Machinima hardware, pt. II
As my last post waxed on and on about upcoming consoles (which might seriously impact PC gaming as we know it), the here and now says PCs are still leaps and bounds ahead in the gaming arena. One only needs to read the specs of NVIDIA's latest to know that the horsepower will still side with PCs - well, at least for another few moons...
To that, I've been researching the landscape of portable PC gaming hardware. I am a self-professed gadget geek, so its not unique that I stop, stare and drool at hardware specs, but my primary interest here is to replace my "newer than it looks" Compaq x1015. While the x1015 has served me well, its definitely showing its wear, what with chipped paint, scratches on the casing and a nice "pay attention to me!" vertical line running up the middle of the LCD - true battle scars of the hardcore gaming warrior (though that tumble around a McDonalds carousel didnt help much).
Anyway, I believe I settled on my next upgrade which makes the little geek in me do the Mashed Jar-Jar (similar to the old Mashed Potato dance, but updated to the sounds of muffled "Meesa needs air!" I know, I know...that's terrible - hey, you smiled too).
After reviewing all the current laptop offerings for gamers. the Dell XPS Gen 2 won me over.
The XPS 2 features quite a number of things I expect from a gaming laptop - 450 things to be exact - as that's the clock speed of the included NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 Ultra. This is a 256mb card and is the fastest 3D card available for laptops. In addition to the top-of-the-line graphics, the XPS 2 includes a 533 MHz frontside bus, DDR2 memory sockets, insane sound (how many laptops include a subwoofer?) and a small but effective 17" screen. Yes, its no desktop, but it sure acts as its evil twin, hoping you'll forget you even had the desktop as part of your hardware family. Additionally, the XPS 2 includes the "what gamer could be without this?" accoutrement - colored LEDs located in the front, sides and back of the unit. This is totally an asthetic item, and serves no purpose other than to give Bouncing Betty some disco lights to dance to.
Armed with all the XPS stats and other considerations (for those looking at PC hardware, the invaluable Notebookforums.com offer forum after forum on different makes/models). I also considered the hi-end portable gaming offerings from Gateway, Alienware and VoodooPC and found that each fell a bit short of the XPS 2 (however knowing these vendors, expect their answers shortly).
The lappy has received some exceptional reviews across the board (CNET : HardOCP : Tom's Hardware) and seems to be favored by quite a few. Sure, its a Dell and a bit of a beast (my back is aching already!) but for a great portable Machinima studio, I'll take the hit.
To that, I've been researching the landscape of portable PC gaming hardware. I am a self-professed gadget geek, so its not unique that I stop, stare and drool at hardware specs, but my primary interest here is to replace my "newer than it looks" Compaq x1015. While the x1015 has served me well, its definitely showing its wear, what with chipped paint, scratches on the casing and a nice "pay attention to me!" vertical line running up the middle of the LCD - true battle scars of the hardcore gaming warrior (though that tumble around a McDonalds carousel didnt help much).
Anyway, I believe I settled on my next upgrade which makes the little geek in me do the Mashed Jar-Jar (similar to the old Mashed Potato dance, but updated to the sounds of muffled "Meesa needs air!" I know, I know...that's terrible - hey, you smiled too).
After reviewing all the current laptop offerings for gamers. the Dell XPS Gen 2 won me over.
The XPS 2 features quite a number of things I expect from a gaming laptop - 450 things to be exact - as that's the clock speed of the included NVIDIA GeForce Go 6800 Ultra. This is a 256mb card and is the fastest 3D card available for laptops. In addition to the top-of-the-line graphics, the XPS 2 includes a 533 MHz frontside bus, DDR2 memory sockets, insane sound (how many laptops include a subwoofer?) and a small but effective 17" screen. Yes, its no desktop, but it sure acts as its evil twin, hoping you'll forget you even had the desktop as part of your hardware family. Additionally, the XPS 2 includes the "what gamer could be without this?" accoutrement - colored LEDs located in the front, sides and back of the unit. This is totally an asthetic item, and serves no purpose other than to give Bouncing Betty some disco lights to dance to.
Armed with all the XPS stats and other considerations (for those looking at PC hardware, the invaluable Notebookforums.com offer forum after forum on different makes/models). I also considered the hi-end portable gaming offerings from Gateway, Alienware and VoodooPC and found that each fell a bit short of the XPS 2 (however knowing these vendors, expect their answers shortly).
The lappy has received some exceptional reviews across the board (CNET : HardOCP : Tom's Hardware) and seems to be favored by quite a few. Sure, its a Dell and a bit of a beast (my back is aching already!) but for a great portable Machinima studio, I'll take the hit.
2 Comments:
Funny, I'm also shopping for a new laptop, but I'm going in exactly the opposite direction.
After 4 years of a Dell Inspiron, I'm looking for something seriously light - a 14" Powerbook equivalent, capable of running video and possibly Machinimation, but nothing high-end.
Funny - I would have thought that since we do very similar things, we'd be looking for similar machines. I wonder why that is?
Yeah, its a tough call.
On one hand I want to go with something much more portable, and then on the other, I want something that has the horsepower can handle pretty much anything I can throw at it Machinima-wise.
In addition, this unit will be replacing my desktop, so I need something that can handle that work as well.
Still, it does bear to consider the amount of portability the laptop affords -- to which, the getting around with even my x1015 can sometimes be a pain.
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