New Computer

[Tristham]

So I'm going off to college this Fall, and since I got a full ride my dad is paying up to $1,500 for a new laptop. I've narrowed it down to 2, each w/ their own pros and cons. Which do yall think I should buy? I would be using it for WoW/Skyrim/Elder Scrolls Online (upcoming).

ASUS G75 Series G75VW-NS71 Notebook Intel Core i7 3610QM(2.30GHz) 17.3" 12GB Memory DDR3 1600 500GB HDD 7200rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M
(Found on Newegg)
or

Asus G53SX-DH71 I7-2670QM 2.2G 12GB 750GB DVDRW 15.6IN BT 3.0 W7
(local dealer)

Any suggestions, advice, or different laptops would be much appreciated.

[glo]

You didn't provide the video card in the second model.

Regardless, I'd strongly suggest evaluating the strain and annoyance of carrying around a notebook that's a foot and a half wide and weighs 9 pounds to classes. Probably wouldn't fit on most chair/desks in the classroom well either.

[Tristham]

GTX 560M on the second. The laptop I have now is about 15 in, and it doesn't really bother me that much. The tables at Ole Miss (where I'm going) seem to be pretty large in the classrooms I've visited, so I think I can survive the size. Due to AP tests I can test out of my first year of math/english/science/history, so class size shouldn't be to large of an issue.

[Sunius]

It's not like you will use the laptop in your studies. I know I planned to, but it doesn't work that way. Lecturers usually tells the people using laptops to get out of class anyway..

[Pelagian]

Tristham, toward the end of my college days I tried the whole "gaming laptop/desktop replacement" thing and I can tell you that I was really disappointed. I bought a potent 15" Sager laptop at the time ($1600 budget in Jan 2004) with the intent of playing Half-life 2 and America's Army 2.1. The benchmarks all indicated that I would be able to run those shooters at mid to high settings with fps in the 40-60 range, but the reality was far from that. It struggled to run AA 2.1 on mid-low settings, often dipping below 30fps. Half-life 2 on minimal settings was a real strain with sub 20fps. What I found out was that my "desktop replacement" was a 10lb behemoth that ran loud & hot, was a chore to take to class, had terrible battery life, sup-par performance in games, and I was still tethered to my desk as it was tough to game without an external keyboard and mouse.

It was plagued with problems too. Within 45 days I had to send it back to Sager to replace the motherboard. The battery deteriorated to <50% max charge within 1 year and by 1.5 years it would no longer run off of AC power. Because it was a laptop, I really had no upgrade/repair options and so I was left with a $1600, 10lb paperweight.

After that experience I built a desktop for Vanilla WoW, KotOR II, and MS Combat Flight Sim III in July 2005 with a similar budget that has served me well up to this very day. I'm just now building a new one for current games like DIII/Max Payne 3. So I guess my long-winded advice that I wish I had followed in college would be to buy an inexpensive, lightweight, cool and quiet notebook with epic battery life to take to classes, etc. and spend the rest of the budget on a small-sized but powerful desktop to keep in the dorm/bring home on long breaks to serve your real gaming needs.

Using Newegg prices, you could build a nice mATX system that will run all the games you mentioned seamlessly with plenty of overclocking potential. That's something you just can't do with a laptop. You can scale it up or down to taste depending on if you need an O/S or peripherals.

CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K - ($220) / Intel Core i5-3570K - ($240)
Heatsink: Xigmatek GAIA - ($25) / NZXT HAVIK 120 ($50)
MoBo: ASRock Z77 Pro4-M - $110 / ASRock Z77 Extreme4-M ($130)
RAM: Mushkin Blackline (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 ($45)
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB ($120)
SDD: Crucial M4 128GB ($125)
GPU: XFX (DoubleD) Radeon HD 7850 ($250) / Asus (DCUII) GeForce GTX 670 ($420)
Case: Corsair 300R ($75) / Fractal Design Arc Mini ($100) / Fractal Design Define Mini ($100)
PSU: Seasonic 620W M12II 620 Bronze ($90)
Optical: Asus DRW-24B1ST ($18)
O/S: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (64-bit) OEM ($100)

$1178 - $1438 Total