Affordable Gaming Laptop

Amartya

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Nov 5, 2012
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Hi guyz I'm kinda new here & in need of immediate help.
I have been offered a laptop by HP specs are:
3rd gen i7
8gb RAM
Intel HD 4000 Integrated
Nvdia GT 650M 2GB
Hybrid Drive of 750 GB and a full HD 15inch screen with a Blu-Ray Player
Now I'm intending to play heavy games do a little bit of programming (fresher at computer science engeneering) and it will be a dual booting machine running Win7 ultimate & Ubuntu side by side. Now suggest please and keep in mind the budget...under 1200$

EDIT:
Just got a scholarship will be able to spend 1600$ or just a bit more now lets have your opinions again getlemen shall we??? :bounce:
 

Hiii

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Jul 25, 2012
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What is your budget?, you've not mentioned it, $800/1000/1200?.
 

jackspeed

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Jun 29, 2011
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3rd gen i7
8gb RAM
Intel HD 4000 Integrated
Nvdia GT 650M 2GB
Hybrid Drive of 750 GB and a full HD 15inch screen with a Blu-Ray Player

the budget...under 1200$

This is do able the lenovo Y580 has this.

I would like it to run games for the next 4 years without much of a hitch so tell me based on that what laptop should i choose

The gt650M probably wont be able to run games for the next 4 years. I dont know if the gtx 680M will be able to.

If you want future proofing get a desktop.
"Heavy gaming" on a laptop comes at a hefty price. The blu ray player also on most laptops has a large price tag. You are looking at a laptop around. 1500-1600ish for a gtx 675M, a blu ray player, and a Hybrid drive. A 680 is even more. Gaming is doable at your budget. But most "gaming laptops" below 1500 do not come with blu ray standard. You will need to make compromises.

Sager is a brand I would suggest checking out in your budget.
 

jackspeed

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Jun 29, 2011
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lenovo Y580 1k +-100 I think I listed the modle you might like. GTX 660M.

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/builder.workflow:Enter?sb=:000001C9:0000717D:#.UJgXom_A-Q0

Sager Notebooks
www.sagernotebooks.com

np9130 1200 you could "downgarde" the cpu to the i7-3610QM to save $50 and for an extra 55 you could get a blu ray player. This has a gtx 670M.

http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=product_customed&model_name=NP9130

If you wish to go over budget I might suggest the 17" sager np9170 or the 15" np9150. You could get them for 1269 if you upgrade the hdd to 750GB. It has a gtx 675M
 

jackspeed

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Jun 29, 2011
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Good to know that there out where are they???? Following the links on nvidia's website they list laptops with the regular cards. Alienware, cyberpower, and digital storm do not have these laptop cards. who knows what the price on these will be. Odds are that they will not fit in his budget. a 670m is probably the best performance he can get in his budget. My suggestions were of machines with better specs then a 650m.
 

jackspeed

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Jun 29, 2011
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Interetsting didn't know sager had them in there machines

also the laptop is overbudget because it does not come with an os.

The gtx675m is still more powerful then the 670mx occording to Nvidia's website.

"Charge ahead with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M, up to 60% faster than GeForce GTX 660M"
"Charge ahead with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670MX, up to 35% faster than GeForce GTX 660M"

Also there are no benchmarks on the card so its hard to say time will tell.
 

KernalPanic

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Oct 29, 2012
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Let's bring reality back into the mix.

If you were to run Witcher2 on s $1200 Desktop (+monitor) from 4 years ago you wouldn't be running 1080p with everything on without a hitch.

Today's gaming laptops are plenty potent, but your expectations may be a bit too high for any hardware solution in existance. :)
(Your choice of words and in particular and Witcher 2 and similar games.)

Even the most expensive gaming laptops ($1500 and higher for single-gpu) are a small step behind their desktop counterparts as they are now similar GPUs, but are underclocked and may use slower RAM to meet the lower power requirements of laptops. Right now, $1200 will play most games with only the rare few requiring you to turn down some settings. 4 years from now, it will still play just fine, it will simply require medium-high settings or so.

You are looking at high-mid-tier gaming laptops with your budget.
Look up MSI, Sager, and white-box versions of those two sporting 670mx or 675mx from boutique retailers like gentechpc, xoticpc, or powernotebooks. (or similar there are lots) The 670mx and 675mx are underclocked versions of the Desktop 660. (although the 675mx actually has 256-bit ram!)

One word of warning
670m and 675m (minus the x) are fermi versions of the desktop 460 192-bit and 560ti respectively. They are fine GPUs, but multiple steps behind the 670mx and 675mx. Sager has a deal right now where they actually give you a 675m (no x) for the price of a 670m (no x again). This isn't such a bad deal for the price for those willing to tweak settings. Note fermi chips do run warmer... but the cooling systems in the laptops we are talking about are more than capable.

FYI the 675m is only about 7 months old. (rebrand of 580m which is 17 months old or so)
The 560Ti it is based on is about 2 years old.
(someone claimed it was 3 years old... it's not)

One other possible lead is the GX60 from MSI. It sports a powerful 7970m (a slightly underclocked desktop 7870) and an A10-4600 AMD Trinity. This is much less CPU, but the second-best GPU available now. Don't go this way if your favorite games are CPU-limited.

If you could some save another $300 ($1500 total) it would put you in the market for a Sager I7+ 7970m or maybe even a white-box MSI 680m.
The 680m is a downclocked desktop GTX 670 with slower RAM, and for the moment the performance king in mobile GPUs.