1366 x 768 WXGA Display - 4 GB RAM - 500 GB HDD - DVD-Writer - Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD - Webcam - Windows 7 Home Premium - 3.50 Hour Battery - HDMI, 2.13GHz P6200 4GB/ 500GB

any one think these specs are good/bad, I don't know much. I know thats better than what I have now. 2.13 isn't the fastest but I was wondering if it was fast enough. a good bench mark for me is if this is fast enough to run minecraft.

any one else got any good suggestions?

Without knowing how much it costs, we can't really tell you if the specs are good or not. Also, the clock speed of the CPU isn't really that important in determining how fast it is. But it's a pentium, so it's not fast at all.

467$
where does it say that its a pentium? the point is not so much about is it good for that price, its more is it good in general.

Okay, I may sound like a noob because of this but, desk tops are faster than laptops? I am finding cheaper prices (200-300$) cheaper with significantly more GHz, like 3.4 GHz

You could run Minecraft with just about any halfway decent Laptop or Desktop these days. If you want a serious gaming rig, then you'll need far more than $400 or so. Unfortunately, that's the best advice I can give you. I have experience with PC hardware, but not as much as many other members here.

I have heard that rigs specific for gaming are fairly over priced for what you get. alot of times people recomend building your own but I don't want to deal with that. I would be gaming on this computer of course but thats not specificly why I am trying to get the best specs I can. I just want one that will not get too obsolete so quickly.

So, could some one explain to me why laptops are more expensive even though they have lesser specs?

They're almost always significantly faster than laptops for the price. And, like I said, the clock speed (GHz) is NOT a good indicator of how fast a processor is, at all. Building your own really is the best choice, and it's very easy. There's not much to "deal with" at all. If all you care about is if that laptop is "good", not "good for the price", the answer is a definite no.

As for why laptops are more expensive for worse specs, it's because the parts have to be made to run cool, with lower power consumption, and fit into a tiny space. Cool, low power parts are less powerful, but not really cheaper.

We can tell it's a Pentium because of the model number and iGuess is right; do NOT just go by clock speed. Processors hit a theoretical limit of 4GHz in the beginning to middle of the decade and those processors are certainly not faster than the processors that are <4GHz now.

yeah, building a laptop is a definite no for me. people always say that it isn't that hard, but it actually is. you have to have the go through all the trouble of researching what you need and what goes to what, not to mention the fact that you need a grounding set up so that you don't kill all your gear with static electricity.



So what actually determines processer speed, I want to make sure I know what speed I am getting.

My Op is what I was looking at but below is what I am looking at now. like before, i am not that knowledgable about what most of the numbers means but I what I want to know is these specs good enough to run minecraft/Oblivion. as a benchmark really.

Operating system: Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP3
Processor: 3.4GHz Intel Pentium 4
Memory: 2GB DDR2
Hard drive: 500GB
Optical drive: CDRW/DVD
Graphics: Integrated Intel Media Accelerator 950
Audio: Integrated
Networking: Ethernet
Ports: 8 x USB 2.0, 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet, microphone, stereo in, stereo out (back), stereo out (front), headphone, 1 x VGA, 1 x parallel, 1 x serial
Model: OptiPlex GX620
Included items: Desktop computer, keyboard, mouse, power cord, Windows XP Professional SP3 Installation CD
Dimensions: 17.5x7.4x16.2

I'm not talking about building a laptop, and I don't think anyone else is. We're talking about building a desktop. The amount of research time you're putting into this thread is more than it would take to go to the tech thread, and ask for help putting together a build, something that many of the members of this forum help with every day. Also, static damage is a very minor threat that is often extremely exaggerated, with people doing things to avoid it that don't even help, and the few things that do help are extremely easy (and really, the only one you need to do is not touch the pins on things while putting it together).

Processor speed is determined by every single aspect of a processor, of which clock speed is just one. The only sane way to compare processor speed is to look up benchmarks. Newer CPU architectures are much, much faster per cycle than old ones.

As for gaming, what's more important is your GPU, which the latest laptop you have posted has a terrible integrated graphics card. Minecraft can run on just about anything (though not necessarily that well), and is more CPU dependent than real games that aren't written in Java. If you want to play games, I suggest you get a desktop, as laptops are terrible for gaming, and much, much more expensive for any sort of hardware that can compare with a cheap desktop.

Pentium 4 is an old architecture, and 3.5h battery life is hardly impressive these days for the performance.. "Intel Media Accelerator 950" has been around for ages too. Does not run Oblivion, reasonably well at least. Then again "P4 3.4GHz" does not really accurately tell what exactly the processor is, but it's most likely several generations old. P6200 at least had a launch date last year, so it's not old, but not impressive either, if it's this one.
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=50176

I hear Minecraft's last update made it slow, but the developer may have come up with yet another update, I wouldn't know.

Do not buy a Pentium 4 based rig!!!

I'd recommend you ask this the the http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1176772-the-community-tech-thread-no-98/ where Tig will see it for sure. He will make sure you have the best for your budget.

Note:



P.S.

Many companies will build the parts you pick for a small fee. A much better option than buying a Dell/HP/etc.

This.

Also, don't by a machine with an Intel integrated graphics chip for gaming. They're generally slow and many games won't even support them at all. In other words: they're not for gaming. The only exception to this is the new Sandy Bridge architecture from Intel or AMD's new upcoming CPU/GPU hybrid chip, but those are things that are either not released or most likely out of your price range. Aside from that, you'd be much better off with a discrete GPU anyway for everything except maybe power consumption.

For the record, the processor in the OP isn't that bad. The newer chips that Intel is branding as "Pentium" aren't the same as the old Pentium series.