Getting my first laptop; no idea what I'm doing.

[Migey]

Heya.

Quick background; I have a desktop that's about 4 years old. Graphics card is a Nvidia GeForce GT 610 (which I hear is measly), in general it works but isn't great. I can play most of my games fine; GW2 looks okay, I obviously don't have problems playing LoL, things... work. But I'm off to university at the end of the summer, meaning my parents are going to help me to get a laptop which I can use for general purposes, but I do of course want it to be suitable for gaming. I plan to play Wildstar soon and would very much like a laptop which can run that fine at normal render resolution. I am generally fairly tech illiterate.

The budget is, being optimistic, lets say around 800 pounds, give or take. I am really not a graphics nut; I tend to run all of my games with shadows turned off, I tend to be happy with most of the fancier graphical settings off as long as the texture resolution is fine and the game looks moderately crisp. I'm perfectly happy around 30 fps. However I would like this laptop to remain relevant (in terms of being able to at least play new games at low/medium settings with solid fps) for lets say about 3 years (4 being optimistic?).

Screen size is not really an issue for me as I plan to be fairly stationary with my gaming: I have a fairly good monitor, so will take it along with a mouse and keyboard and hook them up to game with. The laptop will basically be the CPU. I have been led to believe this is possible; if there are any comments as to whether this doesn't tend to work, please tell me.

So can anyone help me know what a good laptop for my purposes is? I've looked on websites but been very reluctant to make any judgements without impartial advice. Is it better to have one custom made, or are pre-made laptops generally fine in terms of price and capability for what I want? Any advice or input is very much appreciated.

Edit: Okay, I've been looking at suggestions and got one or two suggestions from online friends, and am looking at the moment at these 3 choices.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834152558

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834231630

http://www.xoticpc.com/gigabyte-q2556ncf3-p-7056.html

Problem is, I don't really know how to compare. Looking at the specifications, the first two Newegg ones seem almost identical, except one is cheaper; what's the difference to justify the price between them, especially considering, according to the reviews for the second one, it's perfect except for the necessity to spend another 50 pounds or so on something like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-128G...amsung+830+ssd in order to make it work well?

And as for the xoticpc one, I have no idea how to tell how good it is in relation to the others, and I cannot judge value for money with any of them.

[Elestia]

Don't play games at university for your first year. Make friends, meet people, get a girlfriend, go to class and learn. Imo, get a budget laptop, crush the temptation to play.

Maybe once you have a job next summer build your own comp with your earnings. Budget your game time and work time, it's more challenging than you think. When you get back to uni, if gaming is getting in the way, kill it completely. Focus on school, focus on life. You don't realize it, but gaming is a luxury that can generate its own lifestyle of laziness and apathy if you let it. First year at uni is your most important so dedicate to school first.

[Deleted]

I think he asked for laptop advice, not how to spend his student years

[Migey]

That's good advice Elestia, and I plan to take it, mostly! I do not want to become a shut-in. That said, gaming is a hobby of mine and when I do have spare time (which I accept may be rarely) I want to be able to have this to game on. Also, I need to upgrade anyway; my desktop is just too shit, and I will certainly game plenty in holidays and over the summer! Since I need a laptop for university anyway, I felt it made sense to make that the upgrade.

But grateful as I am for your well-intended advice, Kostattoo did make a good point; I did come here for laptop advice!

[Viikkis]

I suggest Msi laptops for you. Msi is my favourite laptop brand. Asus is good too.

[Moddy]

This is what I would get

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834152558

[Migey]

Viikkis, can you be a bit more specific?

Moddy, can you please elaborate and tell me why I would get that instead of something else (essentially what makes this a good choice?). I mean a first glance at it looks amazing, except for that out-of-stock thing, but I really don't know how to judge. Can you tell me more?

Edit: Found this. http://www.xoticpc.com/gigabyte-q2556ncf3-p-7056.html . How does this compare to the one Moddy linked?

[Naplam]

The Gigabyte pales in comparison compared to the MSI linked above. Still, for absolute price/performance, Sager is the way to go. The downside is that they're not as...visually appealing as MSI/Asus/Alienjoke etc. To each their own, though, and it'll be up to you.

http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8268s...wconfigure=yes

Is the base I'd go with, BUT only if it's an 860M Maxwell and not Kepler. Seems like the only way to find out is to contact them directly, so make sure you do that and guarantee you're getting a Maxwell chip. The system will run well as is, but I'd make a few adjustments on the config page. (Can't link a configured one, so I'll list em)

- Upgrade to the 4810MQ processor, for $35 that's a no brainer.
- Get the IC Diamond repaste

Those are the main two, I'd make some other small-ish changes, but am giving some room for tax/delivery etc.

[Djuntas]

Id say 800 pounds can get you something okay, but I strongly doubt it can play Wildstar or other modern demanding games on anything than low settings and maybe not the best FPS. Thats just my exsperience with laptops and my own countries prices (UK prices should be fairly similar to Denmark give or take),

I suggest Asus or Acer laptops if you are looking into brands.

[Masark]

Asus is good too.

Just my anecdote, but I haven't been a fan of my Asus experience. At least up here, their warranty service is absurdly slow. I was without my laptop (a G53SX) for over 2 months when I sent it in for a GPU failure. Then it developed an additional annoying issue with the charge controller once out of warranty.

I've personally put Asus on my blacklist next to HP.

I'm personally going with Sager for my next laptop, which will hopefully arrive next week.