Looking for a gaming laptop.

joe123

Hey just looking for some advice.

Just started working in Bioware and with the launch of swtor just around the corner I need a new laptop. My current laptop is on its last legs, battery doesnt work and chargers keeping mysteriously breaking on it.

I own a custom made Pc but its out of date by about six years and with my own laptop about to keel over im going the laptop route.

My budget would be 800-900 quid. I want a really good, reliable laptop that can play games on high settings (I dont want it struggling to play low settings in a years time sort of thing).

Ive been told Alienware are the way to go but are they just over priced on name alone?

Preferably Id like to buy it in a shop but if there is a laptop out there so good online I could be persuaded. Thanks for any help.

Bellisner

Try Cyberpower http://www.cyberpowersystem.co.uk/
I bought a machine off them a couple of years ago their customer service is awesome.

But a piece of advice re laptops. If you are willing to spend up to €900 you should really get a desktop. For that kind of money you'll get a significant performance upgrade. Obviously you sacrifice mobility but if that isn't a deal-breaker it's better value. Also it's practically impossible for a desktop to get lost/stolen/sat on!

Jaafa

What size screen you want? Alienware are generally overpriced but I know a way or two you could get a discount. They are solid machines too and they look the part.

Baring that have a look on Komplett.ie some very Asus and MSI laptops on there for 900 that should do you fine.

EDIT: Oh and under no circumstances should you buy a laptop for this price from a shop. You'll royally screwed over. Trust me. Online is the way to go.

Propane Nightmare

Stay. Away. From. Shops.

They will rip you off no end. A guy going to work in Bioware should know this :pac:

Anyway, had a quick look online, im also on the look out for a good laptop like yourself for my masters degree work, and found this.

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/ASUS_N55SF-S2342V_1120769.html

Comes in at €880 delivered.

Reliable brand, comes with all the bells and whistles, like USB 3, bluetooth, HDMI, blue ray drive etc.

Nice bit of ram, and the graphics card (NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M 2GB) is a very good one for a laptop and this price. You can play most games, including crysis 2 on pretty much all high settings without any - to very little frame rate issues or lag.

But TBH, your going to struggle to find a laptop under €900 with a very good graphics card that will last a few years. I think the asus there is the best you will get for this price range, but I may be wrong.

Quick specs: Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM Quad Core Processor, 15.6" FULL HD Screen, Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit, 6GB DDR3 RAM, 640GB HDD, Blu-Ray, Dedicated GT 555M 2GB Graphics, Bluetooth 3, USB 3, HDMI, Integrated Bang & Olufsen Speakers, 2 Year Warranty

joe123

The Asus looks good, the small screen is a bit off putting though.

It will be mainly all swtor played on it so it doesnt need to be a complete beast, and when i say good for a few years I dont expect to be playing on high settings in two years but still, I wouldnt like to find the laptop cant even handle low to medium.

Havent been in a pc shop in a while so was half hoping theyd be a bit more competitive with their pricing.

What are reliable online sites to buy off?

Ive used Komplett before and found them good, can be pricey at times though.

Delivery times important too, dont want to be waiting weeks for it to arrive :pac:

Good customer service would be important too, considering im shelling out the guts of a grand. If something goes wrong with it I dont want to find myself stuck!

joe123

Propane Nightmare wrote: »

Stay. Away. From. Shops.

They will rip you off no end. A guy going to work in Bioware should know this :pac:

Anyway, had a quick look online, im also on the look out for a good laptop like yourself for my masters degree work, and found this.

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/ASUS_N55SF-S2342V_1120769.html

Comes in at €880 delivered.

Reliable brand, comes with all the bells and whistles, like USB 3, bluetooth, HDMI, blue ray drive etc.

Nice bit of ram, and the graphics card (NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 555M 2GB) is a very good one for a laptop and this price. You can play most games, including crysis 2 on pretty much all high settings without any - to very little frame rate issues or lag.

But TBH, your going to struggle to find a laptop under €900 with a very good graphics card that will last a few years. I think the asus there is the best you will get for this price range, but I may be wrong.

Quick specs: Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM Quad Core Processor, 15.6" FULL HD Screen, Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit, 6GB DDR3 RAM, 640GB HDD, Blu-Ray, Dedicated GT 555M 2GB Graphics, Bluetooth 3, USB 3, HDMI, Integrated Bang & Olufsen Speakers, 2 Year Warranty

Just had a quick look on Komplett to see if they had that model.

Came across what seems to be a better version at 20 quid more.

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_02PC/02_NOTEBOO/21_15/productdetails/80003463/Asus_15_6_N55SF_S1194V_i7_2670_8_750GB/90N5FC2D9H4E13VL133U/default.aspx

Pity the screen is so small. Id prefer 17".

Also came across this one, http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_02PC/02_NOTEBOO/22_17/productdetails/20080740/MSI_GX740_420NL_Core_i5_460M_4GB_500GB/GX740_420NL/default.aspx

What ye think?

Propane Nightmare

Saveonlaptops is probably your best option. They have great deals and a massive selection on their site. They are genuine and reliable too. Delivery is £10 to ireland. I ordered a laptop for a friend 6 months ago, as she had a small budget, and was fuming I never heard of this site before, as they had loads of great deals.

Delivery was by courier and took about 2-3 days I think.

I got a lenovo for her, and I checked the warranty saveonlaptops had with lenovo, and they said it was valid so they are a genuine site.

Ive only heard good things about Asus, so I imagine they will have no problems fixing the laptop if anything goes wrong. They are reliable also.

I was in PC world lately, as the prices were shocking. They still had laptops with dual core pentiums for 400+ and not an i5 or i7 in sight!!(excluding macbooks)

http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/ is another option, but IMO, saveonlaptops have far superior deals, but you may want to have a look through their stock also.

Had another quick look, and saw a good deal for a 17.3" Lenovo G770 for €760 delivered.

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Lenovo_IdeaPad_G770_1091020.html

Quick specs are:

New Intel® Core™ i5-2410M Processor, 17.3" HD+ Screen, HDMI, 5 hour battery life, Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit, 8GB DDR3 RAM, 750GB HDD, DVD Rewriter, Dedicated AMD 6650M 2GB Graphics


Also, sort of the same Asus I listed earlier, with a bigger screen and modified specs here: http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/ASUS_N73SV-TZ193V_1066418.html


Have a look at them sure.

Propane Nightmare

joe123 wrote: »

Just had a quick look on Komplett to see if they had that model.

Came across what seems to be a better version at 20 quid more.

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_02PC/02_NOTEBOO/21_15/productdetails/80003463/Asus_15_6_N55SF_S1194V_i7_2670_8_750GB/90N5FC2D9H4E13VL133U/default.aspx

Pity the screen is so small. Id prefer 17".

Also came across this one, http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_02PC/02_NOTEBOO/22_17/productdetails/20080740/MSI_GX740_420NL_Core_i5_460M_4GB_500GB/GX740_420NL/default.aspx

What ye think?

The Asus there seems like a good deal yeah, but id avoid the MSI I think.

Its got the first gen i5, which some say are like second gen i3's in terms of performance, also standard 500gb HD, 4gb RAM. The graphics card is very good, but I think the cons outweigh the pros.

Depends though, if you really want the good graphics card or can settle for a slightly lower graphics card, but gain other features like blu ray, bigger HD, better processor, more RAM etc.


This samsung has an awesome 2nd gen quad core i7 proc and lots of features, including a good graphics card.

Might be a bit out of your price range though: http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Samsung_RF711_1122659.html

Picking a laptop to go with is often the toughest decision I find.

sqwarez

I'll said it again, the 5870 is stronger than the gt 555m, stronger than the gtx 460m.

Most games do not use anywhere near as much CPU as a 2nd gen i3. It just doesn't happen, CPUs are miles ahead.

You will be happiest gaming on the MSI.

That MSI is the absolute BEST price/performance ratio you will find. The only thing I see that can beat it are the other MSI laptops with gtx 570m.

Also its upgradeable to the AMD 6990m which is like the 2nd most powerful mobile card out there.

Jaafa

sqwarez wrote: »

I'll said it again, the 5870 is stronger than the gt 555m, stronger than the gtx 460m.

Most games do not use anywhere near as much CPU as a 2nd gen i3. It just doesn't happen, CPUs are miles ahead.

You will be happiest gaming on the MSI.

That MSI is the absolute BEST price/performance ratio you will find. The only thing I see that can beat it are the other MSI laptops with gtx 570m.

Also its upgradeable to the AMD 6990m which is like the 2nd most powerful mobile card out there.

Agree with this, if gaming is what you want to do then go with this. CPU is good enough for your needs.

sqwarez

Actually I think you can get even better. Looking at various Clevo / MSI resellers...
http://web.eurocom.com/EC/ec_model_config1(1,219,0)

With 4gb RAM, the GTX 460m and a (sandy bridge) i5 its just 999. Very configurable. Even less with a matte LCD, and either way, its 1080p and LED backlit unlike the MSI.

Clevo sells under countless different branded names in Europe. I think you could get even better from one of them:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/91510-clevo-guide-v2-0-faq-reseller-info.html#europe

Also you could even get one of the gtx 570m MSIs cheap here:
http://www.mysn.de/brand.asp?userid=52caa57io276098510v02b4bk6r1i1km9n9u22jl5b51kmruf&KategorienOrder=010;020;010
They speak english... looks like the site is under maintenance.

sqwarez

Oh my

Last years model, starts at 549 with 5870

I believe we have found THE deal

http://www.notebookguru.de/en/Notebooks/Guru-FIRE-i7-config.html

joe123

Im beginning to lean more towards the Asus on Komplett now.

To be honest im not too bothered on Pc gaming 2 years down the line as I am quite happy to stay console focused, but I do want it to run swtor well and yet still not have a complete dud two years down the line.

How long do Komplett usually take to deliver? I ordered stuff off them years ago but cant remember how long delivery took.

Also never heard of notebook guru, they a reliable site?

Thanks for all the input people, its a great help!

sqwarez

Apparently reviews for notebookguru are not great.

So, I'd recommend using Paypal or a credit card that allows you to do chargebacks. But I would do that with almost any website.

Macker1

joe123 wrote: »

Im beginning to lean more towards the Asus on Komplett now.

To be honest im not too bothered on Pc gaming 2 years down the line as I am quite happy to stay console focused, but I do want it to run swtor well and yet still not have a complete dud two years down the line.

How long do Komplett usually take to deliver? I ordered stuff off them years ago but cant remember how long delivery took.

Also never heard of notebook guru, they a reliable site?

Thanks for all the input people, its a great help!

Highly Recommend buying from Komplett.

I just bought a laptop for the son for this coming Xmas. I placed the order just this week on Tuesday morning. The option I choose was for collection at pick-up point in Blanchardstown. I received an email on Thursday confirming that the order was ready for collection. Drove over and had the laptop at home that evening. Excellent service and the fact that you can go and pay and collect locally is a great option to have. :):):)