Thinking about buying a gaming laptop

[Drakain]

I've built every gaming desktop I've own since 2009, but I'm really reluctant about building my own gaming laptop. Aside from fact the space is much more cramped and that's annoying to deal with, I'd like a warranty since I'll be traveling with it. So - what do folks recommend?

15' or 17' - doesn't really matter for me.

What brands? I'm looking at Maingear and Digital Storm right now, mostly because they appear to be good quality, but I'd like to hear from folks that are pleased with their particular manufacturer.

Thanks,

[Deleted]

What about Alienware? /s

[Drakain]

What about Alienware? /s

When I was in college I worked at Dell putting together servers. They mix high price component with mediocre ones. The last Dell laptop I purchased had a good processor, good video card, and decent RAM, but had probably the shittiest motherboard imaginable that could manage to fit everything they needed for the rig's specs. It was a mess and I ended up having to replace the motherboard myself because their solution was to stick another, probably refurbished, piece of crap in to replace the piece of crap that failed. Friends that have gotten alienware gaming laptops seem to have a lot of problems with their power source, too. I don't really trust Dell as a result. It's possible they've improve the quality of their products.

[Berri]

When you get into the world of gaming laptops, you need to consider several questions:

- How important is your hardware throttling under high temperatures to you? (If it's important, you'll want to look at a beefier chasis)
- How important is mobility?
- How important is battery life?
- How important is upgradeability?
- How much do you want to pay?

Along with a long list of other questions, ranging from personal preference (you feel you need a 4k display, you prefer X keyboard over Y, you can't stand a certain design, you like flashy lights, whatever).

If you're looking at a 15 or a 17 incher, you have quite some choice. Lower-end setups will typically run 970M's while higher-end setups will run 980M's. There are no laptops available yet with Nvidia's 1080 chip, and it's rumored that an 'M' version won't make it to market at all (Nvidia will instead offer the desktop-grade chip for notebooks). In my opinion, ASUS, Alienware, and MSI are the main brands to consider (although this really depends on budget). Many MSI laptops offer good upgradeability (GPU's aren't soldered to the motherboard - see the GT80 Titan). I believe the situation is similar (?) with ASUS. Alienware opts for soldered-on components, but also offers the external GPU solution for all its products, so that might be something to look at. I'm not sure how the warranty for MSI and ASUS is (I'm sure it's the standard 2 years), but Alienware will provide you with 4 year in-house support (for a price) if you want the peace of mind.

TL;DR: define for yourself exactly what class of gaming laptop you're looking for, because the market for these things is fairly diverse and subject to personal preference.

[PACOX]

MSIs are really good, though my current one has a bit of a heating problem even with 2 fans. I think the issue is that the CPU is overclocked (it comes that way) but still aren't enough heatsinks to support it. I get more mileage when I throttle the CPU (power-saving state).

[Drunkenfinn]

I've had an Asus gaming laptop for years and have two friends who also own versions newer than mine.

Works pretty well and neither I or them have ever had their laptop overheat.

[Zeta333]

I've had an Asus gaming laptop for years and have two friends who also own versions newer than mine.

Works pretty well and neither I or them have ever had their laptop overheat.

Get an Asus ROG laptop. Had one in the army. Rugged and lasts. And you can get a decent highend for 1400.

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I've built every gaming desktop I've own since 2009, but I'm really reluctant about building my own gaming laptop. Aside from fact the space is much more cramped and that's annoying to deal with, I'd like a warranty since I'll be traveling with it. So - what do folks recommend?

15' or 17' - doesn't really matter for me.

What brands? I'm looking at Maingear and Digital Storm right now, mostly because they appear to be good quality, but I'd like to hear from folks that are pleased with their particular manufacturer.

Thanks,

Those sound like offbrands. Id reccomend Asus above all.

[Tryuk]

Get an Asus ROG laptop. Had one in the army. Rugged and lasts. And you can get a decent highend for 1400.

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Those sound like offbrands. Id reccomend Asus above all.

I'll throw in my recommendation for ASUS as well, been managing to make my laptop from 2009 work for a while now.

[May90]

When deciding to buy a gaming laptop, you should be aware that portability comes with downsides. A laptop with a very powerful GPU or CPU, for example, might overheat under heavy load, so before buying a model, you should definitely do a research and see if other people owning the model have overheating problems (I had them with my Toshiba gaming laptop, and it is one of the most annoying thing I've ever encountered in my life ). Cleaning some laptops might be a pain too, so you might want to buy one that is easy to disassemble. As far as I know, custom-built laptops are okay, but, since they weren't tested thoroughly due to not being released in official lines, it might be a hit and miss.

ASUS ROG laptops seem to be a big thing these days, the reviews are very positive. People above have already recommended it, so I will join - but take my opinion with a grain of salt.

[Zeta333]

When deciding to buy a gaming laptop, you should be aware that portability comes with downsides. A laptop with a very powerful GPU or CPU, for example, might overheat under heavy load

No that doesnt happen. Maby if there is a defect. This isnt 2005. I had a asus in 08 and ran crysis maxed out. Back when crysis maxed out defined a PC. It was hot. i had a heat rash on my leg. But it didnt overheat over a heavy load.

[May90]

No that doesnt happen. Maby if there is a defect. This isnt 2005. I had a asus in 08 and ran crysis maxed out. Back when crysis maxed out defined a PC. It was hot. i had a heat rash on my leg. But it didnt overheat over a heavy load.

I had a Toshiba gaming laptop for $2,100 I bought in 2011. This one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ag=155ldkai-20

A few months after purchase overheating started getting regular: every time my GPU was at 100% load for more than a couple of minutes, throttling would start. I had to clock down the GPU, resulting in around 30% performance loss - and even then overheating would still happen every now and then. In 2014 the GPU finally burned down; I replaced it with the same one, but overheating persisted. Finally, in 2015, I gave it away. I had an expensive laptop cooling pad, and it barely made any difference.

I'm not sure if it was just a poor model, or if this problem was much more common 5 years ago than nowadays, but ever since I've been very skeptical about laptops with powerful hardware.

[Tryuk]

I had a Toshiba gaming laptop for $2,100 I bought in 2011. This one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ag=155ldkai-20

A few months after purchase overheating started getting regular: every time my GPU was at 100% load for more than a couple of minutes, throttling would start. I had to clock down the GPU, resulting in around 30% performance loss - and even then overheating would still happen every now and then. In 2014 the GPU finally burned down; I replaced it with the same one, but overheating persisted. Finally, in 2015, I gave it away. I had an expensive laptop cooling pad, and it barely made any difference.

I'm not sure if it was just a poor model, or if this problem was much more common 5 years ago than nowadays, but ever since I've been very skeptical about laptops with powerful hardware.

Heck, I have an older laptop with a similar/slightly worse GPU (ATI Radeon HD 5850) and the thing has never overheated in my memory. Usually around 70 C when playing Overwatch. Just have to clean it out with an air duster when I start hearing the fans making noise.

Edit: However the 5XXX series did have some interesting crashing issues that always annoyed me, great to see that ASUS ROG moved on to Nvidia.

[Zeta333]

I had a Toshiba gaming laptop for $2,100 I bought in 2011. This one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ag=155ldkai-20

A few months after purchase overheating started getting regular: every time my GPU was at 100% load for more than a couple of minutes, throttling would start. I had to clock down the GPU, resulting in around 30% performance loss - and even then overheating would still happen every now and then. In 2014 the GPU finally burned down; I replaced it with the same one, but overheating persisted. Finally, in 2015, I gave it away. I had an expensive laptop cooling pad, and it barely made any difference.

I'm not sure if it was just a poor model, or if this problem was much more common 5 years ago than nowadays, but ever since I've been very skeptical about laptops with powerful hardware.

Sounds like faulty fan or cooling system. WHen my fan died my system would turn off when it got to hot. I just ordered a new fan and problem sovled.

[McLovenIt]

Whatever you buy, DO NOT BUY ALIENWARE!!!!

The Price Does Not Justify The Quality AT ALL



Toshiba, ASUS, MSI are all great brands you can trust though

[PACOX]

TBH, people typically don't buy Alienware for the most power per $$$. They buy it for the brand, which is within there right. I could go on for days listing popular products that people are willing to pay more for due to branding.

[Zeta333]

TBH, people typically don't buy Alienware for the most power per $$$. They buy it for the brand, which is within there right. I could go on for days listing popular products that people are willing to pay more for due to branding.

The brand isnt the brand anymore since it was bought by dell.

[poser765]

TBH, people typically don't buy Alienware for the most power per $$$. They buy it for the brand, which is within there right. I could go on for days listing popular products that people are willing to pay more for due to branding.

Really as far as gaming laptops go you will be paying a premium. I just bought my third laptop and when I was shopping around it seemed like the Alienware products were pretty on par with other manufacturers.

OP, my most current laptop is a Sager. So far very happy with it. The last one was a MSI. Was generally pleased with it as well, though it did have an issue with HDDs crapping out (went through three of them). Before that it was a Lenovo which I liked the least just because of build quality.

[bbr]

You might want to post this here instead: http://www.mmo-champion.com/forums/3...d-Upgrade-Help

Whatever you buy, DO NOT BUY ALIENWARE!!!!

The Price Does Not Justify The Quality AT ALL

I second that.

Aside that "gaming" and "laptop" does not mix.
If you want gaming, get a PC.
If you want a laptop, don't expect 4K gaming on it,. your battery won't hold out more than an hour or so,. so you'll be on net power pretty much constantly. Which means you may as well buy a desktop.

[Lucetia]

​Moved it to the appropriate forum.