Looking for recommendations on gaming laptop

S

shanepez

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 21, 2007
Messages
165
I am a consultant, and will soon start traveling. I'm looking for something I take with me to game on. I'd like it to be 14-15" range. I've been looking at the new AMD APU's and they have been getting good reviews. Apparently they wipe out all integrated cards, but still not as good as a dedicated card. Anyone have any experience?

I play games like TF2, recently Deus Ex, Dragon Age, and will soon be playing SWTOR. I am not insistent on being able to play at full settings, but I am insistent on it being smooth. As long as I get better than 3.5 hours of battery life, then I'm fine.

Let say a price range of $0-$1,500

I plan on upgrading to an SSD and at least 8GB of ram myself.
 
It's a lot of laptop in a relatively slim profile. Plus it actually has a nice screen on it. Don't see what's so funny about that....
 
bigchedd said:
I'm playing on a Asus G73J-H, you can pick a similar model up at Best Buy for around a grand. I've had no complaints yet.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230021

This one is fairly close to what mine is, though I now have 2 HDDs and mine came with 8GB or ram, as well as being able to hit 1920x1080 resolution.
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I've seen this laptop in person, it runs very well and is able to handle anything you throw at it for the most part., and it's easily upgradeable.
 
Another one for the 8130... I was significantly impressed by it's performance in BC2.

I was expecting it to struggle because I figured it's a laptop, but it was doing 60-70 on full settings 1080p in a 32 player Laguna Presa match. It bogs down occasionally with big explosions and stuff but that's to be expected. Runs better than my friends G73 but he might have had other issues. Also this thing runs really cool, mid 30's for gpu/cpu and mid 70's at load (which is pretty impressive for a laptop).

I paid ~$1500 overall (1200 for the laptop) and got the 8130, 128GB C300 SSD, 16GB DDR3, (Threw the 500GB in the DVD drive bay). etc.

It seems like they don't offer the cheap matte screen anymore which sucks because it's one of the best laptops screen I've seen... although I bet the 95% color gamut is even better this was still impressive. You have to pay extra out of the gate for a matte screen which sucks...
 
Dave3d said:
I would go for a Toshiba Qosmio.
You can almost get in your top range price with an ssd already installed.

For that price range, cant be beat.

Also, a GTX560m will play almost anything out there right now.
Stay away from the gt5xx series, as they are almost 1/2 the performance of the 560. I think the 460m beats them out.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...smio&name=Laptops / Notebooks&Order=BESTMATCH
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The only one in my size range is $1,700+, out of my price range. Also, it has worse specs than the SAGER laptop previously mentioned at a $400 premium. I've heard good things about Sager.
 
The new MSI gaming notebooks are awesome. Great quality, service and warranty. I have the GT780 17" version and it rocks. I also came for the Asus G73, all I can say about that is never again. The Sager's are great but have less specs and less warranty than the MSI for the same price.

In the 15" range the GT683DXR is great and will play everything at very high/max settings.
 
Blazestorm said:
Another one for the 8130... I was significantly impressed by it's performance in BC2.

I was expecting it to struggle because I figured it's a laptop, but it was doing 60-70 on full settings 1080p in a 32 player Laguna Presa match. It bogs down occasionally with big explosions and stuff but that's to be expected. Runs better than my friends G73 but he might have had other issues. Also this thing runs really cool, mid 30's for gpu/cpu and mid 70's at load (which is pretty impressive for a laptop).

I paid ~$1500 overall (1200 for the laptop) and got the 8130, 128GB C300 SSD, 16GB DDR3, (Threw the 500GB in the DVD drive bay). etc.

It seems like they don't offer the cheap matte screen anymore which sucks because it's one of the best laptops screen I've seen... although I bet the 95% color gamut is even better this was still impressive. You have to pay extra out of the gate for a matte screen which sucks...
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It looks like the 8130 is the way to go. You can spec this up to the base specs of the 8150 for $200 less, so $11xx without OS and SSD. Pretty damn good deal.
 
I bought an HP Envy 14 a while back and I love it. Although I'm a bit disappointed with the speed of the video due to the underclocking HP has done, I am able to overclock it back to stock specs plus a bit. It runs well for a gaming laptop. Since it's got an i5, it's got switchable graphics, so on battery power I've gotten more than 4 hours on it without problem, yet still get good performance for gaming when I plug it in. The Radiance screen looks fantastic. It's got a backlit keyboard. For me, it's the perfect laptop. I love it.
 
Yippee38 said:
I bought an HP Envy 14 a while back and I love it. Although I'm a bit disappointed with the speed of the video due to the underclocking HP has done, I am able to overclock it back to stock specs plus a bit. It runs well for a gaming laptop. Since it's got an i5, it's got switchable graphics, so on battery power I've gotten more than 4 hours on it without problem, yet still get good performance for gaming when I plug it in. The Radiance screen looks fantastic. It's got a backlit keyboard. For me, it's the perfect laptop. I love it.
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Thanks for the reply. My good friend has the same laptop and I've played on it for a while. Unfortunately it underperforms where I want it to.
 
For that price i'd look into getting a Sager, or Asus if you want the most bang for your bucks
 
caniba said:
The new MSI gaming notebooks are awesome. Great quality, service and warranty. I have the GT780 17" version and it rocks. I also came for the Asus G73, all I can say about that is never again. The Sager's are great but have less specs and less warranty than the MSI for the same price.

In the 15" range the GT683DXR is great and will play everything at very high/max settings.
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Almost missed this post. I'll check out the MSI laptops. I've never heard of their gaming system. I did have a MSI X book, the MSI's answer to the Macbook Air, and was very underimpressed. I never touched another MSI notebook again. I do however like their motherboards. I'll check out the reviews for this notebook. Thanks again!
 
shanepez said:
Almost missed this post. I'll check out the MSI laptops. I've never heard of their gaming system. I did have a MSI X book, the MSI's answer to the Macbook Air, and was very underimpressed. I never touched another MSI notebook again. I do however like their motherboards. I'll check out the reviews for this notebook. Thanks again!
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Looks like the MSI is a no go. It does in fact get good reviews, but it weighs more, has only one level graphics processor up, comes with OS, and 12GB of ram, but it's also $400 more, which is out of my price range. Sager NP8130 is still winning.
 
M18x at the Dell outlet + 20% coupon.

A couple of days ago people were scoring 2920xm + dual 6970's for 1900. :eek: and $1500 for 2720qm + dual 6970's.

I got my m18x with 2620qm + dual 6990m for 1850 and I thought that was the deal of the century.
 
I've had my Sager (in my sig) for over a year now. I really like it's power and build quality but it's not a travel laptop, way too heavy and no battery... but I wasn't looking for that at the time. I would try one of their slim models, price/performance/options are very hard to beat.
 
ValeTudo said:
I've had my Sager (in my sig) for over a year now. I really like it's power and build quality but it's not a travel laptop, way too heavy and no battery... but I wasn't looking for that at the time. I would try one of their slim models, price/performance/options are very hard to beat.
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The one in your sig looks like a beast. I have a friend who lugs around one of those huge Qosimo 20" things around with him every week. I think I won't do that, but I don't mind having a 15.6". It lists the weight as 6.83 pounds, much lighter than most of the gaming 15.6"'s I've seen.
 
I'm also looking for a favorite Reseller of Sager laptops. I see a number of them out there, but which one have people had the best experience with? The Xotic PC has a cash discount of 3%, which makes it the best price of the ones I've seen, but how is their customer service?
 
Envy 14 is good, Lenovo Y570 has solid performance and excellent cooling for a little less.

It just sucks that to get one with a 1080p screen you have to sacrifice some power or go with a questionable model (15z with its overheating issues).

Sager is good if you dont need portability and can stand to look at the ugly things.
 
shanepez said:
I'm also looking for a favorite Reseller of Sager laptops. I see a number of them out there, but which one have people had the best experience with? The Xotic PC has a cash discount of 3%, which makes it the best price of the ones I've seen, but how is their customer service?
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I purchased through them even though I live about 20 minutes from Sager here in California, scored it tax free, lower shipping fee as well. They basically purchase it from Sager and receive, adjust with any options you've requested, then ship to you so it may add a day or two but it wasn't bad at all.

I was very happy with the service and experience using them. First time for me and I'll probably check them out again if needed in the future.

I purchased my Intel SSD at that time through Amazon to save a little cash, all worked out well in the long run.

Edit - one thing to add for these beast machines, I did pick up a nice full size cooler for under this thing just to keep it healthy and happy longer (I'm at work but I think it's the Zalman NC2000 model). There's some newer models out there now but if you get into a heavy gaming session it can keep you from overheating.
 
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ValeTudo said:
I purchased through them even though I live about 20 minutes from Sager here in California, scored it tax free, lower shipping fee as well. They basically purchase it from Sager and receive, adjust with any options you've requested, then ship to you so it may add a day or two but it wasn't bad at all.

I was very happy with the service and experience using them. First time for me and I'll probably check them out again if needed in the future.

I purchased my Intel SSD at that time through Amazon to save a little cash, all worked out well in the long run.

Edit - one thing to add for these beast machines, I did pick up a nice full size cooler for under this thing just to keep it healthy and happy longer (I'm at work but I think it's the Zalman NC2000 model). There's some newer models out there now but if you get into a heavy gaming session it can keep you from overheating.
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Thanks for the advice. I'll keep the cooler thing in mind. I live in Seattle, so I would get hit by Sales tax at Amazon. Newegg works well for me though.
 
All I need for cooling my NP8130 is a $5 passive stand.

All you need is to raise the back of the laptop an inch or two when in heavy gaming for an hour or more. It's fine sitting flat in most cases though.

For the U.S. the majority of forum users seem to buy from Xotic or Malibal and both companies have reps and techs and customer support that read every thread and post on that forum on a daily basis as well so it's even better than dealing with the tech support department or tickets. If Xotic offers you the lowest price after shipping, I would go with them. Ask for any student/military discounts if they are not offering them.

Also, remember with a Sager, user upgrades or modifications will not void your warranty. Many users have repasted their CPUs/GPUs themselves or even replaced the entire GPU themselves (but you need the 8150's powersupply for beefier cards).
 
I don't think the 8130 really needs extra cooling, as long as you have it on a flat hard surface (So that air-flow is generally unrestricted to the fans). If you try using it on a bed or something with it sinking into the fabric and blocking the air-holes, than yea you would have some issues.

But I also forgot that I reapplied the TIM on my GPU and CPU and that might be why it's running cooler. I don't remember the stock application being that bad though, I just used some Shin-etzu or whatever that stuff was I had laying around that was supposed to be really good.

I got mine from XoticPC, I ordered right when they made the switch from the 460m to the 560m so it was out of stock for a week or so, and then once it was back in-stock they upgraded me to the 560m and shipped it out and I had it within a couple days. I had to deal with not being home to sign for it (They suddenly decided to show up at 10:00am instead of the usual 3-4pm) and driving over to the UPS hub and picking it up that day, but was worth it in the end.

Sager threw in a laptop bag too, no idea why haha.
 
Spare-Flair said:
All I need for cooling my NP8130 is a $5 passive stand.

All you need is to raise the back of the laptop an inch or two when in heavy gaming for an hour or more. It's fine sitting flat in most cases though.

For the U.S. the majority of forum users seem to buy from Xotic or Malibal and both companies have reps and techs and customer support that read every thread and post on that forum on a daily basis as well so it's even better than dealing with the tech support department or tickets. If Xotic offers you the lowest price after shipping, I would go with them. Ask for any student/military discounts if they are not offering them.

Also, remember with a Sager, user upgrades or modifications will not void your warranty. Many users have repasted their CPUs/GPUs themselves or even replaced the entire GPU themselves (but you need the 8150's powersupply for beefier cards).
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Thanks for the advice. I think I'll be going with Xotic as they have the lowest price after their cash discount. Better than 1% I would get with my credit card. I don't plan on upgrading anything other than the hard drive though.

On another note, does anyone know if I can buy any hard drive caddy and have it fit in the DVDRW spot? I'll need to play DVDs every once in a while, but most of the time I'll want a secondary drive. The $45 they charge seems excessive. I've seen them for less than half that on eBay and Newegg.
 
shanepez said:
Thanks for the advice. I think I'll be going with Xotic as they have the lowest price after their cash discount. Better than 1% I would get with my credit card. I don't plan on upgrading anything other than the hard drive though.

On another note, does anyone know if I can buy any hard drive caddy and have it fit in the DVDRW spot? I'll need to play DVDs every once in a while, but most of the time I'll want a secondary drive. The $45 they charge seems excessive. I've seen them for less than half that on eBay and Newegg.
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I bought a cheap one on ebay. The only issue I ran into was that the bezel I popped off the DVD drive didn't quite fit on the one I had. But these caddy's are pretty much standardized. you want a 12.7mm one though. I found out my T500 actually had like a 9.5mm DVD drive which meant finding a caddy more of a pain for that one. (It was actually Lenovo specific).

But I did the same thing, 128GB SSD on the 6gb/s internal, then 750GB in the DVD drive.
 
Blazestorm said:
I bought a cheap one on ebay. The only issue I ran into was that the bezel I popped off the DVD drive didn't quite fit on the one I had. But these caddy's are pretty much standardized. you want a 12.7mm one though. I found out my T500 actually had like a 9.5mm DVD drive which meant finding a caddy more of a pain for that one. (It was actually Lenovo specific).

But I did the same thing, 128GB SSD on the 6gb/s internal, then 750GB in the DVD drive.
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Alright, I'll see if I can get one from eBay then.
 
hate buying laptops from ebay, never know if they accurately described it or not...
 
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