New Gaming Laptop

[Sedition]

Hey guys,

I'm looking for a new laptop to replace my first, a stock $600 Dell, but set up specifically for gaming. I used to be up-to-date on the latest desktop components, but have been left behind the last few years and I've never really been too savvy when it comes to laptops.

After a bit of research, I've narrowed it down to three that probably suit me:
- Alienware M18x
- Asus G74SX
- Battalion 101 X7200

I've seen prices ranging from $2k all the way up to $4500. I'm only looking to spend somewhere between 2 and 3.

Has anyone had experience with those laptops? Any known issues? Or lesser known brands that do the same job?

And lastly for now, any good Australian websites that let you customise, purchase, etc.?

Thanks

* Seems the Battalion doesn't ship to Australia, so it's down to the Alienware, Asus or any other recommendations. I'm probably going to have to spend up to $4k on second thoughts.

 

[Sedition]

After looking around a bit the last few days, I've settled on the Alienware M18x. None of the other brands (Asus, MSI, Sony, Toshiba) had online customising of the hardware, but Dell/Alienware allows you to customise the hell out of anything in their range.

I'm putting my order in today, but I'll probably have to wait 2 weeks for it arrive.

This is what I've settled on:

- Windows 7 Professional SP1 64bit
- 2nd generation Intel Core i7-2860QM Processor (2.5GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.6GHz,8MB Cache)
- 32GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
- Dual 2GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580M NVIDIA SLI Enabled
- 1.5TB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive (750GBx2)(Raid 0)

Going to set me back just under $3900, but I can't see myself needing to update anything for quite some time.

 

[pcfan123]

3900 is an obscene amount of money for a lap top.

Alienware is a known rip off company. I'm sure it's a fantastic laptop, but you are paying probably twice what it's worth

 

[puddleduck]

Sexy

You'll be paying a bit more for the fact it's Dell and alienware, but you get a good warranty and that's worth quite a bit when you're spending a lot.

That's a serious gaming laptop though How much more are you spending going that route and what exactly did you want to play instead of say getting a GTX 675M alone? (or if you're spending so much, getting dual ones heh) Getting 16gb of ram?

Also, hard drive wise... Would you not be better served in such an awesome machine by getting an SSD drive as your primary drive? Maybe a 60-80gb SSD as your drive for running windows off and your main programs to get quicker read speeds. Then have the 750gb as the backup and if you really need it, get a massive 2tb backup portable HD to use for storage?

Edit// Is there a need for this to be a laptop? Must it be portable? Because you could build an epically good desktop for half the price. It would be awesome, and you could still then spend a grand on getting a really quite good gaming laptop that would allow you to play quite a few games well on the move.

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Someone was looking at this on a forum I was using http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Lenovo_IdeaPad_G770_1123908.html

Now obviously I'm not saying get this, but as an example of the sort of thing you could afford as well as a really high spec desktop.

(writing this from my gaming laptop that I wish I'd waited until I moved and had realised I would have space for a more powerful desktop and slightly less powerful laptop) Basically, I normally hook my laptop up to my HD tv to play anything on it that's gonna involve a session, but normally play relaxing games like chess or dwarf fortress when just chilling with it on my lap.

(I still love my laptop though heh)

 

[Sedition]

3900 is an obscene amount of money for a lap top.

Alienware is a known rip off company. I'm sure it's a fantastic laptop, but you are paying probably twice what it's worth

Yeah, I have a feeling you're right. Unfortunately my options in rural Australia are pretty limited. There's only a handful of computer stores nearby, and they're rip offs too.

Sexy

You'll be paying a bit more for the fact it's Dell and alienware, but you get a good warranty and that's worth quite a bit when you're spending a lot.

That's a serious gaming laptop though How much more are you spending going that route and what exactly did you want to play instead of say getting a GTX 675M alone? (or if you're spending so much, getting dual ones heh) Getting 16gb of ram?

Also, hard drive wise... Would you not be better served in such an awesome machine by getting an SSD drive as your primary drive? Maybe a 60-80gb SSD as your drive for running windows off and your main programs to get quicker read speeds. Then have the 750gb as the backup and if you really need it, get a massive 2tb backup portable HD to use for storage?

Thanks for this advice. Today is a public holiday here, so I'll hold off putting my order through.

For the graphics card, I only had two options. The dual 2gb Geforce one, or dual 2gb Radeon.. The geforce was almost $900 more, so I was going for the Radeon but today when I logged on, they've dropped the radeon from the options altogether and the geforce is down the $900.

The hard drive I was really stuck on, since I have no idea about them. These are my only options though:

750GB 7200RPM Hard Drive [subtract $224.40]
256GB Solid State Drive [add $485.10]
1TB 7200RPM Solid State Hybrid (500GBx2)(Raid 0) [add $55.00]
1.5TB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive (750GBx2)(Raid 0) [Included in Price]
512GB Solid State Drive(256GBX2)(Raid0) [add $1,240.80]
512GB Solid State Drive [add $1,240.80]
750GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive (750GBx2)(Raid 1) add $0.00
2TB 5400RPM Hard Drive (1TBx2)(Raid 0) [add $95.70]

So the smallest SSD is an additional $485 :s The 1.5TB Sata one seemed the best suited to my price range, and not the worst one there. Not really sure what to do about that.

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Edit// Is there a need for this to be a laptop? Must it be portable? Because you could build an epically good desktop for half the price. It would be awesome, and you could still then spend a grand on getting a really quite good gaming laptop that would allow you to play quite a few games well on the move.

It doesn't really need to be portable, though I do go to the coast a few times a year to visit family, so I'd love to be able to take it along. Winter is coming here too and I'd like to be able to do work and play games in bed, especially since I stay up late often For the crap $600 Dell I have now, I've been pretty impressed with the kind of power laptops have these days.

Someone was looking at this on a forum I was using Lenovo IdeaPad G770 M533QUK

Now obviously I'm not saying get this, but as an example of the sort of thing you could afford as well as a really high spec desktop.

(writing this from my gaming laptop that I wish I'd waited until I moved and had realised I would have space for a more powerful desktop and slightly less powerful laptop) Basically, I normally hook my laptop up to my HD tv to play anything on it that's gonna involve a session, but normally play relaxing games like chess or dwarf fortress when just chilling with it on my lap.

(I still love my laptop though heh)

Space is a bit of an issue for me too, I'd have to find a place for one of my cupboards somewhere else in the house, and drag my computer desk back in. I think I'd find it pretty hard to go back to using a desktop after being comfortable with my laptop the last 2 years.

And there's not really any specific games I'm looking to play, I'm a fan of all genres, but I haven't gamed much the last few years. Partly because my laptop wasn't good enough, and my now ex lives in Holland, so I spent quite a lot of money visiting her and vice versa. Now I have more time and money, and want to get something that will last me like 5+ years.

 

[Chewie]

Yea if I had that much money to spend I'd spend half of it on a desktop then buy a ultrabook to carry around when I needed portability

 

[pcfan123]

Unfortunately my options in rural Australia are pretty limited.

Every time I hear rural AUS I think

My Dad used to go to Adelaide a lot when I was a kid for business. Once he brought back a kids story book about a rural doctor that flew his own plane to save sick animals. I read it thousands of times.

 

[Sedition]

Lol, well I'm glad rural Aus doesn't read as like Alabama or something to Americans

I could definitely get a kickass desktop for the price, and I could even build it myself pretty comfortably, but I'm too set on the idea of being able to lay around, warm, when gaming.

Back on hard drives, would the 1TB 7200RPM Solid State Hybrid (500GBx2)(Raid 0), be a better option over the 1.5TB Sata for $55 extra?

 

[puddleduck]

I always hear people in Australia having a moan about the price of games and hardware, so you're not alone in finding it hard to source from somewhere that isn't going to charge you a bit more.

The gtx 675 is I think the newest and most powerful card on the market, so you should be set for a while with the dual ones, nice to hear that's replaced it. I had a look at it earlier and that's what I saw when I did

For a third of the price you could probably build an equally powerful desktop, but at the same time you can buy an HD cable and hook up the laptop wherever you go, and space wise it means you don't need a desk. Can even just hook it up to your Tv and play games with an Xbox 360 wireless controller and a bluetooth dongle.

Hmm, the hard drive thing is a bit of a pain. If you were looking at the 17.3inch version it offers a smaller ssd boot drive with secondary hard drive at a decent cost. Still, I guess it all comes down to what you're going to want to play?

Because with the dual setup you're aiming for Battlefield 3 at high/ultra and any future games for a while. Or by going for the single gtx 675 you're potentially just reaching it on ultra now, which means being able to play most big games on high for the next few years.

Heh, if you've got the cash, why not get the extra? Wish it was my laptop

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Hard drive just go for the fastest read speed you can justify May have to do a little google yourself to find out which is currently quickest out of the best of the rest on offer. There's loads in the dual options as well with some m-sata ones (that I don't know anything about) etc... You can always buy extra space as a portable spare. Anything in 7200rpm though as your main and it'll be alright, but obviously quicker is better. Unless it's sex.

 

[Sedition]

Thanks again for all the advice man, got me thinking about my options again when I was pretty close to rolling with what I had.

I checked out the US Alienware site and they have the GTX 675's as standard in their M18x. Maybe I should wait a little while and see if they're updating it here, since the Radeon option disappeared overnight and my only option is dual 580's.

I checked out the M17x in Aus and they're only offering a 1.5gb GTX or the 2gb Radeon and only 24gb RAM as maximum, so I think I have to go for the M18x and probably the 1TB hybrid drive.

Battlefield will probably be one of the first games I play. GTA IV at some point and Civ V. Then Dosbox to play all the classics I remember from the 90's

 

[pcfan123]

Let me know when you get BF3

I played with some Aussie PCers in Aussie servers before, its not bad lag wise

 

[puddleduck]

Haha, certainly overkill for Civ 5 to get the dual cards. A single 675 will play that comfortably (my Gt555M does just fine), it'll handle Battlefield well, and it'll definitely handle Baldur's Gate, Monkey Island and whatever other random old games you play

Oh, no need for more than 16gb of Ram I wouldn't think. Seems overkill somewhat. Perhaps wait to see if they update it over/after the holiday?

Are you going to be using the screen a lot? Want it on your lap? Maybe the 17.3inch, the single GPU, with a small SSD hd and an upgrade to the screen for ?200+ less might be better? 3D perhaps?

Heh, I'll just confuse you more now, when you were clearly inches away from just having ordered it and been in love with it within a fortnight

 

[Sedition]

Let me know when you get BF3

I played with some Aussie PCers in Aussie servers before, its not bad lag wise

I'm looking forward to some online play, only trouble is, it means I have to go back to paying for my games

Haha, certainly overkill for Civ 5 to get the dual cards. A single 675 will play that comfortably (my Gt555M does just fine), it'll handle Battlefield well, and it'll definitely handle Baldur's Gate, Monkey Island and whatever other random old games you play

Oh, no need for more than 16gb of Ram I wouldn't think. Seems overkill somewhat. Perhaps wait to see if they update it over/after the holiday?

Are you going to be using the screen a lot? Want it on your lap? Maybe the 17.3inch, the single GPU, with a small SSD hd and an upgrade to the screen for ?200+ less might be better? 3D perhaps?

Heh, I'll just confuse you more now, when you were clearly inches away from just having ordered it and been in love with it within a fortnight

My current laptop runs Civ IV pretty well, so I figured the new one wouldn't have any trouble with 5 Mafia 2 is another I've been really looking forward to and Skyrim. Probably loads more games from the last 5 years that I haven't paid attention to simply because I had no chance of running them.

Just going for 16gb RAM would save me a bit of cash, since you also need Windows 7 Pro for 32. Is RAM easy to upgrade in a few years when 32 might be necessary?

I'm pretty sure I'll only be using the screen, and not connecting it to a TV at all. I'm used to a 14 inch, so whether it's 17 or 18 it will still seem massive.

My mind is definitely racing again, which is good, because if I'd jumped in and bought what I had and found out for starters that the 580 graphics card isn't the latest and greatest, I'd be pissed.

 

[Chewie]

I don't think people will need 32GB of RAM in the next ten years tbh. My computer has 8GB and I bought it at the start of the year - I won't need to add any more for a few years. Nothing I use gets close to using it all up.

 

[Sedition]

After searching around some more, I came across two reputable Australian websites that do customisation - p4laptops.com.au and affordablelaptops.com.au

They're the only ones that have the GTX 675M listed rather than just the 560. The other bonus is that I can set up the hard drive configuration to be a 120gb SSD + 750gb SATA, which I couldn't do with the Alienware for some reason.

So I threw this machine together (Metabox P270WM) on both sites and it came out to under $3600:

- Windows 7 Home
- 17.3" FHD LED
- Intel Core i7-3820K 3.6-3.8 GHz 10MB L3 cache
- SLI Dual nVidia Geforce GTX 675M 2GB
- 16GB 1600MHz DDR3 RAM
- 120GB Intel SSD + 750gb 7200RPM SATA
- Bigfoot Killer Wi-fi

I think that's pretty close to what I'll finally settle on, but I'm probably going to wait until Monday and research some more before pulling the trigger.

Really appreciate all the feedback so far. I think I've been able to incorporate everything into this set up to make a more balanced and slightly cheaper rig.