Gaming notebook: suggestions?

Dr. Spud

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Mar 23, 2009
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Can anyone help me out on what kind of gaming notebook to buy? I'm going into college, and I need a notebook that will keep me gaming for four years. The problem is... I know next to nothing about what to get. I'm not even sure about what specs are top of the line for a notebook these days.

My budget is somewhere in the ballpark of *$2000-$2500. I don't need the most cutting-edge machine available, but it's got to last me four years. It'd be nice to finally play Crysis (or at least TF2 with all the bells and whistles turned on).

I'm helpless on my own, please help!D:

edit: apparently "notebook" sometimes means mini-laptop. I use notebook as a synonym for laptop.
 
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Sebhael

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Jun 10, 2009
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I don't think you're going to find a laptop that will like Crysis in the least bit, not yet anyways.

You could always go to major manufacturers webpages and normally they have the option to build your own laptop. My friend did that with Acer for his old gaming laptop - it held out for quite sometime before too many smokers and drinkers spilt ashes and beer/liqour on it...

He only spent like...$1300 on it, and it was able to run most Source games at max, and games such as Stalker with some eye candy.
 

Dr. Spud

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Mar 23, 2009
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I ran through the Dell XPS customize thing. This is what I ended up with for $2,566

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-bit
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 - Word, Excel + PowerPoint
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 4 yr In-home Service after remote diagnosis + Complete Care+LoJack
MEMORY 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
HARD DRIVE Size: 320GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Blu-ray / DVD / CD Burner (Blu-ray Disc Drive)
VIDEO CARD NVIDIA® SLI™ Dual GeForce® 8700M GT 512MB GDDR3
WIRELESS CARDS Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965a/g/n Mini Card
BLUETOOTH Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR)
BATTERY OPTIONS 85 WHr Lithium Ion Battery (9-cell)
SOUND OPTIONS High Definition Audio 2.0

How do you think that would suit me?

It forces me to get Vista 64-bit. Is 64-bit a good idea? I'm not sure if the 4 GB of RAM would work too well with it.
 

Sebhael

L1: Registered
Jun 10, 2009
38
3
I ran through the Dell XPS customize thing. This is what I ended up with for $2,566

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-bit
OFFICE SOFTWARE Microsoft® Office Home and Student 2007 - Word, Excel + PowerPoint
WARRANTY AND SERVICE 4 yr In-home Service after remote diagnosis + Complete Care+LoJack
MEMORY 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
HARD DRIVE Size: 320GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Blu-ray / DVD / CD Burner (Blu-ray Disc Drive)
VIDEO CARD NVIDIA® SLI™ Dual GeForce® 8700M GT 512MB GDDR3
WIRELESS CARDS Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965a/g/n Mini Card
BLUETOOTH Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR)
BATTERY OPTIONS 85 WHr Lithium Ion Battery (9-cell)
SOUND OPTIONS High Definition Audio 2.0

How do you think that would suit me?

It forces me to get Vista 64-bit. Is 64-bit a good idea? I'm not sure if the 4 GB of RAM would work too well with it.

If you're going to go with 64-bit, you're going to want more RAM.
The differences between 32-bit and 64-bit rests mainly on the amount of RAM and the CPU the user is using.

Most dual-core processors are 64-bit enabled, and if you have 4gb or more of memory, 64-bit generally will suit you perfectly.

Mind you though, 64-bit is NOT for your general user. It takes a computer power user to bypass a lot of the issues that a 64-bit user will encounter. If you are lazy with your computers, or just don't care, I do not advise a 64-bit operating system for you.

If you are on your computer at all times though, and understand what's going on around you and can try to troubleshoot some problems - do go with 64-bit. There's problems, but a power user can deal with them for the sort of crap that will be thrown at them.
 

BrokenTripod

L5: Dapper Member
May 11, 2009
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I never understood the benefits of 64-bit?

But let me just say that's one beast of a laptop right there. Personally, I'd cut back on the hard drive, just because I never use up THAT much space, EVER. And if I do, I'd probably be packing it up on my external anyway by that time.

Not sure if you would want to do that, but if you do, that could leave you with some extra cash to use upgrading other parts?
 

Dr. Spud

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Mar 23, 2009
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I never understood the benefits of 64-bit?

But let me just say that's one beast of a laptop right there. Personally, I'd cut back on the hard drive, just because I never use up THAT much space, EVER. And if I do, I'd probably be packing it up on my external anyway by that time.

Not sure if you would want to do that, but if you do, that could leave you with some extra cash to use upgrading other parts?

That's the lowest option HDD on that machine. :mad:

Sort of a shame, too, since I'm planning on backing up lots of data on an external drive.
 

Exuzu

L1: Registered
Apr 28, 2009
19
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I got myself an HP Pavilion dv7. It works perfectly for me. nVIDIA 9600GT, 4 gigs of ram. I don't think it'd be able to play Crysis but it plays just about everything else fine. I got mine for roughly $1200 at Best Buy.

Also, I would avoid Dell. It's not so much of an issue with a laptop, but if you ever have trouble with it, you have to go to Dell for troubleshooting and part upgrades. It's just a hassle.

I also hear Acer makes good PCs.
 

BrokenTripod

L5: Dapper Member
May 11, 2009
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Oh, I just remembered: Windows 7 is coming out soon.

I was just looking at a new desktop and I saw a laptop which was coming with a free Windows 7 upgrade. Apparently Windows 7 is going to be amazing, which I've basically heard unanimously from everyone who has tried the beta/RC.

So, you might want to keep that in mind? Also, someone said it takes up less resources, but he hasn't verified that that's true yet. But if it does, more of your rig goes towards gaming instead of keeping windows from exploding =P
 

Dr. Spud

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Mar 23, 2009
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I want Windows 7, but I need this laptop right away. Both because my current desktop has been crumbling for the past year, and because school starts pretty soon.

If I could get a free Win 7 upgrade with a gaming laptop, that would be great.
 

Ganonmaster

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Nov 25, 2008
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I read that Microsoft is talking to numerous hardware manufacturers about free Windows 7 upgrades for Windows Vista computers purchased after the 26th of June. I know that HP and Lenovo have already announced participation in this program.

I also think you should avoid Dell. I'm not very satisfied with the laptop I bought form them, but that was almost two years ago. At the IT support company where I work, people also have a lot of trouble with them. And, if you're choosing a Dell XPS, be aware that the XPS gaming lineup is disappearing later this year and will be taken over by Alienware. The models Dell offers probably won't be updated anymore.
 

Dr. Spud

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Mar 23, 2009
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:wow:

I also think you should avoid Dell. I'm not very satisfied with the laptop I bought form them, but that was almost two years ago. At the IT support company where I work, people also have a lot of trouble with them. And, if you're choosing a Dell XPS, be aware that the XPS gaming lineup is disappearing later this year and will be taken over by Alienware. The models Dell offers probably won't be updated anymore.

Almost all the computers my family gets are Dells, for whatever reason. But we've actually been pretty happy with them, and the Dell customer support is really good. Although, none of us have had a Dell gaming laptop (only the desktops).
 
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nomad

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Jun 18, 2009
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I read that Microsoft is talking to numerous hardware manufacturers about free Windows 7 upgrades for Windows Vista computers purchased after the 26th of June. I know that HP and Lenovo have already announced participation in this program.

I also think you should avoid Dell. I'm not very satisfied with the laptop I bought form them, but that was almost two years ago. At the IT support company where I work, people also have a lot of trouble with them. And, if you're choosing a Dell XPS, be aware that the XPS gaming lineup is disappearing later this year and will be taken over by Alienware. The models Dell offers probably won't be updated anymore.

http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/02/1...e-for-vista-computers-purchased-after-july-1/
 

BrokenTripod

L5: Dapper Member
May 11, 2009
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I got a Dell about two years back, not NEARLY as amazing as yours and it's worked wonders for me all year. Nothing has really gone awry other than it taking a loooong time to turn off a while (For some reason, disabling and re-enabling the welcome screen fixed that?)

The battery has also been pretty nice to me, depending on what I'm doing, and it doesn't seem to have dropped any of it's lifespan yet.

So, I honestly have no idea. It seems like computer/laptop companies are hit and miss with people. Heard lots of bad comments about HP laptops, but you can take that with a grain of salt.
 

Bot190

L1: Registered
Sep 25, 2008
49
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are you sure you need the blue-ray drive? if you don't need that you can probably save some money there. other then that it sounds like a good gaming laptop..
 

Dr. Spud

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Mar 23, 2009
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I don't need the blu ray drive, but as with the harddrive it comes standard.

Right now I think I'm going with the XPS (not going to be ordering anything till next week). If I see anything else that rivals it for that price I'll post it.

Thanks!
 

MrAlBobo

L13: Stunning Member
Feb 20, 2008
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Can anyone help me out on what kind of gaming notebook to buy? I'm going into college, and I need a notebook that will keep me gaming for four years. The problem is... I know next to nothing about what to get. I'm not even sure about what specs are top of the line for a notebook these days.

My budget is somewhere in the ballpark of *$2000-$2500. I don't need the most cutting-edge machine available, but it's got to last me four years. It'd be nice to finally play Crysis (or at least TF2 with all the bells and whistles turned on).

I'm helpless on my own, please help!D:

edit: apparently "notebook" sometimes means mini-laptop. I use notebook as a synonym for laptop.

The biggest problem your likely to have is the computer lasting 4 years as a gaming machine. Laptops as a rule are nowhere near as powerful as desktops, obvious but still...Just as an example, look at some 4 year old laptops, their not very good, I have a 6 year old one and honestly...its a piece of shit. So...I really don't give you good odds of finding a laptop that can keep up for 4 years, likely the best start would be to aim high where it counts. Namely the processor and the video card, id say a quad core at 2.4 minimum, and ill admit that for the video card I don't keep up to date on mobile video cards. If you can wait a bit I expect ddr3 ram coming to laptops before too long.

Then there are two other considerations, battery and size. I honestly don't care if you think you will be able to plug it in most of the time when you are using the laptop, there will still be times when you wish you had better battery life. A 17" gaming laptop can usually expect less then an hour of full power gaming on battery, and that deteriorates over time. Aside from this, you will not easily find a good internal battery, that 9-cell lithium battery? Childs play, my 14" gaming laptop gets maybe an hour of battery life on that same type of battery. What I would recommend is investing in a good quality external battery.

In terms of laptops today, mine as an example:
Its an 14" asus, running on a dual core 2.0 processor and a 8650M GT video card, with 4gb of ram, the flaw being that I cheaped out on the screen and it maxes out at 1280 x 800, still perfectly fine for gaming, but doing other things its a little irritating. Anyways, it cost me about $1200 canadian and will max out tf2 and l4d.

oh and for your reference
a laptop/ notebook tend to be 13-18" and have processing power that can potentially rival a desktop
a netbook would be the minilaptop your thinking of