Gaming Laptops

[Arnoxthe1]

Also, I'd stay away from alienware - usually Alot higher price for less/worse hardware.

Sources? I have not heard of any such defects in their hardware.

 

[barash]

Also, I'd stay away from alienware - usually Alot higher price for less/worse hardware.

Sources? I have not heard of any such defects in their hardware.

Not defects - the intent was 'less hardware per buck'.

Example: I took the components of my G73 and added them as closely as possible into alienwares custom-builder. The specs couldn't be mimicked 100%, so when necessary I took slightly lower specs on the alienware.

My G73 was 1503 us$, and the alienware was just above 2300 us$ with slightly less hardware. (6gb ddr3 instead of 8gb ddr3)

Hence, 'less/worse' hardware.

 

[KalosCast]

As someone who's worked in a PC repair place, don't buy Alienware. It's going t overheat like a boss and do horrible things to the inside of your machine. They're also not very durable.

Though, honestly, if you're buying a gaming laptop, you're either rich enough that you don't care about the money you're throwing away, or you're dumb enough that I don't care about your feelings.

 

[AnAngryMoose]

OK, I'm surprised nobody has said anything about Alienware.

The first thing you need to know about Alienware is that they sell custom-built PC's. They're all about quality. I'm not sure though if an Alienware PC would really be in your budget however. They are usually pretty expensive. Very nice though.

As to just getting a laptop for college, why do you need a gaming laptop if you aren't going to play games on it? o_0

I'm using it for gaming, but I'll be using it to a lesser extent for college.

So, I'm planning on getting a laptop that will be primarily used for games, but something that I'd also be using for college. I know that there are a lot of PC gamers on the Escapist so what better place to ask? Currently, I have two in mind:

Asus X5DIJ [http://www.custompc.ie/asus-x5dij-sx516v-156-t3300-2gb-500gb-windows-7-home-premium-47585-p.asp]

Or

MSI CR62-486UK [http://www.custompc.ie/msi-cr620-486uk-156-p6100-4gb-500gb-windows-7-home-premium-47594-p.asp]

I'm not too sure on which would be the better choice. If anyone has any other suggestions feel free to make them. I have a budget of ?650.

P.S: If you're here to tell me that Gaming Desktops are better then leave the thread [http://www.noobstore.com/prodimages/tshirt-m-gtfo-Green-art-280.gif]

EDIT: I'm not necessarily sticking to those two. They're just ones I saw within my price range without too much searching.

Sorry man but you need to spend significantly more to get a gaming laptop. Those both have the intel integrated GMA4500 which is a POS, it has i think 10 stream processors, just for comparison my current radeon 5850 has 1440 and its not even that high end anymore, nvidia cards have between 300-512, its apples to oranges really as theyre all different architectures but you get the idea that integrated graphics sucks and dosent have the horsepower to run anything modern.

If you want to run things from 2007-2008 on lowest settings it may be possible dependant on the game, pre 2006 stuff may run on medium-high but it really depends on the game.

The alienware you linked is better than anything thats been mentioned so far for gaming:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-335M.24060.0.html

"The 3D performance of the GT335M is on a level with the Mobility Radeon HD 5650 in the middle class. Therefore, the GPU is fast enough for all games in 2010. Demanding games like Metro 2033, Battlefield BC2 or Crysis run only in low-medium details fluently. Less demanding games like Call of Duty MW2 or Sims 3 can be played in high detail "

But it is 11" which is tiny, the CPU is adequate for the GT335M.

Would it be able to run new releases reasonably well?

 

[AnAngryMoose]

Here's a few more hopefuls since the Alienware will apparently combust.

http://reviews.cnet.com/4504-3121_7-0.html?id=34120509&id=34093839&id=34410782

 

[Lukeydoodly]

Those both have shit gfx cards.

 

[Fenring]

Those aren't gaming laptops... those are consumer laptops.

 

[Cronq]

First off, you need to stop getting your advice here and start doing your research and asking questions on the largest and best notebook community on the internet:

www.notebookreview.com

And, I laugh at those who think laptops are not viable gaming machines. Mid-range graphics cards are already more powerful than an Xbox or PS3. Sure, there is definitely a premium to pay over a desktop, and you'll never reach desktop power, but there are plenty of gaming laptops that can run every available game today at maximum settings. Buy what suits your needs, and for a college student a big need is portability.

 

[MaxP779]

Here's a few more hopefuls since the Alienware will apparently combust.

http://reviews.cnet.com/4504-3121_7-0.html?id=34120509&id=34093839&id=34410782

Only good one there is the gateway in the middle.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5650.23697.0.html

Theres benchmarks for the card thats in the gateway. It runs black ops on high, starcraft 2 on medium, new releases it will likely run on medium/low.

 

[KalosCast]

And, I laugh at those who think laptops are not viable gaming machines. Mid-range graphics cards are already more powerful than an Xbox or PS3. Sure, there is definitely a premium to pay over a desktop, and you'll never reach desktop power, but there are plenty of gaming laptops that can run every available game today at maximum settings. Buy what suits your needs, and for a college student a big need is portability.

Power isn't the only thing that matters. Consoles can get away with lesser hardware because they're machines that play games and do nothing else. They're very efficient with the resources they have on-hand compared to PCs. Also, most of the "laptops" you're talking about are laptops in name only. They have serious heat distribution issues (hotter = worse performance and shorter life), and they're also heavy and have terrible battery life (thus defeating the purpose of being a laptop) even if you're trying to use them in a lower-power mode, the hardware is simply going to suck up too much for it to even be worth it.

 

[AnAngryMoose]

Those aren't gaming laptops... those are consumer laptops.

According to CNET they're gaming laptops. To be honest, they didn't look particularly fitting to me either.

I've also been looking around Ebay to find a good laptop on the cheap and someone appears to be selling an Alienware M17x. (Link for anyone who wants it [http://cgi.ebay.ie/DELL-ALIENWARE-M17x-r2-17-GAMING-LAPTOP-i7-8GB-1280GB-/200570726770?pt=UK_Computing_Laptops_EH&hash=item2eb2f26972#ht_17762wt_1139]).

I'm aware that Alienware are meant to be overpriced and terrible quality, but this is up for bid, starting at ?42.91 with ?60 P&P.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Don't shoot me for this, but I found a custom Alienware M11x that's bang on my budget. What do you guys think?

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=19&kc=&oc=dkcwmn1

BANG!!!

Are we talking a second hand unit here? Avoid, if it's new (ie has a warranty) and the price is right then there is nothing actually wrong with Alienware. They just tend to be massively inflated on price, bear in mind that an 11inch screen is a bit myopic for playing games or watching movies.

If it's second hand forget it, laptops in general are too vulnerable to damage, theft and plain bad luck to not have a warranty on.

 

[AnAngryMoose]

That's why you plug it in while gaming/
And yeah of course there not comparable but it doesn't mean there absolute crap, the lower resolutions on laptops tend to balance it out.

Having to plug it in defeats the purpose of the whole 'portable gaming' idea. You might as well just have a desktop.

And for the cost, the desktop cards completely blow laptop cards out of the water. Then again, you aren't going to get much quality on 1366x768.

Why he said that its going to also be for collage so I assumed he will be using it in class and I doubt he will gaming then :/

Eh, as long as the game is playable who cares about prettiness.

What I meant by needing it for college is that I might be taking notes or using it for assignments, but it's main function would be gaming.

 

[AnAngryMoose]

Don't shoot me for this, but I found a custom Alienware M11x that's bang on my budget. What do you guys think?

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=19&kc=&oc=dkcwmn1

BANG!!!

Are we talking a second hand unit here? Avoid, if it's new (ie has a warranty) and the price is right then there is nothing actually wrong with Alienware. They just tend to be massively inflated on price, bear in mind that an 11inch screen is a bit myopic for playing games or watching movies.

If it's second hand forget it, laptops in general are too vulnerable to damage, theft and plain bad luck to not have a warranty on.

No, it's first hand, although the screen is very small. I also saw an M17x on Ebay(details in previous post), but that seems too good to be true.

 

[e2density]

DONT GET THE MSI.
Integrated graphics are awful, have fun playing Starcraft 2 @ ultra low 640x480 :|

Buy a laptop from IBuyPower or CyberPowerPC...those are your best bet.

 

[fix-the-spade]

No, it's first hand, although the screen is very small. I also saw an M17x on Ebay(details in previous post), but that seems too good to be true.

I defense of that Ebayer it seems genuine, there's a week left on the bidding so it'll go up and away before the end.

 

[AnAngryMoose]

No, it's first hand, although the screen is very small. I also saw an M17x on Ebay(details in previous post), but that seems too good to be true.

I defense of that Ebayer it seems genuine, there's a week left on the bidding so it'll go up and away before the end.

I think I'll just watch it over the next few days and see how much the price goes up. If I'm lucky no one else will have their eye on it and as far as my limited knowledge goes it looks like a good setup.

 

[AnAngryMoose]

What do you think of this?

http://www.pcworld.ie/Product/HP-Pavilion-dv63113sa/296894/304

Been looking around for a while and this one seems good, to me anyway. A second opinion from someone more knowledgeable wouldn't go amiss.

 

[migo]

Don't shoot me for this, but I found a custom Alienware M11x that's bang on my budget. What do you guys think?

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=19&kc=&oc=dkcwmn1

At least it actually has discreet graphics. 2GB RAM is a bit on the low end, I'd consider doing the upgrade to 4GB. The CPU is also a bit on the low end, which could present some problems (but not as much as the integrated graphics would on the previous ones).

 

[Hader]

snip

I'll take this chance to give my Qosmio a bit of the limelight; I would say if you are willing to push your budget a bit higher then this Qosmio might work well for you:

http://us.toshiba.com/computers/laptops/qosmio/X500/X505-Q892

Really, any gaming laptops under about ?800 won't have the best longevity. I would go with something that will last you for a few years at least. The qosmio is a good candidate for that I think.