$1.,000 - $2,000 School + Gaming

S

SR-71

n00b
Joined
Oct 21, 2003
Messages
59
It's been awhile since I last visited these forums but everyone was so helpful when I built my old desktop two or so years ago that I thought I would once again ask for advice when looking for a solid laptop. I've read through several other threads and couldnt find one that really addressed what I'm looking for so I figured I'd start my own thread.

I'll be moving out and going off to school again this fall and need somthing portable (oh how I'll miss desktops) to carry to classes and work.

I'd like a laptop:

- at least 15.4", not too too big
- well constructed
- attractive
- not orange (ASUS, Toshiba, I'm talking to you. what's the deal...)
- enough power to do some moderate gaming and media editing.
(by this I mean Photoshop, Starcraft, some 3d modeling... I just want it to hold its own)

I configured a Sager NP8662 off Xoticpc.com for about ~1,600$ with a T9600, GTX 260m, 4gb ram, etc. that seems like the best configuration you can really get for the price online currently. I'm looking to spend ~$1,500, but theres lots of room above and below that price range that I can look into... Also, I'd need to order a laptop by the end of July, so unless there's anything coming out that's really worth waiting for than I'd like to stick to current products.

What I'm asking you guys is if its really worth it, or if an HP HDX 16t, ASUS, Sony (I know it's overpriced, but the AW series looks sleek) or Dell would just as easily do what i'm asking for for less... I just really need something with enough power to last me a couple years (two, three, fourish)...

Any input is greatly appreciated!

EDIT: by moderate gaming I do mean more than SC, i'd like to play HD movies and some games like Oblivion, CS:S, HL2...
 
I just saw another thread and stumbled upon this laptop, which looks incredible... I didn't know ASUS had started shipping new laptops with the GTX 200 series cards yet which is really what I want... I just don't like the 5400RPM HDD, and a Quad Core is kinda overkill currently because I wont even really be able to take advantage of it. Also, I will have a 22in monitor, keyboard, mouse dock setup so the native resolution on the laptop doesnt really matter THAT much...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9382553&type=product&id=1218095770874
 
Laptops like that Asus kill me. 17" WXGA? Why?

I'm also looking at the NP8662 from xotic. Laptops generally last two years for me. My MBP is getting old and I'll never buy from Apple again, so I'm hoping Sager will be a nice upgrade. Apparently you can cram a GTX 280m into it...
 
If you're going to be carrying it around a lot as well as using frequently, I would suggest looking at a Dell and getting the complete care warranty. At least that way if an accident happens, you won't be out any extra money.
 
ah, good point RCGodward, WSXGA+ would at least be nice. I mean they market them as mobile gaming machines... whats the point of a GTX 260 with that kinda res?:rolleyes:

also, @p4gs, that laptop does seem nice, I'd could probably even go online and just buy a P9700 or T9600... though once again, whats the deal ASUS with your silly displays?

Tekara, going with something with a nice protection plan seems good too, though I'm fairly responsible with expensive electronics.

man, I'm too indecisive for all this. thanks for all the advice so far guys!
 
I usually want WSXGA+ on a 15" and WUXGA on a 17". Anything less seems weak. I went ahead and ordered an NP8662 from xotic. If you can wait a week or so I'll give you a quick review.
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152099

2.4ghz
4gb RAM
320gb HDD
9800M GS
1680x1050 15.4" screen
BluRay combo drive

$1300

^ does pretty much everything you could need for $1300

To me screen resolution is a pet peeve, 900p MINIMUM for a 15.4" screen, most seem to do 768p at that size :mad:

If you want to save some money though:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152119
same as the previous one with 2 changes I can see:
- DVD+-RW instead of BluRay
- 9600M GT instead of 9800M GS (plenty for anything up to HL2 I believe)
 
SR-71 said:
Tekara, going with something with a nice protection plan seems good too, though I'm fairly responsible with expensive electronics.
Click to expand...

if you're not worried about accidental damage, the standard plans, like at best buy, which can extend your protection to 3 years or so are actually not a bad deal at all. if something malfunctions beyond your ability to repair it (i.e. motherboard spontaneously combusts), you can take it to any best buy and they will send it out to be repaired. also, certain things like hard drives can be replaced at the store the day you bring it in. furthermore, you get 1 battery and 1 ac adapter replacement.

there are a lot of additional benefits to the BBY service plans (Geek Squad black tie protection) that go beyond basic repairs.
 
I though about getting the MSI with the 4850 and a quad for a long time. It's hard to beat the bang for the buck. I had two issues with it (and most of the MSI laptops)... One, I personally think the red and black color scheme is pretty fugly. It might be cool on a car, but I don't really want to rice out my laptop. Two, I've read that the keyboards are somewhat lacking. I tend to beat the hell out of my keyboards, and if they creak or squeak it will drive me nuts. They're all really good deals, though.
 
yeah, I'm leaning toward getting the white ASUS (Best Buy) and replacing the processor or ordering the NP8662. 15.4" is just a more comfortable size for me. A friend of mine has a Gateway P Series FX which is absolutely massive, I think 17" is way to big to be carrying around frequently...

oh and yes, RCGodward, I'd love to hear your first impressions when you get your Sager :D
 
RCGodward said:
I though about getting the MSI with the 4850 and a quad for a long time. It's hard to beat the bang for the buck. I had two issues with it (and most of the MSI laptops)... One, I personally think the red and black color scheme is pretty fugly. It might be cool on a car, but I don't really want to rice out my laptop. Two, I've read that the keyboards are somewhat lacking. I tend to beat the hell out of my keyboards, and if they creak or squeak it will drive me nuts. They're all really good deals, though.
Click to expand...

The keyboard's an easy fix though. Double sided foam tape stiffens the keyboard. I did that to my MS-1651, and it made a night & day difference.
 
SR-71 said:
oh and yes, RCGodward, I'd love to hear your first impressions when you get your Sager :D
Click to expand...

It's in production now, so hopefully everything goes quickly.

batteriesnotincluded said:
The keyboard's an easy fix though. Double sided foam tape stiffens the keyboard. I did that to my MS-1651, and it made a night & day difference.
Click to expand...

I'm going to try this out on some of the old laptops around the house. Might make them a bit more tolerable. Thanks.
 
Check our rjtech.com for "barebones" laptops that have current specs. I've never ordered from them, but it's the only place I've found where you can get 260m and even 280m with no CPU, RAM, HD, or OS. Then you can pick whatever you want and put it together yourself. Of course, they also offer all the components and assembly plus software.

It's hard to beat the price on the Asus laptops at Best Buy with the 260m - I picked up one yesterday. I got the 17" with the P8700. The chassis has a second hard drive bay, so I put in a SSD and installed Win7 RC. I really like it so far.
 
yeah, those ASUS's at Best Buy really are good buys... Is there really a major difference in DDR2 and DDR3 RAM? also, what does a Centrino with interrelated Core 2 Duo mean?
 
You can build a laptop with some nice specs for gaming at a nice price with a Lenovo T500. They are seemingly always on sale and look very professional so they're nice to carry to school or work.
 
Unless you're going to a school so far away from home, you have to fly there. I would recommend just bringing your gaming desktop, and if you really want a laptop buying a netbook. In all seriousness, You will have room in your dorm for a desktop. Also anything you need to do in the class room setting a netbook will be able to do, i.e. word processing, power point, programming, and if you need to do something more intense odds are the class room will have pcs in it.
 
The NP8662 is in and I'm installing Windows 7 on it now. Can't give any performance numbers yet, but the build quality is top notch. It was packed really well too. I'll probably post some real info tomorrow from work.
 
volt01 said:
Unless you're going to a school so far away from home, you have to fly there. I would recommend just bringing your gaming desktop, and if you really want a laptop buying a netbook. In all seriousness, You will have room in your dorm for a desktop. Also anything you need to do in the class room setting a netbook will be able to do, i.e. word processing, power point, programming, and if you need to do something more intense odds are the class room will have pcs in it.
Click to expand...

This. Just buy a SFF. You don't need to run a server or anything. Netbook for class notes and surfing the web, and a solid desktop with large screen real estate for the room.

Now, if you don't like working in your room or something, yeah I could see why you would get a beefier laptop. Personlly, I wouldn't get anything bigger than 15.4. I can't imagine how people lug around a 17" laptop. Ideally, I would get a 14" with SOLID specs and a high end video card, and then a 24"/30" monitor. Seriously, I would rather sacrifice eye candy for increase productivity.

If I had to redo the past 4 years I would have gone with option "A". Option "B" is good if you only go home 4 times a year.
 
RCGodward said:
The NP8662 is in and I'm installing Windows 7 on it now. Can't give any performance numbers yet, but the build quality is top notch. It was packed really well too. I'll probably post some real info tomorrow from work.
Click to expand...

The Windows 7 install failed. It would extract files, reboot, then sit at the pretty Windows flag forever. Just tried Vista and it isn't working either. Linux works fine though. Guess I'll get to see how support is...
 
Just go for a desktop+netbook combo for Max performance, Max comfort and Max portability with no compromises, rather than a laptop that costs more than those two combined and only get mid performance, mid portability, and low comfort.
 
Turns out it was a bad hard drive. I threw in an extra and it's working great. Also, it sounds like they are willing to just send me a replacement drive, so that's a win. I'm loving the machine so far. It looks great (pictures don't do it justice), build quality is excellent, the keyboard is just right. Windows 7 flies, even with the crappy 5400rpm drive that's in it for the time being. WEI score is 4.6 (limited by the P8700, Gaming Graphics are next at 5.2) not that it means anything. Of course I've already had it apart, and the inside is laid out quite well. (They used too much thermal goop, though... easy to fix.) Haven't had much of a chance to game on it yet, but WoW and TF2 both run great. What else do you want to know?
 
Hey! Glad to hear you're enjoying your new laptop so far. I'm shopping around for one too but can't quite decide what I want.

How are the temps on your 8662 both gaming and non-gaming? Not so much the actual temp of the hard drive or gpu - but how does it feel to the touch? Uncomfortable at all? I know it's a high-end laptop so it's gonna be a little warm, but I have an old Sager 3790 that feels like I could grill on it sometimes!

And what kind of battery life are you getting?

Thanks!
 
I came from using a MacBook Pro which was so hot that I think I could catch a meteor on my lap now, so the Sager is much cooler. It does get warm, but I don't find it uncomfortable. The worst part is actually the palmrest right over the hard drive. During heavy file IO it will get warm. Hopefully a better drive will take care of it.

I really haven't used it unplugged all that much, so I'm interpolating a bit. Web browsing and light activities will probably get you three hours on battery. I can't image battery life would be very good at all if you fire up the video card... I ran furmark and prime95 on battery and it looked like it was going to last about an hour.
 
I'm curious as to how big the NP8662 is. I would love to go netbook/desktop route but I'll be at Georgia Tech and am required to have a semi=powerful laptop. I've also been looking at the Sony Vaio FW Series, 16", 4650 1Gb, p8700 or p9600. RC Godward, on a scale of one to ten how good do you feel about that laptop?
 
As for size it's pretty much standard for a non-thin-and-light 15" laptop. Carrying it around wouldn't be an issue. Also, the GTX260M will blow away the 4650 in that Sony. I got over 10K 3dMarks.

I'd probably give it a 9 or a 9.5. There are a couple small things that I would change if I could (trackpad is small, power brick is large), but they aren't that bad and are generally overshadowed by some of the sweet things. (I tore apart the whole thing to put on better thermal goop in about ten minutes.)
 
voting for Bestbuy's asus with GTX260 (15 or 17inch they got both for only 999 to 1150)
 
You can always go for cheap netbook for school(around 300) and gaming laptop(around 1500) and 200 for accesories you need.
 
A 5400 RPM HDD is more than enough. You won't notice the difference. Plus, in reality.. you really don't need to bring a laptop to class. Pencil and paper work just fine. At least for me. Most people end up just playing internet games, and not paying attention.
 
AMDXPCottonFire22 said:
A 5400 RPM HDD is more than enough. You won't notice the difference. Plus, in reality.. you really don't need to bring a laptop to class. Pencil and paper work just fine. At least for me. Most people end up just playing internet games, and not paying attention.
Click to expand...

absolutely
out of all the kids in my college classes that i see with laptops
maybe 10% of them are using them for notetaking - the rest are all on facebook
pencil and paper works just great for notetaking
 
Cyclone said:
absolutely
out of all the kids in my college classes that i see with laptops
maybe 10% of them are using them for notetaking - the rest are all on facebook
pencil and paper works just great for notetaking
Click to expand...

This, however I know some schools require laptops for ceratain majors.
 
yeahh, I'm going in for Biomedical Engineering so I actually have to use my laptop in some classes though the really hardcore stuff can be done on school provided workstations. I think im leaning towards the Sager, it just seems like a good, well rounded laptop for the price. Display is nice, it looks semi professional and not too heavy or thick. I make a decision in a few days so I'll keep you posted. RCGodward you might have me convinced :p
 
SR-71 said:
yeahh, I'm going in for Biomedical Engineering so I actually have to use my laptop in some classes though the really hardcore stuff can be done on school provided workstations. I think im leaning towards the Sager, it just seems like a good, well rounded laptop for the price. Display is nice, it looks semi professional and not too heavy or thick. I make a decision in a few days so I'll keep you posted. RCGodward you might have me convinced :p
Click to expand...

Regardless of what major you are, there is nothing a mainstream laptop (ie: generic dell) cannot handle. Being BME or EE or CS or whatever, it doesn't matter. You'll soon realize this.

Now, if you're doing research, it's nice to have a powerhouse computer that's sometimes faster than your lab ones, just for number crunching purposes.
 
SR-71 said:
yeahh, I'm going in for Biomedical Engineering so I actually have to use my laptop in some classes though the really hardcore stuff can be done on school provided workstations. I think im leaning towards the Sager, it just seems like a good, well rounded laptop for the price. Display is nice, it looks semi professional and not too heavy or thick. I make a decision in a few days so I'll keep you posted. RCGodward you might have me convinced :p
Click to expand...

Just ordered a quad for mine, so I'll let you know how that goes. :D
 
SR-71 said:
yeahh, I'm going in for Biomedical Engineering so I actually have to use my laptop in some classes though the really hardcore stuff can be done on school provided workstations. I think im leaning towards the Sager, it just seems like a good, well rounded laptop for the price. Display is nice, it looks semi professional and not too heavy or thick. I make a decision in a few days so I'll keep you posted. RCGodward you might have me convinced :p
Click to expand...

Yeah, maybe near your last year. Not your first two. :rolleyes: If at all.
 
This is my second year actually with summer courses :p. So after planning it all out with discounts and the available warranties I decided to get...

A Sony FW Series!

P8700 2.53Ghz
4Gb RAM
1Gb 4650
320 Gb 7,200RPM
Blu-Ray Read/DVD
1080p XBRITE FULLHD screen

a wireless bluetooth mouse, a neoprene case and a 3 year protection plan for 1,301.62shipped.

Totally unexpected! I know, right? It was quite discounted when i stumbled onto it and it seemed like a decent, still professional system.

I would have liked a GTX 260M but the Sony just kind of showed up... I'll let you all know what I think of it when it shows up...
 
I think the sony will be a nice pick. I just received my sony SR 490J CTO yesterday and I couldn't be any more happy. The only caveat I think that the sony line has and I think you should keep in mind if it will affect you is whether or not you will use hardware virtualization(VT). Now it doesn't sound like something you would use right off the bat but sony says they refuse to implement it as of now but there are third party made bios patches to enable it which I did successfully on mine. Windows 7 makes use of hardware based VT for the windows xp compatibility mode. If you need this feature you may want to think for a second on the sony purchase if you are uncomfortable doing flashes etc.

In all other areas though I am more than impressed with the battery life,screen quality,speed,heat levels, and build quality of the case.

SPECS: P8700, 4gb ram, 500gb HDD, ATI RADEON 4570, 9 cell battery
 
I'm looking at buying a NP8662. However, I am going to be replacing my work Dell D630 with it. The Dell docking station has a DVI and VGA port that I use to drive two 1600x1200 LCDs.

I noticed that the Sager has a DVI and HDMI port. Did it come with any HDMI or DVI to VGA converters? Can you drive two monitors with it? Can it do two monitors and its own screen all at the same time? Does the laptop screen have to stay open to drive both monitors?

Also, any chance you can post a picture of the power cord and adapter?

Thanks.
 
Waldorf said:
I'm looking at buying a NP8662. However, I am going to be replacing my work Dell D630 with it. The Dell docking station has a DVI and VGA port that I use to drive two 1600x1200 LCDs.

I noticed that the Sager has a DVI and HDMI port. Did it come with any HDMI or DVI to VGA converters? Can you drive two monitors with it? Can it do two monitors and its own screen all at the same time? Does the laptop screen have to stay open to drive both monitors?

Also, any chance you can post a picture of the power cord and adapter?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

It didn't come with any adapters, but they're cheap. I haven't tried two monitors with it, but I can check it out tonight I think. No clue where my camera is, what are you looking for with the AC adapter?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top