Re: OT: Need advice with Laptop
 

With regard to graphics cards, I believe the amount of memory is not the best descriptor of quality, and sometimes crappy cards are presented as "512MB!!" when the card is actually slow and having a big memory is unimportant. That said I don't know how to more sensibly differentiate card speed; I've only looked into it for desktops, and presumably the situation is confusingly different for laptops.

Definitely Windows 7 above Vista. Vista is horrible, and Windows 7 is considered a big improvement (and faster!). Then once you have your computer, personally I would recommend trying out Ubuntu (which is a free alternative to Windows, and you can have both on your computer at the same time; lots of people here use Ubuntu or other Linux variants).

Re: OT: Need advice with Laptop
 

+1

I won't mind helping you getting started, if you decided to give Ubuntu a try.
You can contact me/PM me here; http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=19

Re: OT: Need advice with Laptop
 

Mint is basically Ubuntu, but has slightly different menus and defaults that are supposed to be more comfortable for first time Linux users. You might try it.

plus, its default desktop/color scheme is like drinking a mint julep.

At any rate, you should install Windows 7 first, then Linux. At least I've been told. I think the Linux installer is a little more friendly to other OS than is the Windows one, or something. Not really sure.

Re: OT: Need advice with Laptop
 

Correct.

Re: OT: Need advice with Laptop
 

THank you, that is all very helpful, though I am really not going to involve myself with non-windows operating systems right now.

Newegg, apparently, will not ship to Germany. I need a computer soon, however, I really do. Thank you.

Re: OT: Need advice with Laptop
 

happygeek, try www.notebooksbilliger.de - they have the absolutely best prices on notebooks for end users. Otherwise, look for christmas specials as every store has at least one special offer now.

Re: OT: Need advice with Laptop
 

I just had a thought graphics-wise: My laptop has a 9700M GT on board and it handles Dragon Age pretty well, considering. There's a comparison of benchmark scores for notebook graphics cards here.

If (like me) you don't have an encyclopaedic knowledge of current graphics cards, a few notes are:

Important note for nVidia cards: GS<GT<GTX.

The numbering scheme for chipsets is obfuscatory. For example: in nVidia, (X)800 > (X+1)600. In ATI, 4670 > 3870 > 4650.

In short: It's hell out there. If you check the benchmark page I linked to and buy something with a card from the top 40 on the list, you'll probably get a decent performer.

Edit: Just read an above post properly. Someone else already referred you to notebookcheck.net, and apparently it has more information than I knew about. Ho hum.

Re: OT: Need advice with Laptop
 

Thank you.
I checked notebooksbilliger.de, that was good, but didn't really find anything, oddly enough -- seems I have to pay upwards of 1000 Euros for a 15" screen with a 4650 chip if I am to get Windows 7. Hmnn.

I'm almost tempted to buy at Newegg, have it shipped to friends, and have them ship it over -- but am unsure about the power supply, US vs. European. Does anyone know if that will be a problem? I mean, getting a replacement plug for 110V and the right adapter?

Can anyone tell me if I am being crazy? I went to a local "Saturn" and saw a new Sony VGN-FW 54M, which only impressed me because of what appears to be a very nice screen: high resolution, anti-reflection de-mirroring (or however you say that in English). It has a C2D P7450 processor (2.13 GhZ), an ATI 4650 with 1 gig, 4 gigs of RAM, 64-bit Win 7, for 1000 Euros. They keypad seemed suboptimal, but everything else seemed ok. For Germany, this looked like the best deal I've seen so far, even compared to notebooksbilliger.de -- or am I being foolish?

Thank you so very much

Re: OT: Need advice with Laptop
 

How so? Did you try their Advanced Search interface? If I select the 4650 there, then I am presented with notebooks starting at 599 Euros, about half of them with 15" displays and half with 17" displays. If I include Windows 7 Premium 64 bit instead of the upgrade option from Vista then there are still 11 notebooks remaining under the 1k € mark. If you select the ATI 4670 instead which is better according to Gregstrom, then they start at 699 Euros. Not that I want to urge you to buy there, just saying that they do have a very broad spectrum there, and handling warranty is easier for you. They do have the Sony VAIO VGN-FW54 there, too.

Re: OT: Need advice with Laptop
 

if it is the 1920x1080 screen, then the price from Sony's site is about 1000 american dollars.

not sure how prices of things differ in general from the US to Europe.