Good Gaming Laptop for gaming and schoolwork under $1500?

[Chaoman12345]

Hey guys, I'm going into my first year university, and I'm looking for a Laptop that would work for gaming and schoolwork. I live in Canada and would like the total cost, taxes and shipping included, to be under $1500.

Thanks!

 

[photonboy]

*My recommended laptop is down below...

With $1500 to spend you can actually buy a good basic laptop for $500 and take that $1000 leftover and build a better desktop system than $1500 would allow in a laptop.

I know you want a single, small system but the limited space inside a laptop makes it very difficult to make a high-end gaming rig. You'll also have a HEAVY MONSTER to carry around.

(I recommended to some students to get a small, light laptop for school, a PS4 for gaming, and a 23", 1920x1080 monitor which can handle BOTH device inputs).

*Anyway, if you have a $1500 budget here's what I recommend:
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=77456&vpn=G75VX-RH71-CA&manufacture=ASUS&promoid=1065

I believe all modern "gaming" laptops from NVidia use the Optimus technology which disables the NVidia chip when not needed and uses the iGPU on the CPU for desktop video. I say this, because if your game or program which requires the NVidia GPU aren't added to the list properly it just runs poorly on the iGPU (I think you can setup the software so it flashes the NVidia logo when starting a game/app that uses the 660MX).

Cheers.

 

[photonboy]

Update:
http://www.ncix.com/products/?sku=84515&vpn=9S7-16F411-023&manufacture=MSI%2FMicroStar&promoid=1035

No comments yet, but the above MSI has a better GPU (770M) but a smaller screen (15.6" vs 17").

Windows 8:
While Windows 8 has many improvements, I recommend getting START8 from Stardock for $5 to bypass the new interface. You can still access it from a link in the Start Menu (brought back by Start8) if you wish.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I gave up desktops about 5 years ago ...... never looked back. Custom built laptops allow you to select the screen and select most of the components.....120Hz screens, wide angle screens, full color gamut screens .... socket 1150, LGA 2011 .... 780M, 770M, SLI, 8970M, SSDs, HD's BR, 8, 16, 32GB

Clevo custom built is what my kids all got for school and gaming....tho they spent just over $2k on theirs.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/91510-clevo-guide-v2-0-faq-reseller-info.html

CLEVO is a large Taiwanese computer company specializing in laptops. While the Clevo brand name is perhaps not widely known, their products are re-branded and sold by known boutique brand OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers)… notably Sager, VoodooPC, Falcon Northwest, Eurocom, etc.
They are also considered (by whoever knows about notebooks) to design and manufacturer the best of the best notebooks in terms of superior build quality and innovative designs.

Bought them here:
http://www.lpc-digital.com/

Dont forget the max discount for students
http://www.lpc-digital.com/notebook-review-members-military-and-student-discounts.html

$1539 in US Clevo P170SM http://www.lpc-digital.com/sager-np8270.html

17.3" Full HD LED-Backlit Display with MATTE Surface (1920 x 1080)
NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 770M 3GB GDDR5 Memory
4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.40 GHz)
Genuine Microsoft Windows® 8 64-Bit Edition
8GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 2 X 4GB
750GB Seagate Momentus XT ST750LX003 7200RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 8GB SSD \
8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
Internal 802.11 B+G+N Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Combo Module
8 cells smart Lithium-Ion battery pack 76.96Wh
Integrated Fingerprint Reader
Free shipping

Do I have to Pay Duties-Taxes on shipments shipping outside of the US?

All International Customers (including Canada) will have to pay Taxes/Duties upon receipt of their package.

These charges are not charged by LPCDigital.
They are charged by the shipping carrier at the time of delivery. To find out more information or receive an estimate on the taxes/duties due please contact UPS at 1-800-782-7892.
Customers can avoid UPS's brokerage fees by selecting the UPS Express shipping option.

In addition to taxes, Brokerage fee's are approximately $80 that can be avoided with the UPS Express shipping option.

Find a Canadian distributor here:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/592609-clevo-guide-v3-0-faq-reseller-info-read-before-posting.html#resellers

 

[photonboy]

about CLEVO:
I couldn't find any links to products that would have no Canadian fees. Your bottom link didn't help.

He wants something under $1500 after tax/shipping and unless there's a great reason to go with a Clevo over a quality Asus product for example, I don't see that it's worth the extra aggravation of research.