Gaming Laptop

[Aycaramba]

I would like an extreme gaming laptop for under $2000.

1. What is your budget? [<$2000].

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? [Not more than 15.6" display].

3. What screen resolution do you want? [1080p, Even more than 1080p if it's available].

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? [Portable with light weight].

5. How much battery life do you need? [Preferably more than 3 hours].

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, I do. All high end games(Battlefield 3, NFS Run, Call of Duty, Max Payne, Crysis, Mass Effect etc,.), High settings].

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) [Photo Editing, Browsing, Watching Blu-Ray movies].

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? [512GB SSD]

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? [2-3 years]

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? [Blu-Ray ROM]

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. [Okay with any major brand like Dell, Asus, Sony. But only major brand. ]

13. What country do you live in? [India]

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. [Portability matters in my case. I had a look at Dell's Alienware and found it too bulky.]

GPU should be high end and preferably higher than nVIDIA GTX 660M.

 

[Pinhedd]

You'd be hard pressed to find a good gaming laptop with a 512GB SSD and a 660M+ for <$2000 much less in a 15.6" frame

As far as manufacturers go you have the following options:

1. Alienware (Dell)

2. Sager

3. Clevo (the former OEM for Alienware)

4. Asus

Clevo has a bit of a 'meh' rep, Asus is the most reliable, Sager is a good mix of everything, and Alienware has the best construction but comes at a premium.

The price premium on the Alienware laptops is definitely worth it if you're going to be using the laptop as your primary PC for the next 2-3 years (trust me on this, I'm writing this from my M17x R3). The M14x is also very good albeit a bit smaller than 15 inches

The Clevo P150EM / P151EM1 (I don't know the difference) is probably the only customizable laptop that will offer you what you want in your price range. I caution you though, it's not going to be the single most comfortable thing in the world to work with. Even with all that you wanted it's still going to be around $2500 minimum

Since Clevo sells through distributors you have to configure their laptops elsewhere, here's one site to give you a starting point:

http/www.avadirect.com/gaming-laptop-configurator.asp?PRID=23922

Sager laptops are manufactured by Clevo so it's almost the exact same thing. The Sager NP9150 is based off the P150EM and without surprise comes it at almost the same price. They have a few sales on right now if you want to get something decent before school starts

http/www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=product_customed&model_name=NP9150

The Asus G75VW can be configured with most of what you want but is really only available through retail outlets so you'll have to look around. The SSD will have to be added extra. I personally recommend using Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid Hard Drives instead, two of those in RAID-0 are sweet (that's what I've got in here). On the plus side if you find one that you like you can try it out first.

 

[mesab66]

Good advice by Pinhedd.
As well as helping you out in choice selection, for your own interest and peace of mind, do check out how we come to these component selections:-

You will appreciate that for high-end modern gameplay on a laptop you are looking at a fairly high end laptop (i.e. high end gpu + cpu - the rest of the components nomalise for the 'major brands' you are looking at.

For gaming, I would check out laptop gpu benchmark sites (they'll normally match the gpu with a suitable cpu automatically). They'll also benchmark data for most of the games you mention.
Here's a very good site to start with: http/www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

...and another site: http/www.anandtech.com/bench/Mobile/137

--> now write down your chosen gpu and any matched cpu mentioned (you want a gpu that gives you acceptable gameplay/framerates for your chosen games....if possible, give yourself framerate headroom for any future games)

I would also head on over to a couple of custom laptop builders e.g. http/www.pcspecialist.co.uk/laptop-computers/4/
- just to get an idea of current component choices and complete build costs.

- then head on over to the 'major brands' such as Dell, etc for complete build costs - using components you and your games will be happy with.

Now do the same for your SSD.

I know I'm not giving you actual component recommendations - alot of this (i.e. brand choice) is 'personal preference'....use this these 2 replies as a guide to confirm your selections.