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Gaming Laptop?

digsbe

digsbe

Truth will set you free
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Does anyone have advice on purchasing a gaming laptop? I'd like to stay under $1,500 (obviously less is best too) and I've noticed that many gaming laptops tend to be expensive.

My situation is that I'm a college student that needs a computer for school (so a gaming desktop is out of the question) but would also like it to have good gaming/media capabilities. I've been looking at the Asus G75 series and also the new Lenovo Y500 but I would like to see what people more computer savvy than me would do and what they think.
 
digsbe said:
Does anyone have advice on purchasing a gaming laptop? I'd like to stay under $1,500 (obviously less is best too) and I've noticed that many gaming laptops tend to be expensive.

My situation is that I'm a college student that needs a computer for school (so a gaming desktop is out of the question) but would also like it to have good gaming/media capabilities. I've been looking at the Asus G75 series and also the new Lenovo Y500 but I would like to see what people more computer savvy than me would do and what they think.
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I have a Lenovo Z575 that I bought less than a year ago for under 600. It can handle Skyrim, Diablo 3, and the 2nd highest graphic setting on WOW with no problem. I personally love it.
 
digsbe said:
Does anyone have advice on purchasing a gaming laptop? I'd like to stay under $1,500 (obviously less is best too) and I've noticed that many gaming laptops tend to be expensive.

My situation is that I'm a college student that needs a computer for school (so a gaming desktop is out of the question) but would also like it to have good gaming/media capabilities. I've been looking at the Asus G75 series and also the new Lenovo Y500 but I would like to see what people more computer savvy than me would do and what they think.
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Don't spend too much money. I made the choice to avoid much of the mobile gaming market, because while their components may have been nice in certain aspects, in many others it was just atrociously bad (battery life lasting less than an hour almost negates the entire concept of a mobile gaming device). I've entirely come to the conclusion that anything costing above $2000 for a gaming laptop, or gaming capability makes damn near no sense at all. Hell, I widened my scope to include that to nearly the entire mobile market. I had an opportunity to spend some $2500 on a laptop of my choice and I ended up paying half that for a Lenovo Y580 with the most extensive warranty coverage I could get. Why? Because it ended up being the better purchase, easily. Sure, I could have potentially had a better graphics card, but for Christ's sake, I want to be able to use the feckin' thing for longer than 2 hours with the latest i7, I didn't want to have some small amount of storage, no blu-ray drive, an overly-blue screen, etc etc.

All I did this late summer was look for the price range, common build problems, relative benefits and negatives from one graphics card to another, looked at the quality of the screen (eg. is it too damn blue), placed a premium on blu-ray drives, wanted "decent" speakers (though I was primarily going to use a headphone amplifier anyhow), prefer a 1 tb hd (though you may opt for SSD, I just need the storage), and then see how well their customer service is rated. I had to balance everything out because I wasn't going to be gaming all that often, but when I did, I wanted it to be respectable.
 
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Fiddytree said:
Don't spend too much money. I made the choice to avoid much of the mobile gaming market, because while their components may have been nice in certain aspects, in many others it was just atrociously bad (battery life lasting less than an hour almost negates the entire concept of a mobile gaming device). I've entirely come to the conclusion that anything costing above $2000 for a gaming laptop, or gaming capability makes damn near no sense at all. Hell, I widened my scope to include that to nearly the entire mobile market. I had an opportunity to spend some $2500 on a laptop of my choice and I ended up paying half that for a Lenovo Y580 with the most extensive warranty coverage I could get. Why? Because it ended up being the better purchase, easily. Sure, I could have potentially had a better graphics card, but for Christ's sake, I want to be able to use the feckin' thing for longer than 2 hours with the latest i7, I didn't want to have some small amount of storage, no blu-ray drive, an overly-blue screen, etc etc.

All I did this late summer was look for the price range, common build problems, relative benefits and negatives from one graphics card to another, looked at the quality of the screen (eg. is it too damn blue), placed a premium on blu-ray drives, wanted "decent" speakers (though I was primarily going to use a headphone amplifier anyhow), prefer a 1 tb hd (though you may opt for SSD, I just need the storage), and then see how well their customer service is rated. I had to balance everything out because I wasn't going to be gaming all that often, but when I did, I wanted it to be respectable.
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How do you like the Y580? I've been looking at it too since it has a better graphics card than a Y500 and it's around $1,000 right now. What's your battery life like for simply word processing? Battery life is important to me, but if need be I'm willing to buy a powerful machine and just bring my charger with me. I would do nearly all my gaming on the charger but want the mobility so I can bring the computer to class and take notes.
 
digsbe said:
Does anyone have advice on purchasing a gaming laptop? I'd like to stay under $1,500 (obviously less is best too) and I've noticed that many gaming laptops tend to be expensive.

My situation is that I'm a college student that needs a computer for school (so a gaming desktop is out of the question) but would also like it to have good gaming/media capabilities. I've been looking at the Asus G75 series and also the new Lenovo Y500 but I would like to see what people more computer savvy than me would do and what they think.
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I've had nothing but horrible experiences with Asus laptops. I would highly recommend not picking that. You should check out Gaming Laptops - XOTIC PC - Gaming Notebooks - Custom Laptops - Custom Notebooks. Look for Sager branded laptops. They don't have the outward sex appeal, IE: a big glowing apple or brand name, but they pack more punch for the dollar and are more reliable than any laptop I've ever met. My Sager made it through almost 5 years of hard use with zero problems, to include an afghanistan deployment. They also come with a 2-3 year warranty. They are usually a few hundred bucks under cost.

Xotic PC is a really solid site, you can customize everything on your computer and their customer service is excellent.
 
digsbe said:
How do you like the Y580? I've been looking at it too since it has a better graphics card than a Y500 and it's around $1,000 right now. What's your battery life like for simply word processing? Battery life is important to me, but if need be I'm willing to buy a powerful machine and just bring my charger with me. I would do nearly all my gaming on the charger but want the mobility so I can bring the computer to class and take notes.
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Well, if I kick things down a notch, it's like 5 hrs ...4 1/2. But typically I also record lectures, so when I did that and used OneNote, I was able to comfortably do about 3 1/2 hours worth of stuff. Of course, I also have a ton of apps open, with lots of windows to write. I'm noticing a downturn in my hours, but this is also because I probably have a ton of stuff open or need to tweak with energy/power settings some more. Nevertheless, I am mostly enjoying this one.

So basically, with the more powerful gpu and the better processor, I was getting about average times from the past several years in laptops.
 
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I've been gaming on laptops for years (mostly WoW) with relatively no troubles. I just make sure I gut my stock RAM and hook it up proper. Yeah, I don't have the greatest gfx card, but when you rock 8 gig of RAM, you make up for other small deficiencies.

Stay above the curve on RAM, make sure it has a respectable gfx card, and you can manage fine - and stay WAY within your budget.
 
digsbe said:
Does anyone have advice on purchasing a gaming laptop? I'd like to stay under $1,500 (obviously less is best too) and I've noticed that many gaming laptops tend to be expensive.

My situation is that I'm a college student that needs a computer for school (so a gaming desktop is out of the question) but would also like it to have good gaming/media capabilities. I've been looking at the Asus G75 series and also the new Lenovo Y500 but I would like to see what people more computer savvy than me would do and what they think.
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Is it being a laptop mandatory?
 
Juiposa said:
Is it being a laptop mandatory?
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Yes, I would like to be able to bring it to school and use it to take notes (everything I do is on my computer). I also have no problems with lugging around a 17" laptop.
 
digsbe said:
Yes, I would like to be able to bring it to school and use it to take notes (everything I do is on my computer). I also have no problems with lugging around a 17" laptop.
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You might be better off getting a moderate desktop for 600-800 and an Android tablet with keyboard (Asus, Acer, etc.). Use the desktop to play games and the Android for notes in class. Kingsoft Office is a great app.
 
You could check out Cyberpower PC. I bought my last gaming PC and gaming laptop from there. My laptop was just over 1600; but I got a great vid card and it's a 17.3 screen and blah blah blah. It was cheaper than other places for similar components. They will put the system together for you and put it through burnin. Both my computers from there have worked well, no problem. But I have heard folk that had problems had a lot of problems also with customer service from there. I can't say, but electronics are fickle and do sometimes show up broken.
 
Do you like this one?
Samsung Series 7 Gamer NP700G7C, 17.3inch 1920 x 1080+Intel Core i7-3630QM+1TB 7200rpm+8 GB DDR3 (MAX 16GB)+AMD Radeon HD 7870M 2GB GDDR5+Windows 8
 
Look here for the details
 
Prostar is who I went to before I switched to desktop computing. I wanted desktop power in a mobile form factor because of the nature of my work.

There are not that many laptop chasis manufaturers in the world, like five or six. Sager, I-BuyPower, XOTIC, Alienware, ect. all use common chasis made by one of these manufacturers Clevo being one of these. Prostar will generaly get you the best bang for your buck. When I used to buy laptops I bought the very best you could get and used it for four years or longer. I have been buying from Prostar since 1998 so I have been using their products awhile. You are getting good value for your money. Just dont expect gold platted service and hand holding. These guys are used to dealing with professionals that know what their doing. If you have a problem with hardware being defective they will take care of it, but if you screwed up the software they will tell you to pound sand. They are all business. If you remember that then your experiance with them will be very good.

There is normaly very little in the way of fluff installed on there units as well. Basically the operating system a couple utilies and the drivers. One of the reasons I like Prostar to be frank. I absolutely hate bloatware.

Current system I would consider for your budget would be I7 proc, with 12gigs ram, an ssd drive 128gb, a hdd drive 750gb or so, and nividia graphics in 600 series 675 or 680, with a blueray optical drive. 17inch screen. Should come in close to your budget.

Here a couple links for you to gander at. Luck to ya. :)

Custom Gaming Laptops | Graphics Laptops | Pro-Star.com
Best Gaming Computer | Best Gaming Laptop | Cheap Gaming Laptop Computers | Gaming Notebook | Pro-Star.com
 
If you haven't bought a laptop yet, and you're looking for a deal on the cheaper side, I'd recommend a Lenovo Y400 or something in that series. Quad core i7, Nvidia GTX650M, $750 for that particular model right now. All things considered it's a fantastic laptop for the price.
 
My 17 inch laptop I got from Walmart for 450. Got an 8 gig DDR3 RAM upgrade kit from Best buy for about 30, on sale.

I'm cheap, of course. I go for the most "bang for your buck", and I really haven't had issues yet.
 
digsbe said:
Does anyone have advice on purchasing a gaming laptop? I'd like to stay under $1,500 (obviously less is best too) and I've noticed that many gaming laptops tend to be expensive.

My situation is that I'm a college student that needs a computer for school (so a gaming desktop is out of the question) but would also like it to have good gaming/media capabilities. I've been looking at the Asus G75 series and also the new Lenovo Y500 but I would like to see what people more computer savvy than me would do and what they think.
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What games are you going to run?

WoW doesn't take much to run as opposed to the upcoming Colonial Marine which requires a powerhouse to run well.
 
Here's what I figure. You're not going to be playing video games in class or whatever. So get the cheapest piece of crap laptop you can find, because they all run web browsers and word processors just fine. Then get a desktop for gaming, which can be done far cheaper.
 
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