Best gaming laptop for around $1,500

[CORKNUTZ69]

I've been looking at Alienware, and the known good gaming laptop makers but just seems there are alot of options. Like I'm a dell fan, my last vostro 1700 worked great for wow etc. The price is flexible but I want something that can play all current games on max settings etc.

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

I think I best selected myself somehow........I tried to WR2 not sure how i messed that up. Sorry man........

 

[WR2]

not sure how i messed that up.

You didn't - you got it right. Thanks.
Be sure to let us know how things work out.

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

Pretty sure I;'m gonna get the sager one you mentioned, just gonna wait till black Friday. When I get it, I'll let ya know how it does!

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

Anyone know where the good deals are for Cyber Monday that would have a Sager mentioned above?

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

Well WR2, this is what I came up with. Cancelled the whole raid thing, but went with SSD primary, 500 Secondary. Also I have win 7 copy that I can put on there (brother is in the business)so that saves me $80.00 Or do you think that will cause issues with warranty etc. if I use mine? Also, do you see anything else you would add/takeaway? $1939.00 Just under my $2,000 top lol.

Sager NP8170 / Clevo P170HM
- FREE!! Continental (U.S. Lower 48) Ground Shipping on ALL Sager Laptops! (Order must be placed between 11/24/2011 - 11/28/2011) (Enter "FREE SHIP" in comments box during order)
- SAGER Sale!!! - $100 OFF When you spend $1500* or more! (*excludes accessories, shipping, non Sager items & taxes)
Confirmation of discount will be provided after Order Processing. + Sager Price Protect & Chance for Xbox 360 Giveaway!
- 17.3" FHD 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen (1920x1080) (SKU - S1R506)
- NO Professional Monitor Color Calibration
- No Spare 3D Glasses
- Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM, 2.2-3.1GHz, (32nm, 6MB L3 cache) (SKU - S2N224)
- - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD6990 2048MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 $100 OFF (SKU - S3R151)
- No Video Adapter
- 16GB - DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (4 SODIMMS) (SKU - S4R757)
- Sager Branding
- Standard Finish
- 120GB Intel 510 Series Solid State Drive (SSD2 Serial-ATA III) (SKU - S5R055)
- 500GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache) (SKU - S6R210)
- HDD Raid Settings - OFF
- Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive w/ Software (When selecting a Hard Drive in the Optical Bay, No Optical Drive is Included) (SKU - S7R455)
- No Extra Optical Bay Hard Drive Caddy
- No Back Up Hard Drive
- NO External USB Optical Drive
- No Floppy Drive
- Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader (MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS Pro Duo/SD/Mini-SD/MMC/RS)
- No Back Up Software
- None Standard--
- Intel® Advanced-N 6230 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module + Bluetooth (SKU - S8R111)
- No Network Accessory
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- No TV Tuner
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Basic Black Business Case - Included
- Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- No Car Adapter
- None Standard*
- No Dock/Hub/Adapter
- Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- None
- No External Keyboard or Mouse
- No Notebook Cooler
- No Thanks, Please do not Overclock my system (Overclocking will add 3-6 business days to build time)
- No Operating System Redline Boost
- No Operating System Standard - Drivers & Utility Software Only
- No Office Software
- No Software Bundle
- LIFETIME Ltd Labor* 1 Year Parts Warranty Lifetime -24/7 DOMESTIC Based- Toll Free Telephone Tech Support (Labor Warranty through Xotic PC)
Includes FREE Shipping Both Ways for Warranty Repairs (SKU - X9R009)
- No Outside of US Shipping Coverage
- Standard Production Time
- No Xotic PC Gear

 

[WR2]

Going with 16GB RAM over 8GB is the one area where you won't see any improvement in gaming performance. 16GB can be handy for really heavy duty work in graphics, video and some exotic stuff like running multiple virtual machines. But even there it's a luxury rather than a necessity. It's also an area you can always upgrade later to keep the cost down now.

Your own copy of Win7 won't affect the warranty.
The SSD/HDD is the preferred storage setup for high end systems at the moment.

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

Would you rather go with 8GB memory 1600 MHZ? I'd rather have the more memory or faster up front either way you think is the best I'm not really an upgrade later type of guy lol.

 

[Maziar]

8GB is more than enough for today's games/apps so unless you do some extremely heavy image/video editing,you should stay with 8GB

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

Is there any other area that should be upgraded or does it all look good then? What about skipping up to the ole 18 inch screen? It will break the budget a little bit but I can squeek it in for around 2200. THere is only one optionf or that screen though. I also left the 17 inch one as default screen, is there a more preferred screen or is standard working out?

 

[Maziar]

It looks great;however,you can omit the SSD and add an aftermarket SSD(such as Crucial M4)
The screen size is a personal choice really,I prefer the 18.4" but that's me

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

How much, where to buy, and how easy is it to install the crucial harddrive? Also, if its affordable worth geting two for raid 0? THen get the harddrive caddy instead of dvd slot?

 

[Maziar]

It's easy to install and check newegg for prices.With 2 of it's 128GB or 256GB you can get up to 1GB/S speed(Raid 0)

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

You say with 2 of it's 128 or 256, is that the only sizes they sell for the crucial? Also, looking at newegg it's not that much of a prize difference that I can see from buying it from sager. And I only see like 415MB/S read. Can you mayve provide a link? And how much of a difference would I notice running two SSD in raid 0????

 

[chillmelt]

You can buy 2 of 512GBs, but can you afford it? Two will probably cost even more than the laptop itself.

I have 2 256GB Crucials M4s and it's blazing (one for laptop and other for desktop). I've yet to try both in a RAID setup.

You don't *need* RAID 0 SSDs. Nobody does. Also, there is no TRIM support.

Edit - Sequential reads are closer to 500 MBs on a single SSD.

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

10-4 Are all the crucial M4 hard drive laptop compatible looks like i can save 100 bucks installing it myself.......???

 

[Maziar]

If you upgrade the firmware to 009,your read speed increases to 500MB/S
I have a 256GB M4(w/009) and it's wicked fast.
RAID depends on you,I haven't tried it but I checked some benchs and you can get up to 1GB/S speeds. And there "is" TRIM support(under Windows7)

Finally,it's definitely worth it to save $100 getting a faster SSD and installing it yourself

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

10-4, ordering today, thanks all!

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

Ok, last question lol, the 18" has dual gforce in sli or dual HD6990M's. Based off what WR2 is saying the Radeons would be better but........its a $325.00 upgrade!! Would the SLI gforces be ok? There is no option for just one vid card for 18"...........

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

Nevermind, jumped the gun, ordered!

Cleaned this post up a bit.
Thanks again guys!! The only thing I dont like about the 18" is the buttons on the left for gaming, I think it offsets the keyboard too much but we'll see............

1x Sager NP8180 / Clevo P180HM
- Display: 18.4” FHD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glare Type Screen (SKU - S1R602)
- Monitor Calibration: NO Professional Monitor Color Calibration
- Processor: 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM, 2.2-3.1GHz
- Thermal Compound: - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- Graphics Video Card: ATI Radeon DUAL (2) HD6990M's (4096MB Total) GDDR5 DX11 - w/ 300W AC Adapter (SKU - S3R155)
- External Display Video Adapters: No Video Adapter
- Ram: 12GB DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (3x4GB SODIMMS) - Black Friday Special! (SKU - X4P989)
- Branding: Sager Branding
- Exterior Finish: Standard Finish
- Primary Hard Drive: 500GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache) (SKU - S5R207)
- Second Hard Drive: None Standard
- Third Hard Drive: None Standard
- Optical Drive Bay: Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive w/ Software (When selecting a Hard Drive in the Optical Bay, No Optical Drive is Included) (SKU - S7R455)
- - Memory Card Reader: Internal 9-in-1 Card Reader - Back Up - Bluetooth: Bluetooth Included (See “Wireless Network” Section Below)
- Wireless Network: Built-in 802.11 Wireless B/G/N - Stock Wireless Card + Bluetooth (SKU - S8R110)
- Camera: Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- TV Tuner: No TV Tuner
- Sound Card: Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Case: Basic Black Business Case - Included
- Battery: Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- Fingerprint Reader: Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- Mouse / Keyboard Accessories: No External Keyboard or Mouse
- Operating System: No Operating System Standard - Drivers & Utility Software Only
- Warranty: LIFETIME Ltd Labor* 1 Year Parts Warranty Lifetime -24/7 DOMESTIC Based- Toll Free Telephone Tech Support (Labor Warranty through Xotic PC)

 

[Maziar]

That's a beast hope you enjoy it