PCA Forums

Well this weekend has not been a good one for me and computer hardware.

My Dell 610 will run no more. The charging circuit on the mobo popped and now it only runs on the battery. Luckily I bought a spare parts laptop that I can use to charge batteries so I can do some backups off it.

Any way its a company laptop and they gave us netbooks to use a year ago and I NEVER use it. Its too small to read electrical / hydraulic prints on. its a 10".

So now I would like to just buy my own laptop. One that has a decent sized screen and can play games and watch HD. As far as games go I don't need state of the art. TF2 is what I still play and perhaps EVE again at some point. But none of the newer stuff. If it can have a serial port (long shot) that's a super win for me. I still need one for programing PLCs and servo drives for work. Some times the USB to serial cables won't work with software.

Let me know whats good. People have suggested a Dell XPS. I don't mind that but are they any good?

Thanks.

If you're going to do gaming, then yeah. Dell XPS. Dell's Alienware line i particularly good for gaming, but a bit pricey. XPS does the job without all the blinky lights on the Alienware.

Serial ports are long gone on laptops, but I carry around a USB to serial adapter that seems to work fine for me. As long as you can configure it as COM1 or COM2 most software seems to work with it.

As mentioned serial ports have been long and gone for years. The adapters seem to work pretty good these days. Haven't run into problems with them yet.

The Dell XPS are decent, but a little pricey just like their Alienware line. You should do well with a laptop with an A8 or A10 processor. Their integrated graphics is way better than what Intel has to offer.

This one is similar to an Acer I bought recently:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834131393

Except this one has an A10, and it is a Samsung. It allows you to run the integrated graphics in crossfire with the dedicated graphics, giving you some extra performance for games.

I picked up a lower end Lenovo that was being discontinued last fall and I am quite pleased at the build quality - lenovo IdeaPad Z575 (12992DU) Notebook AMD A-Series A6-3420M(1.5GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1333 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW AMD Radeon HD 6520G - it's nowhere near alienware but the kb is good and it plays GW2 fine. Display is decent as well.