Reasonable gaming laptop for university

Muobman

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May 31, 2009
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I live in the UK and will soon (hopefully) be going to university, so I'm interested in buying a laptop that I can use for work and still to play some games.

1. What is your budget?

£600-700 though I could probably stretch a little further on the price

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?

I'm not really too picky here, nothing too small though as it's hard to get good specs.

3. What screen resolution do you want?

Largely dependent on the screen size, but 1360x768 or more would be ideal

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

It'll be basically the sole computer I use at university so I guess it'll be kind of a desktop replacement, it likely won't move far from my desk

5. How much battery life do you need?

Being a gaming laptop, a few hours is really the best I can ask for

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 will be playing games with my laptop, mostly source engine (half life 2, TF2 etc) though also probably some strategy games, for example company of heroes. It doesn't have to run them on full settings, max antialiasing and the like, medium-high would be perfectly fine.

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

Word processing and internet access, not much else really, shouldn't be a problem for any laptop that can

8. How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?

I'll be installing quite a few games so 250GB and greater.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

N/A

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?

As long as possible, if a definite cap is needed though, say at least 4 years as that's how long my course will last

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?

DVD reader/writer is a must for backups, anything else is a nice bonus

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 have no real brand issues, though I hear a lot of horror stories about Dell laptops. I also know many people with Acer laptops and they've been impressed by them, but I'm perfectly open to all suggestions or I wouldn't be asking here.

13. What country do you live in?

England

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

Well, not much except that living in England means a UK company is really a must.


Apologies for making yet another "I need your help with a laptop" thread, which the forums seem to be full of right now, but I bow before the wisdom of the internet and require assistance :p
 

EnderWiggin

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Dec 11, 2009
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If you truly love PC gaming, there is no way you are going to continue playing future games 4 years from now with the same GPU you select today, even if you were to buy a top-of-the-line $6000 Alienware laptop.

And you know that you can't upgrade a laptop's graphics controller, so be prepared to replace this laptop in 2 years, or buy a cheap business laptop and desktop for gaming that you can upgrade in a few years.

For serious laptop gaming, you will be spending £1,600 for something with an ATI 5870 chipset (Alienware M17x).
 

Muobman

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May 31, 2009
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I never said future games, I specified primarily source games so I have something to play, and said that even those didn't have to run on anywhere near full settings, you seem to have misconstrued my purpose completely.
 

rpg123

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Jun 28, 2010
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I'm not familiar with UK companies, but I can give some general pointers. As for gaming, an ATI 5650 or greater graphics card will work well at medium to high 1366x768. Nvidia also has several good graphics cards, you should look up benchmarks for those as the numbering is odd. Get a chill mat to keep the lappy cool while gaming. Intel cpus are faster than AMD for cpu intensive uses. There are many good laptops available in your price range.
 

mrmez

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Aug 15, 2006
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Yeah, gaming laptops are about as future proof as ice cream in hell. Its just not gonna last.

I have, however, always liked alienware stuff, but never owned or spend enough time to properly evaluate one.
 

rpg123

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It looks like a good laptop to me. Core 2 Duo @ 2.2, gt 240m 1gb, 4gb ddr3, 320gb hd, a/b/g/n wifi, hdmi output.

I can't comment on the prices there, but it seems reasonable. Now i3/i5 are a bit faster, but c2d is a very good cpu, gt 240m should handle almost any current game on at least medium, 15.6"- 1366x768 is a good size- comfortably mobile but still a nice size screen. Battery life could be better, but you mentioned that isn't a priority. It should serve you well for a few years. Acer is gaining market share for a reason, good laptops at good prices.