Best mid range laptop for gaming

[hardwareman11]

Hello people, I am currently stuck as to which laptop I should buy.

I will be using it for schooling, and for some heavy gaming.

My TO THE DOLLAR budget is $832, if I can I would like to keep a couple bucks but, it does'nt exactly matter.

The games I play are Starcraft II, upcoming Diablo III, Maybe an Arma 3, Bioshock series, Crysis series, Skyrim, Mass Effect, Battlefield series including battlefield 3, Dead space 1&2 ETC.

I would like to have a 17'' screen, maybe an i7 or an i5; I do not know which is the better processor for now and for the next few years for gaming-I guess an i5 might suffice, of course the best GPU I can afford.

I have been looking for one only on Newegg and I have narrowed-to my knowledge of what i think might be good for playing all of the above games and hopefully some future games at HIGH settings and at least 720 res; are:
1. http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=34-215-245&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&Pagesize=10&PurchaseMark=&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&VendorMark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=2

2. http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158372

I am really stuck, I understand that the second one has some better components but are they worth the extra cash and does the first one with the 6650; is the 2Gb of Vram better over 1 Gb 7690m.

If there are any better deals or similar pricing but a little better specs then please post them. HIGH settings!

 

[rvilkman]

Mobile graphics bench.

I would take a look at the link above, it lists benchmarks for some of the none mobile GPU's so you can do some comparisons.
Anything with high settings though pretty much needs a GTX 560M or better, however since that is most likely out of your budget, the 7690 would be actually quite good.
It has roughly the performance of a desktop 5670/6670.

Also you budget pretty much puts you out of range for graphics and an i7 so i5 is your best bet at this time.

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

Honest opinion...you are NOT getting a good gaming lappy for that budget...use the money to BUILD a gaming Pc Tower...

All the best Brett

 

[rvilkman]

Hi

Honest opinion...you are NOT getting a good gaming lappy for that budget...use the money to BUILD a gaming Pc Tower...

All the best Brett

This is very true, the 'good gaming laptops' start at about $1000-1100 and go up from there.
For about $500 you can get a desktop that smokes a $1400 laptop easily.

But then you can't drag the desktop to class. But yeah if you don't absolutely need to do that,
performance wise your money is much better spent on a desktop.

 

[WR2]

The 17" model is pretty big. And it's over 7lbs. I hope you're not planning on hauling it around to classes?
In it's favor - it does have the 1600x900 resolution LCD screen - more work space.
But that same 1600x900 resolution will make the HD 6650 graphics card seem a bit weaker than if was running on a 1366x768 screen.

 

[hella-d]

I Love My Little Lenovo Thinkpad x61, Light, Plenty Fast For A BMBP "Basic Mobile Boredom Preventer" Way Faster Than A Netbook And About The Size And No Dumb-A** 1024x600 Resolution OH, And A 4-Foot, Running, Display Open, Head-Over-Heals Tumble On A Concrete Floor Didnt Even Scratch It.

But To Help Answer The Question; Alienware Actually Makes Ome Decently Affordable Lower-End "Gameable" Laptops. I Game But I Do The Heavy Lifting On My Desktop Machine Everyones Needs/Tastes Vary.

 

[hardwareman11]

The 17" model is pretty big. And it's over 7lbs. I hope you're not planning on hauling it around to classes?
In it's favor - it does have the 1600x900 resolution LCD screen - more work space.
But that same 1600x900 resolution will make the HD 6650 graphics card seem a bit weaker than if was running on a 1366x768 screen.

Well I could just lower the resoluton to at least 720"p" that is still pretty nice looking right? and would the 2Gb 6650 work better than the 1Gb 7690? based upon vram?

 

[hardwareman11]

So based upon all that was said, the HP with the i5 and 7690 1Gb would provide better performance? by some FPS and at the least medium/high settings mixed?
It does have a 1080"p" screen, but the 15.6 inch screen would limit the quality, I would think.

So the best bet is to probably go for the HP then?

 

[rvilkman]

Out of those two yes, the HP seems like the more reasonable option. I have that size of a HP myself and while it's not exactly light, it's still easy enough to drag along.

 

[rheg915]

I have at 15.6 inch i5 2410M with 6770 1GB or ram. To be honest the mobile graphics card sucks. The screen is nice at 1080p but there are a few things to worry about.

First the screen likes to go dark and then light up again during heavy graphics use. This probably has to do with the switchable graphics powering up. It draws a heavy load all of a sudden and the led powers loses power briefly which causes dimming. It isn't a deal killer, but it is noticable, about 10-15 secs to turn back to full brightness. Also the switchable graphics drivers from HP and ATI suck. You will get a notice that driver needed to recover. If it doesn't, and I use this mostly for school work and real work, about once a week you get the blue screen of death. I have updated the drivers numerous times but ATI and HP cannot seem to get it right.

Also when switchable graphics is on, it kills battery and the fan has to crank up to max to take care of the heat. Based upon all of this, if you still want it get the 7690 as the vram will not do as much as the processor will and then maybe enable the bios to just leave the 7690 always on. There are ways to do it online.

Good luck

 

[hardwareman11]

Best answer selected by hardwareman11.

 

[hardwareman11]

Alright thanks, I ordered the HP. Had the best specs and I needed a new one, now I'm getting it soon. What should i do to have the right setup and get rid of bloatware?, enter BIOS before I game and keep the dedicated on; with the Portable PC plugged in by AC adapter?

 

[WR2]

For the first couple days - don't do much of anything but use the laptop as you normally would. Get to know it and do some testing (installing and running games isn't a bad way) and monitoring temps. Read the manuals/guides.

 

[rheg915]

Alright thanks, I ordered the HP. Had the best specs and I needed a new one, now I'm getting it soon. What should i do to have the right setup and get rid of bloatware?, enter BIOS before I game and keep the dedicated on; with the Portable PC plugged in by AC adapter?

Get PC Decrapifier

 

[hardwareman11]

Okay. how about any good-FREE- malware and virus scanner/removers? and registry cleaners? as long as it does not use too much RAM and what not.

 

[WR2]

AVG Free, Avast or Microsoft Security Essentials
plus
CCleaner
and SuperAntiSpyware or Malwarebytes Anti-Malware

42 Free and Useful Windows Applications