I was looking at getting a new laptop in about a month. I was looking at the ASUS G1S with the 8600M GT or the Toshiba X200. I have a budget of $2000 - $2200 to spend on it. I need 2GB of ram and at least 160GB hdd with a resolution of no lower of 1440 x 900. Please help me? I also need it to have a 8 series video card.

~Tim

Normally I'd recomend you go with HP but they don't seem to offer any 8 series cards in their laptops. i looked around and you can get a pretty good from Rock ( A UK company but they'll ship to you) for exactly what you want and I've heard really good things about them. \

I'd also suggest you look at Dell. They arnt offering any 8 series cards but you can ussually get a good deal if you use coupons.

eascarface makes some good points. I would also recommend Rock - they're a good, solid company that has been churning out quality performance notebooks for the past 15 years. Their Pegasus 670 model seems right up your street:

rock :: Pegasus 670 :: Ultimate performance gaming laptops and notebooks

Dell are also a good bet, and can be very cheap, especially if you get an Outlet machine. However, eascarface is correct in mentioning that 8-series cards are currently not offered in their lineup.

Regarding your choice of resolution; you didn't actually specify what screen size you were interested in, but be aware that anything higher than 1280x800 on a 15.4 inch screen will be impractical from a gaming point of view, because mid-range laptop GPUs cannot output decent frame rates at that resolution in the latest games. Are you considering 17'' machines, or do you need more focus on portability?

Another manufacturer to check out is Asus - this model in particular is pretty good:

Asus F3SV Laptop F3SV-AP073G From Laptops Direct

To give you an idea of how the 8600M GT performs VS. its smaller brother, the 8600M GS, check out this thread.

G1S 8600M GT vs F3SV-B1 8600M GS Benchmark - Notebook Forums and Laptop Discussion

Anyways, there's just a few of my thoughts on the subject. Hope they've been of some help

Found this at cyberpowerpc.com
They got a couple of models with 8600... starting at 1500 coins...

$1841.00 (before all applicable rebates)

DISPLAY LCD: 15.4" WSXGA+ TFT LCD Display Max: 1680x1050 Pixels CPU: (Sckt775)Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6700 CPU @ 2.66GHz 1066FSB 2x2MB L2 Cache EM64T MOTHERBOARD: Mobile Intel® 945G & ICH7M Chipset Mainboard MEMORY: 2GB (2x1GB) PC5300 DDR2-667 SODIMM Memory (Corsair or Major Brand) VIDEO CARD: Built-in NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600M GT 512MB Video HARD DRIVE: 160GB 5400RPM SATA150 HARD DRIVE OPTICAL DRIVE: 8X DVD REWRITABLE DRIVE SOUND: BUILT-IN AC 97 SOUND

Quote: Originally Posted by BeetleMan CPU: (Sckt775)Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E6700 CPU @ 2.66GHz 1066FSB 2x2MB L2 Cache EM64T

Eh? There's no mobile E6700, typo?

Also Ibuypower.com got several choices...
IBuyPower Computer :: Battalion 101 C-90S Notebook

Same graphics, different look....

Both your recommendations seem to be using desktop CPUs. I must have missed this somewhere...they must be using mobile LGA775 motherboards, instead of socket 479. I thought the practice of using desktop CPUs in notebooks ended with the launch of the Pentium M several years ago. Didn't realise there was still a market for them, now Yonah, Merom and specifically Santa Rosa are doing the rounds.

Steer clear of ibuypower. Unless somebody has bought a recent one that they love, my old one was shoddily built, overheated a lot and their support was pretty rotten. They're cheap but you get what you pay for

Yup. With laptops I'd definatly go with a well-known company thats got a good support policy.

I read that the 8800M's are coming out within a month. Would you guys wait for them and see? I am not really in any hurry to get my new one. If I can wait a month and get a 8800 in a laptop i will wait.

I believe what you're thinking of is the 8700GT which is a faster clocked 8600GT. There may be an 8800GT but I've not seen any announcements about it. Apparently the X200 you mentioned earlier should come with an 8700GT and all the other things you want for $2150.

Quote: The new GeForce 8700M GT replaces the existing GeForce Go 7950 GTX as the top dog of NVIDIAÂ’s notebook lineup. NVIDIA claims 3DMark05 scores of 10,371 with the GeForce 8700M GT on default settings. A comparable GeForce Go 7950 GTX scores 9,395 in 3DMark05. The GeForce 8700M GT is also 27-34% faster than the GeForce Go 7950 GTX in Half Life 2: Lost Coast and Far Cry.

Yeah the 8700M is out already. It's filling the gap while nVidia figure out how to shrink a high end graphics solution that's already about the size of a notebook, to about an eighth of the size of a notebook.

The macbook pro has similar specs to what you want aswell. Just a suggestion.

But their 17" model is $2800. And I wouldn't want to waste a sweet graphics card on a 15" screen.

As of this morning dell has released thier new Santa Rosa based laptops which means you can now get an 8600GT in your laptop and come well under budget.

Quote: Originally Posted by eascarface As of this morning dell has released thier new Santa Rosa based laptops which means you can now get an 8600GT in your laptop and come well under budget.

Yup, check this out:

Inspiron 1520
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7300 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/4MB cache)
Genuine Windows ® Vista Home Basic Edition
Glossy, widescreen 15.4 inch display (1280x800)
256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 8600M GT
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz
Size: 120GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
CD / DVD writer (DVD+/-RW Drive)
56Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell)
High Definition Audio 2.0
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini-Card
Integrated 2.0M Pixel Webcam

Total = $1,544

Dell Inspiron 1520/1521 - Notebook

Well you can check with HP, I believe their Pavilion DV6500T models offer a 8400M card. Not too excessive, but probably one of the better cards HP has put in their machines.

EDIT: Just checked again at their site, they do offer also the 8600 on the DV9500T models also.