Gaming laptop recommendations

jon the cpa

Distinguished
Aug 28, 2011
3
0
18,510
1. What is your budget?
I'd like to stay under $1500.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
At least 17" screen. I'd also like something that has 2 HDMI and/or DVI outputs as I prefer external monitors.

3. What screen resolution do you want?
1920 x 1080 would be optimal. When at home I will use external monitors, but I travel a lot for work and would like to still be able to game.

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

5. How much battery life do you need?
Not much. I will never use it more than a couple of hours unplugged. In fact, a docking station would be nice.

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)?
SimCity 2013 - High
World of Warcraft - High
Skyrim - High

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
I sometimes use my home computer for work, and I am a financial analyst. Being able to run Excel 2013 without hiccups would be good.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
Not much. I store most of my movies/music on an external drive for transferability to my media PC. I'm skeptical about SSDs, though.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
No preference.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
A few years.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Blu-ray ROM, but I would probably need something that can write to DVD in case I need to backup some data on a disc.

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.
I'd really prefer a system built by one of the popular manufacturers for gaming, such as MSI or Asus.
I do not want a Sony or Dell, as I've had bad experiences with both brands in the past.

13. What country do you live in?
USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Graphics, computing power, and sound are my primary concerns. I will be using USB keyboard and mouse, as well as external monitors. Basically, I want to replace my desktop with something more compact because the tower takes up too much room at my desk.