Gaming Laptop Suggestions

[whitedragon551]

I know its an oxymoron and the words gaming and laptop dont really belong in the same sentence. However it is my number 1 requirement. I need a powerful rig that is semi-portable. I realize it will weigh 6+ pounds and have 2 hours of battery life. That is ok. I have a mobile Ultra book for work for when mobility is a must.

Requirements:
-Budget $1000-$1100
-Fastest i5 or i7 I can get
-Atleast 6Gbs of RAM, 8+Gb would be preferable. As long as it has the ability to be upgraded later to atleast 16Gb 6-8 will suffice.
-7200RPM HD or small SSD. I run a lean OS, have a 1.5Tb external for storage.
-2+ hours of battery life.
-Dedicated GPU
-15.6" screen. A 14.1" may suffice as I run a 22" screen when at home, but in my experience the 14" screens are more expensive than the 15.6" screens.

I was looking into some of the MSI laptops and wondering how well they do in terms of quality? The Lenovo Y500 also caught my eye with SLI NVIDIA GPU's for $1000. I have also been looking at xoticpc.com for customization options.

I play Battlefield 3, COD4, Hawken, and numerous steam games. My currently laptop (Asus M50SV-A1) cant handle most of these any more.

Anyone have any suggestions that I should look towards?

 

[shwetanshu]

How about this (http/www.xoticpc.com/msi-gx60-1ac021us-p-5009.html?wconfigure=yes)? It has a HD 7970M which easily outclasses GT650M SLI and GTX 765M. However it has AMD processor. Still gaming wise I think it would be the best.

 

[whitedragon551]

The 7970 outclasses 2 high end NVIDIA cards in SLI? Id prefer Intel CPU's. They run cooler and in a laptop cooling isnt exactly optimum.

 

[shwetanshu]

The 7970 outclasses 2 high end NVIDIA cards in SLI? Id prefer Intel CPU's. They run cooler and in a laptop cooling isnt exactly optimum.

Yes a single 7970 outclasses two mediocre cards is SLI. It has a higher core clock speed,more texture mapping units , more render output units, greater memory bandwidth and higher actual shader performance so it is massively better than GT650M The cooling problems with AMD is a thing of past. But still if you are willing to sacrifice quite a significant amount of frame rates you can happily go with Higher Number of Graphic Cards.

 

[whitedragon551]

I think Ive abandoned both options here. Im looking at the Sager NP8265 vs the Sager NP7330. From what I can tell its pretty much a size comparison if I want to go with a laptop that has a smaller screen, a small downgrade in GPU, and less weight. The smaller of the 2 has limited ram upgrades maxing out at 16Gb instead of 32Gb. Thoughts on the better laptop here?