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Best gaming lap top for the money?

Oldgamer

Oldgamer

Diamond Member
My son has asked for my help in determining what is the best gaming lap top for the money. He showed me this lap top which he was considering getting.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...quidmarkets-20

I told him to hold off till I had a chance to ask some of you experts on this. He will be loading up games like Crisis 3, Starcraft, WoW, and others on it. His current budget is 1200.00

Do any of you have any good suggestions, or is what he is looking at sufficient to run these games? My only concern was making sure he had a lap top with sufficient RAM and a good CPU along with a really good GPU in it.

Would really love some input and suggestions. If you have any links that would be awesome, I can forward on to him.

Thanks again!
Oldgamer
 
That's not a gaming laptop at all. Gaming laptops are like the ASUS ROG series laptops, alienware, sager PC laptops, etc
 
For a 'good' gaming laptop we're talking GTX660m gpu as a minimum IMHO. Quad core like a 3630 ish or higher. 1920x1080 res and 8Gb RAM. Forgo a SSD to save on budget if needed. 7200RPM 500Gb hd or a 1Tb hd. Those are the minimums I'd be looking for. Sager, MSI, ASUS, and Alienware are probably the four best brands (not necessarily in that order). I'd point you towards XoticPC, GenTech, TorquePC, etc., to buy from. They'll give you the best customer care from start to finish and after down the road.
 
Last edited:
T_Yamamoto said:
That's not a gaming laptop at all. Gaming laptops are like the ASUS ROG series laptops, alienware, sager PC laptops, etc
Click to expand...

Ok so that would not be good for him to game on?

Can you provide a link or two that I could send him, something that he can look at and get an idea of what to buy?

Thanks again!
 
Skott said:
For a 'good' gaming laptop we're talking GTX660m gpu as a minimum IMHO. Quad core like a 3630 ish or higher. 1920x1080 res and 8Gb RAM. Forgo a SSD to save on budget if needed. 7200RPM 500Gb hd or a 1Tb hd. Those are the minimums I'd be looking for. Sager, MSI, ASUS, and Alienware are probably the four best brands (not necessarily in that order). I'd point you towards XoticPC, GenTech, TorquePC, etc., to buy from. They'll give you the best customer care from start to finish and after down the road.
Click to expand...

Ok so your recommending a real gaming laptop with a much better gpu?

I am learning all this myself so I don't want to steer him wrong on this.
 
I would recommend a desktop unless if he really needs the portability to game on the go.

It'll be about half the price for the same performance and it's upgradeable.
 
astroidea said:
I would recommend a desktop unless if he really needs the portability to game on the go.

It'll be about half the price for the same performance and it's upgradeable.
Click to expand...

Yes, an $800 desktop and a $400 laptop (if he really needs one) might make more sense, but if not then that Fangbook looks decent for the money except for it only having a 5400 rpm hard drive. They offer a cheap upgrade to 7200 rpm though.
 
DaveSimmons said:
Yes, an $800 desktop and a $400 laptop (if he really needs one) might make more sense, but if not then that Fangbook looks decent for the money except for it only having a 5400 rpm hard drive. They offer a cheap upgrade to 7200 rpm though.
Click to expand...

Looking at it they offer an upgrade to a 128GB OCZ Octane for $16 ... buy your own 2.5" hdd from newegg, or anywhere else, and toss that in the second bay and have a damn nice system for cheap.
 
I would also chime in to your son to consider his portability requirements. I suppose that students these days need a notebook for classes (You never mentioned his age), but you do get a lot more bang for the buck, plus easy, cheaper upgrades with a desktop. He could bottom feed for components across several retailers (Newegg, buy, tigerdirect, amazon) and build one pretty easily. It's pretty basic assembly, and there are lots of guides out there. (Students?) usually get great deals on MSFT OS software (Free for my kids though their school), which is often a big chunk of the cost ($100-$200). He would have a bigger monitor, that will make the experience much more enjoyable, and he will be able to snap in components over the years to keep it current rather than having an expensive, middling computer in 2-4 yrs.

A basic notebook that focuses more on battery life will better suit general portability requirements. Gaming notebooks tend to be power hogs that don't like to stray far from their large power supplies and plugs, which hampers the whole "portablity" thing. I tried to split the difference with an Asus N56VZ and find that even that is a bit annoying with 3-4 hours of useful battery life. I am forever tinkering with screen brightness and turning down/off the power I paid for (GPU/CPU) to extend my untethered session life.
 
Oldgamer said:
Ok so your recommending a real gaming laptop with a much better gpu?

I am learning all this myself so I don't want to steer him wrong on this.
Click to expand...

Sorry for the late reply...

Yeah, if you are going to want a gaming laptop get a real gaming laptop. Like others have pointed out though a desktop will be cheaper, more powerful, and have a better longevity if you factor in upgrading is easier in a desktop than a laptop. If you want to make a desktop somewhat portable you can go with a SFF design like matx or itx. The SG05, for example, is pretty dang small. Desktops are not an all in one rig though like a laptop. That's probably one of the compelling reason to get a laptop. For $1200 bucks you can build a really nice desktop. Or split the difference as some have pointed out. A laptop for school work only and a desktop for gaming.
 
This is one I picked up a few months back - it's a friggin beast. Plays everything I've thrown at it at high settings (Guild Wars 2, Borderlands 2, Mass Effect 3).

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...410&CatId=3998

The only 2 downsides are that the HDD is 5400 RPM (I replaced it with a hybrid drive for $100 and it's stupid fast) and the screen is not 1080P (which I considered a plus since it meant my framerates would be higher than if it were). It has an HDMI port so you can easily plug into a monitor if you really want a bigger screen/resolution anyways.

As a possible caveat, it only comes with Windows 8. Some people consider Win8 the devil, but I don't mind it myself.
 
I agree with what some of the other posters said, unless it is an absolute necessity to have a portable gaming laptop then go down the desktop route.

This is coming from a guy who spent years deluding himself that laptops were the "better" option for gaming because of the portability.

If he needs a laptop for other reasons then split the budget between a desktop for gaming and a laptop for school work etc.
 
=)

Thanks I have sent him a link to this thread and also let him know about some of the pms I got!

Truly appreciate the information and input.
 
Puppies04 said:
I agree with what some of the other posters said, unless it is an absolute necessity to have a portable gaming laptop then go down the desktop route.

This is coming from a guy who spent years deluding himself that laptops were the "better" option for gaming because of the portability.

If he needs a laptop for other reasons then split the budget between a desktop for gaming and a laptop for school work etc.
Click to expand...

I'll cry myself to sleep with my 680M that runs at 1033/2600 😉
 
Lenovo y500? SLI 650m 1080p screen. Only downside is 5400 rmp HDD and poor battery life (4 hours).

I'd recommend a desktop too. However at low budgets a laptop may be more economical especially if you need to buy windows + monitor + speakers + keyboard as this can be $300 on its own.
 
If mobility really is required a barebone system outfitted with the GTX670M (sager or MSI barebone) along with a 3630qm (or even a dual core) along with a 64GB caching SSD and 500GB HDD is going to give you the highest bang for the buck.

The 670M is very overclockable, the platform will be upgradable and keep costs as low as possible.

Desktop wise it would be a little behind a GTX560 (non ti) and match it when fully overclocked and cost.

You would be looking at about $1050 for the setup (no OS).
 
So your son could play his games on a 15", maybe 17" laptop monitor, or he could add something like this to his desktop rig that he builds for $750, leaving $450 spare cash to buy a decent notebook. There is a constant stream of deals on factory refurbished, which is basically good as new. Yes, the pixels on a 27 might be too big...fine, he can buy a decent 24" for $170. That's still a lot more real estate than a notebook.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00..._4WrV3_.cM_0_0
 
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