Laptop for gaming

Mark Hamill

I'm looking to upgrade my Acer Aspire 6920G, which, while a fine machine, is starting to feel its age a bit.
I want something for playing games (Fallout New Vegas, Borderlands, Batman etc.), for watching movies/tv through my TV (every recent laptop has a HDMI port nowadays, right?) and for running office and some light weight specialist program (doing a PhD in chemistry, so mestrec and chemdraw, nothing drasticly resource hogging, but speed would be nice).

Have my eye on this Asus or maybe this Asus (tbh, bar the slghtly different screen size and different brand of inbuilt speakers, I dont see what the difference is between them). Any thoughts?

My budget is about €1000, but less than that would be nice.

PS:I have in my head that I should aim for core i5s or i7s, anything wrong with that?

Voodu Child

They both have Nvidia GT325M, which isnt good enough to be considered a gaming card.

There's an Dell XPS 17 going for €1000, it has an i7-740QM (quad core) and Nvidia GT445M (miles faster than the GT325). I havent stayed in touch with current laptop prices, but I would use that as a starting point for what you can get for €1000.

Mark Hamill

Voodu Child wrote: »

They both have Nvidia GT325M, which isnt good enough to be considered a gaming card.

So I should be sticking to the class 1 cards on notebookcheck page?

Mark Hamill

Voodu Child wrote: »

There's an Dell XPS 17 going for €1000, it has an i7-740QM (quad core) and Nvidia GT445M (miles faster than the GT325). I havent stayed in touch with current laptop prices, but I would use that as a starting point for what you can get for €1000.

Actually, just checked this, its €1000 from the american store ($1380), its €1775 from the Irish store! (both laptops with i7 740, GT445M, Bluray, 6gb ram, 640 GB SATA drive).

Its a nice laptop, and the american price is really tempting, but its far too dear for me to get in Ireland.

Seaneh

Mark Hamill wrote: »

Actually, just checked this, its €1000 from the american store ($1380), its €1775 from the Irish store! (both laptops with i7 740, GT445M, Bluray, 6gb ram, 640 GB SATA drive).

Its a nice laptop, and the american price is really tempting, but its far too dear for me to get in Ireland.

You have to add sales tax from whatever state you buy it in (usually around ^% so not that much really) but yeah, the american price very good, €740 + €44 sales tax.

With the €1000 you save you could afford a nice holiday to the states. Just bring an empty laptop backpack as your carry one, bring the laptop back in that, sorted.



Nevermind, I just seen that your converted the currency yourself.

pwd

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/laptop/range/novatechi5.html

class 1 gpu for £859 (approx €1000).

It's a rebadged clevo, so it should be a safe purchase, but do research the computer and company yourself if you are interested. [They seemed fine to me years ago, but I couldn't buy from them because my mastercard didn't have some form of security they required]

Also it looks nice. The xps 17 is the tackiest laptop I've seen.

dazzday

My personal opinion, 2 options:

[1] Wait! Feb-March will see the new range of Radeon 6X00 series in new notebooks, undoubtly first present in Acer/MSI/Clevo/Asus gaming laptops.
This works 2fold for you

• Newest GPU range = ~20% performance increase across the board, better TDP and battery life.
• Possible discount in ranges coupled with the HD 5X00 series...maybe be able to pick up a 5870 or above on the cheap.
• New I-core range released at the same time will have an intergrated GPU in the region of Nvidia 310M and Radeon HD 5470... premium price low end dedicated GPUs in todays models. This means any dedicated GPU laptop models released from next year on will all have decent gaming performance of HD 5650 or 335M and above at the prices associated with the low-end GPU models today. ie the death of the crappy 310M etc at ridiculous prices!
• New I-core is going to be awesome for quad-core. Massive performance increase at operating temps of dual core, meaning better battery!

[2] Upgrade!

The Acer Aspire 6920G,runs a MXM-II slot wich is arguably the best model for upgrading. You can easily upgrade to a 9600 MT or HD4650 which are easily powerful enough for modern gaming.
Not the most cost efficent method but ideal if you wish wait awhile to change model and an excellnt project if you are geeky like me, pulling laptops apart and such!

Mark Hamill

pwd wrote: »

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/laptop/range/novatechi5.html

class 1 gpu for £859 (approx €1000).

It's a rebadged clevo, so it should be a safe purchase, but do research the computer and company yourself if you are interested. [They seemed fine to me years ago, but I couldn't buy from them because my mastercard didn't have some form of security they required]

Also it looks nice. The xps 17 is the tackiest laptop I've seen.

Found this review for it on trustedreviews.com (its the same one right?), that laptop is going on the shortlist, thank you very much

Mark Hamill

dazzday wrote: »

My personal opinion, 2 options:

[1] Wait! Feb-March will see the new range of Radeon 6X00 series in new notebooks, undoubtly first present in Acer/MSI/Clevo/Asus gaming laptops.
This works 2fold for you

Newest GPU range = ~20% performance increase across the board, better TDP and battery life.
Possible discount in ranges coupled with the HD 5X00 series...maybe be able to pick up a 5870 or above on the cheap.
New I-core range released at the same time will have an intergrated GPU in the region of Nvidia 310M and Radeon HD 5470... premium price low end dedicated GPUs in todays models. This means any dedicated GPU laptop models released from next year on will all have decent gaming performance of HD 5650 or 335M and above at the prices associated with the low-end GPU models today. ie the death of the crappy 310M etc at ridiculous prices!
New I-core is going to be awesome for quad-core. Massive performance increase at operating temps of dual core, meaning better battery!

Tempting, but its always the way with laptops that there is something around the corner that will be better (by March there will probably be news of i9s or nvidia 5x0Ms or something :pac:). Thanks, though, will keep this in mind.

dazzday wrote: »

Upgrade!
The Acer Aspire 6920G,runs a MXM-II slot wich is arguably the best model for upgrading. You can easily upgrade to a 9600 MT or HD4650 which are easily powerful enough for modern gaming.
Not the most cost efficent method but ideal if you wish wait awhile to change model and an excellnt project if you are geeky like me, pulling laptops apart and such!

I wouldn't have too much problem taking this laptop apart, but I thought changing a graphics card on a laptop was nigh on impossible. Would I end up having to redo welding or something horrible like that?

dazzday

haha, no sine of i9s yet...although Ivy bridge in the last quarter of 2011 makes current cpus and intergarted GPUs laughable! GPU releases are fairly predicable so it will be 6000 series for 2011 and presumably 7000 series quarter 1 2011.

90% of the time the GPU is soldered to the board in most laptops, however wonderful acer released the 5920/6920G and simialr with the MXM-II slot which is pretty much screwed into a mount. Only requires reapplication of thermal paste.
I upgraded the 8600GS in my 5920G to a HD4650 (~150euro) awhile back, and the performance differences were amazing.

Following link should provide ample info and user experiences.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/

pwd

dazzday wrote: »

haha, no sine of i9s yet...although Ivy bridge in the last quarter of 2011 makes current cpus and intergarted GPUs laughable! GPU releases are fairly predicable so it will be 6000 series for 2011 and presumably 7000 series quarter 1 2011.

90% of the time the GPU is soldered to the board in most laptops, however wonderful acer released the 5920/6920G and simialr with the MXM-II slot which is pretty much screwed into a mount. Only requires reapplication of thermal paste.
I upgraded the 8600GS in my 5920G to a HD4650 (~150euro) awhile back, and the performance differences were amazing.

Following link should provide ample info and user experiences.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/

I looked up this review of the 6920g:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Acer-Aspire-6920G-Notebook.8783.0.html

The upgradable gpu is good. But it seems very overpriced for its feature set: It has a slower graphics card, and a slower cpu than my laptop, which I got for the same price over 2 years ago (dell xps m1530). (£879 at http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_6920G-814G32Bn_-_Gemstone_Blue_LX.APQ0X.305/version.asp )

Mark Hamill

pwd wrote: »

I looked up this review of the 6920g:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Acer-Aspire-6920G-Notebook.8783.0.html

The upgradable gpu is good. But it seems very overpriced for its feature set: It has a slower graphics card, and a slower cpu than my laptop, which I got for the same price over 2 years ago (dell xps m1530). (£879 at http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_6920G-814G32Bn_-_Gemstone_Blue_LX.APQ0X.305/version.asp )

The price has gone up, mine was about that price in euros at the time (got it vat free so was actually only about €750).

Mark Hamill

dazzday wrote: »

haha, no sine of i9s yet...although Ivy bridge in the last quarter of 2011 makes current cpus and intergarted GPUs laughable! GPU releases are fairly predicable so it will be 6000 series for 2011 and presumably 7000 series quarter 1 2011.

90% of the time the GPU is soldered to the board in most laptops, however wonderful acer released the 5920/6920G and simialr with the MXM-II slot which is pretty much screwed into a mount. Only requires reapplication of thermal paste.
I upgraded the 8600GS in my 5920G to a HD4650 (~150euro) awhile back, and the performance differences were amazing.

Following link should provide ample info and user experiences.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/acer/

Thanks, will look into the price of a HD4650 and what not.
Found http://www.tim.id.au/blog/tims-laptop-service-manuals/ throught the forum you linked to, should be a help.

Run_to_da_hills

If you like flashing lights the Alienware M17 is worth considering. Mixed reviews and a bit pricey however anyone that I know with them have no problems.

x in the city

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

If you like flashing lights the Alienware M17 is worth considering. Mixed reviews and a bit pricey however anyone that I know with them have no problems.

over priced

a sager/clevo beefed up would eat its shiney alien head for breakfast

x in the city

in fact there would not be much of a difference between a M1730 with a 9800GT Sli and a X9000 with SSD and a M17x

I think you can also get uber rare 9800 Gtx Sli with 2 Gigs of DDR3

Mark Hamill

Where can I get a Sager or clevo in europe? (are they the same brand, just different label?)
I checked Sagers own site, and for a laptop equivilent to the novatech one quoted before (i5, ATI HD5870 ~€1050) it would cost me just under €1200 (€170 delivery from America) assuming I dont get stung in customs.
I also checked mycizmo.com (european seller of clevo latops, i think) and for and equivilent laptop (CX15i) the price is about €1250 -€1300.

Novatech is looking like the cheapest option at the moment.

Voodu Child

Mark Hamill wrote: »

Where can I get a Sager or clevo in europe?

Clevo is the ODM (original design manufacturer). They design and manufacture the barebones laptop.

They don't assemble or directly sell the laptops. Instead, you buy from an OEM. They take the barebones laptop and put it together, putting in various off-the-shelf components (processor, HDD, RAM) and installing the OS. Then they sell it under their own brand name.

Sager is one of these OEMs. Its not really relevant for us because they are American. UK OEMs that sell Clevo laptops include Novatech (none of their gaming laptops at the moment are Clevo models), Kobaltcomputers and Rock. In Europe there is Cizmo, Deviltech etc.

Note that the laptop someone linked to on Novatech is not a Clevo, its a MSI. MSI do sell direct to consumers under their own brand, but they also sell barebones laptops to OEMs so that they can customise them and sell them under their own brand name. So if you want info on this particular model, just check out reviews of its MSI-branded equivalent.

dazzday

Mark Hamill wrote: »

Where can I get a Sager or clevo in europe? (are they the same brand, just different label?)
I checked Sagers own site, and for a laptop equivilent to the novatech one quoted before (i5, ATI HD5870 ~€1050) it would cost me just under €1200 (€170 delivery from America) assuming I dont get stung in customs.
I also checked mycizmo.com (european seller of clevo latops, i think) and for and equivilent laptop (CX15i) the price is about €1250 -€1300.

Novatech is looking like the cheapest option at the moment.

ALWAYS assume you will get stung by customs and budget for it at 21% + admin fees.

Trust me its a horrible feeling having your €1000+ toy gathering dust in the Dublin Revenue office

Mark Hamill

dazzday wrote: »

ALWAYS assume you will get stung by customs and budget for it at 21% + admin fees.

Trust me its a horrible feeling having your €1000+ toy gathering dust in the Dublin Revenue office

Yeah, Im actually nowtempted to get the novatech one from Komplett (who are selling it at almost the exact same price, with the MSI badge) just to avoid any possibility at all of that irritation (I can just go to blanch and pick up it up myself, so no waiting for delivery either).

Mark Hamill

One last question before I commit and order a laptop: would places like Komplett, novatech or overclockers.co.uk have christmas or New years sale? I'm just wondering if its worth my while waiting till after christmas until buying, or if the higher level laptops are unlikely to be reduced in sales?