Portable Gaming Laptop help?

Squibbs

Honorable
Mar 26, 2012
2
0
10,510
1) What is your budget? I would prefer ~$900-$1500, but it's flexible.

2) What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? I would like something medium sized, 15"-16" is perfect for me.

3) What screen resolution do you want? I'm not picky on this, It can be anything

4) Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Portable, I have a desktop already. But I would appreciate the power in the laptop.

5) How much battery life do you need? As much as possible. Optimus would be great, I would just like a lot of time for gaming.

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 I do. Games I'd like to play would be things along the line of.

Team Fortress 2
World of Warcraft
Left 4 Dead 2

Those type of games. While I'd love to run games like crysis at 60fps, its not required.

7) What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.) Productivity. I do a bit of game programming, so something with a good processor would be amazing. I know I'm not going to be hitting desktop levels of performance, but something that could handle photoshop and visual studio without committing hari kari would be beautiful.

8) How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need? upwards of 500GB would be beautiful, I do like to watch my share of tv shows, but I can deal without it. If I have to.

9) If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. I don't have anything specific, I'd like something I can trust though.

10) How long do you want to keep your laptop? As long as possible. I don't really have the money to but a laptop every year.

11) What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? I have no idea. All I really want is laptop that can play games like a pro.

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. I don't have any brand preference, though I've had an Alienware laptop before, and it wasn't that great.

13) What country do you live in? USA

14) Please tell us any additional information if needed. I really want a good laptop that can game on the go. Also, I wouldn't hurt for it to be good looking
 
Hello Squibbs;
Optimus is what gives you good battery life for everything but gaming.
It uses the CPU's IGP when the big gaming GPU isn't required. But gaming on the battery? Maybe 1.5 to 2 hours worth.

For the games you mentioned the GPU requirements aren't extreme. What about future games?

 
At the top end of you budget are the custom gaming laptops like MSI GT683DX-840US ~$1300
Core i7-2670QM 2.2Ghz CPU, 12GB RAM, 15.6" 1920x1080 LCD w/ GTX 570M graphics.
What you give up with the 'pro-gaming style' notebook is battery life. It doesn't support Optimus with that big GTX 570M. Even when not gaming you're looking at 2-3hrs or a bit more on battery. Gaming on the battery? Could be under an hour.
Crysis 2 on High graphics and 60+FPS (although you might need to use lower than 1920x1080 resolution).
And no ritual suicide required when using Photoshop / Visual Studio.