Gaming laptop with Media Center and TV tuner?

[SniperSmurf]

OK, here's my situation. I'm off to Iraq next month and the wife said I could get a new laptop to bring along (she doesn't want me to take "hers").
I initially wanted to get a Shuttle (well, that form factor anyway), but don't know how much room I'll have for stuff like that.
I'd like opinions from anyone who knows anything about what I asked in the title.
I can get an XPS through the Exchange for a discount, but the TV tuner is external (and costs extra). It does come with the 256MB nVidia GeForce Go 7800 GTX, which is what I want. I'm not a huge fan of Dell, however... I don't care for the XPS desktop computers, but don't have any experience with their XPS laptops.
I've looked at Alienware, Voodoo, Falcon NW, CyberPower, and a few others, but buying through the Navy Exchange gets me free shipping and a good discount as well. The only thing is that the NEX only offers Sony, Dell, Microtel, and HP/Compaq.

I mostly want to be able to play games and watch/record TV and DVDs. Hopefully, battery life won't be an issue, but I don't know what the power situation is over there.

[maxama10]

consider an apple? if not how about a toshiba satellite or a IBM thinkpad both excellent to my standards

[SniperSmurf]

consider an apple?

Not really. I sold my G4 a couple years ago and never looked back. I'm mainly a gamer, and hated waiting for everything...
I've had both the satellite and thinkpads at one time or another. Good in general, but not really the best gaming platforms. I'd love to get a Panasonic ToughBook, but they are just too expensive for the older hardware they use...

[Recon by Fire]

Just kep in mind that you will not be using it on any MWR provided internet. There are some private wireless providers but anything above a 386/pc is overkill on those slug services. So unless your unit/company has high speed internet you can use, you are out of luck. I wouldn't worry about the TV tuner too much anyway. Some hooches do have satellites on them but not like the TV available is worth watching. You can use the laptop as a DVD player hooking it up to a TV though. You pretty much just have a high speed DVD player and stand alone game machine though.

[SniperSmurf]

Just kep in mind that you will not be using it on any MWR provided internet. There are some private wireless providers but anything above a 386/pc is overkill on those slug services. So unless your unit/company has high speed internet you can use, you are out of luck. I wouldn't worry about the TV tuner too much anyway. Some hooches do have satellites on them but not like the TV available is worth watching. You can use the laptop as a DVD player hooking it up to a TV though. You pretty much just have a high speed DVD player and stand alone game machine though.

Good points, Recon. I wouldn't be playing MMO games online or anything. I'd probably just need the net for downloading patches for new games I get, and e-mailing the family (and maybe dropping in here now and then). However, some of the patches I've seen now are over 20MB, so I may have to skip them unless I really need it.

The tuner isn't a must, but I'd like to have one. Media Center is a must though. I've got several seasons of shows on my desktop at home (about 300 Gigs worth) which I'd like to burn to DVD and take with me. Maybe I'll get a large external HDD as well. I'm not sure where I'll be yet, but wasn't planning on the TV being great... The tuner would be mostly for use during my training before the deployment (I've gotta go play "Army" for awhile first). I plan on recording as many worthwhile shows as possible while I'm in actual barracks with cable.

I'm sure I could get by with a 6800 Ultra card, but I don't get to buy a high-end laptop very often. My wife's feeling generous since she won't see me for awhile! I'll probably be taking very time-consuming games. Civilization 3 and 4, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2, Star Wars KotOR 1 and 2, Neverwinter Nights Platinum, Heroes of Might and Magic 3 and 4, Fallout 1 and 2, Final Fantasy 7 and 8, Sims 2, and whatever else I see when I dig through my CD cases. I'll be sure to download what patches I'll need for those while I'm here, and burn them to CD. Wow, this is getting longer than I intended... Anyways, thanks!

[Recon by Fire]

You can of course pick up some good deals on small high capacity extrnal HDD's there from Hadji. Or get one at home if you feel safer with quality question. Get a USB jump drive too! Very handy for transferring file/letters, etc...from your pc and MWR pc's.

[SniperSmurf]

I've also been considering the Toshiba Quosimo, however with the 128MB GeForce Go 6600, it has been at the back of the pack so far. I'm sure it would be adequate for the games I plan on bringing (except for maybe Civ IV and Sims 2), but I want the latest so I'm not terribly out of date when I come back in a year...

Anyone have a Quosimo here?

[Recon by Fire]

I picked up a Fujitsu Lifebook loaded with a 17" LCD display for about $2K. Just make sure you have adequate packing protection for it! Next trip though I think I will leave the ubber notebook at home and just pick up something small.

[Coralis]

Hope this helps Pc world, power laptops

[RapidTransit]

OK, here's my situation. I'm off to Iraq next month and the wife said I could get a new laptop to bring along (she doesn't want me to take "hers").
I initially wanted to get a Shuttle (well, that form factor anyway), but don't know how much room I'll have for stuff like that.
I'd like opinions from anyone who knows anything about what I asked in the title.
I can get an XPS through the Exchange for a discount, but the TV tuner is external (and costs extra). It does come with the 256MB nVidia GeForce Go 7800 GTX, which is what I want. I'm not a huge fan of Dell, however... I don't care for the XPS desktop computers, but don't have any experience with their XPS laptops.
I've looked at Alienware, Voodoo, Falcon NW, CyberPower, and a few others, but buying through the Navy Exchange gets me free shipping and a good discount as well. The only thing is that the NEX only offers Sony, Dell, Microtel, and HP/Compaq.

I mostly want to be able to play games and watch/record TV and DVDs. Hopefully, battery life won't be an issue, but I don't know what the power situation is over there.

Get what you want and skip the discounts, I'd use XP Pro over anything, media center is just a crippled XP Pro, with a bunch of garbage "media centric" apps which you can get from elsewhere with more robust features.

[SniperSmurf]

Get what you want and skip the discounts, I'd use XP Pro over anything, media center is just a crippled XP Pro, with a bunch of garbage "media centric" apps which you can get from elsewhere with more robust features.

I'll need MCE to watch all of my previously recorded TV though, unless there's some way around that now... When I first got my desktop (a couple years ago) you couldn't transfer the MCE recordings to a non MCE machine.

[SniperSmurf]

Update

Well guys, thanks for the input. I've finally decided to get this. I was just going to get a plain Sager or Pro-Star, but with identical components, the Hypersonic was actually the cheapest one. Go figure...

Here's a few of the specs:
Proc - P4 3.6 GHz
RAM - 1024MB Mushkin PC5400 DDR2-667 (X 2)
Video - Nvidia GeForce Go 7800 GTX PCI-Express 256MB
HDD - 100GB 7200rpm SATA NCQ & 8MB Cache (X 2 in Raid 0)

All for right around $3K!

[SniperSmurf]

Update:

Well, Hypersonic fell through... couldn't deliver before my ship-out date.
I ended up going through AAFES online and got a Dell XPS M170. I really wanted a Sager/Clevo clone, but this should stay cooler, last longer on batteries and is nearly 5 lbs lighter.
The main thing I wanted was the GeForce 7800 GTX, which it has, so I guess I'm happy. I've heard about issues with the LCDs, but hopefully I'll get a good one. If not, I won't have any time to return it... I'm keepin' my fingers crossed.
Looks like we'll have internet right in our huts/tents, which will be nice. I also heard that they're setting up a big central server where people can upload pics, movies, mp3s, games, etc. for us to use over a network. I'm going to pull one of my 250GB hard drives out of my desktop to bring with me for this purpose. I'll load it up with all the music and video files I can before leaving for everyone to share (and I don't want to hear any "legal" crap... We'll be getting shot at for chrissake, especially if all this "civil war" stuff I've been hearing about happens).
Anyway, wish me luck, and I'll post pics when I can. See you in about 16 months!

[kosmo]

BTW, you might want to check this out: http://mediahopper.com/portal.htm

[SniperSmurf]

BTW, you might want to check this out: http://mediahopper.com/portal.htm

Thanks for the link! Wow, 2 whole channels for Iraq... Not much to see right now, but I'll check back later.