in the laptops listed look quite far below that.

[pevergreen]

You need faster processor speeds. I believe Sims 3 for example needed 2.4 Dual Core as minimum, for example. The speeds in the laptops listed look quite far below that.

Hmmm Dual vs Quad

[Beskar]

Why is that, it runs windows much better and you have a much better looking/feeling (yes feeling I love that keyboard and touchpad) machine to run it on. The latest line are also equipped with a solid graphical card have yet to see a hick-up. Awesome gaming machine means poor working machine, if you also want to use it for university I would get a good desktop and get a cheap wordpad for your notes.

But then, he needs to pay far more money in excess just for a machine branded "Mac".

[Fragony]

Apple is a truly annoying company with all that guru-bull and their adds make me want to kill something, but imho they are worth their price as it are just excellent laptops. You pay a little bit more but when you translate that into the time you save using it it's a perfectly fine choice.