That T400 doesn't have Optimus.
It has switchable graphics.

If that one had a keypad I would grab it up for my DIL, she doesn't play games and has accounting experience, thus the keypad need.

Here is a photo of a Thinkpad keyboard, Hawka. Is this good enough for your DIL?

I can always find another laptop with XP if you take this one.

thinkpad keyboard

No, cruise, she meant a number pad - these don't have the separate number pad on the right.

Here's a picture of a number pad on a laptop.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/typo3temp/pics/606d2c3245.jpg

No I need to have one with the numerical keypad (like a calculator) so it would have to be at least 15 6" like my Asus. I am just looking right now, no rush, if I see something I like at the right price then I will get it.

Just to refresh your memory and of course you wouldn't want Vista anyway, here is Judys Asus
Edit:
Thanks Draclvr and nice closeup Jenny100. I don't want to intrude on this thread, I have PM'd Inland for some feedback on laptops I have been looking at. I know you guys are busy, I am patient and waited quite some time before picking the one I did. I got some really good pointers from Draclvr and another person on MM. I am a happy camper.

I hope you get that laptop for your DIL, Hawka. I did some more searching (on google this time), and I came up with this site that lists a bunch of refurbished gaming laptop, some with XP, and cheap, and this site has the ebay logo on this webpage. Since I did not got that other laptop that I linked to a few days ago that I made 2 offers for, would it be a good idea to buy an XP gaming laptop from this site?

refurbished XP gaming laptops

Or is there a catch to all this?

Found the catch - no buy it now. You're forced to bid.

It looks like a way to look through the eBay auctions without having to sift through a lot of auctions for batteries, adapters, screens, and other parts. There are probably some of them that are "Buy It Now."

You could always set your max bid and just look the other way. If you get it you do and if someone else does, so be it. Just have a price in mind and don't go over it in a bidding frenzy. Been there, done that, but no more. Of course you have to have an idea of what it is worth which means lot's of Googling.

Found another thinkpad laptop on ebay, it says it has Vista and XP is installed, has a buy it now button. I'd take it if it has a Geforce 6 series, but so far, the description does not say what kind of a video card it has. I'm going to use this one strictly for gaming.

Thinkpad laptop w/ Vista and XP

it has a 160 GB hard drive, should I buy it?

EDIT - found this one, it looks even better. It has switchable graphics, use a hot key to toggle from integrated graphics to discrete graphics, doesn't say what graphics adapters it has, but it does say GMA, and I know GMA is not discrete graphics, this laptop comes with XP - should I buy it?

Another ebay laptop w/ XP

Again, I'm going to use this laptop strictly for gaming.

Here is once review I found on the intel gam 4500..
intel gma 4500
Let’s get something straight – the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD is not designed to play games. Its purpose is to provide a low-cost, low-power integrated graphics solution that supports video playback and external monitor connections. While Intel continues to improve the performance of its integrated graphics solutions, its latest 4500MHD offering still is not suitable for gaming. Even at very low settings, the 4500MHD cannot produce the performance necessary for enjoyable gameplay in modern games – older ones like Counter-Strike: Source, yes, but newer ones like Left 4 Dead, definitely not. Gamers looking for a gaming notebook will need to look for a model that has a graphics solution like Nvidia’s GeForce 9600M GT. However, for everything else other than games (check out meccabingo), the 4500MHD isn’t a bad choice.

I understand that the GMA graphics are not really built for gaming, Winfrey. That's why I'm passing up all the XP laptops that have GMA graphics. However, this one that Inland linked me to, I'm still considering buying it - should I buy a laptop with dedicated ATI graphics and XP since I'm having a very hard time finding an XP laptop that has a GeForce 9600 graphics card for sale on google (as of today)?

thinkpad with XP and ATI graphics

I found ***this thread*** which says it's possible to switch between the Intel and the ATI graphics in the BIOS. It looks like Lenovo does have a ***drivers page*** that includes drivers for XP.

If you want more than 2 GB of RAM or a larger hard drive, the seller says he'll add them for you (though he won't do it for free and you'll have to ask how much extra it would be for these upgrades). However at $539.95 it's already a little over your budget.

It's a 14" laptop, which means it will be more portable than a 15".

Finding a laptop with a 9600M graphics card that is 15" or less and also supports XP and is less than $500 may not be possible. If you were OK with a 16" or 17" laptop, there might be more choice.

Folks, I found this one on ebay -

Levono thinkpad

it says it has dedicated graphics but I don't know if I should buy it for XP gaming for games such as 80 Days, Jazz & Faust, PR: Immortals of Terra, Nikopol?

From what Inland said several posts ago,I believe it will support XP if I wipe the hard drive and install XP on it - am I correct about this?

And it does not have optimus technology?

Does it sound like a good deal, considering the HDD size?

Jenny, I want to stick with the 15-inchers, that support XP and are priced at $500 or less, so what specs should I be looking at if I want to play 3D games (such as 80 Days, Nikopol, Immortals of Terra, etc) that have issues with Win 7?

It uses Intel graphics. The problem with Intel graphics isn't just that they're underpowered. Drivers for Intel graphics generally have lower compatibility with games than ATI or Nvidia drivers. Do not count on playing anything other than casual games on Intel graphics. A few adventure games may work, but you'll have much greater compatibility with your current Windows 7 laptop than with an XP laptop with Intel graphics.

The laptop with switchable graphics that Inland found is a much better deal. If you want a larger hard drive in it, you can add one later. With Lenovo laptops it's easy to change the hard drive.

By the way, a T400 is a 14" laptop.
The T500 is the 15" model.

Ok, Jenny, I'll go with the one Inland found for me - link, please? It the price right for by $500 budget?

EDIT - is it this one?

Levono thinkpad

I just made my third offer of $501 for it.

That's the one.
If you count the free shipping on that one (and the non-free shipping on the one you found) they're about the same price. Only the one Inland found has the ATI.

But in case the seller declines my offer, what will I have to do then?

Give him a better offer.

But then again, suppose I don't want a laptop with an ATI GPU, but a GeForce 6 series GPU?

Since I have absolutely no idea (other than an Intel 2 GHz CPU, 256 MB GeForce video card 6 series, a 200+ GB HDD and XP OS, 15-incher) of what to look for in a XP laptop, this is why I'm leaving it up to you guys to help me find one on ebay (or amazon); I tried googling this morning, but I came up with a lot of unrelated items (such as GPU cards, hard drives and parts) rather than what I was looking for.

You could try on a online store search, you know where they have the breakdowns of what you want. Maybe if something interesting pops up then you can input model numbers and such into eBay. It is easier if you have a brand name that you want to stick with. Maybe start with Newegg, TigerDirect, BestBuy, they all have that sort of search function. I am doing the same thing with my looking and tons come up on eBay even with only one brand name.

If you don't want the laptop, why bid on it at all? If you don't want one with ATI because you think it won't play games, you certainly wouldn't want Intel graphics, which are a thousand times worse for playing games.

Have you now decided you definitely do not want an ATI card? And have you decided you don't want a 14" laptop? The T400 is a 14". If you want a 15" Lenovo, look at the T500's.


If you insist on a Geforce 6 series card, you find this sort of thing
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220764897708

It seems to have XP drivers available for download
http://esupport.sony.com/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNFS760W

It has a Geforce Go 6400 -- a slow card but might be OK for older games.

However it has only 512 MB of RAM and the processor is 1.866 GHz.

The combination of 2 GB RAM and 2 GHz or more processor speed does not usually go along with a Geforce 6 series card. You could email the seller and ask if he could put 2 GB of RAM in it (since he seems to be a shop that sells laptops). But you wouldn't get a faster processor. And the Geforce Go 6400 isn't that great a card. You'd probably want a 6800 if you went back to the Geforce 6 series, but Geforce Go 6800 graphics were usually put in 17" laptops like ***this one***.



That's why that site you found is useful. They filter out things like laptop parts. But the combination of things you're looking for probably does not exist.

I'll take the ATI card if it'll play games like 80 Days. My thought is since when this game starts up (after it's installed) a screen comes up that says something like: "NVidia - the way it's meant to be played" I took it as meaning this game will not play in a PC that has an ATI card, but I could be wrong?

EDIT - it appears the ATI will play any game the GeForce will.

From what I found here -



it says that this game isn't very laptop-friendly - it has nothing to do with whether the card is a Geforce or a ATI, so now I'm getting the idea that for the vast majority of the games I want to play that I have in my XP-games collection, the ATI will play them as well as the GeForce.

The seller got back to me, he made a counter offer of $530, this sounds like a joke!

What can I do now?

I'm standing at $501.00.

I contacted the seller, told him I'm standing at $501.00 for the laptop.

EDIT -



could you please find me another one of these laptops, Inland, that support XP for $500 (buy it now) with a 256 ATI card that's got real muscle behind it?

No that's just an ad from Nvidia. If 80 Days uses Nvidia's PhysX as part of the game engine, that's probably how the ad got in. Not many adventure games use PhysX. It's usually only seen in 3D games, and it can be rendered in software anyway, which means you can still play PhysX games with an ATI card. Frogwares used PhysX in their Sherlock Holmes games as far back as The Awakened, but I don't know about 80 Days.


Generally speaking that's true because most laptop versions of video cards use shared RAM instead of discrete RAM while the desktop card would have discrete RAM. Unless you got something that was specifically a gamer laptop, the laptop model of a card would not be equal to the desktop version in speed or capability. Laptop models are often also more limited in terms of what drivers you can use. Instead of trying to fit all of the details on the game box, they just say that laptop versions of cards aren't supported. Just make sure you get a laptop with discrete video memory.


If you want "real muscle" in a laptop card you have to go to a 17" laptop. You can get a card capable of playing older adventures in a 14" or 15" but you won't get one with "real muscle."