I wish to purchase a laptop

[Mat]

Hi.

I have decided I need a new laptop. Currently I have an ageing desktop and an eee pc 4g, which is great, but can't do much.

I'd like something I can use as my main computer, so I'm not too concerned about battery life or portability. I would use it for programming, surfing the interblags, and a bit of gaming. I don't care about running new games at maximum settings but it should be able to run most games without any problems (I mostly just play indie games).

I want it to work on linux and support dual monitors. Also super cheap would be nice. I was thinking a budget of around £500.

I'm thinking about a Lenovo Ideapad:
http://www.dabs.com/products/lenovo-ide ... -85VY.html

Thoughts?

[LinuxPenguin]

I'd like something I can use as my main computer, so I'm not too concerned about battery life or portability. I would use it for programming, surfing the interblags, and a bit of gaming. I don't care about running new games at maximum settings but it should be able to run most games without any problems (I mostly just play indie games).

I want it to work on linux and support dual monitors. Also super cheap would be nice. I was thinking a budget of around £500.

Thoughts?

You don't care about portability, and you want dual external monitors?

A) I am not sure of any laptops let let you use dual external monitors (uless by dual monitors you mean the built in LCD, and one external?).

B) A £500 laptop is not going to be a great gaming rig.

C) If you don't care about portability, why get a laptop? It sounds to me like you would be better off buying a good desktop machine.

[PhoenixEnigma]

I vote option C. Everything you are saying - Linux, cheap, dual monitors, minimal portability, gaming - says "desktop" to me. Why not a new desktop?

[Mat]

Well I want portability, It's just that I probably won't be lugging it around with me wherever I go. I'd definitely prefer a laptop. No dual monitor isn't a deal breaker, but it would be nice.

I'm aware of B, maybe I overemphasised that too. I just want something passable. My current PC freezes when there are too many enemies on screen in Bastion. If it can do better than that, I'm happy

[KnightExemplar]

The NVidia 630M is a weak graphics card, but I'd expect it to be able to handle Bastion.

If you are willing to undercut just a little bit more, you can save money on the AMD stuff. The top of the line mobile AMD chip is the A10-4600M. Its not as good as the i5 / NVidia 630M combination, but its another $80 cheaper. (Sorry, I dunno where to look for prices in Euros)

Identical specs outside of the AMD / Intel difference:
http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-26 ... d+Z585+A10
http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-21 ... ad+Z580+i5

I can't speak to Linux compatibility between the two. Apparently, Adobe Flash on Linux only supports NVidia for video decode. So online video on Linux might be worse on the AMD based platform.

You'll need to definitely spend more money if you want a "gaming quality" laptop. But if you're only going to play Bastion and simpler games like that, either laptop ought to work. Nonetheless, its probably best if you just made a list of all the games you want to play.

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On the other hand, a 500 EUR desktop will probably game pretty decently.

[Mat]

That should read 500 GBP rather than euros, I'm in the UK.

I wasn't able to find any UK sites selling the z585 model, is it available here?

Not really sure about what I want regarding games. I can't think of anything I'm actually planning to get in the near future, other than a couple of kickstarter projects (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/902 ... stle-story & http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/659 ... ration-rts). The handful of games I have on steam now don't need high specs, the most demanding probably being portal 2.

The NVidia 630M is a weak graphics card, but I'd expect it to be able to handle Bastion.

If you are willing to undercut just a little bit more, you can save money on the AMD stuff. The top of the line mobile AMD chip is the A10-4600M. Its not as good as the i5 / NVidia 630M combination, but its another $80 cheaper. (Sorry, I dunno where to look for prices in Euros)

Identical specs outside of the AMD / Intel difference:
http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-26 ... d+Z585+A10
http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-21 ... ad+Z580+i5

I can't speak to Linux compatibility between the two. Apparently, Adobe Flash on Linux only supports NVidia for video decode. So online video on Linux might be worse on the AMD based platform.

You'll need to definitely spend more money if you want a "gaming quality" laptop. But if you're only going to play Bastion and simpler games like that, either laptop ought to work. Nonetheless, its probably best if you just made a list of all the games you want to play.

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On the other hand, a 500 EUR desktop will probably game pretty decently.

[KnightExemplar]

That should read 500 GBP rather than euros, I'm in the UK.

Sorry for being an ignorant American >_<. Looking at those higher exchange rates, that is approaching a low-end gaming laptop. (Obviously, a desktop will be better though)

I wasn't able to find any UK sites selling the z585 model, is it available here?

That is a bit unfortunate. I did a search on amazon.co.uk, and the only A10-4600m computers are from Packet-Bel. We don't have that brand in the US, so I can't comment on them. Even the HP store in the UK doesn't seem to be selling it yet. The A10-4600m is the newest AMD chip, no more than a month or two old... so maybe its just taking a long time to cross over the pond.

Older AMD stuff seem available over there, but its more than just one or two steps down from the laptop you've already selected.

Not really sure about what I want regarding games. I can't think of anything I'm actually planning to get in the near future, other than a couple of kickstarter projects (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/902 ... stle-story & http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/659 ... ration-rts). The handful of games I have on steam now don't need high specs, the most demanding probably being portal 2.

Portal 2 probably won't be 60FPS @ 1920x1080p on the GeForce 630M. But it does apparently achieve over 40 FPS at 1920x1080p, and probably will be over 60fps on lower resolutions.

The problem is really the indie games like what you listed. There's no real way to know how much CPU power of GPU power that they'll need. I mean, there's no way to tell if they pull a "Minecraft", where the game runs out of memory constantly. FPS games in general will stress the CPU (instead of the GPU), so you'll probably want an Intel based laptop. Not much else but to say its a crapshot.

If you're willing to upgrade a little bit, the 650M is one step up from your current graphics card. The Intel Ivy Bridge i5 should be fine (no need to upgrade to the i7). Unfortunately, I couldn't find any 650M laptops on an i5 for you in the UK. So what you've selected is probably your best bet. You ought to do a bit of research to see if Linux works well on the selected laptop though. (In particular, mouse drivers, keyboards, power settings, and that sort of thing). But an i5 + 630M graphics is designed to hit that 500 GBP price range nicely.

[Mat]

Bah, stupid country. Thanks for the advice though. I'll do some investigation on the linux side of things. If all looks good I'll just go with that (unless anyone comes up with other suggestions in the meantime )

[mosc]

A lot of laptops support multiple displays. Almost any laptop with a dedicated graphics card and a port replicator is going to have dual monitor outputs. I have a Lenovo T400 at work and it actually supports dual dual-link displays through a port replicator and the display ports which I use to drive dual 30" 2560x1600 displays.

[Mat]

Well I ordered it. Thanks all.

[psykx]

which one did you order?