Gaming Laptop

[shadow1551]

1. What is your budget?
600-(Possibly 800 depending on funds)

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Over 15in would be preferred.

3. What screen resolution do you want?
HD Quality

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
I don't exactly understand this question.

5. How much battery life do you need?
Will be plugged in for majority of the time being.

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)?
GW2 (Medium to High if possible)
WoW(Medium to High if possible)
Diablo 3(Medium to High if possible)
StarCraft II (Medium to High if possible)

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Gaming mainly.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
500+

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
Would prefer the main ones, Amazon,Newegg,Laptops Company Site.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
2years+

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Any.

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 would highly prefer Asus, All the ones I have come across are well built and desirable. I do not like HP what so ever. I own one now along with an Acer that seems to be like crap as well.

13. What country do you live in?
USA.

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
None.

 

[shadow1551]

Anyone?

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi

My shops sell laptops...your budget needs another $1000 adding to buy a GAMING laptop...

For your budget you will get a reasonable mid range lappy...but NOT for gaming...

Or you could build a good gaming PC for that amount...

All the best Brett

 

[Hiii]

This is about the best you can get for $800 i think.

http/shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/builder.workflow:Enter?mtm-item=:000001C9:00007177:&PID=5672651&CJURL=http%3A%2F%2Ftracking.searchmarketing.com%2Fclick.asp%3Faid%3D1582782728

It's just 14" and has a 1366x768 resolution, i guess you will have to add more money to get something better like Brett said.
This is a page with some game benchmarks of the card

http/www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-650M.71887.0.html

For $850 you can get this 15.6" laptop with the same resolution and a better card.

http/shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/builder.workflow:Enter?sb=:000001C9:0000393D:

Some benchmarks of this other card.

http/www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-660M.71859.0.html

 

[shadow1551]

I already have a 1700$ gaming desktop. This laptop isn't for me. For my girlfriend who is getting back into the PC world.

I figured there would be decent Asus laptops out that for my price range.

 

[foldspace]

not particularly helpful to you personally but http/www.gaminglaptopsjunky.com/ is a great site to look over for budget laptops

 

[John Hassen]

Hello Community,

Laptops aren't the best computers for gaming. However, if you like to take your games on the road, there are ways to get a laptop with the power to run graphics-intensive games. If you shop around and compare products and options, you will get what you need without making too many sacrifices. There are several different ways to get a cheap gaming laptop. One is to buy a used or refurbished laptop with the features you want. Another idea is to get last year's model or find a laptop at an overstock store or website. Be sure to check for discounts while you're shopping. Compare the features of the different models to see which one offers the most power for the lowest price. Gaming laptops need four basic components to function well. These are a fast central processing unit (CPU), a lot of random access memory (RAM), a wireless card, a fast graphics processing unit (GPU) with its own memory and a decent sound card. Preferably, it should have a large screen, a joystick and speakers or headphones, but these are not as essential. A gaming laptop needs a CD/DVD drive to run games on disks. It will also require a hard drive with about 200 GB of storage space to store essential gaming files.

Best Regards,
John Hassen

http/www.hgnjshoppingmall.com/

 

[shiftstealth]

If you can stretch an extra 100 dollars to 900 you'd be set with:

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246628

 

[nbelote]

Samsung 15" with i5-3210m and HD 7730m for $749: http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834131394

Its release date is Oct 26, though, but that 7730m is based on the desktop GPU architecture instead of older ATI mobility stuff. It's about as powerful as a nVidia 640m, which should do everything you've asked.

I am also going to recommend this, even if it isn't as powerful in the CPU area and a smidge less powerful in the GPU area, only because she'll be surprised by the power it has in such a small chassis:
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215392
^ I want one of these for work, badly, but I would also recommend putting an 8GB DDR3 stick in it as that is what I would do.

Edit: My wife and her friends who also game would all agree that they are wow'd by awesome 17" laptops and would love to have them *if they didn't weigh so much as they are a burden to carry around.* One of her friends has a 17" Asus behemoth and liked it at first but now hates it when she has to lug it around somewhere for a LAN party. My wife will bring her 14" Y470 and her friend is absolutely jealous.

 

[shadow1551]

Samsung 15" with i5-3210m and HD 7730m for $749: http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834131394

Its release date is Oct 26, though, but that 7730m is based on the desktop GPU architecture instead of older ATI mobility stuff. It's about as powerful as a nVidia 640m, which should do everything you've asked.

I am also going to recommend this, even if it isn't as powerful in the CPU area and a smidge less powerful in the GPU area, only because she'll be surprised by the power it has in such a small chassis:
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215392
^ I want one of these for work, badly, but I would also recommend putting an 8GB DDR3 stick in it as that is what I would do.

Edit: My wife and her friends who also game would all agree that they are wow'd by awesome 17" laptops and would love to have them *if they didn't weigh so much as they are a burden to carry around.* One of her friends has a 17" Asus behemoth and liked it at first but now hates it when she has to lug it around somewhere for a LAN party. My wife will bring her 14" Y470 and her friend is absolutely jealous.

Thanks for the suggestions. I won't do acer again. they are very cheaply made. I really want to go the Asus route for her. How does the 4000 HD stack up? I heard they seem to run fairly well now.

 

[Brett928S2]

Thanks for the suggestions. I won't do acer again. they are very cheaply made. I really want to go the Asus route for her. How does the 4000 HD stack up? I heard they seem to run fairly well now.

Hi

Nooo .. Intel HD GRAPHICS are around one frame every 10 minutes lol.....a slight exaggeration maybe, but you get my point...

All the best Brett

 

[nbelote]

That Acer is built fairly well, with an all-aluminum chassis, but that's your call.

HD 4000 equates out to about a GT 520m, so it'll run newer games on low... if ever.

 

[nbelote]

Here's an Asus for $849 with a 1080p LED, 8GB DDR3, and that HD 7730m from that Samsung:
http/www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4978349&CatId=4935

Edit: I got a closer look at it, it appears to be thin and light as well (~1" and 5lbs). Killer!

 

[shadow1551]

Why doesn't Asus have a buy and customize. So stupid. That model looks good. I think it might be out of her price range.

 

[nbelote]

Asus doesn't fancy themselves as a retailer. That's a whole different investment: you need warehouses and techs to customize and licenses to sell to consumers.... it can be a logistical nightmare for companies looking to start up, especially larger ones like Asus.

Lend her the $50, be a good boyfriend To be honest, that laptop would last her a few years. All the rest that I have seen on NewEgg or Tiger are just sub-par with nothing close in the gaming performance area.

 

[shadow1551]

She has 600, I am already considering lending her 200$. She isn't bothered by horrible graphics. I am the one who is bothered by her playing horrible graphics Haha...she is fine with a 600$ Asus laptop.

 

[nbelote]

Well a laptop with a HD 4000 GPU won't do her justice in the long run.

I am being dead serious here, this laptop would do it minus the fact that you would probably need to change the language to English:
http/www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3310573&CatId=4938

The CPU is a bit on the older side but it hangs with the i5-3210m overall. That nVidia 460m makes me sick, though, at that price... holy crap. It's still a Tier 1 GPU: http/www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-460M.33612.0.html

Edit: I am about to burst into tears LOL. Where was that when I needed to buy a new laptop? I install solid state drives when I get new laptops, that would have been no different, so there wouldn't have been Spanish for me to deal with!

 

[shadow1551]

That is a nice laptop. There is a used Asus G73JH in my town for-sale.
I will look into that one then!

 

[shadow1551]

Do you think it has potential for CPU upgrade?

 

[nbelote]

The most you could upgrade to is an i7-940xm, which fetches $350 on ebay (as does its slower cousin, the i7-920xm), but there's plenty of alternatives. The one I would upgrade to is the i7-840qm which will cost about $150 right now, and slightly slower than the i7-2630qm.