Looking for a new gaming laptop

jezvin

Hello I am looking to get my hands on a new laptop.

I want it to be around 14-15inch screen and that is basically the only requirement. I travel a lot for work so I want it to be portable. Right now I am looking at MSI G Series GT683DXR-423US Notebook.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152286&SortField=0&SummaryType=0&PageSize=10&SelectedRating=-1&VideoOnlyMark=False&IsFeedbackTab=true#scrollFullInfo

but I honestly don't know anything about good notebook manufacturers at the moment.

I would really like something smaller that the 15.6" but it looks like 14" really have to sacrifice performance which I don't want to do. Also price is not too much of an issue as long as it's worth it. I do like good speakers and analog audio ports.

If anyone has any input thanks

 

Quizzical

First, there's the usual caveat of, do you really need a gaming laptop?  Most people shouldn't get one.  It sounds like you're planning on frequently taking it with you on business trips and playing games in hotel rooms.  If that's the case, then yes, a gaming laptop makes perfect sense for you.

No one puts the real gaming cards in a 14" or smaller form factor.  The best that you can get that I'm aware of in that size is a GeForce GT 555M, which offers about 1/3 of the performance of what you picked.  In a 15" form factor, suddenly you have a ton of options, including some genuinely high end cards.

Are you ever planning on using the laptop on the battery?  Or is it always going to be plugged into the wall when you're using it?  Because of it's the latter, then we can ignore battery life.

But not power draw.  Higher power draw means more heat output, and that makes the laptop harder to cool.  AMD cards offer much better performance per watt this generation, making them far preferable to Nvidia cards in laptops.  A Radeon HD 6990M might offer perhaps 20% or 30% better performance than the GTX 570M that you picked, while costing about the same, and having a similar power draw.

The main way to get a Radeon HD 6990M in a 15" laptop (or rather, 15.6") is from vendors reselling Clevo units.  For example, here:

http://www.avadirect.com/gaming-laptop-configurator.asp?PRID=19610

In addition to the 6990M, they offer a huge variety of parts, and don't gouge you for upgrades by charging stupid prices the way that, say, Dell would.  So rather than only getting a faster video card than the MSI laptop you picked, you could get a laptop that is nicer in a lot of other ways, too.  For example, a faster processor (Core i7-2720QM for an extra $45.53), properly matched memory channels (Mushkin 8 GB, for an extra $26.16, though you could also match the memory channels in the MSI laptop by pulling out the right memory module when it arrives), a better wireless card (Killer Wireless-N 1103 for an extra $18.81), or a faster hard drive (Western Digital Scorpio Black for an extra $7.41).  Since you mention sound, they also offer a variety of discrete sound cards, though I don't know much about that.

Or if you really want something nice, you could skip the hard drive and get an SSD, such as the Corsair Force 115 GB for an extra $112.89, or the Crucial M4 128 GB for an extra $143.97.  The downsides of an SSD are that you get relatively little capacity, and that they're expensive.  If it's just for gaming on business trips, then the capacity really isn't a problem, as you'll have plenty of room for the OS, a variety of utility programs (e-mail, browsers, etc.) and several games.

One big advantage of an SSD is that it's really fast, so that you don't have to constantly wait for a computer to do something.  Another is that it's dead silent, so that you're free of the annoying hum of a hard drive.  A third advantage is that SSDs are nearly indestructible, so that if you drop the laptop, you won't break it.  Well, you won't break the SSD; I can't promise not breaking anything else.  But that's still a big deal, as the hard drive is the most fragile part in a typical laptop.

The only glaring flaw in their configuration options is that they don't yet have the refreshed Sandy Bridge lineup, so you can get a 2720QM from them, but not a 2760QM just yet.  But Intel just announced the refresh, so they'll probably get it soon.

jezvin

Thanks for responding I was hoping you would lol.

And yes I do really need one just for what you mentioned.

I don't think I will use battery too much, defiantly will always have it plugged in when I game. I also have a aluminum laptop cooler that I use at the moment so I'm not too worried about heat.

 

I wouldn't mind being able to take it around and do some simple work related stuff on it for an hour or 2 but I think almost any laptop can handle that without too much of an issue right?

 

For the HD I am going to go for a normal disk and try to get close to 1TB, I am traveling for roughly half of the time during the year so it will be my main gaming machine at home and away, and I don't want to lug around an external drive.

 

I like halfway decent speakers on a laptop if I want to show someone a video or just listen to music/movies I would rather not be using a headset.

Thanks for the help I feel like I am looking in the right direction now to find what I need.

thamighty213

Personally I'm a fan of the Qosmio range by Toshiba.

Yes Ati cards may run a little cooler but its the cooling that matters I personally found the cooling on a G73 for eg to be crap compared to the Qosmio.

Unfortuantely this years models are pants comapred to last years but the good news there is if you can find one then last years sandy bridge models can be found for cheap  2630m 460 gtx 8gb ram 128gb ssd+ 640gb 7200 .  These bad boys do have 18" screens and are a hefty old weight but I use mine for exactly the same as your propose to and after years of 15" I got sick and opted for the big boy.

 

Yamota

I disagree with the poster saying you shouldnt get a gaming laptop. The evolution of laptop GFX cards has taken great leaps in the last few years and there are cards, even SLI configurations, which allows you to play the most demanding games, such as Crysis 2, on high settings.

I for one travel around alot and I havent had a desktop for a couple of years and I play games just fine. The most important aspects I would say is the GFX cards and secondly CPU. Check this list: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.130.0.html for class 1 and class 2 cards which both work well for playing games.

psyclum

Originally posted by Yamota

I disagree with the poster saying you shouldnt get a gaming laptop. The evolution of laptop GFX cards has taken great leaps in the last few years and there are cards, even SLI configurations, which allows you to play the most demanding games, such as Crysis 2, on high settings.

I for one travel around alot and I havent had a desktop for a couple of years and I play games just fine. The most important aspects I would say is the GFX cards and secondly CPU. Check this list: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.130.0.html for class 1 and class 2 cards which both work well for playing games.

there is a difference between laptops that is capable of playing games, and a "gaming laptop".   there is a distinct difference between the different classes of computers and a "gaming laptop" is usually a VERY poor choice. 

generally speaking, all you need is to get a laptop that is "capable of playing games", and leave the heavy duty gaming on a desktop.   the laptop that is capable of playing games is still a "usable" laptop in other applications such as business meetings or school.  whereas a "gaming laptop" generally has less then 20min worth of battery life which renders it useless for any other purpose.   a gaming laptop is more of a "portable desktop" then a "laptop"

ArcheAge

Here you can compare laptops..

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Mobile/137

simonwest80

"I disagree with the poster saying you shouldnt get a gaming laptop"

Having been there and done it this is a very reasonable thing to say as a lot of people want a gaming laptop for the wrong reasons.  To take round a friends or to be able to watch tv while playing are all the wrong reasons, you pay over the odds and the systems are just not worth it - however the OP has said he is traveling 6 months in a year so a gaming laptop is certainly worth his while.

I bought a top end Alienware and regret it to this day, i used it as a laptop top maybe a dozen times, other than that it sat on a desk.....................big doh on my part.

Catamount

Originally posted by Yamota

I disagree with the poster saying you shouldnt get a gaming laptop. The evolution of laptop GFX cards has taken great leaps in the last few years and there are cards, even SLI configurations, which allows you to play the most demanding games, such as Crysis 2, on high settings.

I for one travel around alot and I havent had a desktop for a couple of years and I play games just fine. The most important aspects I would say is the GFX cards and secondly CPU. Check this list: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.130.0.html for class 1 and class 2 cards which both work well for playing games.

I'm sorry, but Crysis 2 is not one of the most demanding games. It's less demanding than its prequel, to say nothing for games like Metro 2033.

Will a very expensive laptop play many of today's games at decently high settings at native panel resolution and consistently get 60fps? Sure. A desktop will do the same for vastly less money, however, and said laptop will neither play every game at the highest settings, nor necessarily play future games. They're also vastly less reliable and almost entirely non-upgradeable.

 

I have a laptop I use for gaming as well. 18-20 months ago, a Core i7 720QM and Radeon HD 5730 was quite powerful; even today it's nothing to scoff at having. As it ages, however, more and more games come out that necessitate more and more cutting into settings. It's okay for me, because I already have a gaming desktop that doesn't suffer this problem, and because I spent a lot of my day away from home, with hours of little to do between classes. That said, if I didn't have a gaming desktop already, and I didn't use the mobile gaming capabilities of this machine every single day, I wouldn't bother owning this computer over a cheaper laptop with far less gaming capability.

Cindiir

I just bought my system: Alienware m14x for $970

Dell Oulet had a coupon for about $302 off on Alienware laptops. I really wanted the smaller screen and dimentions (plus I can use this as a doorstop - it will weigh a lot).

Coupon code - good until tomorrow: C9W5$0DBLHZ$DX

DELL OUTLET only and Alienware machines only.  The one you may want get sold and come on again throughout the day - so keep trying to get the one you want.

I got a Alienware m14x $970 plus $69 for 1 year accident damage (it breaks they fix it). It is refurbished, but my current laptop was and worked perfectly. No reason not to get a outlet system IMHO especially if you buy coverage so they will fix anything for free (I got 1 year with this new system of that).

NVIDIA GeForce GT 555M 1.5 GB graphics with Optimus

14.0 inch HD  (900p/1600x900) with WLED backlight

better screen! than 720p

8 Cell Primary Battery

Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Operating System DVD

500 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)

Processor: Intel Core i5-2410M processor (2.30 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.90 GHz)

64BIT Operating System

Intel Wireless-N WiFi Link 1000 a/g/n 1x2

 

That's it.  Thanks for the great help and advice - I decided I did not want the 15 inch laptop. I carry my laptop every day to work and back.

Negatives IMO: could get more for my money with a bigger machine, M14x is supposed to have a noisy fan at load, heavy for its size. Plusses include long battery life.

Lastly, why I want a laptop: I get pain in my neck sitting in front of a PC. I play games after work in bed, with my laptop on my legs, using the touch pad (sitting up in bed with bent knees). This works for me. The laptop is not just to be portable, although when I do travel for work, I can bring it and that is a plus.

jezvin

I am going to be getting a NP8150 from sager I think

Display	15.6" Full HD LED-Backlit Display featuring 95% NTSC Color Gamut in Matte Finished Surface (1920 x 1080) [$95.00]
Video & Graphics Card	Nvidia GeForce GTX 580M GPU with 2GB GDDR5 Video Memory [$495.00]
CPU Processor	2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2760QM Processor ( 6MB L3 Cache, 2.40GHz) [$160.00]
Thermal Compound	Stock Standard Thermal Compound
Operating System	Genuine MS Windows® 7 Home Premium 32/64-Bit Edition ( 64-Bit Preloaded )
Memory	12GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 3 X 4GB [$110.00]
Primary Hard Disk Drive	750GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive [$30.00]
Optical Drive Bay — Optical Drive or Hard Disk Drive in Optical Drive Bay with Caddy case	8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
Wireless Network Card	Internal 802.11 B+G+N Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Combo Module
Primary Battery	Smart Li-ION Battery Pack
Integrated Security Device	Fingerprint Reader
Microsoft Office	Microsoft Office Starter 2010 - Included in Price
Warranty	Sager 1 Year Limited Parts and Labor Warranty

Costing 2,289

Anyone notice anything you think I should change I am not going to get it until the end of the week, I was trying to decide between the 2760QM and the 2860QM I figured the extra 200 wasn't really worth it but I am still not sure any input on that would be nice.

I am hoping for at least 2 hours of battery life if I am just using the internet and no games or anything hopfully it will be able to get that also but if not it's not the worse thing in the world.

Thanks for the help

Quizzical

Ah, so Sager has the Core i7-2760QM now.  That's a definite reason to buy from them rather than some other Clevo vendors, at least until the others catch up.  Which they might already have, for all I know.

First, you should get a Radeon HD 6990M rather than a GeForce GTX 580M.  That's essentially the same performance (and likely to be faster more often than it is slower), for much less power consumption (making it on net a much better card), and $250 less.

Next, I'd go with the Core i7-2760QM rather than the 2860QM.  They're different bins of the same die, and the 2760QM's lower base clocks will tend to mean a more aggressive turbo boost, which will narrow the already slim 100 MHz frequency gap.  The extra L3 cache on the 2860QM will help a bit, but on net, it's only going to be a few percentage points faster than the 2760QM.  $190 for a few percentage points worth of performance is an awful lot, especially when the 2760QM is already fast enough to not be a problem.

Third, you should not get 12 GB of system memory.  Get either 8 GB or 16 GB.  I'd recommend 8 GB.  12 GB will mismatch the memory channels, and that will hurt your memory bandwidth more than the clock speed bump from 1333 MHz to 1600 MHz will help it.  8 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 will likely get you better performance than 12 GB of 1600 MHz DDR3, in spite of being $110 less.  On the off chance that you someday need more than 8 GB of system memory, it will be easy enough to add another 8 GB yourself.  The processor isn't fast enough for the difference between 1333 MHz and 1600 MHz memory to matter outside of synthetic benchmarks and some very peculiar workloads that you're very unlikely to ever run.

If you're going to use a wireless Internet connection, the Bigfoot Wireless-N 1103 is a lot better than any of the other options.  It's nowhere near as good as a simple wired ethernet connection, but it does manage to make up for a decent amount of the performance chasm between typical wired and wireless connections.  If you're going to plug the laptop in when gaming and use a wired ethernet connection, then the cheapest wireless adapter available is appropriate.

Finally, the laptop would be a lot nicer if it had an SSD.  Unfortunately, Intel's SSD 510 series is seriously overpriced (e.g., the Crucial M4 uses the same SSD controller and same NAND flash, but different firmware for comparable performance, larger capacity, and about a 30% lower price tag).  The SSD 320 is priced somewhat more competitively, but slower, and the 160 GB capacity that probably makes the most sense for you isn't even offered.

Depending on how much capacity you really need, the 80 GB Intel SSD 320 might work for you.  The 300 GB version would almost certainly work well, but it's expensive.  It will make a big difference on how fast and responsive the laptop feels, unlike the memory and video card upgrades (the latter as compared to a Radeon HD 6990M) you've selected for that proposed build, or upgrading further from a 2760QM processor to a 2860QM.

Crusix221

if you can break the bank then just get a macbook pro

Quizzical

Originally posted by Cindiir

I just bought my system: Alienware m14x for $970

...

Lastly, why I want a laptop: I get pain in my neck sitting in front of a PC. I play games after work in bed, with my laptop on my legs, using the touch pad (sitting up in bed with bent knees). This works for me. The laptop is not just to be portable, although when I do travel for work, I can bring it and that is a plus.

So you derail a thread seeking advice, and then ignore the advice in favor of something that supposedly wasn't even on your radar?  You did save $130 by getting it used, but $130 off of an awful deal is still pretty poor value for the money.  At 6.45 pounds, that's actually heavier than more sensible alternatives such as something based on Llano.  The Alienware M14x gets you all of the drawbacks of a real gaming laptop (heavy, hot, expensive), without the gaming performance to justify it.

If you have ideas about putting the M14x on your lap and using it while gaming, you may quickly decide that that isn't a good idea.  You could do that with a Brazos laptop, but the M14x will put out several times as much heat, and a lot more than your old laptop did.  Depending on exactly how the laptop's cooling system is designed, you may need to be careful about burning yourself.

jezvin

OK I have a new build now a bit more expensive and I think I will go with the SSD I switched the graphics card and the ram to 8gigs 1600mhz, the i7-2760QM can take advantage of the 1600 correct?

I think you have convinced me I am going to get the 120gig SSD 510 series that is the current amount of space I have used on this laptop and I know I have a ton of wasted space so it should be more than enough.

psyclum

/throws a monkey wrench into the machine

Sony Vaio Z  

Cindiir

Originally posted by Quizzical

So you derail a thread seeking advice, ...

Sorry to derail the thread. I accidentally posted in the wrong thread.

Quizzical

Originally posted by jezvin

OK I have a new build now a bit more expensive and I think I will go with the SSD I switched the graphics card and the ram to 8gigs 1600mhz, the i7-2760QM can take advantage of the 1600 correct?

I think you have convinced me I am going to get the 120gig SSD 510 series that is the current amount of space I have used on this laptop and I know I have a ton of wasted space so it should be more than enough.

For memory clock speeds, check here:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4503/sandy-bridge-memory-scaling-choosing-the-best-ddr3/1

That tests a variety of programs with exactly the same system, except for different memory clock speeds and latency timings.  That uses a desktop version of the same die as the Core i7-2760QM and -2860QM, so there won't be architectural differences.  Because it's a desktop processor, it can use 95 W, rather than 45 W for a laptop.  That means much higher clock speeds, and hence, the potential to take advantage of much more memory bandwidth.  The difference between 1600 MHz and 1333 MHz in a desktop will be far greater than in a laptop; for your purposes, the difference between 1866 MHz and 1600 MHz is probably more representative of what you'd see.

AIDA 64 is a synthetic memory benchmark, and not representative of real programs.  The idea behind the program is not that the computations themselves are supposed to be directly useful.  Rather, they tried to make it as memory-intensive as they could, so that people could see basically the largest gains from higher memory clock speeds that they might plausibly get.  In most of the other tests, the difference that extra memory bandwidth made basically amounted to a rounding error--and sometimes a rounding error that resulted in slightly better performance from slower memory.

Would it be worth getting 1600 MHz memory if it cost you an extra $5?  That's debateable.  For $50?  No, or at least, not unless you're trying to put together the highest end system possible on something like a $10000 budget.

-----

One common approach is to get both a hard drive and an SSD.  You put the OS and your main programs on the SSD, and then everything else on the hard drive.  That means that the programs that you want to be fast will be fast, because they're on the SSD.  Meanwhile, bulk data that doesn't need the speed (or programs that you never run) doesn't use up precious SSD space.

The problem is that a 15" form factor means that in order to have both a hard drive and an SSD, you'd have to give up the optical drive to make room.  You can get an external DVD drive if you think you'll only rarely use it.  If you want to routinely watch DVDs on the laptop, then you'd much rather have an internal DVD drive.

There is also the consideration that, if the laptop isn't your only computer, then you don't necessarily have to keep everything on the laptop.

You might also want to ask Sager about bloatware.  120 GB doesn't go nearly as far if they put 30 GB of random junk on it that will be a major pain for you to get rid of.  I don't know if Sager does that, but a lot of computer vendors do.

jezvin

Thanks for the help guys I just placed my order for this.

Display	15.6" Full HD LED-Backlit Display featuring 95% NTSC Color Gamut in Matte Finished Surface (1920 x 1080) [$95.00]
Video & Graphics Card	AMD Radeon HD 6990M GPU with 2GB GDDR5 Video Memory [$245.00]
CPU Processor	2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2760QM Processor ( 6MB L3 Cache, 2.40GHz) [$160.00]
Thermal Compound	Stock Standard Thermal Compound
Operating System	Genuine MS Windows® 7 Home Premium 32/64-Bit Edition ( 64-Bit Preloaded )
Memory	8GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 2 X 4GB
Primary Hard Disk Drive	120GB Intel 510 Series SATA3 Solid State Disk Drive [$260.00]
Optical Drive Bay — Optical Drive or Hard Disk Drive in Optical Drive Bay with Caddy case	750GB (7200rpm) HDD + Caddy Case [$95.00]
Wireless Network Card	Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module [$60.00]
Primary Battery	Smart Li-ION Battery Pack
Integrated Security Device	Fingerprint Reader
Microsoft Office	Microsoft Office Starter 2010 - Included in Price
Warranty	Sager 1 Year Limited Parts and Labor Warranty

comes to 2,314 before shipping.