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Good gaming laptop advise
Ralphie2449
Member UncommonPosts: 577
in Hardware
So i am looking to buy a very good gaming laptop that is customized for big games and will not have any issues playing them at max settings even after a couple of years.
The reason i need a laptop for gaming is because soon i ll be working as 2nd officer on ships and i cant bring a very good desktop around me on every ship i go to.
And i really want to spend a good amount of money for something good that will last long enough and wont be outdated the first month. Well, it will be but i want something that will still be able to play future games at max settings and future future games at high settings. And because i dont know the best places to check and order good gaming laptops i would really like to hear your suggestions. On that matter and in general about the laptop specs
I am copy pasting this from another site since it gives the details of what i am looking for and because the more opinions i get the better. I dont want to risk such a purchase in a single opinion
1) What is your budget?
5000euros
2) What size notebook would you prefer?
Desktop Replacement; 17"+ screen
3) Where will you buying this notebook? You can select the flag of your country as an indicator.
i ll be back at Greece in 1,5 months so i ll be ordering it from there.
4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
Not really. I know about alienware but i am not sure how good they really are since they are a big popular gaming brand. And i would prefer to pay for the hardware and not for the name. But i have no problem ordering it from there if they have the best gaming laptops.
5) Would you consider laptops that are refurbished/redistributed?
nope.
6) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?
Games, as for specs. I guess the best possible for the money i am spending. I want it to be able to play almost every game out there now at highest settings without any issues so it will be able to play future games at highest or high settings(a couple years from now).
7) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both?
moving from ship to land to ship to land etc.
8) Will you be playing games on your notebook? If so, please state which games or types of games?
Games i mostly play are mmorpgs, strategy, fps and some story rpgs
9) How many hours of battery life do you need?
the longer the better
10) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK?
Online since i highly triple doubt there is anything good near greece so it ll be online
11) What OS do you prefer? Windows (Windows 7 / 8), Mac OS, Linux, etc.
Windows 7.
Screen Specifics
12) From the choices below, what screen resolution(s) would you prefer? Keep in mind screen size in conjunction with resolution will play a large role in overall viewing comfort level. Everyone is different. Some like really small text, while others like their text big and easy to read. Click here for Screen resolution information.
1920x1200 preferably, or slightly smaller.
13) Do you want a Glossy/reflective screen or a Matte/non-glossy screen?
preferably glossy screens, since i use it in closed spaces for gaming i doubt i ll have any problems.
Build Quality and Design
14) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?
Not very much
15) When are you buying this laptop?
in 1,5 months
16) How long do you want this laptop to last?
6-8 years
Notebook Components
17) How much hard drive space do you need? Do you want a SSD drive?
Around a terrabyte and a solid hard drive would be best since i ll be moving a lot with it.
18) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a DVD Burner, Blu-ray Reader or Blu-Ray Burner?
blue ray reader
extra
1)i would like it to have a very good cooling system so it wont have overheating problems for years. Because my last normal laptop started overheating after a few months, but it was not designed specifically for gaming.
2)good wifi range so i wont have issues with signal fluctuating sometimes randomly because the router is a few rooms away. Also i would be interested in getting an internet antenna since it could be helpful at finding internet from anchorages that are 10-20 nautical miles(1=1856meters) away from the shore.
3)weight doesn't matter much as long as it can be carried on a bag or backpack.
4)I would like some program suggestions in order to keep to computer working without problems for a long time. Considering that there are no technicians in the middle of the sea i was thinking about possibly a backup program that lets me revert the computer back to the state i saved it. And maybe some program suggestions to keep the laptop fast and clean, i havent had any issues with viruses since i am careful but there is always some small windows file corruption happening after sometime
The reason i need a laptop for gaming is because soon i ll be working as 2nd officer on ships and i cant bring a very good desktop around me on every ship i go to.
And i really want to spend a good amount of money for something good that will last long enough and wont be outdated the first month. Well, it will be but i want something that will still be able to play future games at max settings and future future games at high settings. And because i dont know the best places to check and order good gaming laptops i would really like to hear your suggestions. On that matter and in general about the laptop specs
I am copy pasting this from another site since it gives the details of what i am looking for and because the more opinions i get the better. I dont want to risk such a purchase in a single opinion
1) What is your budget?
5000euros
2) What size notebook would you prefer?
Desktop Replacement; 17"+ screen
3) Where will you buying this notebook? You can select the flag of your country as an indicator.
i ll be back at Greece in 1,5 months so i ll be ordering it from there.
4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
Not really. I know about alienware but i am not sure how good they really are since they are a big popular gaming brand. And i would prefer to pay for the hardware and not for the name. But i have no problem ordering it from there if they have the best gaming laptops.
5) Would you consider laptops that are refurbished/redistributed?
nope.
6) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?
Games, as for specs. I guess the best possible for the money i am spending. I want it to be able to play almost every game out there now at highest settings without any issues so it will be able to play future games at highest or high settings(a couple years from now).
7) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both?
moving from ship to land to ship to land etc.
8) Will you be playing games on your notebook? If so, please state which games or types of games?
Games i mostly play are mmorpgs, strategy, fps and some story rpgs
9) How many hours of battery life do you need?
the longer the better
10) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK?
Online since i highly triple doubt there is anything good near greece so it ll be online
11) What OS do you prefer? Windows (Windows 7 / 8), Mac OS, Linux, etc.
Windows 7.
Screen Specifics
12) From the choices below, what screen resolution(s) would you prefer? Keep in mind screen size in conjunction with resolution will play a large role in overall viewing comfort level. Everyone is different. Some like really small text, while others like their text big and easy to read. Click here for Screen resolution information.
1920x1200 preferably, or slightly smaller.
13) Do you want a Glossy/reflective screen or a Matte/non-glossy screen?
preferably glossy screens, since i use it in closed spaces for gaming i doubt i ll have any problems.
Build Quality and Design
14) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?
Not very much
15) When are you buying this laptop?
in 1,5 months
16) How long do you want this laptop to last?
6-8 years
Notebook Components
17) How much hard drive space do you need? Do you want a SSD drive?
Around a terrabyte and a solid hard drive would be best since i ll be moving a lot with it.
18) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a DVD Burner, Blu-ray Reader or Blu-Ray Burner?
blue ray reader
extra
1)i would like it to have a very good cooling system so it wont have overheating problems for years. Because my last normal laptop started overheating after a few months, but it was not designed specifically for gaming.
2)good wifi range so i wont have issues with signal fluctuating sometimes randomly because the router is a few rooms away. Also i would be interested in getting an internet antenna since it could be helpful at finding internet from anchorages that are 10-20 nautical miles(1=1856meters) away from the shore.
3)weight doesn't matter much as long as it can be carried on a bag or backpack.
4)I would like some program suggestions in order to keep to computer working without problems for a long time. Considering that there are no technicians in the middle of the sea i was thinking about possibly a backup program that lets me revert the computer back to the state i saved it. And maybe some program suggestions to keep the laptop fast and clean, i havent had any issues with viruses since i am careful but there is always some small windows file corruption happening after sometime
Comments
I think any of the higher end Nvidia or ATI cards for laptops currently will look good for several years yet. You'll be pressed to find any gaming laptop that will play absolute maxes on a lot of games because a lot of the more hardcore games like Crysis 2 are built for SLI dual (or more) graphic card support.
Still most any Alienware or ibuypower top end machine currently will play games like Guild Wars 2 or Final Fantasy XIV on great settings.
I know this just cuz I picked up 3 different gaming laptops this year for the wife and I (I needed them for business
) to carry around and to keep one at the office. Guild Wars 2 looks great on all 3, and honestly Battlefield 3 on some max, some high settings, beats my ol' 9800 GTX machine. The wife isn't so keen on how the Sims 3 doesn't max on her Geforce .. I think it's the 675 mobile graphics card.
Still it beat our old desktop. Each loaded with 16 gigs of ram I think makes most of the difference. Due to my work I keep the Adobe Creative suite generally running with 3 or 4 programs and I'm still able to tab into League of Legend games when I'm slacking off (currently doing).
Really with that kind of cash just pick a brand you don't hate. I've not noticed a great difference between the various high end cards now, and looking into the near future I don't see the technology growing any fantastic leaps.
a yo ho ho
http://build.falcon-nw.com/staging/configurator/?q=129065&s=4&pt=None&pc=ffffff,0&h=A13B3CFFED91E2FF55B794EDC86B28348475D8F2
Here is your customized DRX system configuration.
This sould be powerful enough to last you for quiet some time. Here is the main laptop's website
http://www.falcon-nw.com/laptops/drx
System Details
Chassis
DRX Exotix - Single Color (Lid)
Display
17" Matte LCD Panel - 1920x1080
Pixel Guarantee
Perfect Pixel Guarantee
Laptop Keyboard
Illuminated Keyboard
Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 4900MQ 2.80GHz
Memory
SD 1333MHz 4x4GB (16GB)
Video Card
2 NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 780m 4GB
Networking
802.11 B/G/N & Bluetooth
Hard Drive
Crucial® M500 SSD 240GB
Hard Drive 2
Seagate® Momentus® XT 750GB
Optical Drive
8x DVD Writer
64-Bit Operating System
Microsoft® Windows 7 Professional
Battery
1x Lithium-Ion 8-Cell (89.21WH)
Power Supply
1x AC Adapter - DRX
Carrying Case
Falcon Northwest Backpack
USB Rescue Drive
USB Rescue Drive
Warranty
DRX - 1 Year & Falcon Overnight
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Definitely get a SSD as suggested in the build above. The decreased load times in games and fast Windows boot time is worth it.
The best fit for what you think you need would be from a custom-built place like the link mentioned above. There are a few others that custom-build laptops and I don't know which of them are good or bad.
Have you thought about a small form-factor PC or something in a compact case? Gaming on a real desktop would be much better than a laptop's performance, plus you could upgrade the system in the future. A quick google image search for "portable gaming desktop" shows some interesting designs. Some of them are constructed in durable, waterproof Pelican cases while others are designed for LAN parties.
Given your budget and requirements this is probably the best deal you will find, though deal is not really the word I would use to define it.
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=6816&review=avadirect+clevo+p570wm+gaming+notebook
AVADirect site:
http://www.avadirect.com/gaming-laptop-configurator.asp?PRID=26190
Reconfigured with currently available parts (I didn't pick the top of the line CPU which you can do if you'd like but as a gaming device you won't see much benefit for the huge price increase)
How often do you need to move the computer around? If you have to unplug it and take it somewhere else every day, then yeah, you need a laptop. But if it's only every week or two, you may want to consider a highly portable desktop built around a very small case like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163187
That may or may not be a viable option for you, but I bring it up just in case. If it meets your needs, it will be vastly better than any laptop.
Gaming laptops are fundamentally a proposition of putting too much heat into too little space. The problem is one of physics, not just this or that laptop design. If you're going to play intense games on a laptop, you're going to have heat issues. You can mitigate the issues somewhat by routinely cleaning out dust, making sure you never block vents, and so forth, but you're going to have to be vigilant about monitoring heat for as long as you have the laptop.
That's one reason why gaming laptops tend to have short life expectancies. In particular, no matter what gaming laptop you get, don't plan on it lasting six or eight years. If you're careful with it, you might get lucky and get that much life out of it, but it will take a heavy dose of luck.
Anyway, for hardware, you likely want an Intel Core i7-4800MQ. The difference between a 4800MQ and a 4900MQ basically amounts to 100 MHz and $190. You've got the budget to fit the 4900MQ, but just because you have the money doesn't mean that you need to spend it.
For the video card, a GeForce GTX 780M would be ideal. I'd avoid SLI, as that much heat in a laptop is an overheating incident waiting to happen.
As for battery life, don't plan on getting much battery life while you're playing games. High-powered gaming hardware will drain even a large battery inside of an hour, and possibly much faster than that even. Getting several hours at idle (e.g., web browsing, e-mail, or word processing) should be pretty easy, though.
You definitely want a big SSD, and on your budget, you may want to think about avoiding a hard drive entirely. Hard drives don't like to be moved while in operation, and ships tend not to be the most stable platforms. Still, it may depend some on what sort of ships you're going to be on; a given wave will jostle a speedboat a lot more than an aircraft carrier.
If you're moving around a lot, you may need to put some work into making sure you've got appropriate electrical adapters for everything. Different places in the world use different voltages, and if you don't have an appropriate transformer to convert voltages, you can't use the laptop. I don't know how hard it will be to handle this, but you should definitely look into it.