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If you had roughly $2000 (I think that's about £15) and were in the market for a laptop to do all the fancy-ass new gaming out there, what would you buy?

I would buy a fan-fething-tastic gaming desktop PC and then spend the other $1000 on something else.

 azazel the cat wrote:
I would buy a fan-fething-tastic gaming desktop PC and then spend the other $1000 on something else.

Seconded. I just spent $800AU on a custom built tower than runs pretty much any mainstream game available at the moment on either the best settings or close to. That's also with just the basic top end graphics card, if you want to splash out two or three hundred more you'll get something which smokes my machine. Edit: Any good PC store should be able to custom build you something to your budget. Granted I already had my own monitor, keyboard, mouse, cables, copy of Windows 7 so if you don't have those things then it might be a few hundred more again.

If you really HAVE to go for a laptop then I'd look at one of the Alienware ones. They're generally pretty awesome.

http://www.alienware.com

Are you buying it purely just to play games on? If so then i'm afraid I would most certainly spend half that amount on a kick-ass awesome desktop PC and spend the rest on either sundry's and gubbins for it or moar mini's......

If you are dead set on a gaming laptop however, i'd say Alienware too. They look amazing....



BUT!! They make a desktop too...dribble dribble dribble

Has something changed with Alienware recently? I remember when I asked people about 'em a few years ago I was essentially told they were waaaaay over priced and you can generally get equivalent PCs from other manufacturers for less.

Incidentally, I own an ASUS gaming laptop. Seems to work fine, though it's not running, say, the Secret World or other graphically intense games on max settings. It runs them just fine on medium, though, and I value the portability quite a bit.

 RatBot wrote:
Has something changed with Alienware recently? I remember when I asked people about 'em a few years ago I was essentially told they were waaaaay over priced and you can generally get equivalent PCs from other manufacturers for less.

Incidentally, I own an ASUS gaming laptop. Seems to work fine, though it's not running, say, the Secret World or other graphically intense games on max settings. It runs them just fine on medium, though, and I value the portability quite a bit.

Oh, they are overpriced. But just LOOK at them....

I hear ASUS is solid to run, Alienware's allegedly degraded recently.

Personally I'd just build my own desktop and use the other grand and some change to buy an M1A... or enough booze to last a couple months.


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Or pay off my car

I'd look for the standard features you'd expect to see in a 2013 gaming laptop, which in my mind would be:

An SSD of 120gb or so
a Panther Point series motherboard
a GPU that is at least a Nvidia 500 series and really, the 600 series would probably be more appropriate
a CPU that is at least a Sandy Bridge and more ideally an Ivy Bridge. For $2,000, at least a 3610QM.

Those would be my immediate concerns. I'm less concerned with who built it - I'd prefer MSI, or Asus, or Toshiba, and I have a few stay-away brands like HP or Dell - but otherwise, those are the specs I'd look for.

PS: I concur with the first post - unless I'm in some sort of nomadic-type situation, I'd buy a basic laptop and dump the rest into a high end PC. $1k-$1500K will build an absolutely killer gaming desktop that will likely play games at the top settings for the next 5 years, and even then likely only require a GPU refresh - I'm still using my 2007 era mobo, Q6600 and so on, I've only replaced the graphics card a year ago, play everything on 1920x1200, all settings maxed.

PPS Alienware's crap now and has been for a few years. They're aren't quite on my avoid list, but I certainly wouldn't buy one if I were paying for it.

I built myself an awesome gaming desktop a couple years ago. I don't think I've turned it on in over six months. Hence, gaming laptop.

Oh, I'd also recommend not going more then 15" if you have to lug it around. I got a 17" and regretted it, it's just too big and hot.


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Something like this, perhaps. Use some of the savings to get a large SSD. Sometimes you can mount the SSD in the optical bay and have the best of both worlds.

Don't go with Alienware. Its just flashy crap.

I echo the call of spending half that amount on a decent PC.
BUT if you are dead set on getting a laptop then see if you can't find a place that does custom gaming laptops. They will most likely cost you the price as a flashy Alienware laptop but will be soooooooooooo much better hardware wise.

I second an Asus. Ive owned 2 laptops, 2 PCs which one is my current gaming rig, and a tablet. They have never let me down and I plan to buy another asus once the ROG desktop comes state side. But then again I might just be a fan boy.

Just no on Alienware...

I like the various botique gaming laptop sites.

My preference is Sager Notebook:
https://www.sagernotebook.com/

I bought a Lenovo laptop last september for CAD 1200 dollars. It came with an Nvidia 660m 2Gigs, 8 gigs ram, 3rd gen i7, and a terabyte HDD. I have yet to find a game I can't run on max settings on the laptop itself, and looking at the recommended graphics for ultra settings for Crysis 3 I'm only one level off on the graphics card selection and up to snuff or better on everything else. I also could have added an SSD but didn't feel the extra 200 or so was really necessary.

Go desktop, chances are you're prolly going to use it more at home anyway, and every few years an extra couple hundred bucks will make your machine like new, whereas after 2-3 years, the laptop will show its age and if you want to keep up you'll need to replace the entire damn thing for another 2k. Use the money you save from getting a desktop to pick yourself up a tablet for a cpl hundred bucks, it'll fill all your mobile computing needs and is far far more convenient.

I have an alienware m15x laptop and I must say, it is an amazing piece of kit. Running BLOPS 2 and BF3 on ultra at 60fps is just stunning.

 whembly wrote:
Just no on Alienware...

I like the various botique gaming laptop sites.

My preference is Sager Notebook:
https://www.sagernotebook.com/

I also second Sager for laptops. I went Cyberpower when I got mine years ago, but have only ever heard good things about Sager. The only downside is it appears they ship with windows 8 - you may want to ask if they can do 7x64, or send it with no OS instead. I prefer to do my own installs.

Laptops are not for gaming, For a proper gaming session you need to settle down in front a of a rig with everything spread out need. Laptops are too compact and force you to be too compact. That is ok for work, but a serious gamer needs a gaming rig.

Get a mac?

 Orlanth wrote:
Laptops are not for gaming, For a proper gaming session you need to settle down in front a of a rig with everything spread out need. Laptops are too compact and force you to be too compact. That is ok for work, but a serious gamer needs a gaming rig.

Depends on your gaming needs...

If you're playing Call of Duty, Diablo 3, BFF... and you're ON THE GO... gaming laptops are the way to go (you'll spend more $$$)

If you need a gaming rig and you'll be home a lot, get the desktop.


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 rubiksnoob wrote:
Get a mac?

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 Ouze wrote:

 whembly wrote:
Just no on Alienware...

I like the various botique gaming laptop sites.

My preference is Sager Notebook:
https://www.sagernotebook.com/

I also second Sager for laptops. I went Cyberpower when I got mine years ago, but have only ever heard good things about Sager. The only downside is it appears they ship with windows 8 - you may want to ask if they can do 7x64, or send it with no OS instead. I prefer to do my own installs.

Their Customer Support is absolutely fantastic. When you create an account, you get a named person who'd call/email you if needed. After recieving my laptop, he called me personally to make sure everything is to my specs...

I'd suspect that if you still want Win 7, you can request it when you order it. This is their topline gaming laptop using that new AMD graphic card that everyone is drooling over (and I'm a nVidia fan boi). The lower end option of their lineup is still more advanced than I have... and I'm running Diablo3, Call of Duty, X-com just fine.

The advice to go with a desktop is understood, but here's the deal: I have a good gaming desktop. It's on the fourth floor of our place, as that's the only room we really have for it. Hot in summer, cold in winter. Plus, I have discovered I receive better meals, less aggravation, and more unexpected appearances of the female co-inhabitant of my domicile in a French maid outfit if I do my nerding out in the living room while at least pretending to be sociable.

Have you considered getting a desktop? There are numerous advantages over laptops.

 rubiksnoob wrote:
Get a mac?

Oh that made me laugh. Took me a second, but when I saw it, I had to go in a quite room so I could breath properly again after 15min of non-stop laughing.


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I really do like the E-Machine computers. Very nice and can run most games nicely if your willing to drop between 1200-1500NZD, which I think is something like 1000-1300USD.

However, I play WoW, SC2 and D3 so there not the most graphics intense games around but I can run them all on ultra or whatever they call it again.

 Seaward wrote:
The advice to go with a desktop is understood, but here's the deal: I have a good gaming desktop. It's on the fourth floor of our place, as that's the only room we really have for it. Hot in summer, cold in winter. Plus, I have discovered I receive better meals, less aggravation, and more unexpected appearances of the female co-inhabitant of my domicile in a French maid outfit if I do my nerding out in the living room while at least pretending to be sociable.

Keep the desktop, move it into the living room, upgrade the French maid.
Sorted.

 Orlanth wrote:
Keep the desktop, move it into the living room, upgrade the French maid.
Sorted.

It would clash with the walnut furniture and smoking jackets I prefer to wear.

Get a mennonite to build you a computer case out of Mahogany, and spray paint your keyboard and monitor woody colours.

 Orlanth wrote:
Laptops are not for gaming, For a proper gaming session you need to settle down in front a of a rig with everything spread out need. Laptops are too compact and force you to be too compact. That is ok for work, but a serious gamer needs a gaming rig.

This is what children believe. Sorry you can't afford a nice laptop, but other people can.

OP--- I own an m14x and I love it. Well worth the investment.