Choosing a Good Gaming Laptop Please Help

[Deleted]

Bitch please... http://www.originpc.com/cart/?task=view... this <----

[Drunkenvalley]

Bitch please... http://www.originpc.com/cart/?task=view... this <----

"Shopping cart is empty".

[Deleted]

But since you are here, Prixie, can you enlighten me on a laptop for less than $1099 that:
-is 13", I find this to be my ideal screen size for a notebook

I don't.

-has 12 hours battery

I don't know about you but I don't sit 12 hours in class a day.

-has an SSD with over 100GB space

Again, why? If it's for taking notes a 5400 RPM drive could do the job.

-weighs less than 3 pounds

I'm fit enough to lift a backback.

-is less than 0.68" thick at its thickest place

Again, fit enough to lift a decent sized backpack with more room than 0.68" in it's laptop-carry-portion.

-Has a backlit keyboard that is renowned for an enjoyable typing experience, please make sure that it has multimedia functions and quick functions that I use very constantly such as adjusting brightness, pausing and playing music from my itunes library, and adjusting sound levels instantly

Enjoyable for who? For you? That's your opinion. I don't fancy them.
Regarding the multimedia functions; please enlighten me on how you require media playback in class.

-Has a spacious large touch trackpad, allowing for full functionality of the operating system without the use of a mouse

I can use a Windows notebook with a trackpad. It's called increasing sensitivity. Do you honestly believe Apple has some piece of magic tracking layer no other manufacturer has? Guess what, they don't.

-Is quiet

Quiet how? Aren't all modern low power netbooks/notebooks quiet?

-Has a decent quality camera and built-in microphone for my Skype calls to family

In class? Yay. Look mom, I'm not skipping classes.

I'm not saying Apple is bad dude, but seriously, if you want to start a discussion about a college notebook, don't throw in pointless arguements.

[Drunkenvalley]

Talking about the SSDs, you guys make it sound like hard drives are these irreplacable objects welded to the motherboard.

Well, they are on certain Apple machines I think, but that's besides the point. Apple machines are still so expensive that you can easily fit an SSD into the budget going with a cheaper, but more powerful Windows laptop.

[Klutzington]

But since you are here, Prixie, can you enlighten me on a laptop for less than $1099 that:
-is 13", I find this to be my ideal screen size for a notebook
-has 12 hours battery
-has an SSD with over 100GB space
-weighs less than 3 pounds
-is less than 0.68" thick at its thickest place
-Has a backlit keyboard that is renowned for an enjoyable typing experience, please make sure that it has multimedia functions and quick functions that I use very constantly such as adjusting brightness, pausing and playing music from my itunes library, and adjusting sound levels instantly
-Has a spacious large touch trackpad, allowing for full functionality of the operating system without the use of a mouse
-Is quiet
-Has a decent quality camera and built-in microphone for my Skype calls to family
Thanks

This pretty much fills all your points (if not damn close).

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops...ies/x1-carbon/

But eh, apparently Apple products are superior to everything, ever.

[jaimelannister]

So first i would like to say im new to the forums, so i apologize for any mistakes i make in terms of forum convention. Second, and the main reason im here, i am rather tech illiterate, so simplicity in your responses are greatly appreciated.

My situation: Im looking to buy a laptop for college, primarily for gaming. I understand its hard to match all ideal criteria, im just looking for the best option available. My preferences are as follows.

Price: For the sake of this discussion, lets say price is not a factor. Although i would like to keep it under $3500.

Functionality: Games. I have no worries that any laptop could satisfy basic student needs, so im looking for something with decent gaming potential.

Mobility: From my understanding, mobility is a sacrifice for any good gaming computer. It will stay locked up in my dorm most of the time, so its not necessary that it is exceptionally light, however i would prefer not to carry a ten pound brick into class if i need to present or something. If i wanted to carry a desktop tower everywhere, i would buy a desktop.

Performance: This is where i am largely lost as to what i need. Ideally, im looking to be able to run high end games at acceptable graphic and frame rate levels for the duration of my college stay (the next four years). Im assuming i will want an i7 processor for that? I figure its rather difficult to predict the requirements of games that far from now, especially with the next gen cycle starting later this year, but i would like to have a fighting chance at running things rather well in four years.

Graphics: I would like to be able to run two HD monitors off of my laptop. Im not sure if this is an unreasonable goal or not, but it would be nice. On those i would like to be able to run games 30+ fps on medium or above settings. (Note: for clarification, i have no plans of running two games simultaneously. I would like to run games on one and skype, recording software, music, etc on the other.)

Warranty: Extensive warranties seem rather hard to come by, however im paranoid enough for this to be a rather large factor in my decision.

To give you an idea of what ive been looking at, ive looked at the new Alienware 17 (not the m17x) which seems rather hefty performance wise. It can be customized rather extensively, so i believe it could satisfy my performance desires. Additionally, Alienwares can be bought with extensive warranties which make them rather appealing. however the sheer size of the 17 is somewhat off putting.

Ive also briefly looked at the new Razer Blade Pro, which is very nice in terms of mobility, although im not sure how its performance suffers in exchange for that. Its lack of a disc drive is odd, but not a deal breaker. They also have a warranty limited to manufacturing errors for two years if you buy extended coverage, which is not ideal coverage for something that looks so delicate.

On the other end, the Lenovo Y500 and similar products comes up a lot as an affordable, decently portable gaming laptop, however im concerned as to the quality and longevity of its performance.

I must say im not very familiar with other companies i have heard about such as Acer, Asus, etc, so if there are any really good options from them please list them.

Am i totally off? Am i being unreasonable? Am i in the right direction? Any unbiased advice, suggestions, recommendations etc are greatly appreciated. Thank you to all who respond.

You're much better off building a gaming desktop for ~2000 and then using the leftover to buy an ultrabook for school. You don't want to be lugging a huge laptop around to class/library/etc; it's a hassle that's unnecessary with your budget. Seems like the best of both worlds is to just live in both worlds, rather than trying to find a single machine that pulls double-duty.

[NotYourLoginID]

I've done alot of research into the Lenovo Y510p, specifically the Dual NVIDIA GTX 750M configuration. It has a

4th Generation i7
16GB of RAM
Dual NVIDIA GTX 750M SLI (I've been told its about the same as a single GTX 780M but no official specs have been posted. Please check me! I wana know the answer too)
~3 hours Battery
USB 3.0 Ports
Bluetooth 4.0
HDMI Out
VGA Out
Ethernet Port

It also seems to have an affordable 2 Year Accidental Damage plan. I inquired earlier about the possibility of running 2 external monitors at once (One HDMI and One VGA) and was told (by sales) that they were unsure if this was possible, however they sell a ~$150 USB 3.0 Dock station that allows for 2 DVI monitors to be connected to it, hence allowing for 3 Monitors. It comes with one DVI to VGA converter I believe and a DVI to HDMI converter isn't that expensive. Note that this laptop doesn't have an optical drive, but you can get a cheap one for around $30 on Amazon. So to meet your demands your total is

Laptop: $1450
Dock Station: $150
Optical Drive: $30
--------------------------
Total: $1630

Though I would wait until they release Windows 8.1 so that it comes pre-installed. And you may be able to get more off the computer through the Lenovo College Discount Plan. I'm going to buy this laptop with my Corporate Account (Additional 15% off woop!)!

Good Luck! (Yes I made an account just to post this. No I don't work for Lenovo. )

[Drunkenvalley]

Looking back, I'll personally recommend that OP buys a fairly cheap laptop with somewhat low-end specs. Maybe an i3 CPU or AMD equivalent, with no discreet graphics. It only needs a 5400 RPM hard drive, or you could just replace the hard drive with a cheap 60-120 GB SSD.

On the actual gaming side, there is no need for a "tower"; you can build a powerful PC and fit it into cases that are incredibly small these days. As an example, look to the Fortress 03 Mini for a case, which can host a GTX 680 and a good CPU like a 4670k or 4770k, not to mention a pretty decent cooler. It gets cramped, of course, but that's fine.

[mercutiouk]

I'd echo the "something based on a clevo" type comments.
The new Asus laptops should also be pretty decent but personally I prefer a 15" as it's (regular) backpack sized. Stick it in a sleeve in a regular backpack rather than advertising you have $2k worth of kit on you.

Avoid the MSI this time around, they've dropped the ball with heat issues (single fan cooling GPU and CPU = throttling like crazy).

If you have the money to throw at it, sure, Alienware. You pay 50% extra for about 10% better parts and build quality compared to the competition but if it's an investment of sorts...

Avoid macbooks. Down the line you might want to upgrade drives/processor/memory which is basically illegal or something in the apple mindset. You want upgrades? You pay apple price for those too. If you want a mac for the OS build a hackintosh.

[Belize]

I have to put it out there, since a few people have mentioned them, but XoticPC gives an absolutely fantastic service. I ordered my desktop from them (I was moving at the time so it was less of a hassle to order a pre-built thing than all the parts) and if they don't have a part, they'll usually wave you the upgrade for smaller stuff like wireless cards etc. really good website to order from.

[potis]

As other has mentioned it sounds better to get a cheap laptop to do your work, while buying a desktop for everything else.

Apart from that,if you really want a strong laptop i would really look into ASUS/MSI gaming series laptops along with Toshiba/Lenovo top end series, avoid alienware and Apple stuff, overpriced shit.