Laptop Gaming

[Moomoocow]

I'm looking into buying the best possible gaming laptop
(in all aspects, mobility, power, aesthetics)
and I want it to be around the 1.8k-2k price range...

Y'all know more than me.
I'm looking at either an XPS, the d17t HP, or the new Alienware.
The HP is the cheapest for the most CPU power, and the Alienware has the highest GPU, the XPS is inbetween

[Labyrinthine]

Hold your horses.

Before you run off and buy a major brand name, take a look at the custom alternatives.

Take a look at the Force 3551/Power Pro 15:3 (Same laptop, different builders) for a very low end side of your budget. (Once you customize it, of course.
For something that would definitely be pushing the envelope in terms of your budget once you've finished tweaking it out. Try the Sager NP8660.

Both are running the new Centrino 2 'Montevina' core processors.

Just a thought. I spent the last 2-3 weeks looking for a lowend gaming laptop and couldn't find what I wanted in the bigname brands, so once I stumbled across these alternatives, I about went nuts. Try checking out http://www.xoticpc.com/gaming-gaming-laptops-c-118_96_98.html to see what I mean.

Best of luck to you. If there is any way I can help, let me know. As I said, I just did this, so I may be able to help ya out a bit.

[Moomoocow]

Yeah i've looked at the custom alternatives (which were actually my preference).
Anyways, It's been hard to find anything at 2k which has both a CPU that clocks in at 2.7GHz or better (dual core of course) and a GPU which is as good as the 8700GT or equivalent.
Of course I can settle for 2.6Ghz and 8600GT... but then again why settle when i can get either the 2.8GHZ CPU OR the 8800GT for 2k or cheaper?

The ASUS G50v-a2 just came out on xoticpc's site (i've been there previously), it looks appealing but 2.53GHZ is kind of low... but the standard RAM and GPU i like.

[b.ho]

don't settle for the 8600gt. don't. it's a good quality card but just weak in performance.

[Labyrinthine]

Please don't be sucked into the processor clock hole.
Clock speed has little these days to do with performance. It helps, but there are so many other important factors.

The new montevinas will draw less power and net you slightly better performance per clock speed and sometimes price. Just something to keep in mind.

You say you want something with a 2.6ghz and 8600GT or better for 2k or cheaper. Going the custom route you can config the Sagar 8660 to have the T9600 for $2100. It has a 2.8ghz processor and the 9800GT. Granted, that's leaving everything else default. But that's still going to be a HUGE improvement over the alternative.

Looking at the Force, I can
WXGSA+ Screen
T9600
4GB RAM
9600GT DDR3
And the 3 year warranty
All for $1700ish

Pick your poison. Asus work great and I've heard amazing things about that HP. It's just which flavor you like best now.

[Jedakiah]

Yeah clock speeds mean extremely little in todays market, and have not for a couple years. 

Search for benchmarks. 

[Latro]

IT IS ALL ABOUT FRONT SIDE BUS!    FSB has been the bottle neck for years.

[Moomoocow]

Crabman: English PLZ?

I'm strongly considering the new ASUS, or basically anything with the monteniva and 8700gt or better. Anyone know how good the ASUS G50v-A2 is gonna be?>

[Jedakiah]

I gather your not a hardware expert?  If so you need to understand something before plonking down 2k.  Laptops are way slow and absolutely suck for gaming.  Do not fall victim to the marketing facade.  An 8600GT for a laptop does not perform like an 8600GT for a desktop.  The desktop version will walk circles around it's laptop counterpart.  The same goes for processors, hard drives and everything. 

Laptop equipment is universally designed for low power consumption and cool temperatures.  But the two byproducts of ANY high performance computer part are power consumption and plenty of heat.  What this means for you is that somewhere in the design even the most expensive laptop parts will have to make sacrifices that their desktop counterparts do not. 

In short, for less than half the price of your laptop someone could build a system that can actually run Crysis maxed at 15+fps.  Whereas your laptop might just crash if you attempted to enable max settings. 

And trust me in this area.  Last Fall I bought a $1700 laptop with an 8600GT and a 65nm C2D.  I ran every optimization I could outside of installing XP.  The only game I bothered installing was CoH.  It ran the game at max FPS on low settings.  But when I bumped it up to medium the game was completely unplayable.  And I used to play CS: S ( a frame dependent game) regularly @ >20fps.  Since I bought it from Costco I returned it within 90 days. 

[Labyrinthine]

While laptops may not be the best for gaming, they have come quite a long ways. I saw a $1300 laptop running CoD4 max settings 1680x1060 at 24fps. Granted, pathetic for the price, but it still does it.

I'll let you decide whether or not you want to build a Dekstop or a Laptop. Sounds to me like you need it for school as well as some gaming.

The new Asus G50v-A2 is supposed to be a really hot laptop. As far as Asus' gaming line goes, it's probably your best bet. It will perform well and you will see great things out of it. It's also a MUCH better deal for the money than the G50v-A1

Only problem, benchmarks put battery life at 1.2-1.5 hrs on average. You're going to need an outlet wherever you go.

[Moomoocow]

Thank you both for your responses.
I am currently playing on an Alienware Laptop which is from 2004 I believe or 2003. I'm pretty sure most new laptops will be a huge upgrade. This is especially true because most alienware laptops have huge overheating problems.

Battery life shouldn't be too much of an issue -- I dont play on playing any games without an outlet and im sure it can run longer if im just using microsoft word.

Thanks for the help guys!

[Jedakiah]

You won't be disappointed if you already game on a laptop.

My advice is to get the baddest video card you can.  That was the major bottleneck on my laptop. 

[Moomoocow]

hahaha im running on a 5600 go fx XD old as f***

[Duracell]

For the past few months I've been running a Lenovo y510, much lower quality than what you're looking at buttt,

T5550 1.83
8600M GT
4gb of terrid ram
etc

Anyway, I defiantly suggest a T9300 or better and an 8800/9 series. The only games I play are 1.6, source, D2, Wc3 and battle for Wesnoth, and NHL 08. Older games like this are fine, but I play source on total dickshit settings and always have. Out of curiosity I tried to use higher, and found it taking huge spikes. Using what I and other people have said will get you good performance though, although if you are using it for school as well, remember that it is going to be a brick with probably only 2-2.5 hours of battery at most even on power saver. It might be better to build a nice desktop and a cheapo laptop.