[necrophyte]

since i have only been using a secondary monitor to extend my desktop on my laptop at work, i have no experience with gaming.

my idea is to use a secondary monitor with a resolution of 1280x1024 (or lower) for playing some new games like cod 5 or world in conflict, since i wanna play everything maxed out, and i dont think my hp 8510p notebook (t9300 2,5ghz, ati mobility hd2600, 4gb ram 800mhz, win xp pro sp3) could handle them on its native resolution 1680x1050 with maxed details (no AA/AF), and every other than the native resolution looks awful.
however, it performs amaizingly well on some older games like bioshock, brothers in arms HH, HL2 (even with AA & AF), Oblivion etc. with maxed details and its native resolution.

well, i didnt try these new games yet, but im not sure, and i dont wanna play them with lower than mid-high to high detail settings.
so would this be a solution or would the secondary monitor stress the card even more?

thanks

[temeteus82]

Well in general second screen always add load on GPU so if you want to game with that laptop modern games with medium-high to high detail levels I would say that you need lower resolution than the native on the laptops LCD. Reason for this is rather simple, the hardware is a built for mobile platform and it's a bit older chips so they aren't as powerful as the newest models.

[necrophyte]

ok thanks, thats what i was expecting.

i will try them on the native resolution and if they dont run acceptably, ill wait for HP's new 8-p notebook series at the end of the year, which hopefully will have ati 56xx cards inside, or better, and win7 of course.

..would be a pity to play any new game of that caliber with a graphic detail constraint

[BlueMak]

You could always buy a desktop PC for your gaming.
Or you can buy the ASUS W90 laptop with dual 4870 (or is it 4870X2) and a quad core cpu.

[necrophyte]

You could always buy a desktop PC for your gaming.

i know, but i like to have everything i need on a notebook (data backups on external drives) and a desktop pc wouldn fit optically into my room i play in my younger brother is rather the gamer type with his desktop pc with a qx9650 cpu and a high-end graphic card, but as i said, i want to do and have everything on my notebook.

regarding the asus laptop - i am reading lots of reviews and keep myself up to date, so i know quite a lot about these but i am somehow bound to HP's notebooks (dad's company uses them) and since i am that satisfied with the present one (8510p), although a business notebook, or actually because of that, and still performing so well with games, i want to stick with them. also size does matter for me - anything bigger than 15.4'' is actually a bit too big for me and HP puts quite powerful graphic cards into some of its notebooks of that size where others would only make them available in 17''+ notebooks. also, the general manufacturing quality is so good when comparing with other peoples' comments and complaints about other notebooks (including HP's non-business lines).

[procupine14]

Yeah be glad you have a business edition HP. The 6000 series is garbage. I have had nothing but hardware issues with it. Mostly just the motherboard. Had some problems with erratic fan spin-up and drop off. So I updated to the latest drivers and BIOS which was a bad move because it just added to my list of issues.

But if yours is working well CONGRATS! Just hope things don't go wrong because while HP will eventually help you on their customer service line you are on hold long enough to stop caring that there is something wrong with your computer .

[BlueMak]

An ex friend of mine had to change motherboard three times and laptop twice more due to problems with the motherboard. I don't know the series of HP, but it was between 5 and 2 years ago.

On the other hand, I have a compaq from 2002 that still (I think) works.

[procupine14]

Originally Posted by BlueMak

I have a compaq from 2002 that still (I think) works.

nice!

[necrophyte]

i have a nc6000 (WOW gaming performance for that time), nx7010 and nx9030 (intel integrated gfx but rest also very good) and the only issues i ever had was the famous blacklight issue on the 9030, once during warranty period (monitor replaced), once now, outside, but since im not using it frequently anymmore, i dont care. the 7010 is still being used regularily. everything else works perfectly, and on top of all of them is the 8510p, which is really perfect, except that its some 2 years too old now, for playing the latest games without constraining detail :/

business products' customer care is absolutely good, however this is also the core business of HP, not the pavillion etc. personal notebooks - unfortunately this reflects their "quality", as well their customer care, as i can read everywhere, lastly in the last posts here