Buying a Gaming Laptop, need help
Dejenji
Registered User new member
Registered User new member
Hey guys, I was wondering if you could give me some helping when looking into my next rig.
In a few weeks, I'll be starting my senior year in High School, and I've had my PC for around 3-4 years now. I've decided its time to upgrade, and with college / actual jobs starting soon, I've decided to go the Laptop route. Anyway, on to the actual problem.
My budget is around 2.2k and I'm looking for high end performance. www.ibuypower.com has a nice laptop for this price (4g RAM, 200g SATA-7200rpm HD, DVD-RW, 512MB Nvida 8600GT graphics card.) I was impressed with the spec list, and the price wasn't too outrageous imo.
My reasoning for getting 4g of ram -> Around 4 years ago, 512mb of RAM could get you through most games. Now with vista coming out, 2g of ram seems like a minimal. In a few years I suspect that it won't be that out of the ordinary to see a lot of people with 3+ in their system. Normally I wouldn't care about Vista at all, but seeing as I'm going into IT/Network Engineering, I want to be comfortable with as many OSs as I can.
So, can anyone either A) give me personal experience from ibuypower about how well their products work, or
point me to a site that is more dependable etc. Thanks guys! =D
In a few weeks, I'll be starting my senior year in High School, and I've had my PC for around 3-4 years now. I've decided its time to upgrade, and with college / actual jobs starting soon, I've decided to go the Laptop route. Anyway, on to the actual problem.
My budget is around 2.2k and I'm looking for high end performance. www.ibuypower.com has a nice laptop for this price (4g RAM, 200g SATA-7200rpm HD, DVD-RW, 512MB Nvida 8600GT graphics card.) I was impressed with the spec list, and the price wasn't too outrageous imo.
My reasoning for getting 4g of ram -> Around 4 years ago, 512mb of RAM could get you through most games. Now with vista coming out, 2g of ram seems like a minimal. In a few years I suspect that it won't be that out of the ordinary to see a lot of people with 3+ in their system. Normally I wouldn't care about Vista at all, but seeing as I'm going into IT/Network Engineering, I want to be comfortable with as many OSs as I can.
So, can anyone either A) give me personal experience from ibuypower about how well their products work, or
point me to a site that is more dependable etc. Thanks guys! =D Dejenji on
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But if you must buy one, ibuypower is great.
To make a long post short, if you have to buy a gaming laptop, do NOT buy from PCTorque and do NOT get a Sager brand computer.
I second this. Just get a cheap, portable laptop for whatever it is you need during class and maybe just spend the rest on Newegg or whatever upgrading your existing machine. It'll be cheaper, you'll get a better desktop, you can do something with your existing rig's chassis, and don't forget there's a good chance you can get Vista or XP free with MSDN through your school.
Get a kickass desktop and serviceable mobile laptop for the same price. Both will last you longer. Both will do their jobs better. And in turn, you'll be a happy guy.
Laptops cease to function well as laptops when they get decked out for gaming. Not something you actually want on your lap. Not something you can carry around easily. And not something you can use without having to charge it every hour. So the benefits of the laptop are minimal, at best, considering you're paying twice the cost for those benefits.
In short: $1500 for a desktop and $700 for a laptop is such a sweet setup compared to one $2.2K laptop.
Warframe: TheBaconDwarf
I got it 2.5 years ago now, and it was perfectly fine for lots of Civ4 and half-life 2, and handled Oblivion decently enough to play it through (I think I finally settled at 1024x resolution, and had no problems there). The major problems are: 1) battery life sucks (and I mean truly sucks, even for non-gaming stuff I'm lucky to get an hour and a half), and 2) The thing runs hot as hell (it would certainly burn you if you actually used it as a lap-top on bare skin while gaming).
However, for my purposes it was great - I wound up moving 3 times within a year, and without having to ship a desktop across the country (from NY to CA) and then multiple times around CA, I could just use it as a desktop replacement. I also got a nice computer that's portable enough that I can bring it back and forth to lab, so that I can have a good spec computer at any time. That's what I'd honestly describe it as - don't plan on using it like a laptop (though I did have some entertainment playing half-life 2 on an amtrak train going from boston to new york, that was entertaining with a touchpad), but as something you can carry from place to place to have a desktop there. For college, though, unless you're planning on switching schools like crazy, a gaming laptop is definately not something you want to be lugging around to classes for note taking (and is much more likely to get stolen than a good desktop, for what it's worth)
Windows XP 64-bit versions support 64GB
At that point you can probably still afford to ship it back and forth two times (many people seem to move permanently to their college's area by junior year) and still get a better desktop for gaming and a cheap laptop for portability.
That, or if you can be without your desktop for the summer (which yeah, I doubt), you can take advantage of any storage options your school might have. In my dorm, for instance, it's $5 per "item." The monitor (in box) and CPU (in box) would be two items, so only $10 to store for the summer. But yeah, I can't see the average PA forumer being without his gaming computer for the entire summer.
Out of curiosity, do we think that it's excessive heat that causes so many problems with gaming laptops? Because the few I've used have been like tiny furnaces, and I can't imagine that's good for things like CPUs and GPUs. Or, you know, anything else.
EDIT: My actual recommendation, in case it wasn't clear, is to drop like $1300 on a desktop and $900 on a laptop. If you've already got a monitor that should be a passable gaming rig, and $900 will get you an actual portable laptop that you'll enjoy carrying around and using.
A very basic laptop can run 'older' games fine. You won't be able to max all settings or anything, but even with a $500 laptop you'll be able to run some games. I just captured a video for your use:
This is BF:1942 on medium settings. It is run on my 15.1 inch Lenovo laptop. The laptop has 512 RAM, completely integrated graphics (an Intel chip), and a processor that isn't remarkable. While it isn't absolutely stunning quality, it is certainly passable for those days on a train or when on vacation or when taking a break from studying in the library. It's pretty much always over 15 fps, usually over 20 fps, and doesn't have any real, noticeable slowdown to speak of. It actually looked much, much better than that before compressing the Fraps video and allowing Youtube to downsize it.
Love the unit, love the reseller, would recommend both.
It is definitely not a "laptop" computer though, more a portable workstation.
I use mine for business and gaming, so I needed something that can go with me to work and back home every day, and still run any game on the market at max settings.
The 5760 fit the bill, I absolutely love it.
Sagers are custom notebooks built on Clevo chassis, so your Sager is only as good as the reseller you buy it from.
I recommend discountlaptops.com, or powernotebooks.com
Both have excellent customer service/satisfaction scores, and offer great warranties.
ibuypower is awful. I got a gaming laptop from ibuypower and it broke after three months and when I sent it back they tried to charge me a thousand dollars even though it was within the warranty period. Fuck ibuypower right in the ass. Yes, this was three years aog, but still never fucking give them your money.
For myself since I was traveling for work/pleasure about 25% of the time a gaming laptop was the way to go especially since the work that I was doing needed similar processing power. I've also found it nice to be able to use the laptop in my living room while my wife watches tv.
I currently own a Dell XPS M170 with 1Gb RAM and 256MB 7800GTX.
It's fucking awesome. Best purchase I ever made. I have been using it as my daily computer for almost 2 years and it has never had a single issue. In fact, even though I review PC games, I STILL use it and it's worked for every game I've had to review. Yes, it will be out-dated in 1 year. But the fact is, it's the best computer I've ever owned. It's like having a desktop but you just have it everywhere. I edit video on it. Hell, since you can Run WoW from an external drive I don't even have to use up the 10gigs of HD space by installing that crap. I have an 80gb 7200RPM internal HD and a 320gb External for everything else.
As far as whether i would recommend it? YES.
Would it be the most prudent purchase financially? NO.
Then again, why would you ever buy a BMW or Mercedes when you could purchase a Geo Metro and a Toyota Tundra for the same price?
"Oh what a day, what a LOVELY DAY!"
Because you have money hanging out of your anus? So then the question becomes whether or not the OP has money hanging out of his anus.
If he actually does have decent access to money, then maybe a gaming laptop isn't a horrible idea. He could simply "trade up" every two years or so (sell the old, buy new). Personally I'd still recommend a Keyboard/Mouse/Monitor combination for at home (or at least a keyboard/mouse) no matter what.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/
Visit the "What notebook should I buy?" subforum, read the sticky FAQ, and copy/paste the questions with your answers.
These people live and breathe notebooks - they're fantastic for recommending suggestions to fit your needs/budgets.
They also link to hundreds of real-consumer reviews of the notebooks in questions, as well as give reports/recommendations/admonishments for resellers.
Don't buy a notebook without checking this forum/website first.
I didn't realize a Toyota Tundra was better performing than a BMW/Mercedes. I should stop by a Toyota dealership sometime! Car analogies don't work because computers are not cars; there isn't really a direct equivalent to the "luxury" aspect of cars, and the "performance" aspect of cars correlates relatively strongly with cost, whereas the same is not true of computers.
Analogy: Toyota Tundra = truck. Geo Metro = extreme gas mileage.
together, those 2 cars would seemingly have better features than a BMW right? Aside from top speed and handling. I was making a fucking ANALOGY. It must have worked since you're both really riled up about it. Clipse, my analogy works perfectly. A Dell XPS is a luxury computer. There's no doubt about it. Like others have said before in this thread, why buy a gaming laptop when you can buy a desktop & crappier laptop for the same price. Also, with cars, performance does not correlate: a Subaru WRX will beat an M5 in a ton of track scenarios, one costs over double the other. I was making a point. And it stands.
The OP stated his budget. I gave him my opinion.
"Oh what a day, what a LOVELY DAY!"
Now that I'm looking at it properly, it still doesn't make sense. A BMW or Mercedes wills till be able to drive, and with the same BMW/Mercedes performance, on the newest roads in two years. Or five. A gaming laptop will quickly show its age in regards to the newest games, and is more difficult (if not impossible) to upgrade compared to a gaming desktop.
You admitted that your XPS laptop will be outdated in one year...a car will not be. Unless he has the kind of money to get onto the much more expensive upgrade treadmill that laptops offer (and he may), I cannot in good conscience recommend dropping that kind of money on a gaming laptop that may well be obsolete before he even starts college, and will definitely be obsolete before he finishes all his core/diversity requirements.
So, like I said...if you have the money to "trade up" every couple years then go with a laptop...there are benefits to it. If you don't, I recommend using a desktop for gaming and buying a single laptop (which will last your entire degree) for less.
EDIT: Personally, I'd say the fact that he's on a "budget" at all (and one as low as $2200) suggests that he may not be financially ready for the "luxury" route on computers...like I said, gaming laptops are one expensive upgrade treadmill to hop onto.
"Oh what a day, what a LOVELY DAY!"
Wow, what cogent arguments. "You replied, so it must be true" followed up with "it's a good analogy because I said there's no doubt about it."
You keep saying that the gaming laptop is the luxurious solution; care to explain how it's luxurious without resorting to a shitty car analogy? OP needs a computer with portability and likes PC gaming. The cheap laptop + gaming desktop solution gives him a portable laptop for class- and work-related purposes and a good gaming computer. The gaming laptop solution gives him a large heavy laptop with poor battery life and a mediocre gaming computer. The only reason the gaming laptop would ever be a good solution is if the person buying must be able to play games 'on the go'. For instance, someone who travels for a job and likes PC gaming has a good reason to buy a gaming laptop. However, the OP gave us no reason to believe that he is subject to such a requirement.
In your car analogy, you equate the Geo Metro with the cheap laptop (implying that gas mileage/efficiency represents portability) and the Tundra with the gaming desktop (implying that something along the lines of ruggedness/ability to haul stuff/off-roading represents gaming performance). And then you hold up the BMW as the obvious choice because it's luxurious... except that there's no explanation of what the car luxuriousness is supposed to correspond to, save perhaps your own ill-defined notion of computer luxuriousness. The fact that you're counting a Dell XPS as luxurious makes me wonder if perhaps a computer's luxuriousness is determined solely by cost in your mind. Expecting the OP to forfeit some gaming performance and some portability in order to gain some sort of luxuriousness that you haven't even defined is ridiculous.
I don't completely follow the car analogy, but I agree with Altmann's general point, which is: if you have the money to splurge on a gaming laptop, it is nicer than having a desktop and a mid-range laptop. I don't think that the "luxury" is ill-defined, because it's pretty obvious that having the power of a desktop with the portability of a laptop is a luxury. Do I need to be able to play WoW anywhere? God, no. Would it be nice if I could? Why yes, it would be. That's pretty much the common sense definition of luxury: "It would be nice if I could XYZ" In that vein, it seems to naturally follow that the XPS would be a luxury computer, because it provides portable computing power. The fact that XPSs are expensive are because they are a luxury, not vice versa. Saying is like saying