Razer Unsheathes the Blade

[Skylants]

Laptops just don't seem to be a feasible choice for PC gaming, especially at price points like that; Unless you're absolutely never sitting in a single place for long.

Seriously, my desktop cost me around a grand and it's got an i7 2600k, 8GB of DDR3 RAM, 1TB hard drive, the wireless capability, and a GTX 570 HD.

How!? I've been looking at setups with exactly those specs, and the least I can get is £1400

PC parts just seem to be cheaper here in North America.

A lot cheaper, seeing as £1400 is around $2350 T_T

Are you looking at pre-built desktops or individual parts?

Individual, ofc

Here you go:

http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa400/Skylants/quickbuild.png

Just a quick build from ebuyer. It doesn't leave much room for upgrades but it's a lot cheaper than that £1400 build you had. Also, you could save a bit by getting the 2500K. The 2600K is a but useless for gaming.

 

[Iwata]

So this is what all the fuss was about? Color me not impressed.

 

[KDR_11k]

What PC gaming needs is cheap, ubiquitous gaming PCs, not top end stuff that nobody buys and hence nobody can sell software for.

 

[Jandau]

Why would I EVER want to buy that? $2700?!?!? I can get a fairly pimped out desktop machine for less than $1k. For 2.7k I can get a machine, a huge monitor, all the extra peripherals in high quality (mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc.) and still have enough money left over for a night of drinking and maybe a reasonably priced prostitute. I'm seriously trying to find any justification for this product, but then again, it's Razer - like Alienware they live off selling overpriced junk to people who don't know any better and fall for a flashy logo...

 

[MajorDolphin]

Oh, a advertising gimmick all along. Why am I surprised... I hope the Escapist got a chunk of change for carrying these stories.

 

[Wartys]

"Saving the PC market..."

with a $2.8k laptop? Yeah... and besides PC gaming is still alive and okay, thank you very much (what with digital distribution, decently-priced rigs that can already be capable of running most things and what have you).

EDIT: I'm sure it's a real cool laptop, but I really can't pay for that. Not now at least...

 

[Merlark]

Razer makes some darn fine gaming stuff and over all I like everything they have done here on paper. However I don't think that price point is going to do them any favors. At almost 3 grand its tough to see them selling allot of these, maybe they don't care if they sell allot as long as they sell what they have.

I admit I want one, but the question of dumping a large wad of cash into a laptop gaming computer...It's probably more for that certain kind of traveling maverick style gamer I guess...you know, they ride river boats and travel by stage coach.

 

[MajorDolphin]

The price tag is high but once it's been out for a few months and the rabid, deep-pocketed early adopters have paid the price for it, it'll come down pretty quickly. I wouldn't be surprised to see it around 2200, 2300 by the second quarter of 2012, which is still expensive but not entirely out of line for a balls-out gaming rig with a unique interface built by a high-end specialty company. It's like a Bugatti versus a Corvette; they're both wickedly fast and sexy as well, but this, THIS is a Bugatti.

Except while the Bugatti Veyron is the fastest car in the world, this is nowhere near the performance of an equivalently priced Alienware, Origin, or Sager laptop. Sure, it's nice and thin, but it still weighs more than an equivalently specced 15 inch (and those are considerably cheaper). What it has going for it is looks, and that's all well and good, and I'm sure someone will buy it, but it's tech specs don't live up to the hardcore gaming crowd's expectations at that price range.

It's not the fastest anymore. Does it matter?

Here's another issue with the comparison. In three years time, the Bugatti Veyron will still make people drool, top out at over 220 mph and still suffer from chronic wet passenger seat. In three years time, that laptop with be struggling to play new games and will have other performance related issues, look dated, and people will giggle at the touchpad.

 

[Something Amyss]

But is it so fast the other notebooks say "damn?"

 

[cynicalsaint1]

The price is way too high to have any real effect on the PC gaming market, but I suppose that's marketing hype for you.

Let's see $2,800 for Razer's new laptop, or $200 for an Xbox 360?
One of the big problems with PC gaming is its SO DAMNED EXPENSIVE.

 

[iniudan]

Newegg.com is extremely cheap, but sadly they are pretty much limited to the US for the time being.

Also available in Canada, but we tend to have a more limited selection on what available in some department, but for the basic hardware through we get the same thing, just a bit of lag behind for what available, like for example a video card with a Deus Ex coupon.

We still have the Dirt 3 coupon along AMD GPU here in Canada, which I am kind of waiting for them to be updated has to maybe order a new video card, since the 5670 I got is lacking for some game I want to LP, but it good enough to play everything I throw at it until now, when FRAPS is not running, so buying a new one mostly depend on how good the deal is to me, and Deus Ex 2 could be good enough to balance my choice along 6850 with a decent price (need to also upgrade power supply if I get higher end GPU, so higher AMD or an Nvidia which are more power hungry then AMD are out of question anyway).


Sorry for been OP. It just that seeing those Deus Ex publicity along an AMD graphic card on the Escapist is taunting me. =p

 

[aashell13]

Laptops are really a bad choice for PC gaming, at least from a performance per dollar perspective. Laptops have very limited upgrade options, and PC tech moves just too fast for a laptop to stay relevant anywhere near as long as a desktop.

I type this on an alienware laptop i paid ~$2500 for in '09; and the poor girl's starting to show her age, sadly.

So, Razer's new toy is pretty cool to look at, but there's no way i'd buy one.

 

[Alon Shechter]

I'm gonna stick to my little desktop built by the Proud Dwarves of Middle Earth.

 

[Alphakirby]

Yeah,this is what that "PC GAMING IS NOT DEAD" thing was hyping up,but if this is (According to Razor's campaign which didn't start until an hour after the countdown ended.) the last hope PC gaming has,I would like to say on the behalf of the PC Gaming Master Race to weep slowly into your pillow.

 

[ph0b0s123]

Let's see. I can have both an Xbox and a PS3, full premium packages, for just under a grand... and probably get a couple free games with my purchase. Or I can pay double that for this monster.

Console vs PC
Affordability vs Bragging Rights

Don't use this stupidly priced product as a strawman for all PC's. Yes, PC's are more expensive than consoles and deliver more because of it, but the price of this product is not justified and is an aberration.

It's like holding up some celebrities many thousand dollar jewel encrusted console as showing that consoles can be very expensive as well. It would be an aberration as this product is.

Even though I am not a gaming laptop fan, I will say this in their defense. Yes you could get lots of console stuff for the price of a gaming laptop, but can you play your consoles on the go? No, then your price comparison is worthless....

 

[Skizle]

Let's see. I can have both an Xbox and a PS3, full premium packages, for just under a grand... and probably get a couple free games with my purchase. Or I can pay double that for this monster.

Console vs PC
Affordability vs Bragging Rights

Don't use this stupidly priced product as a strawman for all PC's. Yes, PC's are more expensive than consoles and deliver more because of it, but the price of this product is not justified and is an aberration.

It's like holding up some celebrities many thousand dollar jewel encrusted console as showing that consoles can be very expensive as well. It would be an aberration as this product is.

Even though I am not a gaming laptop fan, I will say this in their defense. Yes you could get lots of console stuff for the price of a gaming laptop, but can you play your consoles on the go? No, then your price comparison is worthless....

Your last sentence baffles me because you were complain about this laptop in previous posts as being a bad idea like non other, and yet in your latest post your defending it just because someone pointed out a key component to the whole "PC vs Console" debate that you didn't agree with. And yes you can play a console on the go with a small LCD screen and a power supply for it or just find a wall socket and your good to go.

 

[Robert Ewing]

It seems quite under spec for the price they're asking. Especially as it will go out of date soon.

Don't get me wrong, excellent laptop, and a step in the right direction for gaming laptops. But not quite there yet.

 

[loc978]

"a light-weight, super-hot laptop "
Super hot in the sense that it will probably get so warm that you can't rest it on your lap!!!

That was pretty much my first thought. Any gaming laptop that slim is a joke. There's no space for heat dissipation, and I'm sorry to bring basic physical science into this conversation, but... high-end computer hardware produces a lot of heat. Requirements for dissipating that heat are surface area on heat-sinks and a large volume of air.
There's a reason my four-year-old full-tower gaming rig still runs circles around brand new gaming laptops... because gaming laptops as they exist today are a fucking joke. A proper one would be about 6 inches thick and weigh fifteen pounds... and guess what? It would never overheat.