Solved! $1000 gaming laptop

[Godzealot]

Forgive me, I know desktops well but don't know anything about laptops. Want best graphics I can get for $1000, battery life not important.

1_What is your budget? $1000 USD, +/- 200

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? at least 15.6"

3_What screen resolution do you want? 1920x1080 preferrably

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? desktop replacement

5_How much battery life do you need? not important, gonna be perma-plugged

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?

Something that will run L4D, MW2, WoW, and hopefully Diablo 3 and SC2 in the future!

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.) Web Browsing, some photoshop/illustrator

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need? Not too important. 320gb/500gb is fine

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them. Um. Newegg?

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop? At least 2-3 years


11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? DVD writer is fine, Blu Ray a plus if it fits within budget. However I care more about graphics/frames per second =)

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons. ASUS? No reasons except that I was told they were good. (solid warranty)

13_What country do you live in? USA


14_Please tell us any additional information if needed. Want to buy within a week or two. Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Godzealot]

I have been looking around, do you guys think this one is a good buy?


ASUS G Series G51Vx-X3A Intel Core 2 Duo P8700(2.53GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 320GB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M NoteBook - Retail

 

[Godzealot]

Did anyone get a chance to look at this one?

 

[winh8r]

Yep this one looks fine with this graphics and fullhd res. in terms of performance it should be more than enough with the titles you mentioned

but you can also consider other brands like lenovo, dell..if you want a desktop replacement then maybe some 17' at similar price will be possible (with not that good graphics then I guess)
the best guide for you should be here I think as the graphics is most important (rouch performance marks for each mobile GPU there look on the right)
http/www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-260M.14559.0.html

 

[chronicintel]

I own an Asus G50V-Xt, and it has slightly lower specs (2.26 GHz, GeForce 9800M GS 512MB RAM), and it runs most games just fine in high detail (including recent games like Resident Evil 5 and Mass Effect 2). The only game that has performance issues is GTA IV. The G51 should suit your needs just fine, although I can't tell you how the games would run at full HD 1080p, as my max resolution is 1366x768.

 

[winh8r]

Yes that 1080p resolution will increase the requirements for GPU in many titles I guess...it's pity THG does not do any charts for on mobile GPUs
But in the more demanding titles lowering res to 1366or similar might not look that bad also ?
gtaIV is more processor (cores) dependent - from what I read

But the new Corei5's do pretty well in laptops compared to core duos like that p8700 but I guess it might be hard to combine such with strong GPU around 1000$

 

[Godzealot]

I believe I found a better one, for cheaper too. Now I'm debating wether to buy this one or the $1500 new ASUS core i7, 5870.

http/www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+with+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B2+Duo+Processor+-+Black/9556125.p?id=1218124208054&skuId=9556125&st=asus&cp=1&lp=1

 

[winh8r]

I don't know which would be the core i7 one but I guess you won't get fair performance/features improvement for that 50% $$ more than this one. I looked up one review and, as expected, this model has it's flaws but for 1000$ you shouldn't complain. lower res but larger screen than previous proposition - overall better I think if you consider playing at native res.
what I would like about it is that you can have two hard drives

http/www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-G72GX-Gaming-Notebook.22297.0.html