Buying a gaming laptop

[Garnet181090]

I'll be leaving to study in the UK on the 7th of April. And I'm not sure whether it's better to wait for the ivy bridge/Kepler series or just go on ahead and get a decent laptop with a HD 6990M.

 

[Kiingzz]

It depends on what you want, if you want gaming and you want it urgently go ahead and don't wait for the ivy bridge processes and get a laptop, but if you can wait I would try and see what intel have to offer.

 

[Goldengoose]

How much you got to spend?

I would advise highly to get a standard laptop (£200-300ish) and then keep the rest untill you get to the UK and get a decent desktop for whilst you are over here.

gaming laptops are so expensive, use your money wisely friend!

Side note: Where you studying?

 

[Garnet181090]

I'm going to Concord, a boarding school. I considered a desktop, but I'll look ridiculous carrying/having in my room.

I found a laptop on PC specialist.co.uk. It's 15" 1080p, i5 2670, hd6990, 4gb ram, 500gb HDD, etc. £1200-ish. ($2000). VAT makes it so expensive compared to the states.

 

[WR2]

For $2000, you should be able to get a LanBox sized PC and a 11.6" sub-portable notebook to take to classes.

That laptop HD 6990M doesn't quite match the performance of a $160 desktop HD 6870.

 

[geofelt]

For $2000, you should be able to get a LanBox sized PC and a 11.6" sub-portable notebook to take to classes.

That laptop HD 6990M doesn't quite match the performance of a $160 desktop HD 6870.

I like your thinking

 

[WR2]

He's short on time but I think he get off to a good start:
HP DM1 11.6" quickship notebook ~$430
AMD Fusion E-450 1.65Ghz APU, 4GB RAM, 320GB 7200rpm HDD, 11.6" 1366x768 LCD w/ Radeon HD 6320 graphics.
1.6 kg, 7hr+ battery. Performance wise, between a 'Netbook and a standard laptop. It's no gaming powerhouse but it can run some older titles. Overall, a good match for someone with a PC to do the heavy 'lifting'.

HP Pavilion dm1-4010us Review

 

[WR2]

BestBuy has the HP DM1 $449
If your local store has one on display you can go hands on with it before you decide.

 

[WR2]

I like your thinking

goldengoose said basically the same thing but in a proper British way, of course.

 

[Garnet181090]

Haha..well, Im not particularly keen on being the 16yo obese "American" kid carrying a monitor in one hand and a mini-ATX case in the other wadding into a preppy brit boarding school, probably while chewing on a cheeseburger with a BK crown on.

For a laptop general discussion thread, u guys don't seem particularly fond of notebooks.
Anyways, back to my original question. I was curious as to whether ivy bridge(mobile) is worth the wait over SB though I won't need the battery life.

The new 7000 series or Gtx680m, however, may totally dominate the older gen, just like how the gtx680 is made my gtx580 look like a wimp. I'm afraid this will happen again if I'm impatient.

Anyone with insight/opinions on this?

 

[Fire Lancer]

I've never really seen gaming laptops really to be that great, especially if people also want portability and to use them at their course. Certainly no where near as good to game on as a desktop, and often not so good for day to day activities.

Can't really speak for boarding school, but here at uni few people have really powerful laptops. A few people spend say £500-£700 to get something fairly good (Dell XPS for example, which also does 4 hours nicely on a 6cell without having to watch what your running too closely) if they like PC gaming as a group (i.e. PC gamers that go to video game society each week), most others have cheaper laptops/netbooks or this year I've started seeing a lot more tablets.

Console gamers brought there console, and PC gamers mostly have custom built desktops. This goes for people living in halls as well as private housing. Those that didn't come with at all tended to get before the year was through in they had any interest in gaming at all.

 

[WR2]

:American" kid carrying a monitor in one hand and a mini-ATX case in the other wadding into a preppy brit boarding school

Lanbox/Monitor or 8lb premium gaming laptop - your 'risk' is the same there, IMO. Or XBox 360 for that matter.

What we know about Kepler (at this time):
NVIDIA's GeForce 600M Series: Mobile Kepler and Fermi Die Shrinks

 

[Goldengoose]

There have been reports of a 20% performance increase from kepler however that could be hype or just in theory. I wouldn't bother waiting for it - it is going to take a little while for manufacturers to take it on board and i can imagine they'd have a price hike. I'd suggest finding a site you can mix and match parts in a laptop - get something like an I3 or I5 then pour the rest of your cash into the GPU.