How To Choose The Best Gaming Laptop

How To Choose The Best Gaming Laptop



The gaming laptop is coming of age! It is steadily

increasing in popularity as performance quality goes

up. Gamers now regularly consider laptops or notebooks

when searching for that perfect gaming machine.



With each new generation of notebooks we are seeing some

novel breakthroughs: dual core notebooks, PCI Express,

Sonoma chipset, increased storage, increased RAM, faster

CPUs, better battery life and better wireless connections

including a Cellular Modem. All welcome news for gamers

and notebook lovers alike.



Generally, gamers are a very demanding group, they know

their computers and they know what they want in their

computers. Most gamers like to order their gaming laptop

with their own specs and configurations. In that light,

if you closely examine the main points gamers consider

when configuring or building their Dream Machine - you will

have a good blueprint for the best gaming machine.



Since notebook technology changes every two years or so,

it's probably wise to purchase a laptop that can be easily

upgraded as new products come on line. So consider the

upgradable factor in any notebook that you plan to buy.



Now, lets look at some of these key gaming factors:





GRAPHICS



You must have the best/latest/fastest Graphics on the market. DUH!



Serious gamers are concerned with graphics, obsessed would

probably be a better word. And rightly so! Graphics or the

quality of the graphic chipset in your notebook computer will

be your first area of consideration and it will greatly

determine the gaming performance of your PC.



Go with the latest Graphic Chipset and also check to see

if you can upgrade your Graphics Card on the particular

machine you're thinking about buying. Many machines allow this.



Here are some Graphic Chipsets that are highly rated: ATi

Mobility Radeon 9700, ATI's Mobility FireGL V3200 or Intel's

Graphics Media Accelerator 900.



ATi Mobility Radeon 9700 is a high quality Graphics Card

or visual processing unit (VPU) present in many next

generation notebooks. It will give you higher performance

at a lower power level, saving battery power.



It makes your notebook computer capable of many functions:

3D games, wide-screen HDTV, dynamic presentations, mobile

video editing studio and graphic processor.



Many notebooks now come with integrated graphics, where

components interact and are sometimes shared, especially

memory. If you want a notebook computer for 3D games - check

the amount of video RAM - this is memory that's dedicated to

graphic or video applications.



Other common graphic chipsets are: STMicro, NVIDIA,

3D Labs, Matrox, Trident S3 and SIS.







RAM





Get the largest amount of RAM possible. DUDE!



RAM or random-access memory will determine how much

graphics your notebook computer will be able to handle.

It's best to get the largest amount possible on your

machine or what you can afford.



It's generally agreed that you need at least 256MB for

Windows XP and Mac OS X. You will only need 128MB for other

operating systems in Windows or Mac.



RAM or the amount of RAM on your notebook computer is

extremely important if you want to handle heavy graphic

files or want to play games on your notebook. The more

RAM you have, the more applications you will be able to

handle. Some notebook now come with up to 2GB of

DDR2 533MHz RAM!



DDR2 SDRAM - is a new standard that can boost conventional

SDRAM memory up to speeds well over 200MHz and beyond.

For example, the IBM ThinkPad T43, thanks to the

Sonoma Chipset or platform has 533MHz DDR 2 SDRAM.



This is much better than standard SDRAM which tops out

around 150-166MHz and DDR SDRAM which starts at 200MHz

and goes up to around 400MHz.



Video RAM or VRAM is special memory that's used by video

adapters on your notebook. This is RAM that is dedicated

to handling the visuals and graphics on your notebook

computer. This is helpful if you want to play a lot of

the latest 3D video games on your notebook.



It is somewhat different from ordinary RAM because it can

be accessed by two different devices at once - enabling

screen updates while the video processor processes new data.

VRAM provides better graphics but is more expensive than

ordinary RAM.







SPEED





You need the fastest computer money can buy. Period!



In order to get the maximum performance from your ultimate

gaming computer you must have the fastest speed you can get

or afford. Your ultimate PC must be able to process and handle

the latest 3D video games with ease. There is nothing as annoying

as your PC freezing up in the middle of some major gaming action!



Therefore, your Processor's speed is very important.



CPU or Central Processing Unit, you probably know it as

the processor! It's the heart or rather the brain of your

notebook or computer. It does all your computer's data

processing and applications. Since it does most of the work,

it's usually the most expensive part of your notebook computer.



Go with SATA!



SATA is a type of hard drive and stands for Serial Advanced

Technology Architecture. It was developed by a whole group of

companies including Seagate, Intel, Maxtor, Dell and others.

SATA transmit data in a serially (in a single stream) as

opposed to PATA or Parallel ATA which is commonly referred

to as an IDE hard drive.



Serial ATA hard drives uses less power and are ideal for

notebook computers, they are also more advanced than PATA

hard drives which uses multipe streams of data - go figure!

But Serial Technology carries data in a single stream and

unlike PATA is not limited to a particular clock speed,

Serial transfers data packets almost 30 times faster than

parallel.



If top performance in your notebook is one of your goals,

go with a SATA hard drive.



Intel Pentium M processors are commonly found in a lot of

notebooks and laptops. When in doubt also go with a Pentium!



The speed of microprocessors is measured in MHz.



MHz is short for megahertz. One MHz equals one million

cycles per second. The speed of processors, usually known

as clock speed, is measured in megahertz (MHz) or these

days in gigahertz (GHz).



The higher the clock speed, the faster the computer will

process applications and data. It determines how powerful

your notebook computer will be. Processor speeds for notebooks

or laptops are steadily increasing, not quite the same as

a desktop but the gap is narrowing quickly. Speeds of

3.4GHz or more.



Don't forget to ask or check the hard drive speed! A 7,200rpm

hard drive is faster than a 4,200rpm or 5,400rpm and usually

gives better performance.





DISPLAY



You need the sharpest, brightest display screen or all the above

points are moot!





Display quality is also extremely important to your gaming

experience. Make sure the resolution and display quality of

your notebook computer can handle the graphics for 3D Gaming.



What to keep in mind...



SVGA Resolution. Put simply, computer images are made up of

dots, the more dots you have - the better the image.

SVGA Resolution is made up of 800 x 600 dots.



Many notebook computer have XGA (1024 by 768 dots) or

SXGA (1280 x 1024 dots), these resolutions will give

a higher quality image. WXGA stands for widescreen XGA.



TFT Active Matrix Display. TFT stands for thin-film

transistors and many high-end notebook computers use

(TFT) active matrix liquid crystal displays.



If display quality is your main reason for buying

a notebook, it's best to give it the 'old eye test'

and check out the image quality first-hand and decide

for yourself. Panasonic, Toshiba, Sony, and others

are known for their high quality monitors - this

quality is also present in their notebook display

screens.



So when buying your perfect Gaming Notebook Remember This:



Graphics + Ram + Speed + Display = Perfect Gaming Notebook



Consider all the above factors before you buy or config

your perfect gaming machine. Chances are high that you

will get a top-notch quality Gaming Notebook that will

give you hours and hours of pure gaming bliss!







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For a list of the top rated Gaming Notebooks and Laptops Click Here:

Best Gaming Laptops & Notebooks.

Copyright © 2005 Titus Hoskins.
This article may be freely distributed if this resource

box stays attached.