Gaming Laptop

In recent years the performance of notebooks has increased significantly and maximally close to the performance desktop computers. Even five years ago, the very phrase "gaming notebook" can only arouse laughter and sarcastic comments like "yeah, for solitaire 'Klondike'." Today, some laptops will give odds to even the average desktop, which is not always possible to play Doom III or Modern Warfare 2 with decent quality settings. The only "but": in most cases, powerful gaming machines can not be called truly portable: the big screens, high-performance processors, advanced graphics and advanced cooling system make these laptops is very cumbersome. The average weight of these computers is about four pounds, which means that they are not suitable for continuous wear with them, even if

you move exclusively by car. These laptops tend to take the place of a desktop computer and move exclusively to flat or periodically transported from the apartment to the country and vice versa. In other words, despite everything, remains the main advantage of laptop - mobility. If you need a really powerful gaming notebook, forget about the budgetary decisions at the cost of up to fifteen thousand dollars. Prices for decent copies varies between 2500 and 3500 U.S. dollars, so these machines are not affordable for everyone. For much less money you can collect ultra gaming desktop computer, and you will have the means to buy more license games. However, a person always wants more comfort, so I think that many would find it interesting to read about what are today's laptops. In this article we discuss how hardware can boast of a typical modern gaming notebook. Processor The most popular processor in gaming laptops a year ago were Pentium 4 processors, and as his mobile and "desktop" version. This chip provides exactly the same performance mobile systems, like desktop PCs. The drawbacks with this decision, two - high energy consumption and therefore high heat. With the first shortcoming is quite possible to accept, because chetyrehkilogrammovogo monster battery life of the battery - not too critical parameter. As the second drawback, it turns out not only noticeable heating of the shell, but almost constant noise of the cooling system, that not everyone will like. Today more and more gaming notebooks are based on Intel Centrino mobile technology, or through its member chipsets (Intel 855 series and 915) and processor Pentium M. This mobile platform originally was designed for maximum performance while maintaining low power consumption and low heat generation, which has borne fruit: Centrino - the most popular platform for laptops most abundant class of "thin and light." With high performance and lower heat generation Centrino technology finds application in mobile computers and other classes, including those in gaming laptops. If you look at the model ranks the world's leading manufacturers, the vast majority of new gaming notebook is built on a platform Centrino. Price machines at the Centrino is little different from the notebook on a Pentium 4, although they are still somewhat more expensive. Increasingly, gaming laptops are installed 64-bit AMD Athlon 64 processors and the latest mobile processors AMD Turion Mobile 64. In performance these machines did not yield to computers based on Pentium 4 and Centrino, and on some parameters, in particular, it relates to work with video and audio codecs, and surpass them. Besides, buying a laptop with a 64-bit processor can be viewed as an investment in the future. Very soon to be released the final version of 64-bit version of Windows XP, a growing number of 64-bit applications for personal computers, so that the owners of laptops on a 64-bit platform, AMD will be the first to evaluate all the advantages of the new software. Graphics accelerators For modern gaming notebook reasonable minimum - a mobile graphics cards of the previous generation - ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 (M10) and nVidia GeForce FX 5600 Go. These video chips support OpenGL API and DirectX 9.0, as well as pixel and vertex shaders version 2.0 and can be equipped with DDR video memory capacity from 32 to 128 MB. Both the accelerator working with bus AGP 8x. On the performance of these accelerators represent approximately the same name "desktop" graphics processors, giving them slightly, owing to the design of mobile computers. The middle class for a powerful notebook videos today are mobile accelerators - ATI Mobility Radeon 9700/9800 and nVidia GeForce FX 5700 Go. These chips support all the technologies implemented in the junior versions, and provide about a third higher performance. Volume own DDR video memory can be from 64 to 128 MB. Mobile graphics hi-end graphics cards before the last generation - for a family of ATI Mobility Radeon X, and for nVidia - GeForce 6 Go. Junior Model ATI Mobility Radeon X300, X600, and nVidia GeForce Go 6200 and 6400 Accelerators are primary and secondary levels, and to a class of high-performance chips include the ATI Mobility Radeon X700 and X800, as well as the nVidia GeForce Go 6600 and 6800/6800 Ultra. These four models designed for bus PCI Express x16 - the best choice for gaming notebook. Of course, portable computers with less powerful accelerators will be much more expensive models on previous generations of chips, but a laptop with chips "on board" will be on the shoulder, practically all modern computer games. Display The vast majority of the latest models of gaming laptops are equipped with a widescreen display diagonals c 15,4 and 17 inches. Typical resolution 15.4-inch notebook matrix - WXGA (1280 x 800 pixels), and 17-inch - WXGA + (1440 X 900 pixels) or SXGA + (1400 x 1050 pixels). There are screens and higher resolution. On the wide-screen look great, not only games and movies, but they very easy to work with. Many of today's "notebook" displays are supplied with a special film or coating that will enhance the brightness and contrast of the image. In most cases, this really works, but some screens are coated with such strong reflections from nearby light sources, so before you buy is more closely examine the display and to assess how comfortable you will be working with him. Keyboard For gaming laptop is extremely important comfortable keyboard, because in many games, much of the administration are shortcuts. Best of all, when the keyboard is as close to full, then virtually eliminated accidental pressing of adjacent keys, which can lead to unpredictable consequences for walking game. Unfortunately, many manufacturers do not try to establish a gaming laptop keyboard with large keys, although the size of the shell can accommodate some models, even full-sized keyboard with a fully digital unit. Apparently, this is done in order to standardize the production, so that with a few inconveniences must be tolerated. Memory The minimum amount of RAM in a gaming laptop is 512 MB, the best - 1 GB. Ideally, the same, the more memory - the better. Until recently, portable computers, used only single-channel memory devices such as DDR, but with the advent of the latest generation of mobile technology, Centrino (codenamed Sonoma) in notebooks made it possible to install dual channel memory, which is certainly a positive impact on overall system performance. Using games in the new memory type DDR2, as shown, does not lead to speeding up work PC and, in general, even slightly slow down. In any case, the difference in performance DDR and DDR2 is negligible, while DDR works a little faster. HDD Hard disks with less than 60 GB does not meet the requirements of the gaming machine, so it is reasonable focus on hard drives 80 GB and above. Critical as spindle speed: if the average laptop is quite suitable to drive 4200 rpm, then for a gaming computer is desirable to choose drives at 5400 rpm. Optical Drive Here is little choice: virtually all notebooks price range above $ 1500 are equipped with DVD-recorders, often multi-format and with support for recording double-layer DVD. Drives DVD / CD-RW and, moreover, DVD-ROM in the gaming laptop you will not meet. Ports and Slots The notebook should be at least three ports USB 2.0, because, in addition to the mouse, you will certainly want to connect to the game machine joystick, steering wheel or any other game controller. Because these computers are often used as a main home machine, binding them is the availability of IEEE 1394 (aka - FireWire or iLINK), which can connect a digital video camera to "reset" filmed videos for further editing. Most laptops built in multi-format card readers, allowing read data from flash cards of various types. The latest models, built on the basis of technology Centrino, to replace the "good old" PCMCIA slots for expansion cards such as PC-Card ExpressCard slots come for homologous expansion cards with interface PCI Express. On the next page, you can get acquainted with some models of gaming notebooks in the Russia market.