[Need Suggestions] Looking to build/buy a 'gaming' laptop.

BottledDew

Estimable
May 28, 2014
22
0
4,560
Hi everyone! I'm hoping to get advice or suggestions on buying or building a gaming laptop. Any and all help would be greatly appreciated.

1. What is your budget?
~ $1200 to $1600

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
~ 15" to 16"

3. What screen resolution do you want?
- 1920 x 1080 or another suggestion?

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
- Portable (but not exceeding maximum of 8 to 9 lbs.)

5. How much battery life do you need?
- As long as possible for a power eating game machine (I tend to carry my chargers wherever I go
so if it's more than 2 to 3 hours, it will be fine.)

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)?
- I am not sure what my most demanding games are. But I will provide a link (if possible) to my games library, with games I'd like to preferably play on High as well as record gameplay on. *(Sidenote: I think my average setting for games on this laptop is medium, and I notice when I record I tend to drop about 20-40 fps, while running games from 20-150 fps depending on the game.)
(Link: http://steamcommunity.com/id/BottledDew/games?tab=all)

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
- I'd like to/currently do; record videos, render videos. Also, homework.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
- At least 750GB or higher

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
- Amazon, Newegg, TigerDirect, Gigabyte, Etc. (anything really, I'm open to suggestions. Generally I will watch for whichever has cheapest)

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
- As long as possible (I am poor).

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer, Blu-ray ROM/Writer, Etc. ?
- I think I'd need a CD/DVD drive and Blu-ray? *Correct me on that if I am wrong.

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.
- Brands are not an issue. But I'd like HP and Dell to be near the end of the list as I've had bad experience involving them in the past.

13. What country do you live in?
- USA (Portland, Oregon)

14. Additional Information.
- For laptop building, I have a bit of knowledge (minimal really, I know where things are located but have never actually assembled). I have a friend that has built several computers before, I can go to him for building advice. But for building, please suggest parts (as well as links to parts please!).

(Example format? o_O)

Barebones (laptop case) :
Motherboard (?):
Processor:
RAM:
Hard Drive:
Cooling System:
Wireless Card (?):

Thanks for reading and, thanks for your time!
*If somehow I made a mistake or something, please tell me!

 

BottledDew

Estimable
May 28, 2014
22
0
4,560
Wow! Thanks for all the replies. I've narrowed it down to 3 laptops. But I still need advice.

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-GE70-Apache-Pro-012-17-3-Inch/dp/B00IMTQ5I2/ref=psdc1_t3_B00IMTQ5G4_B00IMTQ5I2
•Intel Core i7-4700HQ 3.2 GHz
•12 GB DDR3L SDRAM
•1024 GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive
•17.3-Inch Screen; NVIDIA Geforce GTX860M with 2GB GDDR5 VRAM
For $1300

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834313741&cm_re=lenovo_ideapad_y510p-_-34-313-741-_-Product
• Intel Core i7 4700MQ (2.40GHz)
• 16GB Memory 1TB + 8GB SSHD HDD
• Dual NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M SLI 2GB GDDR5
For $1130

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IMTQ5G4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00IMTQ5G4&linkCode=as2&tag=gameaholicorg-20&linkId=5KBXK62D5J5ABHHP
•Intel Core i7-4800MQ (2.7 GHz, 6 MB Cache)
•8GB DDR3L 1600MHz System Memory
•1 TB 7200 rpm Hard Drive
•15.6-Inch Screen, NVIDIA Geforce GTX870M with 3GB GDDR5 VRAM
For $1350

Please help? o_O Or any other better suggestions? :D
 

BottledDew

Estimable
May 28, 2014
22
0
4,560
Well, I've found this one...just over budget by $70 but it's fine. Any thoughts/how does do when compared to the MSI (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IMTQ5G4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00IMTQ5G4&linkCode=as2&tag=gameaholicorg-20&linkId=5KBXK62D5J5ABHHP) one? Also, the Apache (http://www.amazon.com/MSI-GE70-Apache-Pro-012-17-3-Inch/dp/B00IMTQ5I2/ref=psdc1_t3_B00IMTQ5G4_B00IMTQ5I2) has a faster processor I think?

http://www.amazon.com/G750JX-i7-4700HQ-2-40GHz-7200rpm-Blu-Ray/dp/B00JAJT9XQ/ref=sr_1_24?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1401424934&sr=1-24&keywords=gaming+laptop

17.30 inches
Screen Resolution: 1920x1080
Processor: 2.40 GHz Intel Core i7
RAM 16 GB DDR3: 1600
Memory Speed: 1600 MHz
Hard Drive: 1000 GB
Graphics Coprocessor: nVIDIA GeForce GTX 770M 3GB GDDR5
4
Computer Memory Type: DDR3 SDRAM
Hard Drive Interface Seria:l ATA-300

Also keep this in mind? o_O http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-870M-vs-GeForce-GTX-770 (GTX 870 is the MSI one. 770 is the ASUS one.)
 

Keeno99

Estimable
May 24, 2014
39
0
4,590
I say the first MSI and not the ASUS because all the ASUS laptop has on the MSI laptop is that it has more RAM. Right now 8GB of RAM is plenty to run all the new games and it will probably be this way for a while. The MSI has better preformance than the ASUS, so go with the MSI.