New laptop for gaming.

[Beefsquatch]

Hey guys, I'm wanting to get a new laptop for gaming. I found this Dell Inspiron 17r Special Edition, and I really liked the specs. I want to know how they fair with mmos. Like GW2, WoW, etc. Would I be able to play them in high-ultra settings with this laptop? I'm mainly looking for a dell because they have a special thing to pay monthly, don't have $1000 bucks to blow like that and I could use this to up my credit anyway. I was thinking of alienware...but it kind of has the same specs as this one. Anyway, these are it's specs.

SYSTEM - Inspiron 17R Notebook (Inspiron 7720)
PROCESSOR - 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM processor (6M Cache, up to 3.3 GHz)
OPERATING SYSTEM - Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, English
DISPLAY - 17.3" Full High Definition (1080p) LED Display with Anti-Glare
MEMORY - 8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
HARD DRIVE -1TB 5400RPM SATA HDD + 32GB mSATA SSD w/ Intel Smart Response
VIDEO CARD - NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M GDDR5 2GB
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE - 8X Tray Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
SYSTEM COLOR - Stealth Black Anodized Aluminum
BATTERY OPTIONS - 48 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Battery
WIRELESS CARDS - Intel® Centrino® Wireless 2230, 2x2 bgn + Bluetooth
SOUND - Skullcandy Speakers with WaveMaxx 4.0
NETWORK CARD - Integrated 10/100 Network Card
KEYBOARD - Dell Backlit Keyboard with Multi-touch Touchpad, English-Int'l
POWER CORD - Power cord, 125V, 3.2 Feet, US
ADOBE & ENTERTAINMENT - Adobe Elements 9.0 Photoshop and Premiere Bundle
DATASAFE DataSafe 2.0 Online Backup 2GB for 1 year
WIRELESS DRIVER - Intel® Centrino® Wireless 2230, 2x2 bgn + Bluetooth

Basically 1200 bucks. Is this good or should I go for the alienware which is a little more expensive?

[BicycleMafioso]

Well, it works. A GT 650M is kind of the lowest I would suggest for 1080p, and gaming on a laptop in general is obviously less effective than on a desktop, especially for the same amount of moeny.

If you have to have a laptop, and it can't cost >1000 USD (Except if a DELL), I don't think you can get better though.

Also, that is a 17.3" screen. I wouldn't recommend going above 15.6" for a notebook; Get a secondary 23" screen instead.

[glo]

Finance through paypal instead and get this:

http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.p...el_name=NP6350

Much better video card, much faster HDD and a much more reputable brand.

[Kezotar]

Finance through paypal instead and get this:

http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.p...el_name=NP6350

Much better video card, much faster HDD and a much more reputable brand.

Worse CPU, no turbo boost it seems. It's really a get and and let go situation. 15-20% cpu for 15-20% gpu.

[Beefsquatch]

Well, it works. A GT 650M is kind of the lowest I would suggest for 1080p, and gaming on a laptop in general is obviously less effective than on a desktop, especially for the same amount of moeny.

If you have to have a laptop, and it can't cost >1000 USD (Except if a DELL), I don't think you can get better though.

Also, that is a 17.3" screen. I wouldn't recommend going above 15.6" for a notebook; Get a secondary 23" screen instead.

Well I have a 24" monitor, really high class. But why shouldn't I get a bigger screen on a notebook?

[BicycleMafioso]

Worse CPU, no turbo boost it seems. It's really a get and and let go situation. 15-20% cpu for 15-20% gpu.

All i5s have turbo boost; That's how you tell them and i3s apart.

Either way, I'd go with glo on that one, if it's an option.

[Kezotar]

All i5s have turbo boost; That's how you tell them and i3s apart.

Either way, I'd go with glo on that one, if it's an option.

It doesn't matter, a i7-3610QM (3d mark 11 score 5910) processor > i5-3210M Processor (3d mark 11 score 3190).. You're comparing a i7 vs a i5. It's a obvious choice of both clock and settings. also the first option is cheaper. The other one got it aswell for 70 more bucks which will lead to above 100 dollars above the OP choice. = 100dollars for a 660 > 650 not worth it. You're not getting 100 dollars of improvement. ofc some hdd improvement but still.. not worth it.

2cores - 4 threads vs 4 cores and 8 threads.. just saying..

[BicycleMafioso]

I'm not quite sure you understand the differences here. The amount of cores, and in extension threads, are nigh on superfluent.
The GPU will "always" be the weak point in a notebook gaming environment, simply because the CPU has rare points where the strength of one matter more than the strength of the other (and the i5 and i7 are very, very close with this to begin with).

As for the GPUs, even though it is the GDDR5 version of the GT650M, the GTX 660M is comfortably better.

As for price, the Sager notebook cost' 171 USD less than the DELL.

[Miff]

As long as the GPU has a GTX prefix and not the GT, you'll be fine. I would stay away from anything that isn't a GTX and/or a ATI HD series.

For CPU, i wouldn't go anything under a sandy bridge i5 (2nd gen intel)

17' screens for a laptop i find to be a bit too big. I buy a laptop as portal device so the before mentioned rings true for me... However, if you do wish to use it as a desktop replacement, still get the 15' and buy a monitor. Usually you can save a few $$$ from staying with a 15' than upgrading to a 17' - put that extra coin into hardware

As a personal preference i would also try and get a laptop with a 1080p res!

[glo]

Not to mention that load balancing is going to push the i7 lower in clocks than the i5... In gaming, that i5 is more than likely going to stride past that specific i7 model simply because of that fact.

Also, synthetic benchmarks mean nothing in gaming. AMD FX 8xxx chips generally perform slightly better in synthetics than the i5-2xxx / 3xxx series. Does that mean that translates into gaming? Hell no.