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Gaming laptop for under a grand?
langfor6
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Can I get a good gaming laptop for under $1000 these days? I know it's probably better to build a new desktop, but I need a laptop for school as well so I'd like to kill two birds in one stone. I'm not even sure where I should look for something like this. I checked out Dell but they are pushing Alienware laptops for gaming and I think $1200 was the cheapest I saw.
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Seriously. If you want to play real/new games for more than a year, you're better off doing that.
As wunderbar said, you could build your own desktop that runs newer games well and get a netbook for portability for around $1k. The desktop wouldn't have to be a monster so you could save a little on the regard to meet your budget.
Cost of Heavy upgrades=Cost of new desktop
These days you can get a a good gaming video card and CPU for under $100 each and a decent gaming computer could be build for $500 and awesome one might cost $700. Thus saving a couple hundred on case, PSU, HD, DVD, etc. can end up being a decent percentage of of the total cost.
That said, if you want to buy a gaming laptop this list of mobile video cards is indispensable.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
And we both forgot the windows license.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
That @%%$@$ windows license. Just when you think you have a build priced out, BAM! eat an extra 100-150 dollars.
So basically I'm saying whatever gateway gaming laptop which is in your price range... get it.
Except he's a student. Depending on his major and where he goes to school, the cost of a Windows license could be low or non-existent (the latter under the promise of non-commercial use).
Edit: also, Rivulent is onto something with that cooling pad. I have multiple friends whose gaming laptops have had heat issues. If you do get such a laptop, consider the pad mandatory.
But don't think you're going to get a machine designed for gaming in this situation. you could maybe look for a Gateway as suggested, but imo if this is for school, and you're carrying it around all day, the biggest thigns you should be looking for are screen size and battery life. Your shoulder, back, and mind will thank you later.
I'm really considering the laptop linked in the second post of this thread. It seems to be a good value. By modern standards the processor speed seems a little low, but my current laptop has a Pentium III in it for comparison.
What games are you playing?
What about telling the family member you want a really light weight notebook (299 for a netbook for class) but you'll need a good system to use more intensive applications for school in your dorm (600 to upgrade desktop)
Maybe that would convince them? And still be under 1k
The 260M is roughly equivalent to a desktop 9800 GT, according to this page.
That's the card that's in the laptop in the second post.
That laptop is also only rated for 2 hours of battery life, so in reality you're looking at 89-90 minutes in the real world. That, to be blunt, is shit.
the 260M is a good chip in a laptop, but it comes with some serious drawbacks.
GAMING LAPTOP ON A MAC FOR UNDER A GRAND? IMPOSSIBLE!!!
In other news - I just sold my gaming notebook (GeForce 6600, 15.4", etc) for $175. It was $2000 when it retailed back in the day. Played crap like Warcraft, Portal, Call of Duty 4... all on max settings, surprisingly.
I think $1000 is plenty for a laptop that plays games, but not a gaming laptop... if you're looking to play those newer games.
I ventured down the gaming laptop route, as did both of my roommates in college. For all three of us it was a horrible mistake. Yes, they're better this day and age, but it's still not worth it. For college you want lightweight, good battery life, and portability. Gaming laptops have none of these.
Grab a part time job and try to save money to upgrade or build a gaming desktop. In the long run, you'll be glad you did.
The impact on battery life is one of the biggest. 2 hours may seem like enough, but during a day at school, if you actually use it, and can't find a plug, which will probably happen more than you think, 2 hours is terrible.
the weight of the machine. 7 pounds is a beast. my laptop for work is 4.5 pounds, and I absolutely hate carrying it around. Again one of those things where you think that 7 pounds isn't that much, but when you're carrying around a 7 pound laptop, plus your books, plus your other stuff, it adds up, and gets pretty heavy pretty quick.
The size of the computer, again, 15.6" isn't terrible, but imo, to be truly portable, 13.3" is the sweetspot. This kind of goes in line with weight. It's just simply easier to carry around with you if it's a bit smaller.
a laptop with a higher end dedicated gpu will run hotter as well.
Remember, you're not just looking at specs of a computer here. You're looking at something you will be taking with you all day, every day. You want to be looking at buying a laptop thinking of that fact first.
Again, my laptop is old and heavy and doesn't run on battery at all, and I've been carrying it around every day since January. I was in the Army for four years where I had to ruck around with 40-50 pounds of gear fairly regularly, so the weight doesn't bother me.
Dropping a grand on something that won't play games in a year doesn't appeal to me though, even though it's not my money. I think I'm better off getting a netbook.
especially if you want to play anything that will come out in the next year--a laptop just won't cut it.
I mean even CS Source (old school) kills the vid card I have in my laptop, and that is on 800x600 with all settings to lowest. Top FPS is like 20, and this laptop was good at the time.
--
Yea--I really regret buying the laptop I did--it's a compaq with a cinematic wide-screen--but the reality it turns out is if I want to watch a movie I usually am home.
Carrying it around was horrible--led to a lot of shoulder/etc pain, and I'm a pretty strong dude.
It weighed about 6.7 lbs without battery--probably 7 with? I dunno. Anyway it was a monster. I really wish I'd bought a netbook.
Freshman Year: Oh man, gaming laptop with 2 hours battery this is AWESOME.
Sophomore Year: Hmm, battery only last 1 hour and 15 minutes, oh well that's still good for one class.
Junior Year: WTF?, 40 minutes and my battery is dead with screen brightness turned all the way down.
Senior Year:
My gaming laptop weighed an incredible 9 pounds, sounded like a jet engine because the fans had to be on max to keep it at reasonable temps, and in the end could barely run any games that came out a year after I bought it.
Yeah, you'd probably be looking at building a new one at this point. The good news is, decent gaming desktops are supa cheap these days. Head over to the computer build thread and you might be surprised of how nice a machine you can get for ~$700.
& how much did you spend
I mean, sure, it won't do Crysis, but who honestly plays anything other than TF2 and a handful of other titles?
PC users.
Not to be a dick, but Macs aren't (and shouldn't) be suggested as "gaming laptops". They are far from customizable (in any affordable way, if so) and don't offer the same power for a much cheaper cost of a Windows laptop.
Dell Vostro 1500
Nvidia Geforce 8600 256mb video card
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz processor
2 GB RAM
It is kind of sucking right now because I maintained it badly, but once I get it fixed, I am pretty sure it will run just fine. Maybe not the newest games, but I have a desktop now for that. So yeah, I guess I did have to upgrade to a desktop a couple years down the line, but at the time, when I had to go with a laptop, it served me well.
This confuses me. I've always just retired the old desktop, and used the version of Windows I was already using, on the new one. I had no problems with activation or anything.
Well at the time it was only like $150 more than a comparable notebook from Asus, and significantly smaller. Nowadays, I agree, new Apples are way too expensive. But as I said you can probably find a machine like mine for under a thousand, and it's perfect for those multiplayer standbys.
Apart from the batteries only lasting a year or so and the GPU burning out after a year and a half necessitating a motherboard replacement (which will inevitably happen to any notebook with nvidia graphics), my experience has excellent.
I just think that, frankly, if you want a gaming notebook that isn't a giant pile of shit, Macbook Pro is the only choice.
Ive played tf2 on it for 4 hours and while it gets warm, it never gets hot. It'll play anything up to left4dead on good settings, I havent tried anything higher than that. It's light enough to carry in one hand, and while I almost always use it while plugged in, it'll get anywhere from 4-6 hours with fairly constant wireless use/music playing. Closer to 3-4 playing movies or games.
It's only got a 13 inch screen (1280 x 800) so that's something to keep in mind, it only bothers me when I'm doing things in photoshop. Another bad thing is they seem to upgrade these every year. Upgrading from the intel graphics to the 9400 was huge though as far as performance.
It's $999, if you're a student you can knock $50 off, and you can get a free 8gig ipod touch if you do it during the back to school deal that's going on now. If nothing else, get the ipod and sell/trade it for a video card for your desktop.
But yeah, super light, great battery life, solid gaming.
Full specs and such:
http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook?mco=MTE4MTY
edit: so that's like $360 off, but if you sell it probably less. still though, i think it's a good deal