Parasitic said:
Enough to run WC3/CS 1.6, and just enough to run HL2 I guess. I doubt I'll be doing much gaming at all, especially since I won't be buying PC game anymore - haven't in about 2 years now. I still have some old PC games though (Orange box, Guild Wars, etc). I'm more worried about sound, since I use my computer for making music and my PS3 for gaming. I'm tryin to find somethin cheap'ish, like around $500-600. I was tempted to just get a new desktop, but a laptop would be much more useful especially since I'm in college. |
The $649 Dell Studio 15 I mentioned offers two upgrade sound options
-Integrated Sound Blaster® AudigyTM Advanced HD Software Edition for $25 and
- ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Audio Sound Card for ultra-realistic surround sound for $80
The Express card solution would work on any laptop with an express card interface but , surprisingly, Dell is a bargain because the card is on NewEgg for $89.99. There are also USB plug-ins, some cheaper but probably less powerful.
The Sound Blaster software improves audio somewhat but as far as I know is only available OEM.
Some multimedia notebooks have discrete audio cards and much better speakers but they are usually in the $1000+ category. The express card offers the most bang for the buck.
