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Best gaming brand laptops?
Im thinking about getting a laptop for Christmas this year and idk what all brands are for gaming....really all i know is alienware lol and those are expensive i could prolly get one but idk if there worth the money.
prolly going to get a laptop for at least 2k maybe 2.5k which would be the most i could possibly get
Comments
Brand? It's not about the sticker on the case. It's about the hardware inside.
First of all, a laptop shouldn't be your primary gaming machine unless you're rarely home. You can get vastly superior performance, greater reliability, easier upgrades, easier repairs, and a lower price tag from a gaming desktop. If you've already got a good gaming desktop and want a laptop for when you're away from home, then read on.
Don't buy a gaming laptop for Christmas. Anything you can get then will be dreadfully obsolete about three weeks later. Wait for Sandy Bridge and you'll get a processor maybe 30%-40% faster for the same price tag and power consumption. A Core i7 2720QM is the thing to look for.
For the video card, right now, the thing to get would be a Mobility Radeon HD 5870. I'm not sure if AMD is going to launch mobile cards based on their new Barts GPU, but if so, it would most likely be branded as a Mobility Radeon HD 6870 or 6970. If they do launch a mobile card based on Barts, I'd expect to see it sometime around January. I haven't seen any rumors on it, though.
And then comes storage. You should get a good solid state drive for a laptop, not a hard drive, especially with that budget. Solid state drives are dramatically faster than hard drives, so that you don't constantly have to sit and wait for the computer to respond. They have no moving parts, and hence no moving parts that can break, so when you drop the laptop, you might break a hard drive inside and kill it, but an SSD won't be damaged. SSDs are dead silent, so you can be free of the annoying hum of a hard drive. And SSDs use virtually no power.
Right now, the ideal SSDs to grab are based on the SandForce controller, and branded as OCZ Vertex 2, Agility 2, or Onyx 2; G.Skill Phoenix or Phoenix Pro; Mushkin Callisto or Callisto Deluxe; and some others. Intel, Indilinx, and SandForce are all going to release new SSD controllers sometime around when you buy the laptop, but performance on those is not yet known.
Well the reason i want a laptop is because i always go to friends houses and bring my computer with and its a hassle....its like every weekend i bring my stuff
I've been eyeing this ASUS:
http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-g73jw-now-stock-g73jwa1-p-2858.html?wconfigure=yes
After customizing it, it's about $2,400 (USD)
look around that site they have some nice laptops.
Personally, I like the ASUS notebooks. The G73JW-QB1 is a very nicely spec'd notebook, that is definately capable of playing anything out there and is under 2k.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
A GeForce GTX 460M is not the level of video card performance you want in a $2000+ laptop. A Mobility Radeon HD 5870 is significantly faster. Nvidia doesn't say the TDP on the GTX 460M, but it's probably higher than the Mobility Radeon HD 5870, too. The 5870 is likely cheaper, too.
What is a "G73JW-QB1"? Google doesn't find the specs.
I rather not deal with ATI retarded borked driver releases.
I really hate having to rollback my drivers just because they messed something up.
I stick with nVidia for that reason alone.
Here comes the FUD, I see. Both AMD and Nvidia do have their occasional driver issues, but they're both pretty good. Intel drivers are the ones that you have to watch out for.
Dell best varanty and hardware inside, biggest price, 3 year warranty
Asus powerfull hardware inside, reasonably cheaper than dell, 2 year warranty
rest isnt worth much thoughts, acers seems to be good now ( finnaly ) and reasonably priced, but try finding anything on acer site, there probably arent even any driver downloads..
if i were you go with asus
obviously there are many more brands, but those arent worth looking into , cant say anything about samsung since they are pretty new into laptop market
If you can say that with a straight face, then I'd say you probably don't have any great experience dealing with Nvidia drivers. It honestly didn't come as a surprise to me that in 2007 30% of all Windows Vista crashes were caused by Nvidia drivers (Ati drivers caused 1/3 of that). One of the primary reasons I was itching to get back to Ati after I had my Geforce 8800 was because with every release something new broke in the Nvidia drivers. To my knowledge, they STILL haven't fixed the crippling anti-aliasing problem in Battlefield 2142, and that was something like two years ago that that cropped up in the 179.xx drivers.
Honestly, once I replaced that card with my 4870, the difference was almost miraculous. I had almost forgetton that it was possible for drivers to give that little trouble.
In truth, it isn't that clear-cut. Both companies will have their issues. Given that fact, to use that as such a supreme criteria for judging video cards, that you're willing to buy something vastly inferior just to get a certain brand (in a laptop, where you can't upgrade, no less) just does not seem like a smart move at all. If I were you, I'd put more focus on what's going to run the fastest and coolest, and not let something like drivers be the center of your entire purchase. The mobile 5870 is both significantly faster and has a much lower TDP (50 vs 72 by Notebook Check estimates) than the GTX460M.
well this is what i built customly is it good for the price?
http://i729.photobucket.com/albums/ww300/Doom10320/Untitled-2.jpg
Copy and paste ^ into ur address bar
Laptops really suck for gaming but there are 2 very different things to look for in one you plan to play games on:
1: No intergrated video card. All built in cards totally blows.
2. Avoid HP to all costs. They get, to quote Kiss, hotter than hell. Really, I seen several burn up. Avoid to all costs.
A gaming laptop cost twice what a game desktop does and still performs worse. But there are in some cases where you must have one you can move, be prepared to pay a lot for one.
Sony makes the best ones with incredible warranty but they also costs most. ASUS and ACER makes acceptable budget choices, and MSI have a few good ones too.
But you should really consider a desktop instead if there is any choice at all, a high end desktop is still cheaper than a laptop that can barely run all current games.
Thats way too expensive for what you have in there
Just grab an Asus n61jq for a grand and save yourself some cash.
I can run age of Conan on almost max gfx with it.
http://www.asusnotebook.com.au/2108_ASUS-N61JQ-N61JQ-JX021X-Notebook-Intel-Core-i7-720QM-with-Win-7-Pro.php
http://www.amazon.com/N61JQ-XV1-16-Inch-Versatile-Entertainment-Laptop/dp/B0041RRVOG/ref=dp_ob_title_ce
edit: updated amazon link to the latest model
It's likely that in about six months or so, you'll be able to get that level of graphical performance from integrated graphics without a discrete card at all.
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If you want a gaming laptop, you'd probably be better off waiting. In a few months, you'll be able to get something vastly superior to the $2500 laptop you linked for around $1500 or so. Based on some code names that showed up in AMD drivers a couple of months ago, it looks like they will release a mobile version of Barts, and that will get you about the same performance as the two Mobility Radeon HD 5870s in CrossFire even assuming perfect CrossFire scaling--which is an unrealistic assumption, especially for mobile cards where virtually no one uses CrossFire or SLI. A dual core processor with two cores clocked fairly low is going to feel awfully slow awfully soon, too. Sandy Bridge will be a lot better, and is coming in January. And don't forget the SSD.
I had to look up what TDP meant, I had never heard of it, before this thread.
Still I've had less problems with nVidia then ATI when it comes to gaming.
anyway here's the same laptop just with the HD5870, it's the same price at the nvidia one.
http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-g73jhb1-repulic-gamers-rog-laptop-p-2885.html?wconfigure=yes
I have to say...Do NOT go with asus if you plan on keeping it after a long time. I got my gf an Asus g73jh and its not as great as I expected.
First!
She had severe problems with video card firmware. I had to send her my firmware (from a sager np8690) to fix the problem.
Second!
It is a complete pain to clean up if you live in a place where dust is a problem. <- this is a very very big thing for me.
I settled for Sager because you can upgrade parts on your own, its easy to open up, etc....
It doesnt have all the flashiness of Asus or Alienware, but I find it really really good and easy to clean and maintain. And you can upgrade yourself.
So yah!
EDIT:
Remember Nvidias main point is CUDA but last I checked there were no DX11 nvidia mobile gpu
Edit 2 :
Isnt there a new board coming out soon? IIRC there was going to be a new one so I suggest waiting forthat
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( o.o)
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**This bunny was cloned from bunnies belonging to Gobla and is part of the Quizzical Fanclub and the The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club**
Sager is a brand that pulls from a variety of ODMs (Clevo, Compal, etc), some with high quality machines, some not so much. Basically, they're kind of generic laptops. Buying one gets you a good price for the same machine, but often at the price of an adequate included warranty.
You can get pretty good prices from Asus and MSI as well. Just be wary of cooling problems on "budget" gaming machines (which do become less of a problem when you take into account the fact that their warranties usually cover the useful gaming life of a typical laptop).
Actually sager pulls off Clevo only iirc. But yes Clevo/sager laptops have very very good cooling (mine barely reaches 75c on a sager np8690 with an ati 5800)
And yes DEFINITELY be wary of cooling problemson Asus and MSI! I mean not all of them will have major cooling problems but most MSI Ive tried get very very hot and so definitely get a good laptop pag...mat thing that has fans o.O
To the OP:
If youd give more info on what kind of laptop you want, we oculd give more info.
High end, Sager/Clevo beats Asus price (because Asus laptops cant be preconfigured from factory. They have to open the thing up, and change parts as the distributor gets it) So Sager with an upgraded processor such as i7900something against an Asus g73 with an i7900something, sager will get a lower price (because of no labor added costs)
To OP:
Another thing is that the laptop you want may depend on how often you move around with it. 19 inch monster +psu = heavy. Thats not something that youd want to walk around with o.o
But then getting a desktop replacement thats heavy that you dont move around much at all with then...get a desktop o.o
Again:
Asus : Affordable middle - high end. Extremely annoying to open up to clean parts and very very easy to bust your laptop.
Sager : more affordable Higher end but more expensive as you get lower specs. Easy to clean inside the laptop and to open up and replace parts yourself
Those are my top two brands but im leaning to sager because they usually have eSata ports (which pwns if you have a convoyXL compared to Asus only having usb2.0)
More Edits:
Exactly right on one guy saying to wait for Sandy Bridge. Ifyou have a half decent laptop/desktop right now, wait for that instead. I was going to wait but I needed a laptop because of travelling and it is NOT fun to lug around your monitor and desktop.
''/\/\'' Posted using Iphone bunni
( o.o)
(")(")
**This bunny was cloned from bunnies belonging to Gobla and is part of the Quizzical Fanclub and the The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club**
CyberPower Xplorer X7-Xtreme S1
Site: http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Xplorer_X7-Xtreme_S1_Notebook/
Well to everyone i have like a 1000+ $ computer which ive had for 2 years and upgraded some stuff but every weekend i bring my computer,keyboard,mouse,24inch monitor, to peoples houses and its annoying lol thats the one reason why i want to get a laptop. i just want a laptop thats pretty good for the price that can play games good cuz my friend got one 2 years agoo idk what model but he always used it and after awhile the thing just turned to shit. cuz at first it was fast and then after about 5 months the thing became slow as he said even after reformatting it and crap. so i just want a laptop thats good speced for gaming that really it cuz i hate carrying around all my gear just to go to a friends house for a night
ASUS G73JW-QHDB1 I7-740QM,W7HP,8G-DDR3,1TB(500X2),BD COMBO,
17.3" gaming focus model. 4 memory slots, numeric keypad
CPU : Intel Quad Core i7-740QM (1.73GHz)
LCD Size & Resolution : 17.3" FHD 1920x1080 LED
MB Chipset : Intel HM55
Optical Drive : BD Combo Drive
Memory : 8GB DDR3 1333 Mhz (4x2GB, 0 skt free), max 8GB
VGA Card : NV GTX 460M 1.5G GDDR5 VRAM
Hard Drive : 1TB (500G 7200 x2)
WLAN/ TPM : 802.11 B/G/N, No TPM
LAN : 10/100/1000
Battery/Run Time : Li-ion 8 cell
Interface/ Card Reader : 3xUSB 2.0, 1x USB 3.0, 1xHDMI, 8-in-1
Bluetooth/FingerPrint : Yes/ No
Color/Weight/WxDxH : Black/8.0lbs/16.6" x 12.8" x 0.8" - 2.3"
Warranty : 2 Yrs Global/1st Yr Accidental Damage/
30 Days ZBD
Operating System : Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit), bilingual kb
Carry bag & mouse : Gaming Backpack/Gaming Mouse
Camera : 2.0M
@Quizzical
BTW, why did you say that Intel's drivers are the ones to avoid?
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
Gaming laptops... I'll never understand why these things do not have an external pci-e port unless the goal is to cook people.
Forever looking for employment. Life is rather dull without it.
Great laptop...and great price...Asus does a great job with most of their products. $1200 gets you a desktop replacement...or close to it...
My personal opinion is to get a beefy business class laptop, for durability, with out a graphics card and then a vidock or DIY vidock. Technical skill/research required. But its fun! This generation hooked up to a lappy. Plus side, the heat stays outside of the laptop and the video card is upgradable. The downside is the performance isn't quite as good as a desktop setup and needs a plugin. Performance is typically better than current generation mobile graphics.
Forever looking for employment. Life is rather dull without it.
There's no real reason to consider a GeForce GTX 460M, when a Mobility Radeon HD 5870 gives you better performance with less power consumption and doesn't cost any more.
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I say to avoid Intel's video drivers because they aren't very good. AMD and Nvidia both want to sell you video cards for hundreds of dollars that are good for gaming. And both want to sell to knowledgeable users, too. Hardware doesn't do any good without drivers, so both put massive resources into making their drivers work. They test their various cards on a bunch of different particular games to look for bugs, and release periodic updates of their drivers. They solicit feedback from users to report bugs that they can try to track down and fix. Video drivers are tremendously complicated, but both AMD and Nvidia put in the work to make good drivers.
The reasons why this benefits you if you buy a $300 card from AMD or Nvidia are obvious. But it benefits you if you buy a $70 video card, or even integrated graphics. The lower end parts are the same basic architecture as the high end parts, except with fewer of a bunch of components. You get fewer shaders, fewer TMUs, fewer ROPs, fewer memory controllers, and so forth. But if AMD and Nvidia put in the work to make all of those components work properly in the high end parts, it takes only minor tweaks to make them work properly in the low end parts.
Intel, on the other hand, doesn't put in the work needed to make good drivers. Intel doesn't have high end cards to sell. The only people who buy Intel integrated graphics are those who don't care about gaming performance or don't know any better, neither of which will be dissuaded from the purchase by bad drivers. Games might run just fine on Intel graphics with a low frame rate the only problem, or they might have graphical features completely disabled, serious graphical corruption problems, or even outright crashes. Intel does try to make their drivers work well for everything except gaming. But even if Intel did put in the work to have great drivers, their integrated graphics just aren't powerful enough to be useful for gaming.
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"Gaming laptops... I'll never understand why these things do not have an external pci-e port unless the goal is to cook people."
There isn't an external PCI Express standard to use. If AMD or Nvidia wanted to do that, they'd have to build something custom. AMD actually did that a few years back, but it didn't sell well, so they gave up. It would be a very small market, too.
An external PCI Express standard might well be pretty hard to implement. Video cards need far more bandwidth than other external devices. A PCI Express 2.0 x16 slot (the modern standard) offers 8 GB/s of bandwidth. For comparison, gigabit ethernet offers 0.125 GB/s. USB 3.0 offers 0.5 GB/s. USB 2.0 offers 0.05 GB/s. eSATA 3.0 offers 0.6 GB/s. eSATA 2.0 offers 0.3 GB/s. Even DVI dual link, used for the largest monitors, only has around 1 GB/s. Try to hook up a video card to any common external slot and it would be choked by a lack of bandwidth. Try to develop your own external slot and it costs a fortune and probably doesn't sell well, as it's hard to get it adopted.
There are also latency issues. The latency any of the other things I listed above is about a thousand times the latency for PCI Express. The amount of time it takes to send messages back and forth for a processor to communicate with a video card are on the order of a hundred CPU cycles. That's fast enough to allow both to be computing things at the same time and send information back and forth for the other to use. For SATA, USB, or Ethernet, you're looking at hundreds of thousands of CPU cycles. That's long enough that they essentially have to do things on their own with little communication between them, which would at minimum require completely redesigning video cards. The latency issue is likely a bigger problem than the bandwidth issue.
HA! I just bought this today! It'll be here tomorrow! So happy. Best bang for the buck. I got the 500g version though. I already have 1TB external and it's 300$ less.