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Hello,
I will be moving to America next week and I want to buy a good gaming laptop. I've been setting my pricelimit around ~$1500 just based on what I've seen/my money. I am by no means a tech head so from my reading of this forum and other random websites I have a couple options that seem like a good choice:
My top one is: http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php
AMD Radeon HD 6990M 2GB, 8GB RAM, i7-2670QM, 17.3" display. $1,499
This is followed by: http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8150-clevo-p150hm-p-2972.html?wconfigure=yes
AMD Radeon HD 6990M 2GB, 8GB RAM, i7-2670QM (same) except for 15.6" display. $1,444
One of my main questions with this option would be is paying for overclocking a good idea? Does it even do much? This is the only reason I included this option as there is no option for it on the sager site.
Finally a cheaper option is: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230142
This has the geforce GTX 560M which I've read is quite inferior to the radeon 6990M. $1,329
I want it to run most any game easily - I guess D3 and Dota2 are the most immediate I will be getting but more graphically intensive games such as ME3.
Thanks!
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"Gaming laptops" are not worth the money. A year ago I had to buy a new laptop (my then college living situation really meant that a laptop was the best option) and being a gamer I looked quite a bit at these types of laptops. For the most part they are not worth the money or have significant issues.
Alienware's laptops are completely overpriced for the hardware inside, could buy two decent laptops for the price. Many of the Asus laptops have major overheating issues (I read some new egg reviews for one model that claimed the thing got so hot the power cord melted) some of their models have also been plauged by major driver and bios issues that cause regular BSODs.
After doing a lot of looking around, I finally just ordered a custom HP. $950 I got an HD 5650, quad core Phenom II, 6g RAM, and a nice SATA II 7200 RPM 640 gig HD. Perfectly fine for playing just about any game right now, though just not at the highest possible graphics. Honestly you could probably get something comparable for even less right now.
It has a few issues, mostly heat related but this is going to be the case with any laptop unless you drop like 1.5k on an alienware. It gets hot, but the only time it "overheated" was when I left Civ V running and closed the cover, the bios shut down the PC though.
Frankly for 1.5k you could get a really nice desktop. If a laptop is necessary like it was for me, get something reasonable and mid ranged and save your cash to get a nicer desktop later.
Gaming on a laptop is really not ideal. Only benefit to having a nice laptop is the ability to play Civ V while laying in bed (though it is glorious ) So basically save your money and get something mid ranged.
We really need a dedicated laptop thread too....(maybe a weekend project, we will see...)
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Gaming laptops are fine if you require the "portability" yet you still want to game. I myself have a asus g74. Asus has really distinguished themselves from the competition due to their remarkable cooling system. My graphics card is overclocked and i can still game for hours on end and the laptop remains quite cool. I suggest you check out some asus laptops. Sagers are also a decent choice or msi.
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Im using a MSI 780Dx and so far i had only once an issue with it (frezzing).
I dont think ME3 is a graphicly intensive game. It uses the same engine that ME2, and i could run it on a 4670 ATI with my older laptop.
I would not suggest getting a Sager with a 6990 as the overheating on ATIs mobile GPUs is more likely, not to mention that Sager/Clevo have issues same way as Alienware.
Asus G74x is a bit dicey. If you get a good model, it will be quite awsome, but there is a chance you will get one of the models that have bios issues.
Whatever model you get, make sure you will read a lot before you starting updating any software, as thats the main reason for laptop problems (installing wrong drivers).
Overclocking in laptops is a terrible idea. In GPU you can only overclock about 5-10%, and that translates itself in a marginal increase of speed (If your favorite game runs over 30 FPS, its moreless playable, but if its under 30 FPS, 5%-10% overclock will be 1-2 FPS more... nothing important). In CPU, since those CPUs have already turbo boost, and they dont turbo boost all cores at the same speed as one, it is because of the chip limitations, so it also does not make sense to have overclock. Finally, Laptops are well known to have overheating issues, so overclocking is a decent way to void your warranty and allow the company to place the blame on you.
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Turbo boost along with the GPU will give good performance. But you will need to get a nice laptop cooler. $1444 is pretty good considering the GPU, etc. I would of gone with SSD for better performance. and just used a external usb for storage.
570m vs 6990..... there is no comparison.
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On March 07 2012 04:57 Boblhead wrote:Turbo boost along with the GPU will give good performance. But you will need to get a nice laptop cooler. $1444 is pretty good considering the GPU, etc. I would of gone with SSD for better performance. and just used a external usb for storage. 570m vs 6990..... there is no comparison.
its cheaper though, saves ~300 USD?
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On March 07 2012 04:57 Boblhead wrote:Turbo boost along with the GPU will give good performance. But you will need to get a nice laptop cooler. $1444 is pretty good considering the GPU, etc. I would of gone with SSD for better performance. and just used a external usb for storage. 570m vs 6990..... there is no comparison.
Actually you CAN compare them. HD6990m is ABOUT the same as an HD6870. The GTX580m has a little less performance and is more expensive. The GTX570m Is closer in performance to the GTX560m than the GTX580m.
The 6990M is much better than the 570M. The 570M is more of a mid-range high-end card.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570M - Notebookcheck.net Tech
AMD Radeon HD 6990M - Notebookcheck.net Tech
3DMark06:
6990M: 21305 570M: 16679
3DMark11(Performance)
6990M: 3572 570M: 2356
Crysis 2 on Ultra:
6990M: 34 FPS 570M: 25.9 FPS
Call Of Duty Black Ops:
6990M: 80FPS 570M: 68.6FPS
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"Gaming laptops" are not worth the money. A year ago I had to buy a new laptop (my then college living situation really meant that a laptop was the best option) and being a gamer I looked quite a bit at these types of laptops. For the most part they are not worth the money or have significant issues. Nobody who buys a gaming laptop should be expecting good value for their money. But some people still find them completely essential.
My work requires me to travel a lot. Often staying for days at a hotel with nothing to do for hours. Most sensible people use that time to get drunk/kill prostitutes/rent hotel porn - I chose to buy a massively overpriced laptop.
I realize that I could have bought 2 equivalent PCs for the money. But that would have been pointless. Because I need a laptop that can perform like a desktop.
So yeah, they're expensive. But completely worth it if you have the money and need the portability.
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So to update, I finally decided on a laptop from sager that I was going to buy, then they ran out the day I was gonna buy it! I decided to go with the Radeon 6990M GPU and since that laptop on sager went down I cannot for the life of me find that or the geforce 580M in a laptop worth less than $2000. Pretty darn pissed off at my misfortune.
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kielbasa are you in Australia? If you are you should look at LBO, they're by far and away the best high end laptop retailer in Australia, just do a quick search on overclockers if you want to see proof. I'm personally using a P150HM in Canada atm bought from them and it's been flawless for the past year.
http://www.logicalblueone.com.au/store/496-horize-p150hmc-gaming-notebook-pc-ati.html is a good place to start, upgrade the processor and ram and you'll have a beast.
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Yes I am in Australia but I'm moving to america for a year from next week. My aim was to order one and send it to my american address so it arrives just after me.
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malibal and xoticpc are probably your best bets for the equivalent for North America then.
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