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Recommendation for a Gaming Laptop
Ultros64
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hey everyone. I did some background searching and couldn't find any recent threads on this topic, but if I've somehow missed it, go ahead and point me in the right direction of it.
I'm in the market for a higher-end gaming laptop (specifically for Dawn of War 2). I've been doing some research for the past few weeks and would like to get some feedback from guys who have experience in this sort of thing. Here are my top three picks.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834147923
The HP HDX seems like it's got a lot of bang for it's buck, and while a little pricey, I think that it'll at least last me for a few years before I have to upgrade again.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152086
The MSI GX620 is a bargain. Nice video card, good harddrive, all for under a grand. This is a pretty strong choice in my book. Screen is a little small, but hey, no biggie.
http://www.alienware.com/products/m17-notebook.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-M17&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT
Oh Alienware. You always look good on paper, but from what my friends tell me their rigs tend to crap out frequently. Their tech support isn't too swell either.
Price range isn't a major factor, but I would kick myself for spending over 1500 dollars on a new laptop.
Any thoughts?
I'm in the market for a higher-end gaming laptop (specifically for Dawn of War 2). I've been doing some research for the past few weeks and would like to get some feedback from guys who have experience in this sort of thing. Here are my top three picks.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834147923
The HP HDX seems like it's got a lot of bang for it's buck, and while a little pricey, I think that it'll at least last me for a few years before I have to upgrade again.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152086
The MSI GX620 is a bargain. Nice video card, good harddrive, all for under a grand. This is a pretty strong choice in my book. Screen is a little small, but hey, no biggie.
http://www.alienware.com/products/m17-notebook.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-M17&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT
Oh Alienware. You always look good on paper, but from what my friends tell me their rigs tend to crap out frequently. Their tech support isn't too swell either.
Price range isn't a major factor, but I would kick myself for spending over 1500 dollars on a new laptop.
Any thoughts?
It doesn't matter what I say, as long as I sing with inflection
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Buy a netbook for $300-400, and build a gaming PC with the rest. While the "gaming" laptop has gotten better over the years, they are still way too large and heavy to bother carrying around and despite being absolutely gigantic, the battery will only survive maybe 3 hours, if you're lucky.
I haven't heard many good things about the 9800M GS (Nvidia's mobile chips in the past, have sucked, and I think there's still a little left over from that).
But if I could find one of those mini towers for a reasonable price, I could just build a desktop that was a bit more mobile then my monolithic tower.
I was looking that one up too. I'd like to hear how it runs once you do pick it up. that 17" screen would be nice for my rapidly deteriorating eyesight.
How long are you set up when you go there? Even when I was in the dorms... a few months there... a week home, a few months there, a few months home... etc. A desktop was just a better solution. Bringing a laptop places is easier, but I can assure you that within a few months you'll be using it as a shitty desktop and writing all notes on paper, versus a $500 netbook for laptop style stuff and a desktop that works well.
Desktops really aren't that bad to transport. Especially if you only need to move it once/twice per year. Hell, whenever I would go home I'd take my desktop, semi-set it up at home, use it, then move it proper to my new place.
Do you know of any towers that can greatly reduce the size while not lacking cooling? My apartment this next year is going to be depressingly small, so I'm also trying to conserve on that as well.
And I'm usually down there for a few months at a time, so a desktop would make more sense. I just need to figure out the most space efficient method of building one.
I don't know any small but cooling towers, but I've got in my room space issues where I'm constantly having to shift things around to fit. I have maybe 2 square feet of unoccupied space in this room, and I've still managed to fit a full-sized tower, printer, preamp, and dual-monitor system up. If you have room for a desk you have room for the computer.
are you serious? are you going to play with a touchpad? have fun with that, chief.
I have one. It's pretty great, especially for the price. The only thing I'm not wild about is the screen resolution (1440x900) but my eyesight is kind of shit and it's not like I'm doing software development or anything that requires large amounts of screen real estate. On the bright side, it runs DoW2, Far Cry 2, Fallout 3, etc. at max in its native resolution, so that's nice.
I use mine exclusively on my couch. It rules. To the poster above me- optical mouse, brah. Unless your couch is made of glass it works great. I suggest you get a lap board though, it runs pretty hot. I got the cheapest one they had at Borders, it works great.
I play TF2 on my recliner, don't see why a couch would be much different
Got it yesterday. I haven't done any gaming yet, since all of my games are on Steam, but it runs great so far, and from what I've read from others, it games like a champ. Just remember to download nvidia's notebook drivers. 1440x900 screen is perfect for me. When I need 1920x1200, I'll hook it up to my monitor. Keyboard takes a bit getting used to, but I'll adapt.
I use it on my couch. And kitchen table. And in bed. It is so damn nice to be able to move around finally. I hate sitting at my desk now. It's a bit heavy but it is a desktop replacement, so I can't really complain about that. I will second the suggestion of getting a cooling pad. It does get a bit hot through normal use. Nothing my skin can't handle so far, but I fear that will change once I get some games on here.
Now my gripes. Keep in mind that these are minor. Sound isn't all that great through the speakers. I suggest using headphones. Gotta remove some bloatware when you first boot it up. They partitioned part of the hard drive and put the recovery info on there. So if you need recovery discs, you have to burn them yourself. Had I known this, I would have bought some discs. Thing is a fingerprint magnet.
That's pretty much it. I plan on dropping in another hard drive and probably upgrading the processor when I get the chance. Overall, I'm completely satisfied with this purchase. Best bang for buck in this category by far.
Comes with three usb ports for a reason, pal.
Two things:
1) This machine is essentially a desktop replacement. To take advantage of the power, you will probably want to carry a lot of perhipherals with you, and you will need a large case to do that. I bought a large laptop case that looks like miniature luggage, and in it I carry every power adapter and cable I might need, a wired mouse, a printer, spare ink cartridges, a few dozen sheets of blank paper, a couple dozen blank CD-R's and DVD-R's, my two grad school textbooks and associated papers, and two E-SATA HDD enclosures with a 1000 GB WD Caviar Green drive in each. Yes I am crazy -- the entire case with laptop weighs about 38 pounds, and I do indeed extend the handle and wheel it around.
2) Even if you don't do any of the above craziness, if you play games the machine generates serious heat and needs serious airflow. Putting it down on a flat table won't cut it unless you turn graphical features in games down below maximum. I carry three LEGO tires to put under the laptop -- one rear center, two for each front corner -- and that seems to keep the heat down.
Edit: I think it's important to note, the OP didn't say "I like to play games and I want a laptop." Please help him with the question he asked -- which is appropriate to his life but not necessarily your life -- and not the question you think you would have asked instead.
Edit2: Wow, probad, thread assassination FTL.
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edit: hell, for even more clarification the reason I did that was to reinforce the message. The reason being that if a message is repeated more than once then perhaps someone will take note.
Huh. I get around 1.4 Mbps downloading stuff from Steam using draft-n on the integrated wireless card, but even before that I was getting 5-600kbps on 802.11g.
Oh, and I didn't mean a cooling pad with fans on it- just a lap board. It's a plastic surface with a beanbag attached to one side, just to keep the laptop off my legs and ensure the fans on the bottom aren't blocked.
Semantics aside, we are talking about the same thing. I call them cooling pads because they help keep the laptop cool by not blocking the vents and fans with our fatty selves.
Edit: Regarding the network card, my router is probably just broken. One more thing to spend money on.
This always comes up in these threads, someone says "I'm looking for a gaming laptop what should I get", people suggest a Desktop+netbook, and someone says "THAT'S NOT THE QUESTION HE ASKS".
This is really stupid and aggravating. If I ask for help on how to replace my CPU because my computer has a virus and people tell me that the CPU has nothing to do with a Virus, no one would jump down their throats because they weren't answering the question I asked.
Sometimes someone asks for a gaming laptop when they don't understand that a desktop+smaller laptop would suit their needs much better. Suggesting a solution that barring a specific good reason for not using the solution is the best solution even though it may not exactly address the original question is not only completely fine, but is in many cases good. Back when I started college and got a "Gaming laptop" that I since replaced, I wish someone had told me that for the same price I could've built a superior desktop and had a small cheap laptop. But if you had your way I still would've gotten a computer that I later found wasn't up to the jobs I wanted for it and ended up not only replacing it once I could but as I had it ended up not using it for any of its intended purpose because it was not a good solution for anything I wanted to use it for really. If I had asked and people only stuck to the exact question and nothing else then I would've gotten bum advice.
Offering alternate advice that worked for you is more than welcome as long as you aren't presenting it as completely superior in every way, because depending on the OP's situation, it may not be.
Had I made the thread, advice like that would have been ignored since I already have a superior desktop solution. I'm just sick and fucking tired of gaming at my desk.
Edit: Not accusing you of this Khavall, just saying that this is what usually happens in these threads.
However, the convenience of packing up a laptop and transporting it long distances (i.e. four hours between here and home) is an incredible boon both for ease and for storage space in my otherwise compact vehicle.
If I could get a smaller desktop, that would be wonderful. But even the "Toaster Cases" can get a little big sometimes, and I often hear of them having cooling issues.
I just want to be mobile and hostile gentlemen. That is all.
They're expensive. They won't perform as well as gaming desktops. Unless things have changed, you can't upgrade them for shit. And I'm not sure if this is true for all of them, but opening them up to clean the dust/fans is a HUGE PAIN IN THE ASS that I had to do about every 6 months. You basically have to entirely dismantle the fuckers.
I'd look into maybe a mini-tower and a 17-19" LCD monitor. It won't be that much more of a pain to transport that shit around than a huge gaming laptop.
Alright, that makes a lot of sense. Any recommendations for a good mini-tower?
However, to be fair, the reason it gets suggested so much is that 99% of the time it is the best option. There are cases where a Gaming Laptop is the best choice for someone who wants to game and who needs a laptop. There are a few cases where someone wants to game and absolutely must be able to do so while on the move instead of having something light to carry around and work as a computer while having a real computer at home to game on.
And outside of Moe's, pretty much, that knowledge isn't necessarily common. A lot of times I'll hear people talking about Gaming laptops as though they're the best solution for everything because they're laptops but they also can game, missing the heaviness aspect, the heat, the lack of upgradability, all of the classical problems with "gaming laptops". So when someone comes in and says something especially like "Well I'm in college and I want a gaming laptop so I can take notes in class but also game" the solution really is pretty obviously a desktop+Netbook solution for us here.
People being condescending about it may not be ideal, but people don't complain about "Gee you guys sound so cocksure", people say "They didn't ask about that, they asked about gaming laptops GOD" or something similar.
The Shuttle XPC Glamor SG45H7 seems like it's decent. It's got support for Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad (Socket LGA775) and up to 16GB RAM. It also has a PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slot you could fill with a nice graphics card. The SP45H7 is a slightly upgraded model from the looks of it.
EDIT: Here we go, support for the newest Intel Core i7 if you want cutting edge. Shuttle also offers some liquid cooling to help with the heat issues that may concern you.
The conventional wisdom no longer applies. Gaming laptops aren't twice as much as a decent gaming PC anymore.
Oh I know. You are absolutely correct in saying that it usually is the better solution. I'd never argue that advice. The main issue is when people don't respect other opinions. And this goes for both sides of the fence.
I argue that gaming laptops aren't for everyone. But for those who are sick of gaming at a desk and want to be more mobile like me or need to be more mobile, then they are a perfectly valid alternative. Especially if you don't need to keep with the curve for a couple of years. This laptop has performed exactly like my desktop has save Crysis. For me, the ability to do that while sitting wherever I want was well worth the $1150 I paid.
What link did you click? The Shuttle I linked was $600 for the barebones, and it's the newest chip out there (Core i7), so it's going to be extremely expensive to build with. I wouldn't piece together anything from the Shuttle store, as buying in pieces can get you a much better (and useful) graphics card. The barebones doesn't even have on-board video, so I'm really wondering what you ended up at from the link.. I just linked it since its the newest, but you can pick up a much cheaper Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad machine if you want to keep the price down a bit.
If you really want a gaming laptop, I'd try to get a nice 15" or maybe a 17" if you can find one that's really thin and light. If you do get a laptop, be careful about where the AC adapter plugs into it, as it is fairly common for that to break off from the motherboard and then you have a nice 17" paperweight (which is what I've got now
What I said before is still true for the most part, as far as I know.
Oh, I see what I did- for whatever reason that link sent me to Shuttle's home page, which is 2 clicks away from a "customize your Shuttle" link where you actually build a machine based on that barebones. Yeah, you can do it cheaper than that if you know what you're doing. Still, add in a monitor and you're looking at over a grand easy. Or you can get something just as fast, plus a warranty, for $1200.
Shuttles are great for what they are but you don't save as much money by going that route vs a laptop as you did a year ago.
I'm curious, OP: do you do anything resource-intensive other than game? Do you write code, need to use virtual machines, or anything else? Or is your only need for a gaming laptop indeed just gaming?
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK
QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
Purely for gaming, but also will probably be used for some basic statistical calculation. No programming or anything.
Just a way for me to pass time playing Dawn of War 2 and other great RTS's.