Laptop Gaming Video cards

Today gaming on a laptop has become possible at a reasonable price due to increase in gaming itself and the fact that prices have significantly dropped on laptop parts as laptops become more popular and mainstream. Today most mainstream laptops come with enough RAM and a good enough CPU to handle just about any game you throw at it, but the real issue when it comes to gaming on a laptop comes with what Video Card is inside your laptop. A Video Card is really only important when it comes to gaming, it is what makes all your games look truly beautiful and run at a crisp clean pace with no hiccups. Today though there is such a large amount of Video Cards out there that it is really hard to figure out what to expect when you buy a laptop with a certain video card. Well in this post here I hope I can at the very least give you a broad idea of what to expect out of your gaming laptop when it comes to performance in terms of playable games and frame rates.

For starters when looking at a gaming laptop make you are going to have to expect a few things. First is increase in price and size. A gaming laptop will normally weigh upwards of 11+ pounds and costs usually at least $1000. If you do not feel like spending a thousand dollars on a laptop all I can say for you is buy a desktop instead because they are just so much cheaper than laptops, but you will obviously not see the same portability as a laptop. Ok another thing to make sure to look for when buying a gaming laptop is make sure the laptop has 2-4GB of RAM, 2.0Ghz and up processor and preferably a 17” screen so you do not feel cramped when playing. The last rule is the most important and must be obeyed if you are going to game on a laptop and that is make sure it has a dedicated graphics card. If the graphics card is not listed on the spec sheet then more than likely it is crap and not worth buying, also if you see integrated or Xpress it is not a dedicated graphics card. If your computer does not have a dedicated graphics card it means that your graphics card is built into the motherboard and it is junk and you will not be able to play any new games at all on your computer.

Ok now that we have that cleared up lets look at graphics cards. Before I start if you are looking at a computer and you know the name of the Graphic Card, but do not know much about it then I highly recommend that you look at this mobile graphics benchmark chart. The chart will tell you where your card places against every other mobile graphic card and will also put it into a broad category so you can get a good idea of what game quality to expect. Of course if you want the best laptop out there to play games on then you have to go with the alienware laptops. Alienware makes there laptops specifically for gaming and they are extremely good at what they were built for. The costs of an alienware laptop usually averages around $1500-$4000. Now most people do not have that type of money to spend on a laptop. Most people buy usually a dell, hp, gateway, or Apple laptop. Most of these brands use the same video cards over and over again so it is usually pretty easy to find some good specs on the video card in the laptop you are looking at. The two most widely used video cards that I have sound is the 8400M GS and the 8600M GT. The fact is the 8400M GS is junk I would not recommend buying the card for any games at all, but the 8600M GT is a different story. Expect to be able to play games like Company of Heroes, Fear, and Supreme Commander fluently on High Details with this card. Do not expect miracles out of this card though, you will not be able to play heavy graphics oriented games on max settings and will probably end up settling somewhere around medium settings. If you are looking for a better alternative to the 8600M GT then I would recommend any of the 8700 and 8800 series any of the 9700 series and 9800 series. The main thing you want to remember doing when looking for a gaming laptop is when you find a laptop you like make sure to find multiple opinions on the laptop and also multiple opinions on the video card. Hope this article helps you choose the right laptop for you, if you are still having some problems feel free to leave a comment and I will get back to you with an answer.

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What Matters to...

Throughout this semester in my English Nine class, we are spending time exploring the question of what matters to each character we read about. So far, we have read Jack London's "To Build a Fire" , excerpts from Thoreau's Walden, and connected those two to Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild. With each piece we read, we take some time to reflect and connect. We have tried to examine what really matters to each of these characters. To visually demonstrate our understandings, throughout the semester, we will be plotting our understandings in Google Earth. I am going to upload the students' KMZ files so that you too can follow their understandings and journey. As I have said before, not all the examples are exemplary, but we publish the good, the bad, and the ugly here at Camp Smith.

FinlayB.
Olivia B.
Molly B.
Mitchell B.
Brianna B.
Tanner C.
Elizabeth E.
Anthony F.
Brett G.
Reagan G.
Maureen I.
Emily K.
Nick K.
Mitchel L.
Jake L.
Nate L.
Ruth L.
Angelica L.
Colleen O.
Joe O.
Chase O.
Kalvin P.
Selena R.
Ethan R.
Breanna S.
Paige S.
Aaron S.
Mani V.
Alex W.
Caleb W.

Next, we are going to watch Star Wars and connect the journey of Luke Skywalker to Odysseus from Homer's The Odyssey. The next set of entries will be much more personal in nature asking kids to connect these heroes' journeys to their own personal journeys.

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Word Trace Through Macbeth

Through our study of acts 2-3 of Macbeth, the kids were put into groups looking at the use of one of the following words: blood, hand, man, night, sleep. Typically, the kids put together a PPT presentation showing what analysis they came to about their word. I have had very interesting presentations and of course, mostly ones that simply regurgitate some information back to the class with no additional insight. BORING....

Because of some work I am doing with my grad school program, I asked the kids this year to demonstrate their learning using any way BUT PPT. No PPT allowed. To help them make the adjustment, we went through a few other tools that they could use to demonstrate their learning and understanding about the word as well as involve the class. We looked at wikis, blogs, Google Docs in class but it was really up to them to choose the appropriate tool for their learning.

I let my grad school buddies know of this, and Gary Stager our teacher, asked my students to think about the project this way: What Would Shakespeare Do? I loved that. I am going to steal that for a few other assignments. Can you imagine thinking about Daniel Pink's A WHole New Mind with Shakespeare?

After a few presentations today, we debriefed after each one discussing did their presentation merely distribute information or did they go above and beyond the expectations to really show WWSD? I asked the groups that gave a literal interpretation to spend some more time really pushing our understanding of Shakespeare's use of those words. Why those words? Who says them the most? Are there modern connections? What connections can you make between the uses of the words? and being creative with their interpretations. I am anxious to see them progress with their thinking.

Period 2:

http://nightynightmacbeth.wikispaces.com/ (Night)

http://macbethblood.wikispaces.com/ (blood)

http://hand.wikispaces.com/ (Hand) ( check this one out!) They wrote a sonnet and connected the use of Macbeth's blaming his hand to a Good Charlotte song.

http://creations-flight.wikispaces.com/Man+Group+Project (Man) This group took to heart the idea of WWSD. After their presentation, Kyle acted out one man plays to give interpretation to each of the ideas Shakespeare was delivering about "man".

http://macbethwordtracesleep.wikispaces.com/ (Sleep) This group spent some time giving background information about sleep in a WMV and then went to the wikispace to give examples to prove their points further.

Period 5: (missing sleep)

http://blood5.wikispaces.com/ This group presented an in depth look at blood. Looking over their wiki, I wish they would have presented the lexicon.com demonstration of blood.

http://manblock5smith09.wikispaces.com/ This group explained the various uses of man over acts 2-3.

http://macbethnight5.wikispaces.com/ This group portrayed an interesting rap rendition of night followed by a misplaying of Mission Impossible to demonstrate that night is a character not just a thing. They also talked about the preception night gives us of either fear or confidence depending on our action's intent.

http://www.macbethhand5.wikispaces.com/ This groups presentation was in the format of a game show where the class participated by figuring out who said what quote and what the meaning was behind the quote. I asked them for the sake of the blog, to write up some of their thoughts and interpretations. The left side of the class totally dominated in the discussion.

http://sleepymacbeth2012.wikispaces.com/

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HP DV5T Reviewed

HP has decided to step up there game in the laptop market by offering a new line of laptops this summer. Out of the new line of laptops though, the HP dv5t is the one for me. The dv5t combines the best of both worlds by offering a reasonable price and top quality performance. The dv5t starts out at the cheap price of only $749.99, but depending on what parts you want you can see the price start to hover around $1000 pretty quickly. Right now the barebones kit is just about as good as its going to get at this point in time.

Here is a quick spec sheet:


• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
• Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor P7350 (2.0GHz)
• 15.4" diagonal WXGA HD BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
• 2GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator X4500
• 250GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

Of course I would never recommend going with a factory spec computer, well because that would be just too easy, but really you should think about upgrading the spec list to your own needs. A good case for this computer would be if you want to play video games on your laptop. This laptop is the best video game laptop I have seen all year for the price. With just a couple of upgrades you can get your HP dv5t running high end games like crisis. To play video games on your HP dv5t I would recommend upgrading to the 9600m GT Video Card ($150), P8400 (2.26 GHz) processor ($50), and maybe even go with the upgraded 1680 x 1050 Display ($125). The upgrades might seem expensive, but if you look at the alternatives such as Alienware or XPS laptops you will see that you are saving a lot of money.

This laptop is by far the most versatile laptop I have seen. You can also convert the HP dv5t to be a great movie player. The dv5t supports a Blu-Ray player upgrade option for only $200 and make sure to upgrade the screen to 1680 x 1050 to really enjoy the quality of blu-ray. Also if you are thinking of upgrading your Hard Drive because of the size of the blu-ray movies I would recommend just buying 500GB external Hard Drive so that you save money, get more space, and keep your computer clean of bloat ware.

After looking into the HP dv5t I can say to you without a doubt that I would recommend this laptop to anyone who is looking for an affordable laptop, gaming laptop, and even a movie player laptop.

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Wi-Fi Cards

Many businesses and restaurants have Wi-Fi spots for people to bring in their laptops to get on the internet. This attracts more people to do business with them. Now it is even more easy and cost effective with Verizon AirLink. This allows you to get on the internet wherever you have signal with your cell phone.

Verizon AirLink does not require anything for you to get on the internet besides having signal with your cell phone. You could be at your house, work, or even out walking and be on the internet. Verizon AirLink is a lot like having a Wi-Fi card.

Verizon is not the only provider for wireless internet cards. Others include sprint, cingular, dell, and desktop.

Some prices for wireless cards for your laptop are:
- Verizon Wireless 5720 Built-in Mobile Broadband (CDMA EV-DO Rev A)- $149.99
- IBM THINKPAD T61 R61 X61 Verizon EVDO WWAN Card 42T0929- $149.99
- Verizon Wireless PC5740 Aircard (Sprint PCS)- $69.99
- Verizon Novatel V620 EV-DO PC Card wireless- $154.99
- Verizon Wireless Express Card - KPC680- $24.99

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A Learning Adventure

In my new grad school class called Technology and Learning, Gary Stager assigned us, his students, the task of composing a piece of music. The assignment asked:
Between now and next Monday, download Finale Notepad from http://www.finalenotepad.com and compose a piece of music. Share your reflections, questions and work-in-progress with your cadre members. Think about your own thinking and learning along the way. Make notes, keep a journal or blog if you wish. Feel free to use any resources at your disposal for inspiration or assistance. The more you share, the more you will learn. A few considerations: I realize there are better more powerful pieces of music composition available. However, Finale Notepad is 1) Free and 2) Cross-platform. Therefore, NO you can't use another piece of software (at least visible to the rest of us). Using a common tool provides a common experience and language for assisting/inspiring one another. Everyone has different experience levels and areas of expertise. This is what makes the learning adventures interesting.

I decided that rather than me creating the piece of music, it would be a great opportunity to connect music with literature. Gary gave me the suggestion of having the kids connect the piece of music to something they have written. Since we are reading William Shakespeare’s Macbeth in class, we had just completed two papers dealing with Macbeth and Lady Macbeth while watching three film versions (Royal Shakespeare Company -Ian McKellan, Dame Judy Dench, English Shakespeare Company- modern version, and Roman Polansky version) of the first act comparing what each director was trying to show through their interpretations.

My students were quite excited to begin the process of composing a piece of music to fit a character. In period 2, we started talking about Lady Macbeth and her personality. What would we want to show in the song? We decided that we would show her in three stages from act one. We would show her elation at seeing her husband return home, her decision to not let King Duncan leave the castle by killing him so that Macbeth would become king, and finally her anger at Macbeth with his ambivalence about killing the king. We had some students who are as musically inclined as I am and so they worked on the lyrics (a.k.a. quotes) to fit with the music as well as finding visuals to support. The other kids, worked on the song. Amazingly, they all worked so well together testing sounds, putting together measure after measure, playing the notes, time and again. They decided the instruments that would best describe Lady Macbeth (flute) and how her tone would change into a French horn through her change in personality. Then they picked the instruments that would best accompany the sounds of Lady Macbeth. A few different kids took turns running the computer with other kids shouting up their thoughts. It seemed like organized chaos. One thing I must add here is how much I learned by watching and participating with them. I learned all sorts of vocabulary word about music (crescendo, decrescendo, staccato) and how to semi-compose music (you really have to pay attention to the notes you select with each instrument). But mostly, what I am hoping period two took away from today, and what they learned, is that music is a part of literature. When talking with them about the song, they asked my opinion about a particular part. I said it needs to sound like murder. Tristan responded that murder is an A and C sharp. And then another student, John, responding that we need to put in the key of death which is apparently E flat? As my department members were listening into our conversation they were enthralled with what these kids were doing. They were connecting Lady Macbeth’s descent into evil with music. You can hear the three distinct parts which they had mapped out at the beginning of class. It was amazing that I had kids come in on their off-hours to finish the song -and better yet, these were all boys! Boys who were asking to continue the learning. One even asked me at the end if we could do this for every book we read. Tomorrow we are going to play it for the class, make changes, and add the lyrics and visuals.

I made a Photostory of the period 2 composition. I will also upload the orginal files here for period 2 and for period 5 of FinaleNotepad when they are completed. Here is an MP3 of period 2.

Additionally, here is a link to the webalbum of photos of their working. Check out their engagement!

Mapping of song in measures:
1-9 Lady Macbeth excited to see her husband return: happy, joyful, anxious
“Great Glamis! Worth Cawdor!
Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!
They letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future in the instant “(1.5. 61-65).

10-15 Decrescendo: Lady Macbeth explains her plan to Macbeth to kill King Duncan
“Glamis thou art, and Cawdor; and shalt be
What thou are promised: yet do I fear thy nature;
It is too full o’ the milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way: (1.5.15-18).

16-21 Decrescendo to psycho Lady Macbeth divided into happiness at the prospect of becoming queen (16-18) and as the timpani enters her descending into madness (18-21)
“ I have given suck, and know
How tender ‘tis to love the babe that milks me.
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums
And dashed the brains out, had I sworn as you
To have done this” ( 1.7.62-67).

Period 5: Witches
Period 5 approached the song writing a little differently. We talked about who they wanted to write a song about and they chose the witches from Macbeth. With the witches, we talked about musically how you would communicate what each of the witches is all about. They came up with three separate instruments making up the sound distinctively of each witch, but how when they come together, they sound somewhat harmonious. They discussed that the witches symbolize chaos, confusion, unsettling, anxious, and ugliness. Shakespeare wrote the witches speeches in a rhyming pattern and the kids decided that they needed this to carry over into their composition. We also mapped out the song into a three part format where the witches represent the past, present, and future for Macbeth. So, in composing the song, they are going to use the past in connection to the line from scene 1, “Fair is foul and foul is fair.” The next part of the song captures Macbeth’s prophecies from the witches: Thane of Glamis, Thane of Cawdor, and then King. Finally, their song ends with the future, which is the witches’ desire to destroy Macbeth.

Overall reflection:
What was really interesting about the different approaches between my period 2 and period 5 is that it reflected how they have approached learning challenges in the class so far. Period 2 approached it collaboratively all working together, where period 5 broke into groups of music creators and lyrics composers. But with each group, I participated in awe of what they were doing. I felt so honored that they would do such exceptional work for me and with me. I truly feel so blessed to have been part of such an amazing experience. And then, to have kids thank me for giving them the opportunity brought home the reality of education. Why aren’t we extending more out of the box learning opportunities for our students? Why can’t them creating music to demonstrate their understanding of a character be just as good as writing a paper? Or completing a lab? Imagine if student had to write a song that demonstrates a chemical reaction? Or that expresses the emotions of soldiers dealing with returning home after serving in Vietnam. I really am so thankful to have been part of what my period 2 and 5 created. I hope the kids feel the same way. I know those who have expressed their opinions openly in class were so appreciative and enthusiastic. What a change in learning!

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Asus Releases New 15 inch Gaming Laptop

Asus has brought it upon themselves to offer one of the first budget gaming laptops out on the market right now and after looking at the specs you could argue that it is the best deal out there right now. The new gaming laptop is called the G50V and it is well equipped to handle any of the latest pc games. Heres a quick spec sheet to show what all the Asus G50V has to offer:

• RAM - 4GB DDR2 800
• CPU - 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9400
• Video Card – 9700M GT 512MB DDR3 memory
• Hard Drive – 2 250GB HDD’s for a combined total of 500GB
• Blue-ray-player (optional) – Raises price to $1,899 and reduces hard-drive space to 400GB

Total price for a computer with these specs is only $1699. The Asus G50V looks to be a bargain compared to similar products from Alienware and Dell’s XPS line. The only drawback is a 15inch screen; hopefully another model will be released later with a 17inch screen upgrade. As far as the graphics card is concerned it might not be a 9800 series card, but it is a lot better than the 8400m and 8600m series. Overall the laptop looks to be a nice mid-range gaming laptop.

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Solar Bag That Charges A Laptop

A cool new item out on the market is this Solar Powered Bag that can charge a laptop and other devices like cell phones. The Solar Powered Bag looks like a great idea. It looks like you just sit the bag in a place with direct sunlight and it will charge the battery inside the bag. Then it looks like whenever you are not using your laptop you just put the laptop inside the bag and plug it into the battery pack and it will start to charge. The solar paneled bag can hold up to a 17” laptop and it says “the solar panel generates enough power to fully charge a typical laptop from a day of direct sunlight”.

After doing some research it looks like you need to have the bag in direct sunlight for 8-10 hours before you will be able to plug in your laptop and receive a full charge. Sounds like an easy way to save money right, well wrong the bag costs $600. Pretty hefty price for a bag that requires you to have it sit out in the sun for 10 hours. I can see some people liking this like maybe people out in the middle of no where with no electricity and maybe some eco-friendly people.

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