Gaming laptop for college. About $2000 USD budget, maybe a little more.

[Zalamander]

I whent in similar thought I wanted a gaming laptop, to use as an extra gaming computer at home, or bring to friends or parents place when stayin there.

I whent in disbeliafe that gaming on laptop doesnt work it never did in the past, they get too hot, and has bad performance, right? Wrong!
I got totaly blown away over how well this laptop performed for the price I payed when I got it. It almost performs as well as my desktop gaming computer at home, runs almost every game maxed and it doesnt even get warm thanks to that excelent cooling system they made.

I bought the ASUS G73j(predesessor to that one with Core i5 and Radeon 5870).

But ye it aint a laptop you use with battery, they just dont have a battery life at all. its a more mobile gaming rig you can easily bring with you and just plug in at any place.

For lighter stuff like a more mobile device you can type stuff on and browse the web I bought an ASUS Transformer. Cant beat that 16 hour battery time. a gaming laptop prolly have 2-4 hours battery at most depending on what you do but I never intended to run mine on the battery.

But ye Im really happy I bought it, fits my purposes perfect, it runs WoW and SC2 all graphics maxed np, it never gets warm, its way easier to bring to a LAN compared to my stationary PC at home. It was way cheaper than my stationary at home.

[Seldirion]

@ vesseblah
I'd never trust sager regarding cooling.
Just look at the puny fans on their models... PSH!

@ Keller
ASUS - Yes
Toshiba - NO! They have a very high failure rate!
Lenovo - Not for gaming, they are intended for business
MSI - Yes

@ haxartus
A gamer laptop has poor battery life because of the power. Every gamer knows that.
What you say about heat is not true. Gaming laptops tend to be cooler due to the improved cooling system. Just try to game on a regular laptop with a decent graphics card - you'll have a potential frying pan. And a gamer with self-respect and the need for power would never go for a LIano based laptop. It's meant for the mid-segment, and hardly that.

[Dizey]

@OP

I hope you're planning on leaving it the dorm, and not lugging it around with you. Desktop replacements are tanks.

[Asmekiel]

Lenovo - Not for gaming, they are intended for business

The Lenovo Ideapad likes to have a word.
Sorry to pick out just that one line, but generalizing is mostly not so good.

[BicycleMafioso]

^ That MSI is ugly beyond belief.

It might look tacky in pictures, but it looks great in-real-life.

The ASUS-one is the one that does look tacky, though. Stealthfighter-wannabe. Yawn.

(Said by someone with an ASUS-laptop)

[Seldirion]

The Lenovo Ideapad likes to have a word.
Sorry to pick out just that one line, but generalizing is mostly not so good.

The problem is that none of their models are truly built for gaming:
- no additional or improved cooling
- not impressive compared to gaming PCs from ASUS or MSI

[lsmf5]

Personally I had thought about going to uni with just a laptop, at the time it had very good specs. A top spec sony vaio that I had got very cheap second hand. However I found that battery life became a problem as did its heat, not to mention the weight of it.

What I found to be best is to have a desktop in your room and with a small laptop or netbook to take to lectures etc. You get the best of both worlds and will probably save a lot of money.