Mid range laptop for gaming purposes mainly

squall_nemesis

Distinguished
Aug 5, 2008
3
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18,510
Thanks in advance to the community for answering such questions. Since my knowledge of laptops and brands in general is quite limited, I'd appreciate any assistance and advice on this issue.

1. What is your budget?
~500 Pounds, can be slightly flexible on this but would prefer to keep it at or under that amount.

Also, in the interests of full disclosure, I'm not exactly sure how much I should invest on a decent and reliable gaming laptop so some advice on this would be appreciated.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Would prefer a 17" one. Don't mind going for a slighter bigger one.

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Would prefer it to be bigger than 1366x768 if possible. Would be kind of pointless to play games on a lower resolution.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
I'm assuming a desktop replacement has more "oomph" to it and is bigger as opposed to the portable so I'll go for the former option i.e. the desktop replacement option.

5. How much battery life do you need?
For normal usage, such as watching movies and listening to music while browsing the web (excluding games usage), anything above 3-4 hours will do. Moreover, I'll be content so long as it's able to power games on battery alone for an hour at least (this last point is not an absolute must but would definitely be a plus since I sometimes visit family back home where I have to face hourly power cuts.

I know little concerning power consumption while playing games so any tips or bits of info concerning this gap of knowledge will be appreciated.

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)?

Most definitely yes. Playing on medium is just fine for me. It would be nice to the play the latest games along with the old ones I sometimes play with friends such as WoW and Dota 2.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)

Web surfing, listening to music, watching tv series and movies and using MS applications mainly.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
At least greater than 800GB.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
Haven't looked at anything specific so far though I did drool a bit over the Alienware stuff (sadly they seem to be out of my budget)

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
For the rest of my life if my dad had any say in it, though I'd be grateful if I could make it run games without dying for at least 2-3 years :p

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
DVD-ROM at minimum. Blue-Ray not really necessary though since I download most of the stuff for viewing purposes.

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 someone already mentioned in a similar thread: I do not have any preconceptions about particular brands. Besides, I'm sure you guys know the particulars of brand quality better than I do.


13. What country do you live in?
UK currently though might shift back to Pakistan in a year once I'm done with studies

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Would prefer a laptop with a Win 7 OS. Not a big fan of Macs here and I believe that they're usually not recommended for gaming purposes (though I could be wrong on that). Dedicated gfx card is a must however. Never had much good experience with the built in ones.

Would prefer a model which does not overheat easily in hot temperatures going up to 40-45 degrees Celcius. Just out of curiosity, is it necessary to get a cooling fan for the laptop or can one make do without it?

Thank you for your time and patience folks. Really appreciate the help. Cheers :)
 

ChillyWilly007

Honorable
May 2, 2013
2
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10,510
If you're on a budget, go with a laptop with the AMD A10 4600M. $499 gets you 8 gigs Ram, 1 TB HDD. And it plays any game quite well for a $500 laptop.
http://www.staples.com/Toshiba-Satellite-S855D-S5148-156-Laptop/product_167760
HP makes a 17", though not well rated, so no link.
If you've got the money, get an Intel laptop with a discrete card, such as this:
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:item.detail?GroupID=457&Code=59371965&category_id=5B0116E237099FA0FCA012D9B20ED2FB&cid=us:affiliate:eoOtD9&AID=11360740&PID=227502&SID=F012A00BD346974ZZ0A99346974A346974A01A0A0&PUBNAME=TechBargains&NID=CJ
apply code Coupon Code: "USPY565425"
hope it helps!
 

squall_nemesis

Distinguished
Aug 5, 2008
3
0
18,510


Thanks for the prompt reply mate and apologies for the late response on my part. Exam season over here for me so been logging on less. The reviews for both laptops seem quite good. Gonna read up some more on this to just to be sure. Any opinions as in which brands I should look into specifically? I remember 2 years back when I bought my laptop, I was told to avoid the HP Pavillion (i think) series due to over heating issues.
 
A cheapish 17.3" gaming capable laptop? i think you may have to stretch your budget a wee bit, however this is without a doubt your best option: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/cosmosII-17/
the chassis is large, if you select an I3 processor, 4GB ram, and gt 740M and a 1TB HDD then you've got your specs you need, this'll play Dota II and WOW at medium to high settings very fluently. and its almost 1600x900, and is probably the best combination you'll get for your budget, and if you have all the changes I listed above it'll come out to around £540, maybe a bit less depending on what you take out.

the only think that this laptop doesn't have for you is battery life, but that's to be expected, however if you're willing to drop a bit more money then these will easily fix this issue: http://www.techradar.com/news/portable-devices/other-devices/best-portable-chargers-14-we-recommend-1178873
anything below this won't really get you anywhere, even an amd A10 doesn't really do very well at gaming at all.