gaming laptop

sgull

Hey everyone. I need some advice. Im buyng a new laptop and id like to play some games on it. I understand itll not be as good as desktop but its a laptop i need. Im new enough to computers so i need help in choosing. Heres some ive been looking at. http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=35653&category_id=383&manufacturer_id=0&tid=gt729-253uk http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=33117&category_id=907&manufacturer_id=0&tid=g70s-7s007c http://www.cclonline.com/product-info.asp?product_id=36289&category_id=907&manufacturer_id=0&tid=g60vx-jx040c . Any help or suggestions are very much appreciated.

Voodu Child

The MSI looks nice on paper. The HD4850 it uses is the same architecture and number of shaders as the desktop version.

The Asus G70 is old hat and not worth considering.

The Asus G60VX looks to have an awful low resolution for a premium laptop.

Also consider the new Alienware M15x (its on the Dell Ireland page). It has the new i7 CPUs (quadcore, very fast) and can be configured with the GTX260M for around €1550. The current Dell 5% vouchers work with it, so you'd get it down into the €1400s no problem.

I'd probably go for the new Clevo W860CU from Kobalt. It can be configured for the same kind of price as the Alienware, but has the GTX280M instead of 260M.

Dramatic Exit

It's worth taking a look at Rock laptops too. They do some good customisable laptops at decent prices, though the range now seems smaller than I remember!

sgull

Thanks for the replies. The Clevo W860CU looks pretty good. I presume it would be quite a bit more powerful than the ones I listed. Is it much heavier? Should I expect build quality issues? Rock direct look a tad pricey in comparison.

Voodu Child

sgull wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. The Clevo W860CU looks pretty good. I presume it would be quite a bit more powerful than the ones I listed. Is it much heavier? Should I expect build quality issues? Rock direct look a tad pricey in comparison.

Well the GTX280M is the fastest mobile graphics card currently. And i7 mobile architecture is very fast compared to Core2Duo - that's assuming you actually need the power and will use it. So yeah, it'd be a fair bit more powerful than any of the laptops you listed. And the specs are customisable so you can choose whatever CPU or HDD etc you want.

The weight is in the specs so judge for yourself if it's much heavier.

Clevo are considered to have very good build quality, no major issues. Though this particular laptop is a brand new model so I couldn't comment.

There is a 17" version also, the Clevo W870CU. http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/g870_overview.php

RockDirect actually sell Clevo machines (among other brands) so they'll sell the same laptop eventually, just under a different name. They are pretty expensive alright.

You havent really given your preferences in terms of screen size, budget, wants/needs etc so its hard to be more specific.

sgull

I think the 15inch clevo is what ill go for and budget wise is just what i was aiming for. If i can annoy you just once more, graphics wise what can i expect say in comparison to an xbox 360. Ive no experience with this type of laptop. Thanks again for the invaluable advice.

Voodu Child

The GTX280M would be a good bit more powerful graphically than the Xbox or PS3. It is about comparable to a desktop 9800GT I reckon. Its got the same number of shaders as the desktop 9800GTX, just clocked slower.

So if you were to compare a game available on both systems (PC or Xbox), im sure the PC version would look better on a laptop with GTX280M. You'll be running at a much higher resolution (sharper and more detail), and game settings etc should be higher.

Most Xbox and PS3 games actually run at fairly low resolution compared to what PC gamers would consider acceptable.

Sephiroth_dude

Dramatic Exit wrote: »

It's worth taking a look at Rock laptops too. They do some good customisable laptops at decent prices, though the range now seems smaller than I remember!

Definitely check out the rock laptops.

Sephiroth_dude

Whats your budget?

sgull

sephiroth dude my budget is about £1500 or euro equivelent. Any other suggestions. My mind is nearly made up on a clevo

flyswatter

Have you tried looking at Alienware laptops? Just a suggestion.

Voodu Child

sgull wrote: »

sephiroth dude my budget is about £1500 or euro equivelent. Any other suggestions. My mind is nearly made up on a clevo

No, I can't think of any other major suggestions. Most of the popular gaming laptops at the moment have been mentioned. MSI are bringing out a new range of i7 based laptops, but they're going backwards graphically; they'll be using slower cards than the 4850 thats in the GT729.

Definitely check out the rock laptops.

Rockdirect are just custom builders/sellers of Clevo machines, the same as Kobalt, and several others (Novatech, Cizmo, MySn, Deviltech, Overclockers etc). They're the same essential laptop, the difference will be price and service (initial and after-sales). Build quality should be the same, although maybe some custom builders have different QC procedures or pre-shipping inspection.

Kobalt genuinely have a better reputation than RockDirect or Novatech, so i'd be going with them unless the others were much cheaper. Rock don't even stock most of the Clevo range any more.

The Alienware M17x has just been given the upgrade option of GDDR5 4870s (single or Crossfire), so it should be fairly savage, probably the fastest mobile GPU at the moment. However its way overpriced (starts at €2k), so I couldn't recommend it at its current price.

leninbenjamin

Voodu Child wrote: »

The Alienware M17x has just been given the upgrade option of GDDR5 4870s (single or Crossfire), so it should be fairly savage, probably the fastest mobile GPU at the moment. However its way overpriced (starts at €2k), so I couldn't recommend it at its current price.

Seconded. Alienware are good, but you can get much better value elsewhere.

Voodu Child

leninbenjamin wrote: »

Seconded. Alienware are good, but you can get much better value elsewhere.

The new M15x is actually not the worst value compared to other gaming laptops. Surprisingly for Alienware

But the M17x is definitely overpriced. And the base spec is really crappy, like a 160GB drive, 1440x900 screen etc. Really bad form to have a €2000 laptop with such crappy starting specs.

leninbenjamin

Voodu Child wrote: »

The new M15x is actually not the worst value compared to other gaming laptops. Surprisingly for Alienware

not too bad all right compared with their usual offerings, but I still wouldn't call it an attractive price. €1500 for only a 240m seems steep to me.

Sephiroth_dude

flyswatter wrote: »

Have you tried looking at Alienware laptops? Just a suggestion.

Alienware have some nice laptops,but are very overpriced.