Just looking for a little laptop info

[anothereyjana]

I have been shopping around, and I think that I have narrowed it down to this Dell laptop featured on Newegg, (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834200330) however, I noticed that even though it gives a lot of info on most of the other specs, it doesn't seem to mention the graphics card in it, however, when I was shopping, I narrowed it down to "gaming" computers, or ones built especially for gaming, so it probably does have a decent graphics card in it, however, I would like some specifics, since it's "refurbished."

When I did a search on the Best Buy site (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_dynSessConf=-8291798227854663179&id=pcat17071&type=page&st=dell+latitude&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=15&sp=&qp=&list=n&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960) (mostly to just compare how inflated their prices were compared to Newegg's; and good god, are they seriously higher), it didn't have that exact laptop (the E6500), but it did list that the other Latitude series had "Intell HD 3000."

When checking on Amazon, I noticed that they had the Latitude E6500 at pretty much the same price when refurbished (http://www.amazon.com/LATITUDE-E6500-15-4-C2D-2-53GHZ-250G/dp/B002U0P0I0/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1330062192&sr=1-1), but I noticed that it said that the computer had been available since 2004, which kind of worries me a bit (even though it's refurbished which means shiny new parts and maybe even some upgrades. Plus, it said that it came with Windows 7, which wasn't around in '04, so maybe it's a glitch?, especially since the reviews on the Dell site do not seem any earlier then 2010?).
Also, the three reviews weren't very helpful, since only one of them goes into detail, and he obviously mostly uses his for business, so is more concerned with how it networks and the like.

I also tried to check the Dell website (http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/latitude-laptops.aspx?&~srd=true&sk=latitude&scat=prod) for more info on that exact machine, but a search seems to turn up every type except the exact 6500, except through a Google search, which gave me this (http://www.dell.com/us/dfb/p/latitude-e6500/pd), which doesn't really give that much info on the specs, and the reviews are all over the place as to whether it's a good machine or not.

Also, has anyone else here used a Dell? Would you say that they are a good company, easy to contact, with fairly reliable products and the like. I ask mainly because my experience with HP has been crap thus far (enough that it's convinced me to never buy another one of their machines), and I don't want to have to deal with another company with shoddy products (I have had more problems with my current three year old machine in the past six months then I ever had during the entire eight plus years I had a Toshiba laptop) and things like crap tech and customer support; the HP tech support page would just say that the computer I had was unsupported, so they refused to do jack shit to help me when I was having a problem, other then point me towards a forum which wasn't run by the company, and which wasn't able to give me an answer until two days after I had already found a solution by asking on this site, and even then the answer was a hell of a lot less helpful then the one I got here (which, of course, fixed the problem--at least, until the computer decided to throw another one at me *sigh*).

I guess what I'm trying to ask is if, in general, trying to buy this machine in the future (or a similarly refurbished one) is a good idea or not? Sorry about the length, but I just wanted to be through, and I've found that the people on this site tend to be some of the most knowledgeable and trustworthy when it comes to computers, and I just really don't want to get screwed again like I did with my current HP.

[whiterider]

The Dell website says that that laptop comes with either an Intel integrated graphics chip or a nVidia Quadro NVS 160M. Notebookcheck (http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Quadro-NVS-160M.11908.0.html) tells me the latter is equivalent to the 9300M GS, and is therefore definitely not going to be able to play TS3 (whichever graphics option that refurb comes with), and won't be particularly good for TS2 either, depending on which EPs you have.
It is possible, yes, that the refurb has had the graphics upgraded - but upgrading laptop graphics is a costly and time-consuming business, and I would expect any refurber to shout it to the skies if they'd upgraded the graphics. So, I suspect the refurb has not been upgraded.

As for Dell as a company... lmao. They're on a par with HP.

There's absolutely no reason not to buy a refurb - they can be good value. But, I wouldn't recommend that particular one. The laptop brands generally considered great for gaming are Asus, MSI, Sager (those can be pricey, though) - Toshibas, as you've no doubt experienced, aren't bad either. I would stay the hell away from HP, Dell, and probably Acer too (I have an Acer and I love it to bits, but I don't use it for gaming - they have very poor heat management). For other brands, review sites are probably the best place to start - and Notebookcheck, which I linked above, is a good source of information on both components and laptop models.

You should also be aware that you'll need a bigger budget than $500, especially if it's TS3 you want to play. Laptops are very convenient, but they're also hellishly expensive (says the view from the bottom of my bank account). :)

[anothereyjana]

Ah, okay, thanks for the warning, especially about which companies are good to deal with and which aren't. Like I said, I wanted to avoid another company which would just give me the run-around or end up with a machine that would start huffing and puffing and just being an ass the minute the warranty was up.

I was kind of on the fence about the refurbished Dell, and I knew that the graphics card would be one of the things to sway it.

I started doing a bit more searching, and into the brands you recommended (you were right about the price being a lot more, though :blink: ), and I think that I may have found a much better machine (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152277), even if it is over $300 more. Amazon.com was able to give me a bit of info as well (http://www.amazon.com/MSI-X460DX-008US-1366x768-i3-2310M-SuperMilti/dp/B005F3I784/ref=sr_1_11?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1330149993&sr=1-11), and Notebookcheck seemed to give the X460DX a thumbs up as well, even though it wasn't that exact model, but a slightly older one in the series. (http://www.notebookcheck.net/MSI-X460DX-006US.61516.0.html)

They also seemed to give a passing grade to the graphics chip that comes with it (http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-540M.41715.0.html), and, if I'm reading it right, it can play TS3 with the graphics on high and it still looks fairly good, which I like. I don't actually plan on playing TS3 on it (in short, I tried the game, didn't like it, and it's forced legacy-style gameplay and the inability to control the progression on other houses runs completely contrary to how I like to play Sims, though I will admit that it looks very pretty), but I want any computer I purchase to be able to handle at the very least the base game TS3 on high because I have TS2 with all expansions and nearly all stuff packs (one day I will be able to get those last few, one day!*shakes fist*), not to mention my CC (which isn't at a huge amount like 20gs or anything, but I still have a pretty good amount, and some of it slightly high poly too...), and the fact that I also want to start doing a bit of creating (which, also, do you have any recommendations on tutorials for defaulting objects, especially ones in build mode? I've checked here, but I didn't see any, and one of the things I want to eventually try tackling is default replacements for some of the uglier walls for some CC ones that have caught my eye [with the creator's permission to use them, of course]), and I may want to play other games on it in the future as well (been looking at Portal and maybe the other games in the Orange Box, and I know that they have the first two Halo games available on PC, which is a series I've been wanting to get into, but haven't been able to, due to lack of a tv and X-Box). Unfortunately, the creating will have to wait until I can get something that can actually handle running the game.