Help an Airman pick out his Gaming Laptop!

[Cru3lty]

I am in the USAF and about to be deployed and need some help picking out a laptop to play games on during my down time!

1. What is your budget?
Under $2200 including tax and shipping.
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
17 inch.
3. What screen resolution do you want?
1920x1080
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Essentially this will be my desktop for the next year if not longer. I am in the military and will be deployed.
5. How much battery life do you need?
Not really important because I can just have it plugged into the outlet while I play.
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 want to play Battlefield 3 with the best settings possible without going over my budget.
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Just gaming.
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
I'd be fine with 1 TB or maybe even 500 GB I do like to download movies and watch them.
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
I don't even know where to start looking.
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
For at least a year I would like it to remain relevant however the only games I believe I will be playing on it are BF3 and SW:TOR, maybe Diablo 3.
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Just a DVD Burner should be sufficient
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 don't have any experience with certain brands...
13. What country do you live in?
I live in the US
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I think I covered all the pertinent information already.

 

[gmcizzle]

When do you need this by?

If you can wait a few weeks, for under $1700 you can get a quad core i7 and 6990m.

Don't know how to link a specific configuration, but go to www.ibuypower.com -> Laptops -> Battalion 101 P150HM

 

[Cru3lty]

When do you need this by?

If you can wait a few weeks, for under $1700 you can get a quad core i7 and 6990m.

Don't know how to link a specific configuration, but go to www.ibuypower.com -> Laptops -> Battalion 101 P150HM

I suppose I can wait a few weeks. Does this company make reliable laptops? I am not familiar with them at all.

 

[gmcizzle]

If you need it that quickly I would go for http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152282

The 570m is pretty good, 1tb of storage in RAID 0, free shipping and a rebate.

 

[gmcizzle]

Yeah iBuyPower is pretty good, I've never heard anything bad about them. CyberPower, a competing company, I have heard some bad things about though.

 

[Cru3lty]

So I am doing this for a friend...he is pretty clueless at stuff like this and I've never built a laptop for gaming. He just gave me some more info. I guess he is going to wait til the end of the month for his next check before he buys it and his new cap is $2200. He wants to be able to play BF3 on the highest settings he can for that price.

Is IBUYPOWER.COM the end all be all of gaming laptops? Is there anywhere else I should be looking?

 

[WR2]

Hello Cru3lty;

IBuypower/CyperpowerPC are just a couple of the custom laptop shops known as boutique builders (smaller companies, specialized offerings). As opposed to Dell, HP, Sony, etc., which don't really offer much in the way of gaming laptops. Alienware started out as a boutique shop before Dell bought them. HP bought Vodoo.
I'd say probably no better than 'average' IBuypower/CyperpowerPC. But very competitive in prices.
Usually the boutique builders are buying the same hardware to assemble to order. Asus, MSI and Sager/Clevo seem to be the prime chassis supplies

Where is your friend stationed? We can probably find a boutique builder who can build a custom gaming laptop for him and he'll avoid paying the taxes on a $2K item.

Some of the other boutique builders you might have heard about:
Digital Storm, Falcon Northwest, Maingear, Origin
A few others that are also good choices:
Malibal, AVADirect, XoticPC and Sager

Several of those shops have military discounts, or discounts for cash and do 'price-matching' with the competition.

 

[Declivever]

Two questions

1.) Is weight a issue?

2.) Do you care if it recertified/open box?

*Edit*

Make that 3.

3.) Since he will be deployed.. Will it require a web cam for programs such as skype?

 

[Cru3lty]

Hello Cru3lty;

IBuypower/CyperpowerPC are just a couple of the custom laptop shops known as boutique builders (smaller companies, specialized offerings). As opposed to Dell, HP, Sony, etc., which don't really offer much in the way of gaming laptops. Alienware started out as a boutique shop before Dell bought them. HP bought Vodoo.
I'd say probably no better than 'average' IBuypower/CyperpowerPC. But very competitive in prices.
Usually the boutique builders are buying the same hardware to assemble to order. Asus, MSI and Sager/Clevo seem to be the prime chassis supplies

Where is your friend stationed? We can probably find a boutique builder who can build a custom gaming laptop for him and he'll avoid paying the taxes on a $2K item.

Some of the other boutique builders you might have heard about:
Digital Storm, Falcon Northwest, Maingear, Origin
A few others that are also good choices:
Malibal, AVADirect, XoticPC and Sager

Several of those shops have military discounts, or discounts for cash and do 'price-matching' with the competition.

My buddy is currently stationed in Cyprus. You just listed a ton of companies...are they all "good." How do I know who is the best and most reliable? I really want to get the best for my friend.

 

[Cru3lty]

Two questions

1.) Is weight a issue?

2.) Do you care if it recertified/open box?

*Edit*

Make that 3.

3.) Since he will be deployed.. Will it require a web cam for programs such as skype?

1. Nope.

2. As long as it has some kind of extended warranty, I don't want to buy something that by chance dies and then he is out of luck.

3. He already has a laptop he can use for that so no.

 

[netyoda]

Dell or Alienware laptops can be customized online and Expedite shipped to you.
Follow their wizard through customizing and include everything you want. If you decide to call Dell, ask them about any sort of 'military discount' which could offset some serious upgrades! Use this link and customize your ultimate gaming laptop but be sure to get your name enscribed on the outside of the laptop. It's a cool option to included. Don't forget the security s/w as well. The starting point I included here is for an i7-based system.

http/www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-m17x-r3/fs

 

[WR2]

My buddy is currently stationed in Cyprus.

What's the state for the shipping address for the laptop. That determines if taxes get paid.

I didnt list anything like the entire list. But they're all pretty much the same.
The premium Asus models have a 2yr warranty and 1yr accidental damage warrany included in the price.

 

[Cru3lty]

What's the state for the shipping address for the laptop. That determines if taxes get paid.

I didnt list anything like the entire list. But they're all pretty much the same.
The premium Asus models have a 2yr warranty and 1yr accidental damage warrany included in the price.

He is going to have it shipped to:
PSC 109
APO AE 09818

Not sure what state that qualifies as...

 

[Cru3lty]

Dell or Alienware laptops can be customized online and Expedite shipped to you.
Follow their wizard through customizing and include everything you want. If you decide to call Dell, ask them about any sort of 'military discount' which could offset some serious upgrades! Use this link and customize your ultimate gaming laptop but be sure to get your name enscribed on the outside of the laptop. It's a cool option to included. Don't forget the security s/w as well. The starting point I included here is for an i7-based system.

http/www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-m17x-r3/fs

I just went through the wizard and compared to XoticPC they are much more expensive!

 

[WR2]

One of the nice things about boutique builders is you can talk to someone, ask questions and get answers right away. The CEO might be one answering the phone and the CTO might be the one building your his laptop.
http/www.xoticpc.com/ has been around quite a while and has a very good reputation. They're in Nebraska and only Nebraska residents pay sales taxes. And they have military discounts (on select models) and ship to APOs.
And you'll see a good selection of Asus, MSI and Sager/Clevo options on XoticPC.

For BF3 at near max setting and a 1920x1080 LCD screen you want to look for:
Core i7 2630 or 2670QM CPU, 8GB of RAM, and either a GTX 570M / Radeon HD 6990M or GTX 580M, which ever can fit into the budget.

A good starting place and something you can use for comparison with other sites:
Sager NP8170 (Clevo P170HM 17" chassis)

 

[Declivever]

First, sorry for the wall of text.

As, I look. i am going to put a priority on the graphics card. If you want to play Battlefield 3 on high / ultra on a 1080p resolution.. That is gonna require one beast of a laptop honestly. It is gonna be heavy, hot, and drink power like a f150 drinks gas.. I would recommended a I7 processor with at least 3.0 ghz range, 6 gig of ram and something with dual Geforce GTX 5xxm graphic cards. As we all should know that a Gefore GTX 590 is different than a Geforce GTX 590m.


I would recommended something from these most likely..
Here


I noticed you can get what I would call a virtual desktop replacement. They are heavy, but they run can dual graphics cards for slightly over 200.00 over you limit. They also support USB 3.0, it runs triple channel ram, and can get over a 2.20 ghz i7 which is what I mostly seen on newegg... If I had 2 grand to put into a laptop I would look into these people.. Heat may be a issue depending on where he is located at.

I was looking specifially at this model:
Here

but here are the others:
Here

I liked Alienware before they was purchased by dell. Now I feel they are overpriced. The cheapest thing I can find with dual cards is almost 4 grand as the other is 2.2 grand...

Ibuypower appears to have very similar pricing to the sager notebook website. but no dual graphics card.

Also, I was looking at cyber power pc
Here

They seem to be a little higher than Sager notebook, but are close enough in the price range to where I cannot leave them out as a viable option.


In conclusion, I am going to recommend a $2200 laptop before taxes and shipping. However, at this time it does have $100.00 off on it for buying over $1500.00. So it is just under your budget by about $50.00. If I send it to my zip code it is $2,148.95 with ground shipping and tax. When I customized it the only thing I changed was the video card to "Dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M GPU with 1.5GB GDDR5 Video Memory in SLI Mode".

Here

If you want to go 25.00 over your budget you can purchase Their "Guaranteed no dead or partially-lit pixels for first 30 days of purchasing"

Or you could always just make the hard drive better,.

Or for 10.00 under your purchase you could have them use IC Diamond Thermal Compound.. Which will help keep it cooler..

Hopefully this helps you make a decision.

Goodluck.

 

[netyoda]

Yes but you have a name-brand behind you, practically world-wide whereas the smaller vendors might have limited overseas support. I personally have been using Dell for the last 20 years and I have always been happy with both product and support. I agree, you could get something for less but if you are deployed and need service or support, you might want to be onboard with a proven vendor. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Cru3lty]

Yes but you have a name-brand behind you, practically world-wide whereas the smaller vendors might have limited overseas support. I personally have been using Dell for the last 20 years and I have always been happy with both product and support. I agree, you could get something for less but if you are deployed and need service or support, you might want to be onboard with a proven vendor. Just my 2 cents.

XoticPC offered a 2yr warranty with overseas shipping which was included in my price and they were still $200 cheaper than Dell was with a 1 year warranty. This was with the same components. I can also get a military discount with XoticPC which wasn't factored into the price.

I'm not impressed.

 

[Declivever]

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Honestly it is up to you to decide what your gonna buy.. good luck

 

[Cru3lty]

Declivever thanks for the great information!

There seems to be a ton of issues with the Nvidia 5m series and BF3, lots of stuttering as the GPU heats up and it throttles back performance. For that reason alone I am leaning towards the 6990m. It has comparable performance, is cheaper and draws less power. It is capable of playing the game on ultra around 20-30 fps but really does well on high. Some people get it to run around 40-50 fps on ultra with a small OC.

So in short I think a single 6990m as the GPU, would be the best choice.

My main question is what processor should I be looking at?

Intel® Core i7-960 (and subsequent processors) vs the i7 2630QM (and subsequent processors)