Poll: Gaming Laptops

[superbatranger]

I'd say save your money; buy an Asus laptop instead. They're damn good quality for the price.

Amen to that.
I have an Asus N10J netbook and I'm playing Half Life 2, Sins of a Solar Empire, Call of Duty 4, and more...on a netbook (with just a little bit of overclocking). It's freaking awesome. I love my netbook.
Asus is awesome, stick with them
And don't buy form a big-box store, whatever you buy. Order from the manufacturer.
Big box = cheaper price = cheaper parts = shittier warranty = a brick in a year or two.

On a netbook? Damn, I always thought those tiny little hunks of plastic wouldn't be good for gaming.

I'm actually planning on buying a new laptop when I go back home for Christmas. I was going to get a desktop, but right now it's not worth the hassle, since I'm going to be flying back to Costa Rica afterwards. I've decided to wait until I move back home to finish college before getting a desktop. I know that for the time being a new laptop will do just fine.

 

[Denizen]

Im using an asus n80vm. I got it last year in the middle of summer for a price of about $770 and it out-performed most laptops that were priced at $1100. It all depends how far you look into what a laptop offers vs. price.

You're budget will go a long way since I had to convince my "budget-providers" that I wouldn't just use it for gaming and also the budget was originally at $600 .

The only thing I did to "upgrade" it was installing windows 7. Since then, no problems have arisen. From what I've seen and also from what other friends have experienced, Asus is a really good brand. My friend just bought a (rough estimate) $1000 machine (asus) and it again outperformed the others in it's price range above (to what end i forgot already).

 

[vf501]

ASUS G60JX

Core i5 2.26 GHz
nVidia GTX360 1GB(equal to a desktop 9800GT)
4GB RAM
320GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
1366x768 Res Screen

999.99$ USD
899.99$ USD for the G60VX (if you can find it)

Awesome laptop. I have its older brother the G60VX which is C2D 2.13GHz instead. Main heat exhaust is side mounted on the left for the GPU. GPU hits 80C under full load in games like BFBC2 or Mass Effect2, but is still in safe operating temperature. Screen Res is a bit low, but its a 16" laptop so it's not too bad and it retains a good level of portability.

The G60VX with a bit of OCing (temps hit 75C max underload stable at 2.4GHz) through SetFSB can handle BFBC2 and GTA IV on medium/low settings avg 30-40 FPS. The G60JX will handle both of those fine due to it being Hyperthreaded.

Only issue I had was a keyboard failure, but I found a replacement on eBay for 20$ and ASUS sells replacements for 55$

For its price its a good mix of power and portability. A desktop though still gives more bang for the buck.

EDIT: Forgot to add. A 600$ midlevel laptop is fine though for normal school work and light gaming. Only go the 1000$ route if you're going to be away from your living space for hours on end. I take plenty of computer and graphics classes, so the G60VX was good to get work started/done between classes and then transfer to desktop to finish it up.

 

[Macgyvercas]

"gaming Laptop" is an oxymoron, don't do it.

DESKTOP!!

This. More power, more graphics, more RAM...Desktops rule!

I mean, there are laptops that will do the job, but if you want an optimal gaming experience, desktop is the way to go.

 

[Freshman]

Well, as a recently inducted collegiate, i believe i can lend you some advice. I got a laptop, which was fine for me because it ran SC2 and SC1 and those are basically the extent of my PC games, However, the only time its mobility has come in handy is when i want to go play SC2 in the really well air conditioned building, other than that, get a desktop. (i don't recommend laptops for class notes either, they dont fit on the little fold up desks, and they get pretty hot on your lap after a while)

 

[Freshman]

For all you folks recommending this person get a desktop... I agree in theory, but keep in mind that he said he's only played console games up until now... sure, you need a top-of-the-line desktop to play the newest stuff, but there's plenty of older games that will run great on a laptop. Hell, if you've never played the original Xcom, start with that and work your way to the present

I can't find a good DOS emulater, so every time i run it the "5secs" setting goes through a day in like 10 seconds. just a bit too fast.

 

[UBERfionn]

I have a gaming laptop.
It's awesome.
'Nuff said.

 

[bam13302]

rule of thumb is that a laptop is 2x as much money as a desktop, so unless you need a gaming computer in 3 places, it is just not worth it
also, desktops are alot easier to upgrade, fix, and clean
just my opinion
MSI laptops are decent though if u need one

 

[Twad]

A desktop just wins anyday for me. Less problems with heat, lifespan, upgrades, easier/cheaper to repair when a problem DOES happen, and you arent likely to drop it on the ground anytime soon.

 

[Dys]

My asus g73 has rather a lot of power for a laptop, though I did pay around $2000au+importing for it, so it may be a little more expensive than what you're after. Other than the battery issues (they tend to struggle with high powered machine), it's not impossible to find a high performance laptop that suit your needs.

 

[Chicago Ted]

Just bought one a few days ago. While it isn't the best, it's definetly a good system, and works perfectly for me.

It's an Acer Aspire 3820TG Notebook. While it lacks a disc drive, and it's specs aren't the highest, it makes up for it with battery life. In fact, I have the specs right here, so I'll list them.

Intel Core i5-430M Processor (2.26GHz, 3MB L3 cache)
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 Up to 2138MB HyperMemory (The Graphics Card, though I think it's only around half a GB, but i can't remember the exact number)
13.3" HD LEC LCD Screen
4BG RAM
500 GB Hard drive
6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

This is what the little sticker on it has listed. It's very light as well, and it has a good long battery life. About 4 hours when gaming, more when not.

 

[mikespoff]

Am I being retarded because I won't have time to game in college?

No, you will definitely have time to game in college.

On topic, while it's true that desktops are hugely superior to laptops for gaming, it is also not necessary to have a top-of-the line gaming machine to get a great gaming experience. The latest and greatest video card is generally overkill: dropping your games to "medium" graphics and tweaking some of the bloom, lighting and filtering effects will go a long way towards getting even the newest games to run smoothly on a mid-range machine. This is especially important when you consider that you'll be limited to the screen size and resolution of a laptop, rather than (let's say) a 24" LCD monitor...

First off, thanks for answering the question about gaming in college, glad to know I'm not wasting my time by looking.
Secondly, your views reflect what a decent number of people of saying, and I agree with you that I won't need some kind of crazy NASA computer to game, I will be in college after all. For that reason I'm kind of leaning towards a laptop, as I've heard some great recommendations for laptops that fit my budget and make sense to me. Buying a desktop and a netbook is an interesting proposition, but I'm not sure I couldn't just get a laptop for that price anyhow.
Anyway, some great advice from everyone so far, keep it coming please!

Thinking about it further, if I were starting college now I would definitely go for a netbook + desktop. Working long hours (or gaming long hours, for that matter) on a laptop is not healthy: you will really benefit from the ergonomics of a desktop. So for taking to class and taking notes and being mobile, a small netbook would be fine... and their combined price will come in at equivalent to a mid-range laptop.

So you get a better working and gaming environment at home, better upgrade potential, a lighter and more portable device for taking to class, all for the same price. Definitely the option I'd choose.

 

[Angerwing]

I got my HP Pavilion DV6-3016AX for $800 Australian. It has the AMD Phenom II x4 N930, 2.0ghz in a quad core, 4gb DDR3 RAM, 500gb Hard Drive, and an ATI Radeon 5650 1gb graphics card. It's got a 1080i screen, and it performs like a fucking champ.

Don't tell me you can't get a powerful laptop for cheap.

I have to ask. Where did you get it?? I havn't seen that model for under $1100

Harvey Norman. They had a big ass sale (nationwide I believe) on those computers. $797 for the computer, no catch. I work there, so I got one put aside, but I got it at the same price as regular customers.

 

[WanderingFool]

Well, my friend is building a Desktop that will have over 30 Gb of RAM, for no reason other than to have 30 Gb of Ram, and 4 Terrabytes (that spelled right?) of Hard Drive space. and all for under $1000 USD. But unfourtunatly, while I was never a big PC gamer, I wanted a Gaming PC, but my college strongly discurages Desktops (I figured it was so they could get you to buy the dell laptops they sold through school.) But I needed a laptop for school and work, so I had to get a laptop because lugging around a Desktop is both impracticle and just pointless. So I had to buy a laptop. But I wanted to play games, so I baught a, at least what I thought, was a damn good Laptop for gaming, an ASUS G36. It handles all my current gaming needs, and once I dont need a laptop anymore, ill invest in an actual gaming Desktop.

 

[Phoenixlight]

I would never buy a gaming laptop, gaming desktops are far superior and cheaper. But if for some reason you can't take a Desktop P.C. then yeah I guess that laptop wouldn't be too bad.

 

[Continuity]

I can't find a good DOS emulater, so every time i run it the "5secs" setting goes through a day in like 10 seconds. just a bit too fast.

Its always been that fast, even on my Amiga 1200.

 

[Apocralyptic]

For all you folks recommending this person get a desktop... I agree in theory, but keep in mind that he said he's only played console games up until now... sure, you need a top-of-the-line desktop to play the newest stuff, but there's plenty of older games that will run great on a laptop. Hell, if you've never played the original Xcom, start with that and work your way to the present

I can't find a good DOS emulater, so every time i run it the "5secs" setting goes through a day in like 10 seconds. just a bit too fast.

I used DOSBox, but you need to go into the config file and set the cycles low enough so that the game doesn't run way too fast. I think you can also use CTRL-F11 and CTRL-F12 while the game is running to adjust the cycles on the fly and get it just right.