Gaming Laptops

[Anok]

Hello everyone,
I'm about to buy a new laptop and I wanted to get your opinions as to what the best one would be for gaming. Right now my top choice is the
Gateway P-7811FX .
Thanks for the help,
Rag

http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/gateway-p-7811fx/4505-3121_7-33201021.html?tag=mncol;lst

[Constantine]

Didn't look at the link, but I got a Dell XPS 1530 and it handles most games great. The only thing that didn't work well was AoC back in beta, so can't fault the computer there :)

[govtcheeze]

Dell XPS is the only way to go.

[marcothy]

The best gaming laptop ever built was an XPS 2010. It had the roomy comfort of a full desktop featuring a 20.1" screen, with the portability of a laptop.

http://www.mobilewhack.com/images/dell_xps_m2010_mobile_concept_pc_1.jpg

I think they may have scrapped it for new designs, but if you can find one, I'd investigate it for sure. The 1730 may be the better fit, but if I were buying a laptop, I would go for the biggest screen I could get with the usual tech specs we all want.

Link to refurbished models:
http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/topics/global.aspx/arb/online/en/InventorySearch?c=us&cs=22&l=en&lob=INSP&MODEL_DESC=XPS%20M2010&s=dfh

[Aanio]

To the ones saying the Dell XPS is the only way to go, for the money the Gateway FX series is the way to go. You can't beat what you get for the money. I own one and I was capable of playing AoC with full graphics settings, Assassin's Creed also plays real well on the Gateway. Not only that but I have the 6860 series Gateway laptop. I'm more than glad to spend almost $1,000-$2000 less on my Gateway and be capable of playing all the new games.

[Constantine]

I had gotten a great deal on my 1530. The only reason the AoC didnt work was because my video card driver was unstable with that beta build. I have a gaming desktop so I never tried AoC after the new drivers came out. Honestly, I didnt even know that Gateway still existed.

[marcothy]

xps laptops go for 700-2400, gateway giving theres away?

[Anok]

I was just looking at a couple of the XPS laptops you guys mentioned, and none of them seem to have specs that are better than the gateway laptop I was looking at (I've never bought a laptop before, so I really don't know the parts well, but I'd imagine its basically the same as a desktop). One thing I did notice was the option for a RAID hard drive with the XPS systems which was nice. So far the only laptops I've found with the nVidia 9800 GTS in them were alienware laptops, which are wayyy more than the gateway one's.

PS. That 2010 looks bad ASS but I'm a little wary of buying refurbished stuff.

[Baddums]

http://www.sagernotebook.com

[marcothy]

Yea, I would be too Anok. Personally, I am shocked Dell scrapped the design. I normally build my own PC's, but that design would have been my next purchase simply because it's as good as a desktop, but easier to port around.

It's starting price less than a year ago was $3600. Comes with HD surround sound, a 20.1" screen, adequate Video card, and a full size keyboard with a seperate touchpad. Shame there's not a new model.

The Gateway specs are hard to beat, priced for spec. I just don't trust Gateway's products, which goes back to a bad scenario about 12 years ago that led me to learning what I know now, which has me working in Software Development, building PCs, supporting servers, and never touching a Gateway again.

[govtcheeze]

that led me to learning what I know now, which has me working in Software Development, building PCs, supporting servers, and never touching a Gateway again.

QFT

[marcothy]

On a new laptop, here is another suggestion if you want a new item. Sony Vaio has a laptop on New Egg with equal or better specs in most regards.

The key differences is better processor (P8600 2.4GHz vs Gateways P8400 2.2 GHz), larger screen (18.4" vs 17") better visual screen versus the Active Matrix.

What you'd lose with the Sony over the Gateway is DDR2 800 vs DDR3 1066. Only noticeable if you will be benchmarking on 3dMark etc for geek scores. DDR3 is only marginally better than DDR2, and most of it's advantages are in reduced power consumption-not better performance. In gaming, you'd be lieing if you said you noticed your PC ran much better on DDR3 1066 compared to DDR2 800. Only a FPS counter or benchmarking would show the difference.

The other loss, which is the big one, is in the 9600M GT video card compared to the 9800M GTS. Which is the substantial difference. The 9600M will run most games solid, but its a substantial drop in terms of performance that is very noticeable.

If you talk to me, screen size and resolution are everything in what I play. Which lends the question to why a laptop instead of a desktop? The only real reason should be portability. Even when I was in college, I lugged my desktop around, and you can get Frag boxes and LCD screens that aren't that cumbersome if you just find where you sleep from time to time is in different places.

Only draw back is you really aren't going to set it up in a Starbucks or take it on a plane.

If you ever need tech advice, hit me up on vent. I've been doing this over 10 years, and I have probably about 30+ custom pcs that I have built. I used to be a hardware junky, until I realized how bad the value is on new items released.

[Anok]

Thanks Marcothy! I'll hopefully be on vent in the next few days, been kinda busy lately.

...those sager notebooks are too awesome for words..

[Fuergrissa]

I bought one of the First XPS Gen 1 laptops. and truth be told it held up for 5 years now.

Now that said over the 5 years I had to use my warranty a few times.

1st times my office Flooded and the laptop was soaked ( long storie )

2nd / 3rd / 4th times all were due to over heating. they claimed the XPS was a gaming laptop but I don't think they ment for it to be played 12-16 hour a day 7 days a week.


I bought a desktop now and so it get used less and I not had trouble with it. and I know the NEWer XPS have been improved to fix the problem mine has of over heating but it some thing to keep in mind when buying a laptop.


1st how much do you plan to use it per day
2nd how good of warranty dose it have and for how long.

Most comp today can me built any way you like and have the stuff you need. more so when Looking for comps I look at the Warranty. if it covers everything for 5+ year I know I good for that long.

[marcothy]

5 years ago is roughly when Dell shifted more to accomodate the gaming market-they weren't accustom to really for heat with packing high end components as much.

[Constantine]

I have a Dell XPS Gen 1 or 2 Desktop that I got in early 2004 and it held up great. I gave it to my mom when I built my new one last may, all I udgraded was ram and GPU. So between a XPS desktop and laptop Ive had great luck with dells. However they have given me a couple crappy moniters....now I only use samsungs.

[Kinetic]

My Alienware M17x laughs at all these other girly men laptops being mentioned. The trick is getting work to pay for it like I did. :)

[Xantheous]

My Alienware M17x laughs at all these other girly men laptops being mentioned. The trick is getting work to pay for it like I did. :)

Doesn't Dell own Alienware?

[marcothy]

Doesn't Dell own Alienware?
They do now.

[RivaCom]

The best gaming laptop ever built was an XPS 2010. It had the roomy comfort of a full desktop featuring a 20.1" screen, with the portability of a laptop.

http://www.mobilewhack.com/images/dell_xps_m2010_mobile_concept_pc_1.jpg

I think they may have scrapped it for new designs, but if you can find one, I'd investigate it for sure. The 1730 may be the better fit, but if I were buying a laptop, I would go for the biggest screen I could get with the usual tech specs we all want.

Link to refurbished models:
http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineSales/topics/global.aspx/arb/online/en/InventorySearch?c=us&cs=22&l=en&lob=INSP&MODEL_DESC=XPS%20M2010&s=dfh

This was a great design, but was poorly loaded, hardware wise. It was very limited and that's why you don't see it, they are in works with a new series due out soon hopefully taking the hardware limitation away.

The Gateway is a good bang for your buck, and a lot of times you can even get it lower than $1,000.

If you can find a store that sells them the Asus series are nice

http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=5&l2=159&l3=697&l4=0&model=2169&modelmenu=1

[marcothy]

I remember a time when I would buy anything with an asus tag on it. Several bad motherboards with a known circuitry defect by Asus and I won't touch anything from a company that has no regard for Quality Control or ... just quality.

[krandor]

I have a Dell XPS laptop that I bought brand new. I have had 4 repairs on it including 3 new power adapters. If I could do it over again I would have bought an alienware computer.

Several friends had them in Afghanistan and the graphics looked very good and I never heard of major operational problems.