Solved! Hopefully I'm making this easy. Need laptop for gaming/heavy use.

[amiablecarlos]

Well, here it is. Hopefully my verbosity will help rather than annoy.

1. What is your budget?
-1250-2500. 2400-2600 is my highest end, I'd feel comfortable spending 2,000 but would spend 2500 if I found the cost justifiable.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
-Full keyboard (traditional size), numpad not needed but preferred. Also not needed but desired; non tilted keys, so I can swap out for dvorak.

3. What screen resolution do you want?
-1024x768 minimum, would prefer 1440x900 or 1920x1000 (am I getting those right?) if an option. In any case, I don't see the increased cost outweighing my preference for larger estate.

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

5. How much battery life do you need?
-Any amount.

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. GTA4, modern shooters. High settings.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
-Nothing processor intensive normally, but I definitely appreciate it. Enough to pay for it as long as the cost isn't crazy. I'm not into many cores, not a big multitasker.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
-Any amount. (would I ever have problems replacing them? I use externals for storage.) I suppose reliability, speed and rewrites would be more important to me; but as long as I can replace, it's no concern.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
-As long as they are reputable.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
-Until the end of cmos. Kidding aside, is it common to have an unfixable problem?

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
-dvd/cd reader, writer optional but preferred.

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.
-As long as they are reputable. Besides that, lifespan and a disregard for power efficiency and noise reduction are big plusses for me.

13. What country do you live in?
United States

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
-The big one, XP is needed. 32 or 64 bit. Compatibility and legacy are important to me.
-Decent sound card is a plus. I have no knowledge of them but do have an er-4p pair and would like to take advantage of them. Speakers are meaningless to me.
-If I get 64 bit, I'd like to use 8gb ram.
-If anything I'm asking for in particular represents a great increase in cost, I'd be willing to neglect any immediate purchases so long as I could upgrade later. If that's not possible, I'll have to make some touch choices


I'll be ready to answer any questions, I really have no idea where to go with this purchase. I haven't researched into computer hardware in years.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, even more so to any suggestions.


(In case anyone is wondering, I have 64 hours a week at work, away from home, to do whatever I want with. I'm finding it annoying to have to put things off till I get home. (Yes, my job has spoiled me silly.))

 

[Maziar]

The current fastest laptop is Clevo X7200
http/www.xoticpc.com/sager-np7280-custom-laptop-built-the-clevo-x7200-p-2881.html
However,if you don't wish to pay that much,then consider ASUS G73JW

 

[marios50]

agree with the asus g73jh its a beast...

 

[amiablecarlos]

Alright, I've been looking over the two for a little while now. Thank you for the fast responses by the way!

First off, I must say; god damn, computers are cheap now.

I've been leaning towards the Sager, mainly for two reasons. First, aesthetically, it appeals to me in many ways. The nice rough plastic, gives me the goosebumps. The depressed keyboard. The overall thickness is very pleasing to see from the side, I've always been put off by the excessive slopes in some laptops. The tapers along the edges (they look like 30 and 45 degree angles) are pleasing as well. The colour is all sorts of sexy, I just hope I could disable any leds.

Secondly, the sager has an option to sli 460m, which I would definitely do given the moderate price increase.

So I have five more questions.
1.Would it be possible to purchase the asus sli'd with 460ms?
2.On the sager page it mentions the option to include extra hard drives, would I be able to install these myself later?
3.How is sager generally viewed among these forums? Are they considered well built?
4.Is there any other justification in price difference except the processor/case?
5.Would I have any problems upgrading these systems to windows xp?

Once again, thank you for the prompt answers. Leading me quickly through the research process, it's a truly a great help.

 

[Maziar]

1_No,currently ASUS doesn't have any laptops with 2 GTX 460M's or so
2_You can install up to 3 HDDs
3_Yes,the build quality is good
4_The main difference is CPU,GPU and design
5_No

 

[NuclearShadow]

Actually I have to disagree with Maziar on the Windows XP part.
Your not going to be able to use all the ram. If I'm not mistaken the
Sager comes with 6GB of ram with XP you will be only able to use about 3.5GB
of it. Also drivers may become a issue as I highly doubt any XP drivers
even exist for those GPU's. The last issue I can think of is if you are planning to
use this as a gaming laptop as noted in the title of this thread you will be
stuck at DX9 with XP.

 

[Maziar]

The OP mentioned he needs either XP 32 or 64,and with a 64bit OS,all the 6GB RAM is usable.

 

[amiablecarlos]

I've decided on the Sager 7280.

I feel like an asshole for stressing xp. I've chosen to go with win7 pro. Between virtual machines and compatibility mode should be enough. If not, I've never been bothered by troubleshooting. Besides, I could install xp easily enough.

The 460ms are so cheap, wasn't really a choice. I've gone with 12gbs of ram, it will be a lot of fun to have that much memory.

Going to wait on the ssd for a year. I'll probably go with intel.

Finally dumping the netbook and my 9 year old desktop. Thank you for your help.

 

[Maziar]

Hope you enjoy it,it's hell of a notebook 😀