I'll see if he likes the gateway, it does look pretty nice. Its not a matter of saving more money, its a matter of convincing my mom to let him spend that much. He has a habit of going all out and spending way too much. He has a $4000 home theater system and doesn't even own a DVD. I remember my graduation present went from an off the shelve $700 HP to a $2000 custom built gaming PC.

I also think he wants to order it this week since I guess he is letting my brother borrow it for the summer. (He is studying abroad and leaves early June.) I'm pretty sure this is how he talked his way into buying a new laptop in the first place and I guarantee that's why he's looking for something to run Age of Conan

The desktop equivalent to a 9500M GT is taking a dump in your computer case; that's not a gaming laptop.

EDIT: Bleh, I was thinking of the 8500GT there. Being that there's only one set of benchmarks (from a chinese site, no less) we don't really know all that much about that GPU (the 9500). That said, it's not going to be playing a game like Crysis very well with that laptop's native resolution. My recommendations below still stand.

For the time being, this is the best gaming laptop near your price range. However, you probably can't swing an extra $150. In that case, I'd go with this Acer notebook. The screen resolution is low enough that the 8600M GT should still be capable for a while longer.

kodex1717

I spent the better part of two hours trying to find benchmarks on the 9500m gs and about the only thing I found out was that it is a replacement for the 8600m gt but performs anywhere from 10% - 30% better. The Asus one I linked has a better CPU, more RAM, and better GPU so might as well get the best he can afford.

Just to be clear I don't think he is looking to max any of the newer games, his current PC has a Radeon 9800Pro and an old Athlon 64 3200+, so basically anything is an improvement.

My dad is looking for a new laptop and called me for advice but I have never had a laptop and know next to nothing about them. This is the one we are looking at, but could use some extra help.

Although he won't admit it, he is looking for something that plays games reasonably well, especially age of conan. It seems like the Asus should run the game ok; 4GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive, and 2.4GHz C2D all met the recommended specs but what is the desktop equivalent to the 9500M GT? Is there any others you would recommend, $1200 is the absolute maximum budget.

Well, the avadirect.com looks pretty promising so I might try that out.Yoshi25

That's a good choice, if I absolutely had to get a pre-built AVADirect would be my first choice. That being said you will get more for your money if you build it yourself. It might seem intimidating but is very simple, just plug everything into the correct slot.

Look for E8400 or Q6600 for CPU, 8800gt or 9600gt for video card, and at least 2GB quality memory.

I have serious doubts about either card lasting 3 years from now.That will mean that an 8800GTX will last a massive 4.5 years.Just doesnt seem likely to me even if you SLI.Their is bound to be a game that exceeds the shader model requirement of these cards.

Spybot_9

I got to agree here. I have the 8800gts 512 and love it but there is no way it will last me 3 years. Now maybe if you play on low resolution and low settings for a year then maybe you'll get three years from it. I try to upgrade my video card every two years and it has worked out very well for me so far. Don't try to future prove your build because it just can't be done.

For your actually question, as of right now I would get the 8800gts. The difference in price is not worth the very small increase in FPS. A lot can change in two months though so I would keep your options open.

From what I've seen, some tests show the 9800X2 as better and others show 8800 GTS 512 SLI as better, it depends on the game. Most of the time they are so close to each other (less then 5FPS) that you can pretty much say they are equivilent.

The biggest point is whether you already have an SLI board. If you do, you can get 2 8800 GTS(OC EVGA for $420) for considerably less than one GX2(EVGA stock $550) and get almost, if not the same performance. If you don't have a SLI board you may end up spending that extra $130 just getting the board, at that point the one card solution is always the better choice.

Thanks for all the posts guys i think im going with the 8600gt cause its at a reasonable price wouldnt like to spend too much cause I just play games to pass the time mostly.robot666

No matter what people have told you, this is a huge mistake. If you just wanted to play WOW and CS then this would be an ok upgrade, but you listed Crysis and Assassins Creed. You need a 8800gs at least, but the best option would be the 9600gt. The 8600gt is not a good gaming card anymore and you will just be unhappy by the end of the year(or sooner).

Here is a great cheap motherboard along with a quality power supply that should run a 9600gt or 8800gs with no problem. Here is some RAM to go with it.

Right now I'm torn between.

EVGA 320-P2-N811-AR GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

And

EVGA 512-P3-N861-AR GeForce 9600GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card

Not sure which will be better for me. Considering I don't have a PCI-e 2.0 x16. Just a normal PCI-e x16... Don't know if that will effect performance. And besides the ram on the card they look the same.

SinfulPotato

In my opinion anything less then the 9600gt is not worth the upgrade. At $150 the 9600gt is an amazing card that will give you a huge performance increase and is quite a bit better then the 8800gts 320mb. Don't worry about pci-e 2.0, it is backwards compatible and will work fine with your motherboard.

I would take 9600gt, the PSU you listed, and the CPU you listed before upgrading the monitor. I still use a my viewsonic G90fb CRT and see absolutely no reason to upgrade it. Besides the size (I never move it anyway) there is nothing wrong with it. Not only that, but if you have a decent CRT it will most likely be better then a $150 LCD.

Okay. Just to close this thread. I took my computer to my local computer store. They tried switching the power supply. And bang, it works.. The next day when i come to get it, they said that it ddn't work, again.. And then the guy in the store tried removing the wireless network card. Whatever they are called. And it worked. My computer is now working. The funn thing is that i didn't touch any of the two parts they replaced/removed. But it works, for now..

Thanks for all the feedback. :) Now i can finally play Assassin's creed.

mGard

Glad to hears its working now. My first instinct would have been the power supply, I have had cheap power supplies go out just by moving the PC. The thermal paste is great to use, and you should probably put some back on at some point, but in all reality there is no way you could hurt your PC without appling it. Most processors running at idle have about 20-30 degree of overhead before they will shut-down. Thermal paste does not drop the temperature by anything near that amount, so there is no way it could hurt your computer. (unless the heatsink is mounted incorrectly)