Laptop Advice

Gaardean

I'm looking to get a laptop, primarily for some light gaming and websurfing. Currently, the best deals I've found are on refurbished Dells, for around $1000. The one I'm looking at has:

Processor: Intel Core i7-2760QM Processor (2.4 GHz,w/Turbo Boost,6MB Cache)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
XPS L702X
500 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
500 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM) 2nd Drive
8 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)
8X DVD +/- RW Drive
NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M 3GB graphics with Optimus

How well would this play something like Civilization 5? Are there any glaring pros/cons to this setup? Anywhere I should look for better deals? Any advice is much appreciated!

TychoCelchuuu

That would play Civ V fairly well, I think (you might have to turn some settings down depending on what resolution you're playing at). Does it need to be a laptop? For $1k you can make your current PC play normal games much (like Civ V) better and also buy a laptop that will do light gaming and websurfing fine.

Wezoin

Also, 17" laptops are generally a no-no, as are gaming laptops. Especially with two hard drives that machine is going to be a massive, heavy thing with a very short battery life. I'd advise you against it. Considering its refurbished it probably still has the old battery in it too, so could be diminished battery life from the get go.

What I'm trying to say is there is a reason there are so many 'refurbished' gaming laptops... People buy them, realize it's a terrible idea, and return them

I play Civ 5 on my almost 3 year old 13" macbook pro, and it runs perfectly. Almost any modern laptop should be able to handle it. If you have $1000 to play with your options are fairly wide. I'd recommend a refurb macbook pro, as it would be able to do everything you need and come in at a reasonable budget while still getting good battery life and being light, but I know a Mac isn't everyone's cup of tea. I'll leave PC recommendations to others.

Gaardean

I've got a good pc, I mostly plan on using this as a sort of "portable desktop". I spend a lot of time at a location without internet access, I plan on loading this up with Steam games at home and using this while it's plugged in at the other location. (So the battery life and weight aren't major concerns, thankfully, but it's good to know why the refurbs are so cheap)

Frugus

Hope this helps...

I could not help myself writing a wall of text because it sounds like you are exactly where I was last year. My PC died. I'm a gamer. Whatever I end up with has to, at the very least, be able to play some of my favorite games with minimal quality. I was also itching for a laptop since forever and decided I would get myself something that could handle gaming. I wanted that thing to be able to do anything and I was ready to throw a considerable amount of money at Dell for it - save for an Alienware.

Aside from the fact that they look too nice (I did not want a machine that looks like a Christmas tree when taking my night class), they seemed to provide the least bang for your buck compared to an XPS. It later appeared to me that Dell reserves the best Mobile video cards for their Alienware line while their more performing and better priced "everything else" is with the XPS. In other words, you could get a monster XPS in terms of memory, screen, processor, hardrive, etc, for a fraction of an Alienware, and I do remember that at some point I could make an XPS that could technically outmatch an Alienware, save for the video card.

I ended up buying that 17 inch one - XPS L701X with about every upgrade you could think of. Mainly because the best video mobile video card I could get was only available on the 17 inch. The gaming performance was adequate enough but I returned it shortly after because the screen was sub par (no more White LED for me) and the computer ran ridiculously hot and noisy when I was running anything that required processing power. That, and the Sandy Bridge versions were made available on the day I received my laptop. I called in to exchange it with something more "palatable". I also decided that 17 inch was indeed ridiculously bulky, especially with a 9 cell battery. That thing was heavy enough to be annoying if I had it on my lap for too long. I don't exaggerate in the least when I say that I though the thing was going to fry my balls if I dared play StarCraft II.

I got the XPS L502X instead and that comes with a GT 540M. Smaller, more compact, prettier to look at, etc. The thing handles games very well I would say, even though it CAN get noisy and hot, but nothing close to the 17 inch model I had. I can run games with fairly high levels of details, but it may come at the cost of lower frame rates. If it helps, I can play MW3 in 1920x1080 with the graphics high graphic options, but my FPS can get as low as 30 depending (this is a rough estimate, I never looked at the numbers). When it comes to Multiplayer I would rather turn the resolution down and have the graphic options lowered as well for maximum frame rate.

Star Craft II runs like a charm. Portal II is running at almost everything in the MAX with very good frame rates. I enjoy bringing that thing to the occasional LAN. It turns a few heads even to this day and seems to hold it's own against the ASUS gaming laptop that my friend bought recently.

But is it cool to play games with it? To be honest, I would not recommend it because the novelty runs out over time. In fact I realized just how much of a perfectionist I am when it comes to good graphics and frame rates, and being able to play without an annoying setup on a bigger screen, etc... So I bought myself a tower less than a year after the purchase. As far as bang for your buck goes, the tower cost me half of what I put on the laptop and it should run the latest and the greatest without ANY hassles.

I do like the Laptop for one reason - It will still be my home away from home, capable of running the games I own, just not as well as my tower can. It's like the suitcase version of the Iron Man suite. Since I travel a good deal it does not feel like a loss, but it's definitely not what I had hoped for. Looking back, I would have either bought a tower and be done with it or buy another type of gaming laptop (not Alienware) that really has a strong gaming graphic card without charging you the blood of your babies.

Gaardean

Very helpful, and much appreciated! The noise aspect is one I hadn't thought of that would annoy me to death.