Monday, May 14, 2007

In Search Of The Ultimate Gaming Laptop

By Titus Hoskins

Gaming technology is developing at a blistering pace.
Extremely fast. White knuckle fast. So fast it is very
hard to keep track of all the latest innovations even
for the most die-hard gaming enthusiast.

Gaming laptops are getting faster, sleeker and more
powerful even as you read this. There has been a rapid
deployment of gaming and laptop technology recently...
dual core, dual graphics, dual hard drives... and the
list keeps growing.

Larger screens are another major improvement with 19
and even 20 inch displays coming on stream, offering us
a greater viewing area and more enjoyment.

With all these changes taking place in the gaming sector,
where can you find the ultimate gaming laptop, the most
powerful motherboard of all extreme machines? The best
gaming performance for the money?

Where to look? Where to start the search?

Every gamer can tell you the heart of any gaming laptop
is the graphics card. You must get the most powerful
graphics or GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) if you want
your gaming system to perform to the max.

Now everything is coming up dual!

If one card is good, two must be better! You can now get
gaming systems with twin or dual graphics with over a Gig
of memory. You must also have a way to handle all this
power so look for PCI-Express with SLI (Scalable Link
Interface) systems.

Don't skimp your pennies here, try to get the best Graphics
possible, a lot of gamers go for the high end GPUs such
as ATI Mobility Radeon or NVIDIA GeForce Go series. Usually
the higher the number the better performance it will deliver.

Know Your RAM

RAM is very important in a gaming laptop mainly because,
as with any computer, RAM will largely determine how fast
it will perform. Same as with your graphics card, go for
the highest RAM possible. Know the difference between
ordinary RAM and Video RAM. The latter is very important
for running and getting full enjoyment out of your extreme
gaming laptop.

Helping to speed everything up, high end gaming laptops
now come with dual core processors, most gamers go for
Intel or AMD processors. Go with a SATA (Serial Advanced
Technology Attachment) hard drive with the highest storage
and speed you can afford.

If Money Is No Object

If you want the ultimate gaming laptop you will probably
have to pay a hefty price for top performance. The ultimate
gaming laptop is really a luxury item where price is never
much of a consideration in the first place. For those lucky
few where money is no object (These creatures do roam the
earth I am told!), searching out the best laptop money can
buy must be a pleasant task.

Your hunt would no doubt begin with some of the top gaming
brands such as Alienware (now owned by Dell), Voodoo (now a
part of HP) and Rock Direct, a UK Laptop Company.

Let's face it, these high end gaming laptop manufacturers
are mainly selling style and looks at a premium price. Many
people criticize this as style over substance, most of these
companies are using the same gaming components shipped in
from Taiwan and assembling them into neat little gaming
(marketing) packages.

But we are talking about luxury items here, if truth be
told how many people would buy a Ferrari if it looked like
a Model T? If you're looking for the ultimate gaming machine,
you will probably want the looks too? It's a package deal.
You can't have Paris without a Hilton!

New Alienware ALX

Some of the latest gaming models have to be seen to be
believed. The new Alienware ALX Series should be on your
list if you're looking for the ultimate gaming machine.
Don't dismiss the latest Dell XPS M1710 laptop, which
replaces the current XPS M170.

You should also cast your eye back to the mother country,
Rock Direct in the UK has always been an innovator when it
comes to gaming laptops. They were one of the first makers
to ship Dual Core laptops. Their Xtreme SL Pro comes highly
rated with twin AMD Turion 64 TL-60 (2GHz) processors and
dual NVIDIA GeForce Go 7950 GTX 512MB graphics cards via
PCI-Express with SLI.

Gamers will be taking note of the new DirectX 10 Znote
6625WD from Zepto. Another company in Europe who is
taking the lead by introducing DirectX 10 gaming which
will be powered by Santa Rosa, Intel's 4th generation
Centrino Pro platform. Other vendors closer to home,
are featuring this new platform such as HP's Pavilion
dv6500t.

Other Brands

Of course, you must not forget many of the other major
laptop companies which produce high performance machines
such as the Apple's MacBook Pro series and the HP's Pavilion
line. These shouldn't be ignored in your search for the
ultimate gaming machine.

Actually the search for the ultimate gaming laptop is
rather pointless, wait two minutes after you have purchased
your prized machine and there will probably be something
new that will outperform it. Your best bet is to try to
buy a machine that you can easily up-grade.

Besides, most gamers are an independent and stubborn lot,
so regardless of what the experts or the benchmarks say,
any gaming notebook they finally do buy will be their
ultimate gaming laptop. If not in fact, then at least
in their own minds and in the end that's all that really
matters!

....

The author has a keen interest in all things laptop and runs
an online Laptop Guide featuring the latest top gaming laptops:
Gaming Laptops
For Timely Special Savings/Deals/Coupons on Toshiba, Dell,
Apple, Sony, Alienware...click here:
Cheap Laptops
Copyright © 2007 Titus Hoskins.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Titus_Hoskins

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