Solved! Help with choosing a Gaming Laptop

[ginomerinosj]

1. What is your budget?
$1,000 <--tax included

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
17.3 but will settle for 15 inch if I cannot afford 17.3

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Doesn't matter, more the better

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Desktop replacement.

5. How much battery life do you need?
Doesn't matter, will be a desktop replacement.

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)?
Bad Company 2 (Med to High) Left4Dead (Med to High) Battlefield 3 (Med to High)

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
I don't photo/video edit. just game listen to music and surf the web

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
I will be happy with 500+GB @ 7,200RPM

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
Any site will be fine.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
Depends on which laptop I can afford? If it's exactly what I want then a very long time.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
A DVD/CD WRITER and a Blu-Ray reader would be nice! blu-ray read isn't a must tho.

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.
(Like) Voodoo, Alienware, Asus, MSI, (Don't like) HP, Gateway, Dell, because they don't look nice and plush

13. What country do you live in?
United States.

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I would prefer an i7 processor, a GTX 460, GT 550 or something a long those lines? would like to have an HD Display, and also it "Must" have a backlit keyboard I game in the dark so.. im big on eye candy if the specs are decent but has a nice look IE: black with a red backlit keyboard or something? nice graphic design would be really nice...

 

[ginomerinosj]

No suggestions? Anyone?

 

[WR2]

Sorry, can't find anything in your budget range that meets your requirements.

 

[WR2]

Do you want to look at re certified (used) laptops?
ASUS G74SX Core i7 2360QM & GTX 560M $950

and you should probably look at Dell XPS 17 as well - it meets the majority of your requirements. Dell XPS 17

 

[ginomerinosj]

I found this http/www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Qosmio-X775-Q7270-17-3-Inch-Screen/dp/tech-data/B0057483DK/ref=de_a_smtd
Not sure if it'll do the job as in playing Bad Company 2 or BF3?

or 2nd option is:
Sager NP8130
CPU: i7-2630QM (2.0~2.9GHz) w/6M L3 Cache
15.6” Full HD 16:9 Wide screen (1920x1080) LED-Backlit
8GB DDR3 1333
500GB HDD 7,200RPM
GTX 560M 192bit w/1.5GB GDDR5

is it worth getting the Qosmio because of the 17.3 inch display? or is it better to get the Sager because of the i7 2630? Will the i5 be able to still perform good with gaming? and just over speed of the processing?

 

[zhihao50]

Its always good to have larger screen. More room for gaming, but 17.3" with its higher resolution will tax the graphic card a little harder and there would be a slight slower in FPS. However it shouldn't be noticeable.

there is almost no noticeable performance gain with i7 2630 over an i5 unless you use hyper thread a lot and almost no game use it.

 

[ginomerinosj]

Do you want to look at re certified (used) laptops?
ASUS G74SX Core i7 2360QM & GTX 560M $950

and you should probably look at Dell XPS 17 as well - it meets the majority of your requirements. Dell XPS 17

The G74SX is really nice! I never ordered refurbished items from newegg before? does it mean the laptop could have signs of wear, or even some scratches? Now I am really torn between this G74SX and the Qosmio er!

 

[WR2]

You're never really sure of the reason the laptop was returned.
It could have been due to a fault that was corrected or just an owner who returned it during the 30 day return period. The BBK7 suggests it was initially sold at BestBuy.
G74SX-BBK7 @ BestBuy
For the lower price you're getting a 90 day warranty - which would be a concern to me.

Isn't the Qosmio outside your budget range?

BF:BC2 can certainly put extra cores to good use.
Bit-Tech's testing found a 20% improvement in the MIN FPS.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Keep in mind - those were desktop parts and laptop parts score lower.
The used a GTX 470 which is more powerful than the desktop GTS 450 which is roughly equal to the laptop GTX 560M.

 

[ginomerinosj]

@ WR2: The Qosmio is about $100 above my price limit but, I am desperate so willing to fork out the extra $100. I read somewhere that G74's sold at best-buy had only 1GB GPU not the 3GB card they sold the lower-end GTX 560m. I will probably end up getting the G74SV anyways, thanks for the find btw =)

 

[WR2]

In the longer view - gaming 3 and 4 yrs on - saving an extra $200+$300 now and getting a true gaming class laptop like the Asus G74sx (with 2yr warranty and 1yr accidental damage warranty) is probably smart investment.

I always like to suggest to wait (no matter how hard that might be) till the game get released so you have a real understanding what kind of performance you're money gets for you.

Then double check you don't want to get a gaming desktop instead. More powerful and upgradeable.