I'm looking for a Gaming Laptop

[xDarnassusx]

Hey everyone on Tomshardware. I'm looking for a gaming laptop and I don't know what to pick. I want it to have an NVidia GTX 680m and atleast 2.2GHz of Quadcore CPU and 16GB's Ram and atleast a 64 SSD for my operating system and currently, frequent played game with a 750+GB 7200 RPM drive for data.. Can you guys help me out finding something in the < $2000 range? I live in Aus - Sydney and I'm looking for somewhere local.

So far I've found FragLabs and it's got a really nice looking laptop but it's $2,600, so is a nice MSI I'm looking at.


I want this laptop to be top of the line for a good 3-5 years, to make my 2 grand worth it. And ofcourse a good build quality. I can dismantle my own laptops, apply my own thermal grease and clean it for dust, I'd consider myself tech savvy so maintainence isn't so much of an issue. I have a cooling pad to defeat overheating. (Zalman NC-1000) I'm willing to buy the bigger model, to fit the laptop as I desire a nice 17".

Set me up guys.

 

[DarkSable]

16GB of ram is overkill - 8 is more than enough.

As for the ssd, you're probably better off buying a gaming laptop with a normal hard drive and an empty bay, and throwing an ssd in there yourself; you'll be overcharged for the ssd like crazy.

That being said, take a look at the Falcon NW DRX - it just might be what you're looking for.

 

[xDarnassusx]

16GB of ram is overkill - 8 is more than enough.

As for the ssd, you're probably better off buying a gaming laptop with a normal hard drive and an empty bay, and throwing an ssd in there yourself; you'll be overcharged for the ssd like crazy.

That being said, take a look at the Falcon NW DRX - it just might be what you're looking for.

Ram's dirt cheap, so I thought I'd push up to 16, since I run quite a few things in the background, I like to dual-box WoW and so on.

 

[xDarnassusx]

Clevo Horize P370EM Chassis
Intel i7-3630QM 2.4Ghz
IC Diamond 24 Carat Thermal Compound
16GB 1600Mhz DDR3
nVidia GeForce GTX680M 4GB
Intel 520 Series 120GB SSD SATA3
750GB 7200rpm HDD
DVD+/-RW Combo Drive
17.3 Inch 1080p Matte LED Display
Intel Wireless-N Ultimate 6300
1 Year Horize Back to Base Warranty

$2,600

Fail? I'm not sure.. because I'm pretty keen on it. It's local, too. FragLabs.

The Matte screen worries me.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

You can go to a boutique shop like Falcon, WidowPC, VoodooPC, etc, but since they just use Clevo chassis and parts, you'd be wasting a ton of money. Alienware was originally build on Clevo chassis until Dell bought them out.

Your build is fine ,minor comments:

-I'd drop the SSD and just get the 759 GB Seagate Momentus Hybrid HD / SSD. I have a bunch of Clevo lappies, including one with the 750 GB Momentus and unless you run a benchmark, you can not tell which lappie has the SSD / HD and which one has the Momentus. It's only a $90 upgrade versus the $100 SSD so you will save $10, see no subjective change in performance and say goodbye to the worries of disk management

-Consider the Blue Ray upgrade for $55

-The $70 RAM upgrade (8 - 16GB) is a no brainer IMO

- Have you considered the 670MX SLI option ? It's $50 cheaper than the 680 and here's a discussion on the topic:

http/forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/710274-sager-np9370-680m-vs-sli-670mx.html

And some rankings
670MX SL = 6th
680M = 8th

http/www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html
670MX SL = 13th
680M = 15th

Here's a side by side comparison
http/www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html
http/www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.130.0.html

Don't forget tho, the impact on battery life

As far as the screen goes, most peeps prefer matte but there are options:

17.3" Full HD LED AUO B173HW01 V.4 90% NTSC 1920 x 1080 Gloss Type $150.00
17.3" Full HD LED 120Hz 72% NTSC Color Gamut Matte (1920 x 1080) $150.00

Oh yes, I'd urge you to consider the 3 warranty upgrade

 

[DarkSable]

Ram's dirt cheap, so I thought I'd push up to 16, since I run quite a few things in the background, I like to dual-box WoW and so on.

Up to you, but 8GB is enough to simultaneously run battlefield 3, photoshop, and 30 tabs in chrome.

 

[xDarnassusx]

Ram's dirt cheap, so I thought I'd push up to 16, since I run quite a few things in the background, I like to dual-box WoW and so on.

Up to you, but 8GB is enough to simultaneously run battlefield 3, photoshop, and 30 tabs in chrome.

Sweet jesus.

 

[xDarnassusx]

You can go to a boutique shop like Falcon, WidowPC, VoodooPC, etc, but since they just use Clevo chassis and parts, you'd be wasting a ton of money. Alienware was originally build on Clevo chassis until Dell bought them out.

Your build is fine ,minor comments:

-I'd drop the SSD and just get the 759 GB Seagate Momentus Hybrid HD / SSD. I have a bunch of Clevo lappies, including one with the 750 GB Momentus and unless you run a benchmark, you can not tell which lappie has the SSD / HD and which one has the Momentus. It's only a $90 upgrade versus the $100 SSD so you will save $10, see no subjective change in performance and say goodbye to the worries of disk management

-Consider the Blue Ray upgrade for $55

-The $70 RAM upgrade (8 - 16GB) is a no brainer IMO

- Have you considered the 670MX SLI option ? It's $50 cheaper than the 680 and here's a discussion on the topic:

http/forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/710274-sager-np9370-680m-vs-sli-670mx.html

And some rankings
670MX SL = 6th
680M = 8th

http/www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html
670MX SL = 13th
680M = 15th

Here's a side by side comparison
http/www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html
http/www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.130.0.html

Don't forget tho, the impact on battery life

As far as the screen goes, most peeps prefer matte but there are options:

17.3" Full HD LED AUO B173HW01 V.4 90% NTSC 1920 x 1080 Gloss Type $150.00
17.3" Full HD LED 120Hz 72% NTSC Color Gamut Matte (1920 x 1080) $150.00

Oh yes, I'd urge you to consider the 3 warranty upgrade

I wanted an SSD for my primary so I can drag my major games onto it like my most commonly used to avoid pop-ins. I get overly annoyed when things just randomly spawn ontop of the terrain I turn to look at.

I am scared of SLI, I am afraid of getting microstutter and the 680m just looks really attractive in terms of power, cores and so on. I'll check out your link though, thanks.

If I get the hybrid drive, will my OS still be much faster? ONLY my OS? Or will it also cache what other things I may be doing? I'm afraid of it heating the SSD half if I get the 7200 RPM.