Looking for a new laptop, need help

[Glwys]

Alright, I'm looking to get a new laptop if I get this new job, but I honestly have no idea what exactly to look for. It'd be used for everything with an emphasis on gaming (I know, I know, desktop would probably be better, and I do want a desktop since I could build one myself, I just have no room for one).
Budget would be between $850-2500. (obviously cheaper would be great, but I'm willing to save since this one would have to last me a couple of years).

Does anyone have any recommendations on what I should get? I was looking at this site http://www.pugetsystems.com/laptop.php anyone know if they're reliable, or of any other sites like them?


TLR: I'm hoping to get a new laptop for gaming and don't know what to get. Thanks in advance.

[glo]

That's a really hard budget for us to go off of.

Do you want a system that can play anything thrown at it maxed out at 60 FPS? Or do you want something that would just get by on medium settings?

[Glwys]

Hrm, max settings would be great, especially since I plan on not getting a new laptop for at least 5 or so years, so I guess I'll need to go towards the higher end of my proposed budget. Uhm some more info for you guys I guess you might need, my current laptop is wireless, and I'd like to stick to Windows (it's all I know). Games I currently play would be TERA and Skyrim.

Any other info you might need just ask, I'll try to answer to the best of my ability.

[glo]

In terms of custom builders, Sager is widely regarded as one of the best, with some of the cheapest available prices. Have a look at their gaming line:

http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.p...elected_cat=11

Obviously the main focus you want to pay attention to is GPU/CPU. In all of them, they're all going to have SBm i7s. They'll give you the choice between the 4 different models, and really, there's no legit reason to go above the 2670QM chip unless you're going to be doing professional rendering, etc.

On the GPU side of things you'll have a few choices, mainly the GTX 670/675m, or the 7970m. The 675m is essentially a rebranded 580m, and it gets obliterated by AMD's 7970m. Really, the 7970m is untouchable at the moment, and I would -strongly- suggest looking for it in any of your potential builds.

As far as other brands go, ASUS and MSI make great gaming notebooks, but they're going to cost a bit more for a bit less horsepower compared to Sager. Mainly for their brand name.

[Glwys]

Thanks for the quick response!
Just have a few quick questions, but what's the difference between 750GB 7200rpm SATA Hybrid Hard Drive with 8GB SSD, and 750GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive?

And is there any noticible difference between 12GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 3 X 4GB and 12GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1866MHz - 3 X 4GB?

Sorry if these are rather noobish questions, I really have no clue.

[glo]

Welcome.

The first HDD you quoted has 8GB of NAND flash built into the actual drive. Startup files, and other commonly accessed files will get cached to that SSD portion, and dramatically increase access times and speed for that stuff. After a few uses, you should have 15s~ startups.

As far as the RAM goes, the speed of it isn't going to increase gaming by any noticeable amount at all, literally almost nada. The RAM speed has more of an effect on non-gaming applications like Photoshop, video rendering, and the such. I'd venture to say that in a notebook you'd rather have the lower speed RAM anyway to keep heat down.

[Glwys]

So what about something like this?

Display--  17.3" Full HD LED-Backlit Display with Super Glossy Surface (1920 x 1080)
Video & Graphics Card--  AMD Radeon HD 7970M GPU with 2GB GDDR5 Video Memory 
CPU Processor--	2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2760QM Processor ( 6MB L3 Cache, 2.40GHz) 
Thermal Compound--	Stock Standard Thermal Compound
Operating System	Genuine MS Windows® 7 Home Premium 32/64-Bit Edition ( 64-Bit Preloaded )
Memory--	12GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 3 X 4GB 
RAID Storage Options--	Non-RAID Storage
Primary Hard Disk Drive--	750GB 7200rpm SATA Hybrid Hard Drive with 8GB SSD 
2nd Hard Disk Drive--	500GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Secondary Hard Disk Drive 
Optical Drive Bay — Optical Drive or Hard Disk Drive in Optical Drive Bay with Caddy case--	8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
Wireless Network Card--	Internal 802.11 B+G+N Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Combo Module

Anything else you'd recommend changing or looking into about adding?

[diminished]

So what about something like this?

Display--  17.3" Full HD LED-Backlit Display with Super Glossy Surface (1920 x 1080)
Video & Graphics Card--  AMD Radeon HD 7970M GPU with 2GB GDDR5 Video Memory 
CPU Processor--	2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2760QM Processor ( 6MB L3 Cache, 2.40GHz) 
Thermal Compound--	Stock Standard Thermal Compound
Operating System	Genuine MS Windows® 7 Home Premium 32/64-Bit Edition ( 64-Bit Preloaded )
Memory--	12GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 3 X 4GB 
RAID Storage Options--	Non-RAID Storage
Primary Hard Disk Drive--	750GB 7200rpm SATA Hybrid Hard Drive with 8GB SSD 
2nd Hard Disk Drive--	500GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Secondary Hard Disk Drive 
Optical Drive Bay — Optical Drive or Hard Disk Drive in Optical Drive Bay with Caddy case--	8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
Wireless Network Card--	Internal 802.11 B+G+N Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Combo Module

Anything else you'd recommend changing or looking into about adding?

Get one SSD and one normal hard drive, a hybrid drive will not help you much for gaming. if you get a 256GB SSD with windows on that, you can fit 200GB of games on it to play, and use the 2nd drive for data(photos and movies)

[Idrinkwhiterussians]

If you don't need the 500GB of extra storage, there is no real reason to get the second hard drive. It will just kill your battery life more and well, is more expensive than not having it.

[Glwys]

Hrm, Yeah, I don't know if I would need the extra storage space I'll have to mess around with the builder some more.

Thanks for all the answers so far.

[Defengar]

alienware just upgraded their line of laptops. now I know they get a lot of hate, and even though their desktops are ridiculously over priced, their laptops are well placed as far as price goes. once you get up into the high end range the price difference between them and even sager is negligible. especially since there is loads of coupons out there and you can haggle on the price with a rep,also, your business/scool may mave a contract with dell, which means you can get anywhere from 10-40% off your machine.
Just stay away from the extra ram. all all their models now come standard with 6gb of DDR3 1600 MHz ram, which is plenty for any game period. If you need more for doing photo/hd vid work, just buy the ram from another source and put it into the comp yourself (it will save you a lot of money and its easy). Also you should probably stay away from the 3d. 3d on a laptop or really any non 21+ inch screen is an over priced gimmick and the Nvidia graphics card that allows its use is a major step down.

they make 14 inch, 17 inch, and 18.4 inch laptops. Best bet for you is the m17x R4.
press customize on the lowest priced model to fully customize your machine.
http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-m17x-r4/fs

this build is 2173$ (before haggling and coupons/discounts) and should last you YEARS (and play any game you throw at it at near or at max settings with 60+ FPS).

PROCESSOR 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM (6MB Cache, up to 3.1GHz w/ Turbo Boost 2.0)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit
MEMORY 6GB DDR3 at 1600MHz (2DIMMS)
HARD DRIVE 750GB 7,200 RPM + 32GB mSATA Caching SSD
VIDEO CARD 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon™ HD 7970M
LCD PANEL 17.3-inch WideFHD 1920 x 1080 60Hz WLED
WIRELESS CARD Intel® Advanced-N WiFi Link 6250 a/g/n 2x2 MIMO Technology with WiMax and Bluetooth 4.0
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)

WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1 Year Advanced Plan

Keyboard English Keyboard
Documentation Alienware Documentation
Shipping Material Shipping Material - Black
Additional Software Additional Software
Primary Battery 90WHr 9-Cell Primary Battery
Standard Nameplate Trigger Standard Nameplate
SOUND OPTIONS Creative Sound Blaster Recon3Di with THX TruStudio Pro Software
SYSTEM COLOR Alienware M17X R4 with Soft Touch
AUTOMATIC UPDATES Alienware M17x 240W A/C Adapter
Adobe Reader Acrobat SW Adobe Acrobat X Reader

you may want to want a bit though. in the next month or so the are supposed to add a Nvidia 680m graphics card option, ivy bridge processors, and possibly a 120 Hz non 3-d monitor option.

[Glwys]

Thanks for all the help guys, Now that I've got a general idea of what to look for, who to look at, and what not I can move onto phase 2: Setting aside monies.

Again, thanks for all the help it's greatly appreciated.