Should I buy this gaming laptop

Comments

• Quizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,523

  September 2012

  Gaming laptops tend to have fairly short lifetimes, so if you buy a laptop, I wouldn't plan on getting four years out of it.  One problem is that the hardware is slower to begin with, in order to reduce power consumption and heat output.  That means your hardware is obsolete and you're looking to replace it a year or two sooner than if you had bought a gaming desktop.

  Another problem is that gaming laptops are fundamentally a proposition of putting too much heat into too little space.  Cooling a video card that puts out 100 W isn't hard to do in a desktop.  You just put a decently big heatsink on it, a decent sized fan, and rely on general case airflow to get cool air to the fan.  But that won't physically fit in a laptop.  Get some dust in the laptop and you'll overheat in a hurry, and that reduces component lifetimes.

  Another factor that reduces laptop longevity is that other than the hard drive/SSD, memory, and perhaps optical drive, you can't replace components.  In a desktop, if your monitor dies, you replace the monitor.  If your video card dies, you replace the video card.  If you motherboard dies, you replace the motherboard.  If one particular chip on the motherboard dies (say, the ethernet port), you might even be able to just get an add-in card to replace that one function and keep the motherboard.  Likewise, if some particular component isn't good enough, you can often replace just that one component.  In a laptop, if you need to replace any of those, you have to replace the laptop entirely.

  Have you considered getting both a gaming desktop and also a cheap laptop?  If you're going to spend $1600, then you could get a $400 laptop that will be functional for whatever you need the laptop for (and even run most games, typically at low to moderate graphical settings), and the other $1200 on a desktop that will perform much better than any laptop you could get.  Higher end gaming laptops are only for people who want to routinely take the laptop with them, plug it in somewhere away from home, and play intense games on it while away from home.  Business travelers often fit that description, but students rarely do--even though many students think they do.

  If you are set on getting a $1600 laptop, then you should at least understand what you're getting.  A GeForce GTX 675M is a rebranded GeForce GTX 580M, which is Nvidia's top of the line from last generation.  Nvidia made too many of them and needs to get rid of them now that they're obsolete, which is why you see the clearance pricing.  It's probably the hottest (in the bad sense!) laptop GPU ever made, with the possible exception of a GeForce GTX 480M.  If you get it, then you should be very, very paranoid about overheating.

  There's no sense in paying an extra $50 for 4 GB of video memory rather than 2 GB.  The desktop version of the card (GeForce GTX 560 Ti) only came with 1 GB, even though it was much faster (higher clock speeds) and could run higher resolutions and/or multiple monitors at once, and thus plausibly make use of more video memory.  You can kind of make a case for doubling that to 2 GB, but not 4 GB unless you've got some very unusual non-gaming use in mind that actually needs ridiculous amounts of video memory.  The only difference between 2 GB and 4 GB that you're likely to see in real-world use is that 4 GB uses more power (and hence puts out more heat), and that's a bad thing.

  If you're looking to spend $1600 on a gaming laptop and would like something more modern, you could go here and pick up a Radeon HD 7970M:

  http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np9150-clevo-p150em-p-4341.html?wconfigure=yes

  It's much faster than a GeForce GTX 675M, while also using less power.

  http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/xotic-pc-sager-np9150-radeon-hd-7970m,3294.html

  It's really a Clevo P150EM, so you can find them on a number of other sites, and possibly cheaper elsewhere.  You might want to price them out from several sites and go with the one that is cheapest for the configuration options you want.
• AnorexicSeagull Member Posts: 7

  September 2012

  Originally posted by Quizzical

  Gaming laptops tend to have fairly short lifetimes, so if you buy a laptop, I wouldn't plan on getting four years out of it.  One problem is that the hardware is slower to begin with, in order to reduce power consumption and heat output.  That means your hardware is obsolete and you're looking to replace it a year or two sooner than if you had bought a gaming desktop.

  Another problem is that gaming laptops are fundamentally a proposition of putting too much heat into too little space.  Cooling a video card that puts out 100 W isn't hard to do in a desktop.  You just put a decently big heatsink on it, a decent sized fan, and rely on general case airflow to get cool air to the fan.  But that won't physically fit in a laptop.  Get some dust in the laptop and you'll overheat in a hurry, and that reduces component lifetimes.

  Another factor that reduces laptop longevity is that other than the hard drive/SSD, memory, and perhaps optical drive, you can't replace components.  In a desktop, if your monitor dies, you replace the monitor.  If your video card dies, you replace the video card.  If you motherboard dies, you replace the motherboard.  If one particular chip on the motherboard dies (say, the ethernet port), you might even be able to just get an add-in card to replace that one function and keep the motherboard.  Likewise, if some particular component isn't good enough, you can often replace just that one component.  In a laptop, if you need to replace any of those, you have to replace the laptop entirely.

  Have you considered getting both a gaming desktop and also a cheap laptop?  If you're going to spend $1600, then you could get a $400 laptop that will be functional for whatever you need the laptop for (and even run most games, typically at low to moderate graphical settings), and the other $1200 on a desktop that will perform much better than any laptop you could get.  Higher end gaming laptops are only for people who want to routinely take the laptop with them, plug it in somewhere away from home, and play intense games on it while away from home.  Business travelers often fit that description, but students rarely do--even though many students think they do.

  If you are set on getting a $1600 laptop, then you should at least understand what you're getting.  A GeForce GTX 675M is a rebranded GeForce GTX 580M, which is Nvidia's top of the line from last generation.  Nvidia made too many of them and needs to get rid of them now that they're obsolete, which is why you see the clearance pricing.  It's probably the hottest (in the bad sense!) laptop GPU ever made, with the possible exception of a GeForce GTX 480M.  If you get it, then you should be very, very paranoid about overheating.

  There's no sense in paying an extra $50 for 4 GB of video memory rather than 2 GB.  The desktop version of the card (GeForce GTX 560 Ti) only came with 1 GB, even though it was much faster (higher clock speeds) and could run higher resolutions and/or multiple monitors at once, and thus plausibly make use of more video memory.  You can kind of make a case for doubling that to 2 GB, but not 4 GB unless you've got some very unusual non-gaming use in mind that actually needs ridiculous amounts of video memory.  The only difference between 2 GB and 4 GB that you're likely to see in real-world use is that 4 GB uses more power (and hence puts out more heat), and that's a bad thing.

  If you're looking to spend $1600 on a gaming laptop and would like something more modern, you could go here and pick up a Radeon HD 7970M:

  http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np9150-clevo-p150em-p-4341.html?wconfigure=yes

  It's much faster than a GeForce GTX 675M, while also using less power.

  http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/xotic-pc-sager-np9150-radeon-hd-7970m,3294.html

  It's really a Clevo P150EM, so you can find them on a number of other sites, and possibly cheaper elsewhere.  You might want to price them out from several sites and go with the one that is cheapest for the configuration options you want.

  The only issue with the desktop is that I currently live at 2 seperate houses, each for half the week, and I don't exactly want to lug a desktop back and forth. I'll put more thought into the whole desktop/cheap laptop ordeal, maybe I can find a medium.
• Quizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,523

  September 2012

  Originally posted by AnorexicSeagull

  The only issue with the desktop is that I currently live at 2 seperate houses, each for half the week, and I don't exactly want to lug a desktop back and forth. I'll put more thought into the whole desktop/cheap laptop ordeal, maybe I can find a medium.

  Are you going to continue splitting your time evenly between two separate houses continuously for the next four years?  Because it would be silly to buy a computer that you'll use for four years based on a living situation that will change in a month.

  Another alternative would be an extra small desktop, like one in this case:

  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163187&Tpk=silverstone%20SG08

  Look at the dimensions there:  8.75" x 7.49" x 13.82"  You could easily fit that in a backpack.  Lugging it back and forth would still be a pain, but that's also true to a considerable degree of a gaming laptop.  If you're going to play games on the laptop much, you'd presumably want to plug in an external keyboard and mouse and an ethernet cable, and you'll also need to mess with a power adapter for the laptop.  Getting a desktop means you also have to fuss with a monitor and speakers, and once you add internal components, the desktop might well weigh twice as much as the laptop.

  But the desktop brings you major advantages, too:  much higher performance, better reliability, the option to replace parts if they break or become obsolete, a much bigger and nicer monitor, and so forth.
• AnorexicSeagull Member Posts: 7

  September 2012

  Originally posted by Quizzical

  Originally posted by AnorexicSeagull

  The only issue with the desktop is that I currently live at 2 seperate houses, each for half the week, and I don't exactly want to lug a desktop back and forth. I'll put more thought into the whole desktop/cheap laptop ordeal, maybe I can find a medium.

  Are you going to continue splitting your time evenly between two separate houses continuously for the next four years?  Because it would be silly to buy a computer that you'll use for four years based on a living situation that will change in a month.

  Another alternative would be an extra small desktop, like one in this case:

  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163187&Tpk=silverstone%20SG08

  Look at the dimensions there:  8.75" x 7.49" x 13.82"  You could easily fit that in a backpack.  Lugging it back and forth would still be a pain, but that's also true to a considerable degree of a gaming laptop.  If you're going to play games on the laptop much, you'd presumably want to plug in an external keyboard and mouse and an ethernet cable, and you'll also need to mess with a power adapter for the laptop.  Getting a desktop means you also have to fuss with a monitor and speakers, and once you add internal components, the desktop might well weigh twice as much as the laptop.

  But the desktop brings you major advantages, too:  much higher performance, better reliability, the option to replace parts if they break or become obsolete, a much bigger and nicer monitor, and so forth.

  What I believe I'm going to do, is build a desktop for one house, and just carry around a cheap laptop for school work and minor gaming like League of Legends and WoW, games that don't require high specs for to be run smoothly.

  The housing situation is complicated. As of 2013 I'll be living at house #1 for 5/7 days, so I will most likely build my desktop, on Newegg, there, as it is where I will reside for a few years. I thank you for the advice and helping me come to a final conclusion.
• Quizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,523

  September 2012

  If you want a cheap laptop that will run most games, Llano-based laptops are largely on clearance now.  For example:

  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834131323

  It leaves a memory channel vacant, so you'll have to add another 4 GB module, but that's cheap:

  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231266
• miguksaram Member UncommonPosts: 835

  September 2012

  I would also suggest that you could easily fit within your budget a slighty less powerful desktop that would ultimately be much less overall hassle to move between you two living locations.  By that I mean you set aside a portion of the budget to purchase two monitors, one for each location, and perhaps a folding keyboard.  That would mean you only need to worry about carrying around the computer itself in a backpack (along with said keyboard and a mouse) which I can tell you from experience is basically what you can expect from a "gaming" laptop anyway (most laptop backpacks aren't much smaller than a regular ones).

  After owning "gaming" laptops for years if I were in your situation what I described above is how I'd do it.  You can even fit a cheap laptop into that budget and come out ahead.
• AnorexicSeagull Member Posts: 7

  September 2012

  Originally posted by miguksaram

  I would also suggest that you could easily fit within your budget a slighty less powerful desktop that would ultimately be much less overall hassle to move between you two living locations.  By that I mean you set aside a portion of the budget to purchase two monitors, one for each location, and perhaps a folding keyboard.  That would mean you only need to worry about carrying around the computer itself in a backpack (along with said keyboard and a mouse) which I can tell you from experience is basically what you can expect from a "gaming" laptop anyway (most laptop backpacks aren't much smaller than a regular ones).

  After owning "gaming" laptops for years if I were in your situation what I described above is how I'd do it.  You can even fit a cheap laptop into that budget and come out ahead.

  I have to check out what I'm going to put into the desktop, but I'll most likely just keep it stationary at one house. This way I won't have to weaken the power on it just to make it more portable. I can always buy a cheap laptop for cheap games while I'm gone, I just want a machine to play whatever I throw at it.
• AnorexicSeagull Member Posts: 7

  September 2012

  Originally posted by Quizzical

  If you want a cheap laptop that will run most games, Llano-based laptops are largely on clearance now.  For example:

  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834131323

  It leaves a memory channel vacant, so you'll have to add another 4 GB module, but that's cheap:

  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231266

  I think I'll just build a desktop through newegg and leave it at one house, the one I'm at more often.