Gaming Laptop

[SwordsMaster]

Hi all,

I wonder if you could help me with recommendations for a new gaming laptop. Currently I have an MSI - it's 2,6 years old, and is BIG. Since I travel quite a bit I'm looking at something more portable, with more power, as the new STW already doesn't want to work. So, bang for the buck, 15-17,2 inch screen, and all gaming power in the universe. Any suggestions?

[CrossLOPER]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152286

Normally I would not recommend a gaming laptop as they are massive wastes of money. This one has a two year warranty, so there's plenty of times to find faults and get repairs. I recommend getting a cooler. This one is great:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834998686

[SwordsMaster]

Cool. Thanks for the recommendation! My current one is 19', so it will definitely be smaller! I would normally not recommend a laptop either, but I have an itinerant lifestyle, and no fixed residence, and I like videogames...

[Lemur]

These people (http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=category_browse&selected_cat=10) have a good reputation as well.

[SwordsMaster]

Gracias, Lemur. For a laptop manufacturer, their site could be more user friendly... Very cool rigs though.

[CrossLOPER]

I would stay with ASUS or MSI.

[Beskar]

If money is no object, there is always the Alienware brand. Haven't a clue how good they are, but they probably more expensive than macs.

[Lemur]

Last I heard the new-gen Alienware m11x (http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-m11x-r3/fs) was a really sweet deal. Good pairing of screen size and graphics card, which is a rarity in a laptop. Anyway, it got great reviews.

[Beskar]

Last I heard the new-gen Alienware m11x (http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-m11x-r3/fs) was a really sweet deal. Good pairing of screen size and graphics card, which is a rarity in a laptop. Anyway, it got great reviews.

That is cheaper than a Mac, so a good price indeed. What is a shame though, for the UK version, they effectively replace the $ sign with the £, and since the difference is $1.6:1£ ...

[SwordsMaster]

Hmmm... Ok, guys you're going to have to help me some more.

Those are all beautiful rigs, and given that my budget is quite flexible, (up to about 1800USD), does anyone dare briefly compare those? I can obviously appreciate differences in HD size, RAM, etc. However I am very unfamiliar with any GPUs that have been brought to market within the last 4 years, even more so on laptops.

So, if we lock in a HD 0.75TB or more, 6Gb RAM, then what are the differentiating characterisitcs? The alienware is an 11', correct? That's probably borderline too small for gaming? Opinions?

Thanks!

[Beskar]

There are larger screen Alienware models, I believe it is 11, 13, 15 and 17. But would be best to simply see the site itself and there are some customizing options on the rigs.

[Lemur]

I had a gander at the Alienwares. They don't make the GPUs easy to see, for some strange reason. Anyway, they seem to top out with the Nvidia 555m (http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-555M.41933.0.html) or something like that. I don't know why they don't offer AMD alternatives. It's probably a Dell thing.

The Sager website (http://www.sagernotebook.com/) seems to offer a lot more choice, even if the prices aren't as rock-bottom as the Dell XPS or Alienware. This model (http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=product_info&model_name=NP8150), for instance, can come with the Nvidia 580m or the AMD 6990M, both of which are state-of-the-art for mobile GPUs.

The issue with laptops is that they usually have a lot of screen real estate and an underpowered GPU to drive it. That's why gaming on a laptop can be so frustrating. The Alienware m11x has a small screen, yes, but it has a good match between screen and GPU. Likewise the Sager I linked here. I would not go above a 15" screen for laptop gaming. Once you reach really high resolutions, you need a desktop-class GPU to drive new A-list games. Lemur's unsolicited advice: stick to 15 inches or less with a beefy GPU.

-edit-

Note that when I spec out the Sager with a 750 gig 7200rpm HD, a 2.4 ghz I7 and the highest-end AMD GPU, it clocks in at $1800 almost precisely. Same specs w. top-of-the-line Nvidia GPU is just over $2k.

-edit of the edit-

Never mind, reading the reviews (http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/596367-amd-hd-6990m-vs-nvidia-580m-gtx-discussion-thread.html) it looks as though the 6990 is 10%–20% faster than the 580m in gaming results, so let's ignore Nvidia's offering for now. Given the price difference and performance boost, the 6990 is the clear choice.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Or better yet: ditch the whole gaming laptop thing. Splash some cash on good quality peripherals and build a decent desktop, or if you insist on doing everything on a single machine and don't mind portability get a workstation type laptop instead. Better value for money, and your senses are definitely going to value good audio & good monitors above a burned lap or ruined wrists.

[SwordsMaster]

Au contraire, Lemur, the advice is entirely solicited. It is also my feeling - as someone who has been hauling around an 18' and (6kg~15lb with power adaptor) MSI for gaming for 3 years that 15' will do me just fine.

Thanks!

[Lemur]

Glad I can be of some small help. My takeaway from a morning's casual reading is that the AMD 6990M is the card of choice at the moment (http://www.anandtech.com/show/4494/amd-raises-the-mobile-performance-bar-with-radeon-hd-6990m). So if you search various laptop makers and look for that card, 6 gigs of ram, a 7200rpm HD, a non-top-of-the-line I7 mobile cpu and a 15" or smaller screen, you will have about as good a gaming laptop as is possible right now, short of installing a crazy-expensive SSD drive.

-edit-

And after an intense ten or fifteen seconds of google-fu, looks like that narrows your choices to the 15" Sager or the 18" Alienware. I can't find another brand of laptop with the 6990m at the moment. (Oh, wait, some place called "Puget Systems" is offering them in their configurator, but they're crazy expensive. Let's ignore them and walk away whistling.)

-edit of the edit-

Wait a minute, here's another (http://www.originpc.com/shop/pc/configurePrd.asp?idproduct=647). More expensive than the Sager or the Alienware, but I'm trying to be completist about this. Here's yet another (http://www.avadirect.com/Clevo-P150HM). Never heard of these companies.

[Lemur]

Unsolicited advice part deux:

Would a tote-style computer work for you? There are some really good solutions in that form factor, such as the Fragbox (http://www.falcon-nw.com/desktops/fragbox) or the Shuttle XPC (http://us.shuttle.com/H7_5800G.aspx).

Here's an exhaustive article (http://www.anandtech.com/show/4348/small-form-factor-buyers-guide) about SFF (small form factor) gaming rigs.

[SwordsMaster]

Hmmm, I'm afraid an SFF is a little to awkward for a carry-on... It'd have to be a laptop. The 15' Sager looks like it would fit the bill.

Thanks again, Lemur!

[Lemur]

So ... can we get a little voyeuristic pleasure here? Hear the specs of your final build, maybe get some unboxing pictures when it arrives?

[SwordsMaster]

Hehe, will do. Have a business trip to HK at the end of october, probably a good opportunity for my electronic needs!

[Lemur]

Okay, then while we wait, I'm just going to post some random unboxing videos. It's a genre I've never really checked out. That and the videos where teens shop and then show YouTube what they bought. A whole new world for me.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TeTbO1FbIo

[edyzmedieval]

Just thought I'd pop in over here since I want a gaming laptop as well.

I wanted a combination between gaming and work so I set my sights on a Toshiba Qosmio X770 that goes for a reasonable price, so that's tops on my list right now. Obviously I'd love something with 18 inches and at least 1.5GB of video but Alienwares are too damn expensive. MSI and CLEVO don't ship to Romania, so that's off the list as well.

Any other thoughts and opinions?

[Furunculus]

samsung series 7 chronos:

http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/laptops/samsung-launches-speedy-series-7-chronos-laptop-1007354

[Lemur]

I'd love something with 18 inches
As I stated earlier in the thread, I'm cautious about lumping a high-rez screen together with a mobile GPU. I like the Samsung Furunculus just linked to, in that it's a 15.6" screen, and the case looks sweet. That said, I would want to read up on the Radeon HD6750M before pulling the trigger.

[Furunculus]

480 dx11 shaders paired with some reasonably fast memory on a 128bit bus, got some real poke for something running a 1600x900 screen.

best of all those chassis's use very slim bezels so they use smaller chassis sizes than the screens would indicate:

15.5" = 15" style chassis (with keypad & 6750M + quad-core)
15" = 14" style chassis (without keypad & 6750M + quad-core)
13.3" = 14" style chassis (without keypad & 6470M + dual-core)

15" seems like the sweet spot to me.

http://thisismynext.com/2011/08/30/samsung-series-7-aluminum-covers-quad-core-i7-power-amd-graphics-starting-999/

[Beskar]

What is the price range? That is the important part.

[Furunculus]

$900 to $1200 US.

[edyzmedieval]

Any thoughts on the ASUS G74?

[Lemur]

Any thoughts on the ASUS G74?
Looks like it's a 17-incher with a 560M doing the driving. Folks say they can play Deus Ex at full resolution (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230103)around 45 fps.

[edyzmedieval]

Looks like it's a 17-incher with a 560M doing the driving. Folks say they can play Deus Ex at full resolution (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230103)around 45 fps.

Thanks for the link.

I researched it heavily these past days and it definitely looks like a very good buy except that it has issues with the software which I'm wary about. And the BIOS has problems too.

[Furunculus]

http://www.samsung.com/us/article/series-7-notebook-style-speed-and-power

[Samurai Waki]

I have the Asus G73jh. As far as non Alienware laptops go it's a good buy. I can play most games at max (or nearly max settings) with relatively little performance issues; It also has a good cooling system. The drawback is that it's a monster when it comes to laptops; I had to buy a backpack to haul it around.

[edyzmedieval]

I have the Asus G73jh. As far as non Alienware laptops go it's a good buy. I can play most games at max (or nearly max settings) with relatively little performance issues; It also has a good cooling system. The drawback is that it's a monster when it comes to laptops; I had to buy a backpack to haul it around.

Weight is not a problem, I'm used to hauling around huge laptops. I just want performance and a very good package overall. G74 seems to fit the bill.

[Sigurd]

I have a Lenovo ThinkPad (W510) with a 15.6' 1920x1080 screen. It has the i7 Q820 processor, the Quadro FX 880 graphic card (1GB DDR3), 8GB 1333 MHZ DDR3 RAM and a small SSD drive.
It is the best "gaming machine" I have ever had.
My model might be getting old and I am sure they have a new better version on the marked -> yep sure is... (http://shop.lenovo.com/us/ww/pdf/w520_datasheet.pdf)

Not sure what the price tag would be in the US. And it is the laptop of choice in the business world.

[SwordsMaster]

Nice one Sigurd. What is the price tag in Euroland?

[Sigurd]

Nice one Sigurd. What is the price tag in Euroland?
I am not sure as I just ordered it through my work place. No prices listed, just models and specs.
Checking around, I can't find one with my exact spec, but those closest would be around 20 000 NoK/~€2500/~$3400.
But the Norwegian krone is quite strong, and everything is more expensive here anyway.
Checking the Lenovo site, the W520 starts at $1200.