Gaming Laptop - P-7811fx?

[twofacedmonster]

1_What is your budget? $2000 max.

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 17"

3_What screen resolution do you want? 1920x1200

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Desktop replacement.

5_How much battery life do you need? 2hours video playback.

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)? Yes!
Civ4 w/ Expansions - High
World of Warcraft - High
Warhammer Online - High
Diablo 3 and Starcraft2 - High
Fallout 3 - High
Battlefield 2142 - High
Mass Effect - High

And will also want to play new games that come out. Preferrably on high.

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing, surfing the web, playing music, watching movies, Etc.) Playing music, watching movies, surfing the web.

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need? 200 atleast.

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop? 3-4 years.

11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them.
This will be a gaming laptop that I would like to last for around 4 years. Also would really like to have a HDMI slot for video out. Obviously I'm looking at the Gateway P-7811FX, because it seems like a great deal. But I have some reservations I was hoping you guys could help me with. For one, I'd like whatever I buy to have some lasting value, though I wouldn't mind upgrading down the road. From what I understand, I can upgrade the processor and add a harddrive. How easy is that? How much difference would a P9500 make if I replaced the P8400? I'm pretty much completely ignorant when it comes to laptops being used as gaming machines, though I've built 2 rigs before and know my way around a computer, for the most part.

The one thing I saw in reviews that scared me a bit was that it performed poorly in Directx10. I know that isn't a big deal right now, but 2 years down the road, will it be? Will upgrading the processor change that?

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
No preference.

13_What country do you live in? United States.

Thanks for your help!

 

[frozenlead]

The Gateway FX series are well known for being the best bang/buck gaming notebooks on the market. Their construction is noted as rather sub-par, but you get what you pay for.

Otherwise, you could go with a Sager NP8660, but I'm not sure ATM what the price rolls on that to be.

The only difference between upgrading processors on a notebook and that on a desktop is there's a bit more work involved in dismantling a laptop. Hard drives are easy as pie.

Upgrading the CPU will not affect DX10 performance, though. That's GPU territory.

 

[RodyMcAmp]

http/www.sagernotebook.com/product_customed.php?pid=51114

check out this laptop. It should run all current games on high settings, however asking a laptop to play high end games for 4 years might be pushin git for under $2000.

rody