Curse

drowze · Dec 01, 2010, 08:06 PM // 20:06

Hi, since my 3.5 years old inspiron 6400 broke down (way too soon if you ask me ><), i am looking to buy a new laptop. It needs to be a laptop because I move around alot. I would like to continue playing GW1 and maybe GW2, in low-medium settings is enough for me in case of GW2.

I am doubting between 2 laptops (im quite the noob when it comes to finding good price/quality deals, forgive me for that please^^):

Dell Vostro 3700:
- 17.3" display
- i5-460M CPU
- 4gig ram
- Geforce GT 330M with 1gig memory
- price: €644

Medion Akoya P6625:
- 15.6" display
- i3-350M CPU
- 4gig ram
- ATI Radeon HD 5165 with 1 gig memory
- price: €612

First, I never had a 17" laptop, so I am worried it might feel a bit too big><. But once I get used to it, that shouldnt pose a problem so I'm not gonna be too anal about that (watching movies would be quite nice on it too i guess). The problem for me is brand name and CPU/GPU combo:
I checked online and as I understand the HD 5165 card is better than the GT 330M, but does the superior processor of the Dell Vostro make up for it?
About brand name: at the moment I am typing this on my 6+ year old Medion laptop that is still running well if i dont overdo it (it gets warm fast), so I am reluctant to buy another Dell because it broke down after 3 years... On the other hand I am planning to move to Japan within a few months, and if something does break down I cant have my medion fixed over there I think; with Dell I won't have that problem. On the other hand, if nothing breaks down I dont have to worry about getting it fixed ><.

I really cant figure this out, so i decided to ask here. In case it helps: I live in Belgium and would like to keep the price to be below €650.

Thanks in advance

Oh if anyone should be interested: My old inspiron gave me a blue screen while playing GW with the message NMI: Parity Check/Memory Parity Error. After that the LCD just stays dead. It does display when connecting an external monitor, but there are weird thin blue lines in the black parts of the picture. I succeeded once to do a system restore and it ran fine again (normal as usual with LCD), but after a few hours i got the same blue screen and dead LCD and system restore wont work anymore. I could enter windows in safe mode, but if I try to enter windows normally it gives me the blue screen and the same memory parity error. The Dell diagnostics program gave me error code 0142 (HDD selftest error) and error code 0321 (Unable to detect LCD). I Contacted Dell Chat Support and the guy told me that i could send it in for repairs, but since its out of warranty i better buy a new one. I figured the same, but I still dont really know what the problem is (HDD, Graphics Card, LCD itself...).

Elder III · Dec 02, 2010, 12:50 AM // 00:50

The Dell is hands down the better buy; that will play GW1 flawlessly and handle GW2 just fine as well. Once you game for a few hours on the bigger screen you will never want to go back to the little 15".... trust me.

Malice Black · Dec 02, 2010, 01:15 AM // 01:15

Medion build quality is a little iffy too.

Lord Sojar · Dec 06, 2010, 07:12 PM // 19:12

Yes, go with the Dell, hands down at Elder pointed out.

Also, Elder, why aren't you over at GW2G? @_@

Elder III · Dec 06, 2010, 10:48 PM // 22:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lord Sojar

Yes, go with the Dell, hands down at Elder pointed out.

Also, Elder, why aren't you over at GW2G? @_@

I should be registered there, although I haven't posted much..... haven't wanted to take yet another tech forum yet. *lazy me*