Oddly enough, my current laptop is a 4 year old HP Pavilion dv6000. It's served me well and still does damn near everything I need, but for gaming, it's utter crap. Plus it runs hot and I'm tired of my hands getting warm every time I type.
I've looked at the recommended configurations for both of those, since they fit my budget and I'm familiar with HP. I also looked at what they consider the recommended configuration for the Envy Beats Edition, and I'm having a hard time distinguishing the three. Maybe I'm just missing something in terms of processing power. I'm not sure.
I'd tweak anything I get to have a 7200 rpm drive and 8GB of memory, but I don't know enough on my own to tell the difference between those three computers. They seem comparable to me once you get them away from their base models to something a bit more elaborate.
The three HP models in question are very different.
Having a discrete video card normally requires a 15" or larger form factor. It is possible to cram it into a 14" form factor by doing some custom engineering stuff that involves soldering the GPU, video memory, and so forth directly to the motherboard instead of having a discrete card. This adds a lot to the cost, while actually diminishing how powerful of hardware you can fit. On a price/performance basis, such laptops make no sense at all. They're really only for people who highly value the form factor over other considerations. The Envy 14 Beats Edition is such a laptop.
The Llano system doesn't have a discrete video card at all, but uses integrated graphics. You might think integrated graphics is slow, but Llano integrated graphics is an entirely new class of product that didn't exist until this year. The three HP laptops in question all have GPUs with similar architectures. The "Turks" GPU in the other two has 6 SIMD engines, while the Llano GPU has 5. Having 5/6 of the available hardware means you do lose some performance. But it's not at all like the 1 SIMD engine in integrated graphics that AMD launched at the start of the year--and that was at the time by far its most powerful integrated GPU ever.
But there are some serious advantages to using Llano integrated graphics, and you hit on one. Llano is much lower power than any other gaming system you could get, and that means much less heat. The integrated GPU means no need for dedicated video memory burning power. It means no need for a bunch of PCI Express lanes to allow the CPU and GPU to communicate. Putting the GPU on the latest and greatest 32 nm process node with SOI and HKMG to save on power consumption also helps.
Llano has a CPU, GPU, northbridge, and memory controller all in a single chip with a hardware-enforced TDP of 35-45 W. (For gaming, you want a 45 W version, as that allows higher performance.) If you get a discrete card, then the processor alone will have a TDP of 35-45 W. A middling video card might be 30-40 W. A high end video card could be 100 W or more. You'll also have a bit of extra power in the chipset to allow the CPU and GPU to communicate.
So while Llano is a lower performance option, it's also a much lower power option, and has easily the best performance per watt of anything you could consider for gaming. For comparison, the processor part of Llano will get you about 2/3 of the performance of a Sandy Bridge quad core. The Llano GPU might get you around 2/3 of the graphical performance of the GPU in the Radeon HD 6630M of the Envy 14 Beats Edition, and perhaps a little under half that of the Radeon HD 6770M of the other HP laptop I linked.
So yes, there is a performance hit, but it's still very much viable for gaming. It's largely a question of whether you really want to max settings as often as possible, or if you don't mind having to turn settings down a ways in order to get some games to run smoothly.
The other HP laptop I linked has a Sandy Bridge quad core processor and a Radeon HD 6770M GPU. That's a somewhat higher performance option, but still shy of the real gaming laptops that go for $1200+. Note that AMD is far ahead of Nvidia in performance per watt right now, so while you can get the same performance from either side, and Nvidia GPU will burn about 20% more power to do it--and that means 20% more heat for the same performance. The natural next step up in an AMD card is the Radeon HD 6850M or 6870M, but hardly any laptop vendors use that. Instead, there are a bunch that use the comparable GeForce GTX 460M or 560M.
Reasonable and light - Sony Vaio SA and M11x R3 are two subnotebooks with dedicated graphics.
Vaio SA is the best overall around laptop. higher resolution, possibility of blu ray, lots of color options, engraving, full sandy bridge cpu, 8 gigs ram,ssd, backlit keyboard, and so on. It's also a matte display so it works outdoors.
M11x is 11'6 inches but its thick. it has no dvd-drive, but most people wont need it. they can just install their stuff on external. puts more space for battery, fan, graphics, reduces weight, increases battery life. M11x has backlit keyboard, but it has a culv cpu which means that its lower clocked than the SA, but some people think that it's 540m nvidia graphics(optimus) is better than Sony Vaio SA's 6630m ATI. But really, they are so close that you can't really.
Both should be great. M11x despite having a culv cpu, is a boss at skyrim. forum.notebookreview.com have lots of info on their respective sections, and for reviews it's always good to check out notebookcheck.net - they have lots of reviews about every laptop graphics card, benchmark for each games and such.
but relatively light and portable, yet with SWTOR/GW2 performance these two are it. If you go above 13'' inches it's not mobile anymore.
So it's difficult ro recommend m14x, or the 3830 Acer(throttling..). It's still rare to see good graphics in small laptops.
Icy bridge is the next line of CPUs, and they promise vastly improved integrated graphics, but we've heard this before. they also say lower power consumption which means more battery, and less heat. these should be here soon. The question is.. when are these machines ready for an upgrade?
Both m11x and Vaio SA have average displays. but 90% of all laptop displays are considered average today. its simply not one of those things most consumers seem to care as much about.
Vaio SA is probably the more serious notebook. great trackpad, and very good apple like keyboard. the resolution is 1600x which means that you actually do photoshop and real work on it(more screen real estate). but Im not sure if playing at that high resolution on a 13'' screen will make the games interface readable? on the other hand it might not matter because you know the games well and dont need to read the icons. it might be an advantage. the picture will also be sharper when you get such a high rez on a 13'' display.
the m11x has 720p resolution, but it's also a little less wider in footprint but its actually heavier and very thick. and it has the cool lighting effects. if your proud to be a gamer it will really speak it.
They say that Vaio SA is notoriously loud. its a thin machine so the slim profile makes for a smaller fan that has to work very hard. they say that under load with graphics card enabled some people are reporting very disturbingly loud noise. supposedly sony releases bios updates that underclocks the performance so it does not get so warm, but its simply the nature of laptops with lots of CPU and GPU power to become very hot with 90 degrees while gaming. this can rarely be avoided.
M11x is under dell, so it means that you need their customer support. Alienware cant help you there. many people greatly dislike Dell for their customer support but it might be better now a days.
Vaio SA, and Vaio SB(same as SA but with lower resolution) have a battery slice. you can buy this extra battery that adsa and bit of weight and fatness to the machine, but basically it makes the machine(according to sony) able to run on battery for 15 hours. most likely not true, unless you disable wifi and dont use any programs, but still, its supposed to give great battery.
In the end you got two great contenders.
It depends on what you want really. Both are great choices.
If you are gaming with a big G, and like the shizzle, like Nvidia, and so on, try the Alienware. Don't be afraid of its culv.
If you like the SA, but cant afford it, go with the SB.
But whatever you do, remember to get the model with the 6630m graphics. Some vaio laptops also come with a vastly inferior card.
If you are gaming with a big G, and like the shizzle, like Nvidia, and so on, try the Alienware. Don't be afraid of its culv.
That is actually terrible advice. An insufficient processor is a much nastier problem than insufficient graphics. If your graphics can't run a game well on max settings, then you turn settings down a ways and the game still runs smoothly. If a processor can't run a game well, then you're stuck with a game not being playable at any settings.
There are a lot of games where a Core i3-2357M will completely choke, and the game won't be playable. Off the top of my head, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and Champions Online are two such games. And those aren't terribly new games anymore, either.
With an upgraded processor, it will be somewhat better. But there will still be games that don't run smoothly at any settings. I'd be surprised if Guild Wars 2 ran into that problem. But from what people here are saying, it sounds like SWTOR might.
The Alienware M11x doesn't make a bit of sense unless you really, really need the small form factor.
-----
Ivy Bridge might not show up until next Summer. It turns out that Intel's vaunted tri-gate process node is actually quite hard to do in the real world, which is why no one else is even trying to do it yet. So that's not worth waiting for.
Also, while Ivy Bridge will improve upon Sandy Bridge's integrated graphics, that's not saying much. It's not going to be anywhere near as good as the Llano integrated graphics that you can buy today, let alone the Trinity integrated graphics that will be its contemporary competition. Ivy Bridge will be a big deal for a gaming laptop with a discrete card. It's not going to be a serious competitor to Llano or Trinity for gaming on integrated graphics.
Yeah, funny story; I'm a student like the OP, and I have a gaming laptop, and guess what? Maybe 10% of its usage is gaming-oriented. The rest of the time its my only note-taking device and my primary line to the vast majority of my academic resources.
Same here. The vast majority of my time with my laptop is spent taking notes, writing papers, surfing the web, downloading music and audiobooks, and getting through grad school. Gaming would be a very small part of my usage, but I want to play SWTOR and other games. I want a laptop that will fit all my needs, but which doesn't require a forklift to cart around.
If the OP was only going to use the laptop for gaming, they'd get by without a laptop and When I see someone say "I'm a grad student and pretty much live and die by my laptop", I don't generally think of it as them saying "this is a frivolous toy that will be used for nothing but slaying internet dragons".
Exactly. Killing Sith and Imperials will be a small part of my overall usage. It's an important hobby since it's stress relief, but the rest of the things I use a laptop for matter just as much.
I would change the title of the post then. You say you want a gaming laptop, and then a student notebook all at the same time. Very hard to have your cake and eat it also with 'gaming laptops'. For the love of god stay away from Alienware... That is strictly my opinion.
http://www.xoticpc.com/force-16f2012-msi-16f2-preorder-p-3376.html?wconfigure=yes ~ 1200$$ (with upgraded CPU and HD) has the GTX570m and with power tune 'down' it will run 3 hours at least unplugged. Also it isn't extremely massive and looks pretty neat as well. If you wanted to really get a bang for your buck, throw in the 80gb SSD for the main HDD and the 500GB 5400rpm for the secondary. that will run you another 150$ maybe. This will give you portablility, looks, gaming strength and future proofing all in one. Do note that a similar Alienware laptop with even a weaker GPU (gtx560m) will run you even more $$ than this.
*Corsair Obsidian Series 650D *i5-2500K OC'd ~ 4.5 *Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 mother board * Radeon HD 7970 *8GB (4GBx2) 1600MHz Kingston HyperX *240GB Corsair Force GT Series SATA-III SSD
I'm not crazy about it being almost 9 lbs, but with all the features it has, the heavier weight would be my trade-off, I guess.
I'm still looking, though. We'll see what happens. Also, I don't see the distinction between a student laptop and a gaming laptop. If I get one that can run the games I want at a decent clip, it can damn sure run the rest of my programs, but that's just me.
It sounds like you've decided to go for the high performance gaming laptop, rather than a cheaper, low power Llano system. That's fine, as it's a matter of personal preferences and trade-offs, but I thought you should understand the options.
Actually, now that I check on the Clevo laptop on their site, it's cheaper than it used to be. Here:
Do note that you need to upgrade the video card to a Radeon HD 6990M and add an OS. You should also get a 7200 RPM hard drive. They have some weird special where you can get a $50 discount for taking the 8 GB of memory with four modules rather than two (presumably trying to get rid of 2 GB modules), which is perhaps a little less desirable, but to save $50, it's probably worth it. Do that and it's actually cheaper than the base model of what you picked, for markedly better performance and a significantly lighter laptop.
I guess to make it a fair comparison, you should cut down the base model of the one you linked to a 500 GB hard drive, but that still makes it only $10 cheaper. And a Radeon HD 6990M is a lot better than a GeForce GTX 570M. 15" is smaller than 17", but that's the reason it's lighter, which seems to be what you want.
------
You should also realize that on a $1500 budget, you could get an $1100 gaming desktop that will be dramatically faster than the laptop, and also a $400 laptop that is highly portable.
I've been using ASUS laptops, i'm in the military and i move around alot. I got a G73 and a G72. The G73JW plays anything out right now no probs on high and the price is good.
It sounds like you've decided to go for the high performance gaming laptop, rather than a cheaper, low power Llano system. That's fine, as it's a matter of personal preferences and trade-offs, but I thought you should understand the options.
I haven't decided anything yet. It just looks like a good system, but the weight bothers me. I'd have to trade off portability for performance if I bought that. As someone who carries my computer to campus with me every day, the thought of a massive brick like that along with my books isn't a cheerful one.
Alternatively, the Alienware MX14 R3 is lighter and comparable. However, it's Dell and their customer service is horrific from what I've heard, even from my friends who work at Dell. They're an absolute last resort.
Actually, now that I check on the Clevo laptop on their site, it's cheaper than it used to be. Here:
Do note that you need to upgrade the video card to a Radeon HD 6990M and add an OS. You should also get a 7200 RPM hard drive. They have some weird special where you can get a $50 discount for taking the 8 GB of memory with four modules rather than two (presumably trying to get rid of 2 GB modules), which is perhaps a little less desirable, but to save $50, it's probably worth it. Do that and it's actually cheaper than the base model of what you picked, for markedly better performance and a significantly lighter laptop.
I guess to make it a fair comparison, you should cut down the base model of the one you linked to a 500 GB hard drive, but that still makes it only $10 cheaper. And a Radeon HD 6990M is a lot better than a GeForce GTX 570M. 15" is smaller than 17", but that's the reason it's lighter, which seems to be what you want.
Hmm. A Sager? I used one of those in my summer internship. I interned for a gaming company up until recently and they gave me a Sager laptop to work with while I was there. It was nice. I might check that one out.
You should also realize that on a $1500 budget, you could get an $1100 gaming desktop that will be dramatically faster than the laptop, and also a $400 laptop that is highly portable.
Yeah, I know. But over the last few years, I've drifted from having both a desktop and a laptop to depending more and more on my laptop, especially once I got into grad school. I'm just used to it now. At least with a laptop I'm not confined to just the computer room. I can sit on my bed or wherever and work. The mobility is what works for me the best.
Agree 100% with Quiz, this is the laptop you will want. 6990M, good CPU and it's lighter and very powerful for it's price. The best option I can find in that price range you listed by far. The 6990M is arguably the fastest laptop GPU there is. You will love it, and for that price it deserves the love.
*Corsair Obsidian Series 650D *i5-2500K OC'd ~ 4.5 *Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 mother board * Radeon HD 7970 *8GB (4GBx2) 1600MHz Kingston HyperX *240GB Corsair Force GT Series SATA-III SSD
It sounds like you've decided to go for the high performance gaming laptop, rather than a cheaper, low power Llano system. That's fine, as it's a matter of personal preferences and trade-offs, but I thought you should understand the options.
I haven't decided anything yet. It just looks like a good system, but the weight bothers me. I'd have to trade off portability for performance if I bought that. As someone who carries my computer to campus with me every day, the thought of a massive brick like that along with my books isn't a cheerful one.
Alternatively, the Alienware MX14 R3 is lighter and comparable. However, it's Dell and their customer service is horrific from what I've heard, even from my friends who work at Dell. They're an absolute last resort.
Actually, now that I check on the Clevo laptop on their site, it's cheaper than it used to be. Here:
Do note that you need to upgrade the video card to a Radeon HD 6990M and add an OS. You should also get a 7200 RPM hard drive. They have some weird special where you can get a $50 discount for taking the 8 GB of memory with four modules rather than two (presumably trying to get rid of 2 GB modules), which is perhaps a little less desirable, but to save $50, it's probably worth it. Do that and it's actually cheaper than the base model of what you picked, for markedly better performance and a significantly lighter laptop.
I guess to make it a fair comparison, you should cut down the base model of the one you linked to a 500 GB hard drive, but that still makes it only $10 cheaper. And a Radeon HD 6990M is a lot better than a GeForce GTX 570M. 15" is smaller than 17", but that's the reason it's lighter, which seems to be what you want.
Hmm. A Sager? I used one of those in my summer internship. I interned for a gaming company up until recently and they gave me a Sager laptop to work with while I was there. It was nice. I might check that one out.
You should also realize that on a $1500 budget, you could get an $1100 gaming desktop that will be dramatically faster than the laptop, and also a $400 laptop that is highly portable.
Yeah, I know. But over the last few years, I've drifted from having both a desktop and a laptop to depending more and more on my laptop, especially once I got into grad school. I'm just used to it now. At least with a laptop I'm not confined to just the computer room. I can sit on my bed or wherever and work. The mobility is what works for me the best.
If you want a gimp Screen and lose 25-50% performance, then I guess our definitions of ‘comparable’ are vastly different.
*Corsair Obsidian Series 650D *i5-2500K OC'd ~ 4.5 *Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 mother board * Radeon HD 7970 *8GB (4GBx2) 1600MHz Kingston HyperX *240GB Corsair Force GT Series SATA-III SSD
I'm not crazy about it being almost 9 lbs, but with all the features it has, the heavier weight would be my trade-off, I guess.
I'm still looking, though. We'll see what happens. Also, I don't see the distinction between a student laptop and a gaming laptop. If I get one that can run the games I want at a decent clip, it can damn sure run the rest of my programs, but that's just me.
This was one of the laptops I was recommending you but didnt post it. One of my currently favorite gaming laptops available, here is an review/unboxing of it. The thing that makes that laptop special is its gaming keyboard designed by steelseries and also has a matte screen. here is a nice m11x review also.
Yeah, I think you're pretty much not going to do better than that Sager NP8150 on Xotic PC.
Like others have said, upgrade to the 6990 (the single most crucial upgrade), upgrade that HDD to a 7200rpm drive, even if it's the 500gb one, and if there's money, plop down the $50 for the better CPU (though I'd consider it a low priority since it's just a really marginal clock speed upgrade from what I can see).
I wouldn't recommend upgrading the drive past the smallest 7200rpm drive, not when it's a $50 step-up just to get to 750gb from 500gb. I think that's the bad HDD prices all around rearing its ugly head. 500GB is quite a bit as long as you aren't spending 18 hours a day illeglally downloading the entire internet. If you REALLY need more than 500gb of space, just buy a 1TB or 2TB external when HDD prices come down.
The more I keep thinking about this and looking at my options, the more I'm seriously considering just buying a desktop for under a grand and then using the rest of the money for a tablet, like an iPad2 or a Samsung Galaxy 10.1. I haven't used a desktop in a while, but that $1500 budget goes a lot farther if I spend it on a desktop and tablet instead of one laptop.
My current laptop might suck for gaming, but it does everything else I need. Plus, I'm not happy about the idea of carrying a heavy brick around, no matter how powerful of a gaming rig it might be. I'm still seriously considering the Sager and maybe an MSI, though. We'll see.
Originally posted by Lidane The more I keep thinking about this and looking at my options, the more I'm seriously considering just buying a desktop for under a grand and then using the rest of the money for a tablet, like an iPad2 or a Samsung Galaxy 10.1. I haven't used a desktop in a while, but that $1500 budget goes a lot farther if I spend it on a desktop and tablet instead of one laptop.
That is pretty well my first bit of advice to anyone who starts out saying "I need a laptop to play games on", especially students. Generally as a student you want something you can carry around, take notes on during class, and not have to worry about finding a power outlet every 10 minutes. Gaming is extremely contrary to all three of those.
Unless your trying to game between classes, or have super long commutes with power outlets available (planes or trains maybe?), or spend a lot of time in hotel rooms... or those rare people who's wives chain them to the couch to watch TV, your better off with an inexpensive notebook (or tablet, those that utilize bluetooth keyboards are very good for it) for taking notes, and a intermediate desktop gaming PC - you get much better use out of the notebook for mobile stuff, and much better performance for gaming, than if you try to merge both functions into one machine and have to make a lot of compromises on everything you want to do with it.
For those of you that game happily on your laptops: more power to you. Personally, I can't stand it, and can't honestly recommend it to anyone. But if you can live with it, I salute you.
The more I keep thinking about this and looking at my options, the more I'm seriously considering just buying a desktop for under a grand and then using the rest of the money for a tablet, like an iPad2 or a Samsung Galaxy 10.1. I haven't used a desktop in a while, but that $1500 budget goes a lot farther if I spend it on a desktop and tablet instead of one laptop.
My current laptop might suck for gaming, but it does everything else I need. Plus, I'm not happy about the idea of carrying a heavy brick around, no matter how powerful of a gaming rig it might be. I'm still seriously considering the Sager and maybe an MSI, though. We'll see.
What's your current laptop? If you get a gaming desktop, would you plan on still using your current laptop, or replacing it? And if replacing it, then what are you looking about that should make the new one "better"?
There are a lot of different possible answers, of course, and recommendations for "higher performance" would be different from "lower power" or "lighter weight" or whatever.
You can get a laptop very cheaply that will run most games at low to moderate settings:
The more I keep thinking about this and looking at my options, the more I'm seriously considering just buying a desktop for under a grand and then using the rest of the money for a tablet, like an iPad2 or a Samsung Galaxy 10.1. I haven't used a desktop in a while, but that $1500 budget goes a lot farther if I spend it on a desktop and tablet instead of one laptop.
My current laptop might suck for gaming, but it does everything else I need. Plus, I'm not happy about the idea of carrying a heavy brick around, no matter how powerful of a gaming rig it might be. I'm still seriously considering the Sager and maybe an MSI, though. We'll see.
What's your current laptop? If you get a gaming desktop, would you plan on still using your current laptop, or replacing it? And if replacing it, then what are you looking about that should make the new one "better"?
My current laptop is a four year old HP Pavillion dv6000. Nothing to write home about. It's just a mid-range laptop I bought when I went back to college to finish my bachelor's degree. If I find a gaming desktop rig I like, I'm just going to keep it, since it does everything I need for school and I graduate with my MBA in May anyway. Once I get back to full-time work, I'll replace it with something that will suit my career needs.
That's why I'm now looking at a tablet and a desktop instead of a new laptop. A desktop that runs about $1,000 will set me up for a couple of years and replace the ancient desktop that I used to have. It should also serve my gaming needs for the foreseeable future. The tablet will be a day to day device so I don't have to take my laptop to campus all the time. And it will come in handy when I get to SXSW in March.
Lidane, without a doubt I think you're making the right decisions here.
As long as that laptop of yours functions, keep it. With what you have for a budget, especially without the burden to purchase a laptop, you can build one hell of a desktop. You might not even need to spend the entire thing, depending on what you're looking for.
Comments
The three HP models in question are very different.
Having a discrete video card normally requires a 15" or larger form factor. It is possible to cram it into a 14" form factor by doing some custom engineering stuff that involves soldering the GPU, video memory, and so forth directly to the motherboard instead of having a discrete card. This adds a lot to the cost, while actually diminishing how powerful of hardware you can fit. On a price/performance basis, such laptops make no sense at all. They're really only for people who highly value the form factor over other considerations. The Envy 14 Beats Edition is such a laptop.
The Llano system doesn't have a discrete video card at all, but uses integrated graphics. You might think integrated graphics is slow, but Llano integrated graphics is an entirely new class of product that didn't exist until this year. The three HP laptops in question all have GPUs with similar architectures. The "Turks" GPU in the other two has 6 SIMD engines, while the Llano GPU has 5. Having 5/6 of the available hardware means you do lose some performance. But it's not at all like the 1 SIMD engine in integrated graphics that AMD launched at the start of the year--and that was at the time by far its most powerful integrated GPU ever.
But there are some serious advantages to using Llano integrated graphics, and you hit on one. Llano is much lower power than any other gaming system you could get, and that means much less heat. The integrated GPU means no need for dedicated video memory burning power. It means no need for a bunch of PCI Express lanes to allow the CPU and GPU to communicate. Putting the GPU on the latest and greatest 32 nm process node with SOI and HKMG to save on power consumption also helps.
Llano has a CPU, GPU, northbridge, and memory controller all in a single chip with a hardware-enforced TDP of 35-45 W. (For gaming, you want a 45 W version, as that allows higher performance.) If you get a discrete card, then the processor alone will have a TDP of 35-45 W. A middling video card might be 30-40 W. A high end video card could be 100 W or more. You'll also have a bit of extra power in the chipset to allow the CPU and GPU to communicate.
So while Llano is a lower performance option, it's also a much lower power option, and has easily the best performance per watt of anything you could consider for gaming. For comparison, the processor part of Llano will get you about 2/3 of the performance of a Sandy Bridge quad core. The Llano GPU might get you around 2/3 of the graphical performance of the GPU in the Radeon HD 6630M of the Envy 14 Beats Edition, and perhaps a little under half that of the Radeon HD 6770M of the other HP laptop I linked.
So yes, there is a performance hit, but it's still very much viable for gaming. It's largely a question of whether you really want to max settings as often as possible, or if you don't mind having to turn settings down a ways in order to get some games to run smoothly.
The other HP laptop I linked has a Sandy Bridge quad core processor and a Radeon HD 6770M GPU. That's a somewhat higher performance option, but still shy of the real gaming laptops that go for $1200+. Note that AMD is far ahead of Nvidia in performance per watt right now, so while you can get the same performance from either side, and Nvidia GPU will burn about 20% more power to do it--and that means 20% more heat for the same performance. The natural next step up in an AMD card is the Radeon HD 6850M or 6870M, but hardly any laptop vendors use that. Instead, there are a bunch that use the comparable GeForce GTX 460M or 560M.
Reasonable and light - Sony Vaio SA and M11x R3 are two subnotebooks with dedicated graphics.
Vaio SA is the best overall around laptop. higher resolution, possibility of blu ray, lots of color options, engraving, full sandy bridge cpu, 8 gigs ram,ssd, backlit keyboard, and so on. It's also a matte display so it works outdoors.
M11x is 11'6 inches but its thick. it has no dvd-drive, but most people wont need it. they can just install their stuff on external. puts more space for battery, fan, graphics, reduces weight, increases battery life. M11x has backlit keyboard, but it has a culv cpu which means that its lower clocked than the SA, but some people think that it's 540m nvidia graphics(optimus) is better than Sony Vaio SA's 6630m ATI. But really, they are so close that you can't really.
Both should be great. M11x despite having a culv cpu, is a boss at skyrim. forum.notebookreview.com have lots of info on their respective sections, and for reviews it's always good to check out notebookcheck.net - they have lots of reviews about every laptop graphics card, benchmark for each games and such.
but relatively light and portable, yet with SWTOR/GW2 performance these two are it. If you go above 13'' inches it's not mobile anymore.
So it's difficult ro recommend m14x, or the 3830 Acer(throttling..). It's still rare to see good graphics in small laptops.
Icy bridge is the next line of CPUs, and they promise vastly improved integrated graphics, but we've heard this before. they also say lower power consumption which means more battery, and less heat. these should be here soon. The question is.. when are these machines ready for an upgrade?
Both m11x and Vaio SA have average displays. but 90% of all laptop displays are considered average today. its simply not one of those things most consumers seem to care as much about.
Vaio SA is probably the more serious notebook. great trackpad, and very good apple like keyboard. the resolution is 1600x which means that you actually do photoshop and real work on it(more screen real estate). but Im not sure if playing at that high resolution on a 13'' screen will make the games interface readable? on the other hand it might not matter because you know the games well and dont need to read the icons. it might be an advantage. the picture will also be sharper when you get such a high rez on a 13'' display.
the m11x has 720p resolution, but it's also a little less wider in footprint but its actually heavier and very thick. and it has the cool lighting effects. if your proud to be a gamer it will really speak it.
They say that Vaio SA is notoriously loud. its a thin machine so the slim profile makes for a smaller fan that has to work very hard. they say that under load with graphics card enabled some people are reporting very disturbingly loud noise. supposedly sony releases bios updates that underclocks the performance so it does not get so warm, but its simply the nature of laptops with lots of CPU and GPU power to become very hot with 90 degrees while gaming. this can rarely be avoided.
M11x is under dell, so it means that you need their customer support. Alienware cant help you there. many people greatly dislike Dell for their customer support but it might be better now a days.
Vaio SA, and Vaio SB(same as SA but with lower resolution) have a battery slice. you can buy this extra battery that adsa and bit of weight and fatness to the machine, but basically it makes the machine(according to sony) able to run on battery for 15 hours. most likely not true, unless you disable wifi and dont use any programs, but still, its supposed to give great battery.
In the end you got two great contenders.
It depends on what you want really. Both are great choices.
If you are gaming with a big G, and like the shizzle, like Nvidia, and so on, try the Alienware. Don't be afraid of its culv.
If you like the SA, but cant afford it, go with the SB.
But whatever you do, remember to get the model with the 6630m graphics. Some vaio laptops also come with a vastly inferior card.
That is actually terrible advice. An insufficient processor is a much nastier problem than insufficient graphics. If your graphics can't run a game well on max settings, then you turn settings down a ways and the game still runs smoothly. If a processor can't run a game well, then you're stuck with a game not being playable at any settings.
There are a lot of games where a Core i3-2357M will completely choke, and the game won't be playable. Off the top of my head, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and Champions Online are two such games. And those aren't terribly new games anymore, either.
With an upgraded processor, it will be somewhat better. But there will still be games that don't run smoothly at any settings. I'd be surprised if Guild Wars 2 ran into that problem. But from what people here are saying, it sounds like SWTOR might.
The Alienware M11x doesn't make a bit of sense unless you really, really need the small form factor.
-----
Ivy Bridge might not show up until next Summer. It turns out that Intel's vaunted tri-gate process node is actually quite hard to do in the real world, which is why no one else is even trying to do it yet. So that's not worth waiting for.
Also, while Ivy Bridge will improve upon Sandy Bridge's integrated graphics, that's not saying much. It's not going to be anywhere near as good as the Llano integrated graphics that you can buy today, let alone the Trinity integrated graphics that will be its contemporary competition. Ivy Bridge will be a big deal for a gaming laptop with a discrete card. It's not going to be a serious competitor to Llano or Trinity for gaming on integrated graphics.
I would change the title of the post then. You say you want a gaming laptop, and then a student notebook all at the same time. Very hard to have your cake and eat it also with 'gaming laptops'. For the love of god stay away from Alienware... That is strictly my opinion.
http://www.xoticpc.com/force-16f2012-msi-16f2-preorder-p-3376.html?wconfigure=yes ~ 1200$$ (with upgraded CPU and HD) has the GTX570m and with power tune 'down' it will run 3 hours at least unplugged. Also it isn't extremely massive and looks pretty neat as well. If you wanted to really get a bang for your buck, throw in the 80gb SSD for the main HDD and the 500GB 5400rpm for the secondary. that will run you another 150$ maybe. This will give you portablility, looks, gaming strength and future proofing all in one. Do note that a similar Alienware laptop with even a weaker GPU (gtx560m) will run you even more $$ than this.
*Corsair Obsidian Series 650D *i5-2500K OC'd ~ 4.5
*Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 mother board
* Radeon HD 7970
*8GB (4GBx2) 1600MHz Kingston HyperX
*240GB Corsair Force GT Series SATA-III SSD
OK. So this meets my budget and seems to be a good fit. It's a bit heavier than I'd like, but I could live with it if I can't find something lighter:
http://www.xoticpc.com/msi-gt780dx215us-p-3127.html
I'm not crazy about it being almost 9 lbs, but with all the features it has, the heavier weight would be my trade-off, I guess.
I'm still looking, though. We'll see what happens. Also, I don't see the distinction between a student laptop and a gaming laptop. If I get one that can run the games I want at a decent clip, it can damn sure run the rest of my programs, but that's just me.
It sounds like you've decided to go for the high performance gaming laptop, rather than a cheaper, low power Llano system. That's fine, as it's a matter of personal preferences and trade-offs, but I thought you should understand the options.
Actually, now that I check on the Clevo laptop on their site, it's cheaper than it used to be. Here:
http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8150-clevo-p150hm-p-2972.html
6.83 lbs, and it fits your budget.
Do note that you need to upgrade the video card to a Radeon HD 6990M and add an OS. You should also get a 7200 RPM hard drive. They have some weird special where you can get a $50 discount for taking the 8 GB of memory with four modules rather than two (presumably trying to get rid of 2 GB modules), which is perhaps a little less desirable, but to save $50, it's probably worth it. Do that and it's actually cheaper than the base model of what you picked, for markedly better performance and a significantly lighter laptop.
I guess to make it a fair comparison, you should cut down the base model of the one you linked to a 500 GB hard drive, but that still makes it only $10 cheaper. And a Radeon HD 6990M is a lot better than a GeForce GTX 570M. 15" is smaller than 17", but that's the reason it's lighter, which seems to be what you want.
------
You should also realize that on a $1500 budget, you could get an $1100 gaming desktop that will be dramatically faster than the laptop, and also a $400 laptop that is highly portable.
I've been using ASUS laptops, i'm in the military and i move around alot. I got a G73 and a G72. The G73JW plays anything out right now no probs on high and the price is good.
http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8150-built-clevo-p150hm-custom-gaming-sager-notebook-p-2972.html?wconfigure=yesI make sure you spend the 1500$ so you get the 100$$ off. So it knocks it back to 1400$.
Agree 100% with Quiz, this is the laptop you will want. 6990M, good CPU and it's lighter and very powerful for it's price. The best option I can find in that price range you listed by far. The 6990M is arguably the fastest laptop GPU there is. You will love it, and for that price it deserves the love.
*Corsair Obsidian Series 650D *i5-2500K OC'd ~ 4.5
*Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 mother board
* Radeon HD 7970
*8GB (4GBx2) 1600MHz Kingston HyperX
*240GB Corsair Force GT Series SATA-III SSD
If you want a gimp Screen and lose 25-50% performance, then I guess our definitions of ‘comparable’ are vastly different.
*Corsair Obsidian Series 650D *i5-2500K OC'd ~ 4.5
*Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 mother board
* Radeon HD 7970
*8GB (4GBx2) 1600MHz Kingston HyperX
*240GB Corsair Force GT Series SATA-III SSD
This was one of the laptops I was recommending you but didnt post it. One of my currently favorite gaming laptops available, here is an review/unboxing of it. The thing that makes that laptop special is its gaming keyboard designed by steelseries and also has a matte screen. here is a nice m11x review also.
Yeah, I think you're pretty much not going to do better than that Sager NP8150 on Xotic PC.
Like others have said, upgrade to the 6990 (the single most crucial upgrade), upgrade that HDD to a 7200rpm drive, even if it's the 500gb one, and if there's money, plop down the $50 for the better CPU (though I'd consider it a low priority since it's just a really marginal clock speed upgrade from what I can see).
I wouldn't recommend upgrading the drive past the smallest 7200rpm drive, not when it's a $50 step-up just to get to 750gb from 500gb. I think that's the bad HDD prices all around rearing its ugly head. 500GB is quite a bit as long as you aren't spending 18 hours a day illeglally downloading the entire internet. If you REALLY need more than 500gb of space, just buy a 1TB or 2TB external when HDD prices come down.
The more I keep thinking about this and looking at my options, the more I'm seriously considering just buying a desktop for under a grand and then using the rest of the money for a tablet, like an iPad2 or a Samsung Galaxy 10.1. I haven't used a desktop in a while, but that $1500 budget goes a lot farther if I spend it on a desktop and tablet instead of one laptop.
My current laptop might suck for gaming, but it does everything else I need. Plus, I'm not happy about the idea of carrying a heavy brick around, no matter how powerful of a gaming rig it might be. I'm still seriously considering the Sager and maybe an MSI, though. We'll see.
That is pretty well my first bit of advice to anyone who starts out saying "I need a laptop to play games on", especially students. Generally as a student you want something you can carry around, take notes on during class, and not have to worry about finding a power outlet every 10 minutes. Gaming is extremely contrary to all three of those.
Unless your trying to game between classes, or have super long commutes with power outlets available (planes or trains maybe?), or spend a lot of time in hotel rooms... or those rare people who's wives chain them to the couch to watch TV, your better off with an inexpensive notebook (or tablet, those that utilize bluetooth keyboards are very good for it) for taking notes, and a intermediate desktop gaming PC - you get much better use out of the notebook for mobile stuff, and much better performance for gaming, than if you try to merge both functions into one machine and have to make a lot of compromises on everything you want to do with it.
For those of you that game happily on your laptops: more power to you. Personally, I can't stand it, and can't honestly recommend it to anyone. But if you can live with it, I salute you.
What's your current laptop? If you get a gaming desktop, would you plan on still using your current laptop, or replacing it? And if replacing it, then what are you looking about that should make the new one "better"?
There are a lot of different possible answers, of course, and recommendations for "higher performance" would be different from "lower power" or "lighter weight" or whatever.
You can get a laptop very cheaply that will run most games at low to moderate settings:
http://www.amazon.com/Gateway-NV55S03u-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Ebony/dp/B0051OLCH0/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1321768030&sr=1-1
Or you could get an E-350 or E-450 based laptop that is a little over 3 pounds, on which gaming will be dicier, but some games will run well:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834157883
You might not be interested in laptops like that, but they're classes of products that didn't even exist a year ago, so I thought I'd bring it up.
My current laptop is a four year old HP Pavillion dv6000. Nothing to write home about. It's just a mid-range laptop I bought when I went back to college to finish my bachelor's degree. If I find a gaming desktop rig I like, I'm just going to keep it, since it does everything I need for school and I graduate with my MBA in May anyway. Once I get back to full-time work, I'll replace it with something that will suit my career needs.
That's why I'm now looking at a tablet and a desktop instead of a new laptop. A desktop that runs about $1,000 will set me up for a couple of years and replace the ancient desktop that I used to have. It should also serve my gaming needs for the foreseeable future. The tablet will be a day to day device so I don't have to take my laptop to campus all the time. And it will come in handy when I get to SXSW in March.
Certainly, if your old laptop does everything you need a laptop for, and your only concern is gaming, then keep the old laptop and keep using it.
Lidane, without a doubt I think you're making the right decisions here.
As long as that laptop of yours functions, keep it. With what you have for a budget, especially without the burden to purchase a laptop, you can build one hell of a desktop. You might not even need to spend the entire thing, depending on what you're looking for.