hey,
i am saving up $ to buy a high graphics laptop for a video game (eg; 512mb RAM or a little over). Iwas wondering:
What price range i am looking at?? (please state currency)
( am hoping under $2,000 AUD (Australian Dollars)

also what price range for Vista??(again state currency please)!!

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My ultimate dream is an awesome laptop, with Vista, with Wireless broadband, and Halo 2 which is coming out 2007!!

Well since no one else has answered your questions. The price is still undetermined. It will probably be comparable to what Windows XP runs retail, but noone can say for certain. A better deal might be to wait until they start shipping Windows Vista as OEM with new computers instead of building your own rig. There will be different editions so that will have to be factored in.

Video card/computer. I just recently purchased an AGP 4X Nvidia 6600 for my aging desktop. You will still have a better experience in gaming on a desktop PC then on a laptop, no matter what anyone says. If you are really into the best possible performance for desktop look at the GeForce 7800 series cards by nVidia. They also have a list of "Vista Ready" cards (For desktop).

Vista Ready Laptops... Hmm.. I would say check out the Dell line of gaming laptops. (XPS) at www.dell.com. There are people who swear by Dell and people who absolutely hate them. I bought an Insprion 700M laptop from them and its been a great machine - no problems here. The video card is pathetic on it but I didnt buy it for gaming. The only thing I personally recommend is avoiding doing any RAM upgrades via retail, since you can easily go to an online store like crucial.com and install this yourself and save yourself a couple hundred dollars.. unless they have competitve memory prices

This of course is all my opinion so do what you have to do.

If you're going to be playing any newer games, you're definently going to need more then 512, I'd say at least one gig. Pretty much any new games will require at least 4x and 512, recommended. I'd say your price will probably be at least 1200.
Awhile back I was helping a friend look at laptops, he checked out a gaming laptop and the price was somewhere around 1400, and the specs weren't that bad.
But since you're going to be buying a laptop before vista come out, make sure you get high-end and widely supported hardware to ensure that vista drivers will be compiled for your hardware.
But as Mike said, it's best not to jump the gun and wait for Vista first.

thanks Mike and Generic,
i was always going to wait until early 07 to get the laptop and that way it Vista could come with it.
I think I will get a custom laptop with High Ram/Graphics, etc and cut back on the other stuff that is not entirely important, eg software that comes with it.
Until then, i'm gonna have to get Babysitting money, christmas money, birthday money, withdrawl some money from my bank account, beg and nag my parents to let me buy it.

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My ultimate dream is an awesome laptop, with Vista, with Wireless broadband, and Halo 2 which is coming out 2007!!

Originally Posted by afridge

thanks Mike and Generic, i was always going to wait until early 07 to get the laptop and that way it Vista could come with it. I think I will get a custom laptop with High Ram/Graphics, etc and cut back on the other stuff that is not entirely important, eg software that comes with it. Until then, i'm gonna have to get Babysitting money, christmas money, birthday money, withdrawl some money from my bank account, beg and nag my parents to let me buy it.

I wish you the best luck - don't get bogged down with specifics too early. Hardware/software recommendations are always subject to change. It sounds like you are young - good idea to save up money for it.

by the way,
How Much is it to upgrade RAM?? (eg; $100 for extra 512MB and please state currency)
thnx

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My ultimate dream is an awesome laptop, with Vista, with Wireless broadband, and Halo 2 which is coming out 2007!!

I'm suprised I missed your post... I'm not sure what it would be where you live. I am in the US. What I have used in the past was crucial.com.

Im still trying to figure out if I can afford to upgrade to Vista. If the price is over $200 for the good version I'll wonder if its worth it. Im not going to pay 100+ for an upgrade that doesnt even have Aero and has missing features

RAM Varies in price with the type that you are planning to get (ie: DDR/DDR2/SDRAM), DDR2 is the standard shipping with newer units in the US.. don't really know about over-seas markets, but i can find out if you REALLY need to know. here you should expect to pay anywhere from $90-USD to $150-USD (depending on size and quality of RAM)
As Far as your new system is concerned... you probably looking at @ $1400-USD (or more) for a new laptop that will do what you are looking for it to do. keep in mind that, on average, custom machines usually are vastly more expensive to purchase than MassMarket models.

ctv8: my advise for you... only upgrade if you are willing spend the money on your computer to make sure that it works with the next, "bleeding-edge" hardware and software (keep in mind that most of today's really cool games and apps can still run from a Win98se machine)

hope this helps someone... i feel better now..