$1050 budget gaming laptop

[dantheman0809]

Hey, my friend is buying a gaming laptop and he said his max budget was around $1000. I was wondering if this was a good recommendation for him? It's on sale on newegg right now and it has pretty killer specs so I was looking for some second opinions.

I never expected to find a 970m laptop for this price point so if no one has any poor regards towards this model I will probably get him to buy it

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232863&nm_mc=OTC-Iceleads&cm_mmc=OTC-Iceleads-_-ASUS-_-Gaming+Laptops-_-34232863

The specs are
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 3 GB GDDR5
4th Generation Intel Core i7 4720HQ (2.60 GHz)
16 GB Memory 1 TB HDD
17.3" Full HD 1920 x 1080
16.40" x 12.50" x 0.90"-1.70" 8.40 lbs.
DVD±RW

 

[Potato13]

Thing is 8.4 pounds and 17.3". At this point the benefits of a laptop don't exist unless you're down to carry this thing around everywhere. Most people here will tell you to use the money to build or even buy a decent prebuilt computer for better gaming performance.

Also I don't think it's a good time to buy a laptop with a 970M right now. Rumors of Nvidia's 1070M and 1080M laptop cards have been surfacing a lot and I'm sure laptops with much better performance and lower power consumption will start popping up. The 970M is roughly equivalent to a desktop GTX 960 which is considered a low end card now with the release of the RX 480. If you're spending a $1000, I'd try to future proof it as much as possible.

I don't really know much about the specific laptop but seeing as it is a fairly large and heavy laptop, I personally would not get it myself. I have always been against gaming laptops unless they are thin and light with good thermals. I also hate fans spinning noise so close to my face. To fully answer your question, I think we need to take into consideration the specific needs of your friend. Is he student? Does portability matter to him? What kind of games will he be playing?

 

[dantheman0809]

Thing is 8.4 pounds and 17.3". At this point the benefits of a laptop don't exist unless you're down to carry this thing around everywhere. Most people here will tell you to use the money to build or even buy a decent prebuilt computer for better gaming performance.

Also I don't think it's a good time to buy a laptop with a 970M right now. Rumors of Nvidia's 1070M and 1080M laptop cards have been surfacing a lot and I'm sure laptops with much better performance and lower power consumption will start popping up. The 970M is roughly equivalent to a desktop GTX 960 which is considered a low end card now with the release of the RX 480. If you're spending a $1000, I'd try to future proof it as much as possible.

I don't really know much about the specific laptop but seeing as it is a fairly large and heavy laptop, I personally would not get it myself. I have always been against gaming laptops unless they are thin and light with good thermals. I also hate fans spinning noise so close to my face. To fully answer your question, I think we need to take into consideration the specific needs of your friend. Is he student? Does portability matter to him? What kind of games will he be playing?

Well, the portability matters to him, somewhat. I think he specifically doesn't want a desktop computer and he wants this to be his only computer (but I will double check with him). He is a student. He also needs the laptop sometime in the next week I believe. I've been looking around and this is by far the cheapest 970m laptop i've found. It is pretty big though I do agree.
I don't think he's trying to max out enthusiast level games or anything. Just trying to find a decent gaming laptop. I've found a couple other models with 960m which run on lower resolutions (and are a little less clunky) so maybe those would be better? hmm

 

[Sunghwee]

If you want the thing to be portable the minimum requirements for the thing shouldn't be anywhere over 6 lbs and the screen size should be 15.6" or less.
Anything more will be a pain to lug around.

 

[dudeman509]

If you want the thing to be portable the minimum requirements for the thing shouldn't be anywhere over 6 lbs and the screen size should be 15.6" or less.
Anything more will be a pain to lug around.

Agree completely. Had a 17", 8 lb Elitebook - I did not want to carry that thing anywhere. My new 14", 3.5 lb? Sure, barely notice it's on my shoulder.

 

[dantheman0809]

Um, alright, if you guys are against the heavy bulky ones could you recommend something else?

 

[Potato13]

Thing is 8.4 pounds and 17.3". At this point the benefits of a laptop don't exist unless you're down to carry this thing around everywhere. Most people here will tell you to use the money to build or even buy a decent prebuilt computer for better gaming performance.

Also I don't think it's a good time to buy a laptop with a 970M right now. Rumors of Nvidia's 1070M and 1080M laptop cards have been surfacing a lot and I'm sure laptops with much better performance and lower power consumption will start popping up. The 970M is roughly equivalent to a desktop GTX 960 which is considered a low end card now with the release of the RX 480. If you're spending a $1000, I'd try to future proof it as much as possible.

I don't really know much about the specific laptop but seeing as it is a fairly large and heavy laptop, I personally would not get it myself. I have always been against gaming laptops unless they are thin and light with good thermals. I also hate fans spinning noise so close to my face. To fully answer your question, I think we need to take into consideration the specific needs of your friend. Is he student? Does portability matter to him? What kind of games will he be playing?

Well, the portability matters to him, somewhat. I think he specifically doesn't want a desktop computer and he wants this to be his only computer (but I will double check with him). He is a student. He also needs the laptop sometime in the next week I believe. I've been looking around and this is by far the cheapest 970m laptop i've found. It is pretty big though I do agree.
I don't think he's trying to max out enthusiast level games or anything. Just trying to find a decent gaming laptop. I've found a couple other models with 960m which run on lower resolutions (and are a little less clunky) so maybe those would be better? hmm

I've tried looking around for you and you're right, I don't think you'll get a lighter laptop with a 970M for a similar price. I haven't really been able to find anything worthy of recommendation upon my first look on Newegg. I guess you could look into the 960M models you're seeing. I would make sure the screen is at least 1080p though. Your friend will definitely have to make some compromises if portability is a concern. There's also a fair bit of laptops with the 940M that retail for close to 500.


I honestly think your friend would do better not trying to hit two birds with one stone. As a student myself, I know that a student's laptop needs to light and portable. Even an extra 5 pounds on your back can make a difference when you're carrying books all day. There's also the concern of battery life which is very poor on most gaming laptops. Gonna sound like a broken record here but, may I suggest investing in a 400-500$ thin and light laptop and using the rest of the money to throw together a budget gaming pc?

 

[dantheman0809]

Thing is 8.4 pounds and 17.3". At this point the benefits of a laptop don't exist unless you're down to carry this thing around everywhere. Most people here will tell you to use the money to build or even buy a decent prebuilt computer for better gaming performance.

Also I don't think it's a good time to buy a laptop with a 970M right now. Rumors of Nvidia's 1070M and 1080M laptop cards have been surfacing a lot and I'm sure laptops with much better performance and lower power consumption will start popping up. The 970M is roughly equivalent to a desktop GTX 960 which is considered a low end card now with the release of the RX 480. If you're spending a $1000, I'd try to future proof it as much as possible.

I don't really know much about the specific laptop but seeing as it is a fairly large and heavy laptop, I personally would not get it myself. I have always been against gaming laptops unless they are thin and light with good thermals. I also hate fans spinning noise so close to my face. To fully answer your question, I think we need to take into consideration the specific needs of your friend. Is he student? Does portability matter to him? What kind of games will he be playing?

Well, the portability matters to him, somewhat. I think he specifically doesn't want a desktop computer and he wants this to be his only computer (but I will double check with him). He is a student. He also needs the laptop sometime in the next week I believe. I've been looking around and this is by far the cheapest 970m laptop i've found. It is pretty big though I do agree.
I don't think he's trying to max out enthusiast level games or anything. Just trying to find a decent gaming laptop. I've found a couple other models with 960m which run on lower resolutions (and are a little less clunky) so maybe those would be better? hmm

I've tried looking around for you and you're right, I don't think you'll get a lighter laptop with a 970M for a similar price. I haven't really been able to find anything worthy of recommendation upon my first look on Newegg. I guess you could look into the 960M models you're seeing. I would make sure the screen is at least 1080p though. Your friend will definitely have to make some compromises if portability is a concern. There's also a fair bit of laptops with the 940M that retail for close to 500.


I honestly think your friend would do better not trying to hit two birds with one stone. As a student myself, I know that a student's laptop needs to light and portable. Even an extra 5 pounds on your back can make a difference when you're carrying books all day. There's also the concern of battery life which is very poor on most gaming laptops. Gonna sound like a broken record here but, may I suggest investing in a 400-500$ thin and light laptop and using the rest of the money to throw together a budget gaming pc?

I'll see if that would fit his budget, however he doesn't currently have monitor or keyboard so well see :\

 

[dudeman509]

I haven't seen anything 15.6" for that price with a 970m; there are lots of i7-6700HQ/960M combinations for <= $900 though.