Solved! Gaming-ish laptop? Under 15 inches?

[Brockavich]

Hey Toms...

So I'm in university now and thinking a laptop would be helpful. Not just for taking notes and email and all that jazz... But a tool for anti-boredom. You know those LOVELY 3 hour spares you get with no homework of any kind? Well I thought a nice little semi-capable laptop would be nice!

However, I have absolutely ZERO experience when it comes to laptops... I can build a damn fine desktop but I have no idea where to begin for a laptop...

So if give you guys some basic things I'm looking for, could you point me in the right direction please? thanks


1. Preferably about $500... Give or take a few $100. MAX $800

2. Around/under 15 inches. Under would be nice. I just want something small I can quickly whip out and say to a friend, "hey check this out"

3. Wireless net capability. There's Wi-fi all over my school, like everwhere. So a fast ass wireless setup is pretty much mandatory.

4. The muscle to play not THE latest and greatest, but some decent stuff... I'm thinking like Battlefield 2, STALKER, C&C3, Doom 3... That kind of muscle. I understand it's impossible to be playing Crysis at 60FPS on a lappy without spending $1000s of bucks. Just a decent framerate on the higher end games like STALKER of 30FPS or so... You know, something modest thats playable still.

5. Power saving options of some kind that would allow me to turn down screen brightness and other stuff to save battery life


So, is this possible or am I asking for something that doesn't exist for the price im after...?



Again, thanks for any and all help you guys are the best

 

[Maziar]

Hello and welcome to the forums
For under 15",AW M11x would be a good option

 

[Tunafish]

Yes, but beware of the tiny netbook keyboard and ULV processor
otherwise I recommend it.

in fact, the AW is the best option you have, as other under 15 inch gaming laptops cost over 1000, or have such horrible build quality that even the Dalai Llama would hate using it

happy laptop hunting

 

[aylafan]

Hello and welcome to the forums
For under 15",AW M11x would be a good option

The base price for the Alienware M11x is $800. Just make sure you are fine with using a 11.2" widescreen for writing notes and surfing the internet because it is unbearble to me (even with the adjustment on the font size) because the resolution is so high on such a tiny screen.

Playing Battlefield 2, STALKER, C&C3, Doom 3, etc. are considered heavy gaming. You will need a discrete graphics card.

In short, around $500 = no heavy gaming. $800+ = heavy gaming depending on your discrete graphics card and game you are playing.

Here are some under 15" laptops you should look at.
http/www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+VAIO+Laptop+with+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i3+Processor+-+Icy+White/9705355.p?id=1218154377521&skuId=9705355
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220667

Here are the the cheapest 15.6" laptops with a decent discrete graphics card I could find.
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115675
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220694

 

[Tunafish]

The best 15.5 inch gaming laptop that doesnt cost a fortune is the Asus one that Maziar described, or for ligh gaming, he VAIO E, which will be available shortly.

CHECK OUT THE LENOVO Y560P AVAILABLE IN MARCH. its lighweight, cheap, and can play CRYSIS at mid to high setings. what more could a college student need. oh yeh, looks to impress the girls. it doesnt have MUCH of that, but it's snazzy.

 

[Maziar]

But Tuna the OP needs something under 15"

 

[Tunafish]

Then I would go with the VAIO SR. Dell does not have good lightweight laptops, I would not even look their way for 'under fifteen inchers'..now that the studio xps 13 is discontinued...

 

[Tunafish]

Oh yeah, sorry maziar

forgot it was under 15 inch lol

 

[deadlockedworld]

My preferred option:

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220699

Asus is a very good brand, and while 5470 isnt a fantastic GPU it will give decent performance.

The website notebookcheck.net should have a graphics hierarchy for mobile graphics. You should get the best graphics you can afford for a potentially gaming laptop.

 

[Brockavich]

Does the AW M11x have built in wireless capability? Like can I just roam around with it until i find a hotspot and hop on the net I mean?

 

[Maziar]

Yes it has

 

[Brockavich]

Radical, cause that thing looks pretty badass for the price. The whole glowing keyboard and all, very small size... and not too bad battery life

 

[Brockavich]

But uhh... It only has a 1.3 Ghz processor according to AW's site? Or is it just dual of those so it's 2.6? Cause my dad's lappy from 2001 is faster than 1.5 lol

http/www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/alienware-m11x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn

 

[deadlockedworld]

But uhh... It only has a 1.3 Ghz processor according to AW's site? Or is it just dual of those so it's 2.6? Cause my dad's lappy from 2001 is faster than 1.5 lol

http/www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/alienware-m11x?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn

The GHz number isnt the most important feature. The SU4100 is an underclocked core 2 duo processor. Your dads laptop from 2001 had a single (probably pentium 4) processor. This has two extremely energy efficient cores that are faster, despite the lower clock speed. This processor is still a bit slower than new the core i3/i5i7s that you can find in full size laptops however.

Since this is a gaming laptop the biggest difference is the graphics processor--which is much better than anything that even existed a few years ago.

 

[Brockavich]

Oh, didn't realize it was a Core 2 Duo...

Well i think it'll be just fine for me on that lappy, seeing as the most multitasking im gonna be doing is listening to music and writing a paper or coding a website

Thanks for all the opinions and help guys

 

[Maziar]

No problem hope you enjoy it Post some benchies when you get it