Can't decide - feedback on gaming laptops

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EricDawg

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 7, 2004
Messages
427
Man I can't decide. I need a new gaming rig, and was planning on building a new desktop AND then buying a cheaper laptop for paying bills and such, but I just can't buy a pc that can't play games. It's like non-alcoholic beer, decaf coffee, etc.

I've been looking at some of the Lenovo's, and the Dell Studio XPS16. I was originally turned off by the battery life of the Alienware, and prefer the styling of the Dell or Lenovo. But... it sure sounds like a nice rig.

For anyone that has a "gaming" laptop can you tell me what you have and:

1) Does it really run all the new games at high res?

2) How loud does the fan get when gaming? When just surfing?

Thanks!

I was planning on hooking it up to the 20" CRT for gaming cause' I hate ghosting on FPS. Mostly play Battlefield online. 1600 x 1200 currently. Have a 20" Dell UltraSharp at 1600 x 1200 as well. If I could find an LCD that didn't ghost (I think they're better now) I'd replace them both.

It might be nice to upgrade the video card if that's possible with the Alienware, but with the new one using the ATI 58xx and newer Nvidia cards, I think I'm good for the next 2-3 years. Optimus sounds cool. When I'm just dinking around, it would be nice to not hear the graphics card (e.g. use the onboard graphics).




Is this what is sounds like all the time or just when gaming?

http://bestgadgetnow.com/gadget-news...preview-ultra/
 
I had a dedicated gaming laptop. It was hot and loud while gaming and the battery-life was also pretty poor.

If you are looking for a laptop that can handle gaming, I'd say gaming laptops are fine. If you are looking for the desktop gaming experience from a laptop, I've not found a machine I can afford that does that.
 
I bought an MSI GX640 and I love it. So for your questions:

1) Yes. I've yet to find the game I can't turn the detail up on at its native 1680x1050 rez. Bad Company 2, Mass Effect 2, Street Fighter 4, WoW, they all run with detail settings up. I can't turn up FSAA in all games like I can on my desktop, but I can still have the detail maxed. Also works fine on my 1080p HDTV. I'd say it is around as fast as a 5770.

2) During games it spins up pretty good. You can hear it for sure. Now if you have game sound going through headphones or something then no, but supposing everything is silent you can hear it. During regular surfing it is pretty quiet. When plugged in it spins up a bit, but not much. On battery it tends to hardly spin up at all (since it is set to go to lower CPU states on battery).

In the case of this system, no integrated graphics. That is somewhat common on gaming laptops. Does mean the battery isn't as long as it could be. Call it about 3 hours with a half bright screen doing normal surfing with WiFi. Plenty usable, but not lengthy.

Video card upgrades with laptops are tricky, there's no guarantees. The GX640 does use a MXM slot, and there is easy access to it, so in theory it could be upgraded. Of course that means finding a compatible card not only in terms of slot but also power and heat.

Basically it competes with a mid range desktop. Has a current generation (32nm i5) dual core CPU and a midrange graphics card (5850M which equals about a 5770 desktop). Not much that it can't do. Is it as fast as my Quad core desktop with a 5870? Of course not, but you can't have that in a laptop. Hell the 5870 alone can use 250 watts.

It does its job though, I can take all my games with me. I've found nothing it won't run well.
 
Asus has some great bang for the buck gaming laptops.

Just remember that any laptop with enough graphics card for modern games is going to have a short battery life.
 
Thanks for the input.

I've had good times gaming on my current desktop, but it's old and loud (AMD64 & Nvidia 6800GT - about 6/7 yrs old). The noise doesn't bother me when I'm pawning online, but it's distracting when left on to manage photos etc.

I'd love a nice quiet laptop that could do the non-gaming stuff, but also have enough power to manage photo's, do my Java Dev work, and game.

I think a gaming laptop could replace the desktop quite nicely considering it's age. The tought part is would I really want it on all the time for surfing etc. if it was loud. I almost think I need 2. Maybe a netbook or smaller/cheaper 15.6". Or a new desktop and a gameless laptop, or a laptop with a lower end card that could game on low settings. Too many choices. An Optimus enabled gaming laptop sounds like what I'm looking for.
 
I think this is what I need. That's what the 3 beers lead me to believe anyway. Around $1800 with employee discount.
 
Those have something similar to Optimus (powerplay?) that allows you to switch to the integrated graphics when not gaming etc. Does that work? Does the onbaord Radeon fan turn off as well? I'm hoping when I'm just surfing in the family room that the Alienware will be quieter and cooler. Then when I'm gaming the Radeon can do it's thing.

Thanks for the feedback.
 
EricDawg said:
I think this is what I need. That's what the 3 beers lead me to believe anyway. Around $1800 with employee discount.
Click to expand...

The three beers also caused you to forget your link I see. :p

Anyway, I will revise my first post based on the age of your current desktop rig. Yes, you would be fine with a gaming laptop. Any machine with a good video card, like the 5850M that Sycraft has, will be an upgrade from what you are used to. It will also likely be much quiter during normal operation than your current setup.
 
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