Need a laptop for travels/gaming

[timoseewho]

hey, i'm looking for a laptop for the move for under $1000 with gaming capabilities. the games i'll be playing aren't exactly graphically intensive, just Blizzard games, WoW, D3, etc. i'd like to be at least able to play those games at or near max settings. if i can stream as well, that'd be great, the following are specs i'm looking for:
Monitor: 17"+
RAM: 16GB
HDD: something SSD 256GB+, do laptops come with both SSD and HDD these days?
GPU: enough to play whatever Blizzard throws at me (minus Overwatch, don't care for fps games)
weight: whatever comes with, would prefer light of course, but priority is to be able to game a little. i can lift an extra lb or 2 if i have to lol

i guess that's all. i just want a reliable brand, like everyone else^^. i would rather not purchase those chunky gaming laptops unless it's needed to fulfill my needs lol

thanks again

 

[b-mac]

I think you are going to find it difficult to get a 17 inch laptop that doesn't fit into the chunky gaming laptop category. If you are willing to go down to 15 inches and 8gb RAM a lot more options will open up. Anything with a 960m or higher will play any of those blizzard games.

http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-i7559-763BLK-Full-HD-GeForce/dp/B015PYYDMQ

Seen this recommended, good price for what you get. More options out there if you look around.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Property&N=100025325%20600556360%20600555758%204814%20600551625&IsNodeId=1&cm_sp=CAT_Gaming-Laptops_8-_-VisNav-_-GTX-960M

 

[timoseewho]

I think you are going to find it difficult to get a 17 inch laptop that doesn't fit into the chunky gaming laptop category. If you are willing to go down to 15 inches and 8gb RAM a lot more options will open up. Anything with a 960m or higher will play any of those blizzard games.

http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-i7559-763BLK-Full-HD-GeForce/dp/B015PYYDMQ

Seen this recommended, good price for what you get. More options out there if you look around.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=Property&N=100025325%20600556360%20600555758%204814%20600551625&IsNodeId=1&cm_sp=CAT_Gaming-Laptops_8-_-VisNav-_-GTX-960M

cool thanks!

what is the general public's consensus with Lenovo these days?

 

[b-mac]

I personally think their gaming laptops are overpriced compared to some of the alternatives. The whole super fish fiasco last year left a sour taste in my mouth as well.

 

[timoseewho]

I personally think their gaming laptops are overpriced compared to some of the alternatives. The whole super fish fiasco last year left a sour taste in my mouth as well.

ahhh, what brand would you recommend?

i guess i can scale down the monitor and screen size hehe. my current laptop is an Asus X75V with a 720M with D3 being playable at mid settings but not great. the screen on this is 17" but it doesn't feel overly chunky. i guess the 960 would make it considerably chunkier right? i guess a laptop gets tagged the gaming laptop name once it has a good GPU? i'm just not a huge fan of those gaming laptops that look heavy duty and have overly edgy bezels lol

 

[EliteRetard]

If you can scrounge up an extra $200 Sager is having a sale on one of their 17" units.

http://www.sagernotebook.com/customize.php?productid=826

$1244 - 50$ instant for total of 1194$:
GTX 965m (significantly faster than 960m)
i7 6700HQ (faster quad with HT vs i5 w/ no HT)
16GB DDR3 1600MHz (2x8GB)
250GB Samsung 850 EVO M.2 SSD PLUS 1TB 7200RPM HDD
Win 10 Home 64bit
Intel Wireless AC 8260 (newest/fastest high quality wireless from Intel)

 

[timoseewho]

If you can scrounge up an extra $200 Sager is having a sale on one of their 17" units.

http://www.sagernotebook.com/customize.php?productid=826

$1244 - 50$ instant for total of 1194$:
GTX 965m (significantly faster than 960m)
i7 6700HQ (faster quad with HT vs i5 w/ no HT)
16GB DDR3 1600MHz (2x8GB)
250GB Samsung 850 EVO M.2 SSD PLUS 1TB 7200RPM HDD
Win 10 Home 64bit
Intel Wireless AC 8260 (newest/fastest high quality wireless from Intel)

seems like a good purchase, honestly can't say i've heard of Sager before. i'm guessing they're reputable in the gaming world?

 

[EliteRetard]

Sager is one of many companies who customize and re-brand Clevo laptops. Some of the units are great, some are just as crappy as a cheap consumer laptop. Sager/Clevo are widely recognized for gaming laptops. Looking for reviews, I see this particular laptop is mostly plastic (vs magnesium and/or aluminum on some higher end units).
http://www.notebookcheck.net/MIFcom-EG7-Clevo-N170RF-Notebook-Review.158477.0.html

You can actually get this exact same unit from XoticPC and can have them remove the branding. However their site is more complicated, and possibly more expensive:
http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np7270-clevo-n170rd-p-8670.html?startcustomization=1

There are/were a few other sites who sold these Clevo and other custom gaming units, but I think these are now the primary two serving the American market.

 

[timoseewho]

Sager is one of many companies who customize and re-brand Clevo laptops. Some of the units are great, some are just as crappy as a cheap consumer laptop. Sager/Clevo are widely recognized for gaming laptops. Looking for reviews, I see this particular laptop is mostly plastic (vs magnesium and/or aluminum on some higher end units).
http://www.notebookcheck.net/MIFcom-EG7-Clevo-N170RF-Notebook-Review.158477.0.html

You can actually get this exact same unit from XoticPC and can have them remove the branding. However their site is more complicated, and possibly more expensive:
http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np7270-clevo-n170rd-p-8670.html?startcustomization=1

There are/were a few other sites who sold these Clevo and other custom gaming units, but I think these are now the primary two serving the American market.

ohhhkay, thanks!

 

[EliteRetard]

I did some more browsing, I don't currently see many other good options at 17".
There's bound to be a sale on another unit sometime though, if the Sager/Clevo aint your cup of tea.
There do seem to be a few more options in the 15" range at $1,200 and under.

One common problem especially with 15" units is poor cooling. Many are trying to use a single heatsink/fan to cool both the high end CPU and GPU, which doesn't work. If you are happy going with a smaller 15" unit make sure it's got two heatsink/fan units.

 

[FleshLight]

Alienware 15R2 from Dell Outlet. Gets 7 hours of battery life

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Alienware-15-R2-Notebook-Review.153808.0.html

 

[timoseewho]

Alienware 15R2 from Dell Outlet. Gets 7 hours of battery life

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Alienware-15-R2-Notebook-Review.153808.0.html

mm, battery life isn't all that important for me since most of the time i'll have access to an outlet when i need it. i'm really trying to stay away from the design that comes with a gaming laptop too;\

is it really not possible to get a 960 without the gaming laptop design? the whole jagged look with gaming laptops really turn me off lol

 

[IEC]

I bought a Inspiron 7559 to tide me over on the road until 14nm mobile GPUs come out.

I was able to purchase a refurbished model (black/red style) with 1080p FHD panel, 6700HQ, 8GB DDR3L, 4GB 960M, and 1TB HD for <$650 shipped after tax. Refurbs come with 1 year warranty from the Dell Outlet.

Stock comes and goes but if you can find a decent base price on a refurb and it coincides with a 20-30% off coupon it is very difficult to beat the hardware bang for the buck (provided you get a solid unit, QC appears to be hit or miss). You can also get a silver model that looks a little less gamer-ish (and more boring).

 

[EliteRetard]

Here's another random deal I just ran into:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-ROG-17...574137?hash=item58d15bc3f9:g:fncAAOSw6dNWTKi2

$1,100 Asus 17" 1080 laptop with an older 4th gen i7 (maybe 10-15% slower than 6th gen i7) GTX970m 16GB RAM 1TB HDD

This unit is somewhat subdued in the "gaming look":

The 970m is much faster than the 960m even with an older CPU (The 965m would be between the two, supposedly closer to the 970m than the 960m). From the review just recently posted on Anandtech:

No SSD in this unit, but looks like you can easily add an SSD, either 2.5" SATA or M.2 PCIE x4. You can get a good 2.5" 500GB SSD under $150, 1TB under $300.
http://rog.asus.com/375732014/g-series-gaming-laptops/gallery-g751-upgrade-guide/

 

[Raduque]

Here's another random deal I just ran into:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-ROG-17...574137?hash=item58d15bc3f9:g:fncAAOSw6dNWTKi2

$1,100 Asus 17" 1080 laptop with an older 4th gen i7 (maybe 10-15% slower than 6th gen i7) GTX970m 16GB RAM 1TB HDD

I recommend one of these. If that Fleabay deal goes away, you can get it from Newegg for ~$100 more. The one from newegg comes with the caddy for adding an extra HDD as well. I have a 480gb SSD and 1tb spinner in mine.

 

[lakedude]

I like the little Dell B-Mac linked to on Amazon.

1) In budget.
2) Smaller and lighter.
3) Powerful enough.
4) IPS low glare screen.
5) Come with SSD out of the box.

I paid a good deal more for my laptop a few years ago. When I bought it I specifically stated that I was not worried about the weight but I learned my lesson. The big laptop also needed a big power brick which aggravated the issue. A smaller lighter laptop with lower power consumption (and hence a smaller power brick) would be a welcome improvement over what I have. My laptop also lacks an IPS screen which again would be a welcome improvement. I had to add my own SSD but the Dell already has one.

I actually like my laptop fairly well but that Dell is several steps to the better for less money.

The only negative is that the OP wanted a 17 inch screen which could be a deal breaker.

 

[EliteRetard]

I recommend one of these. If that Fleabay deal goes away, you can get it from Newegg for ~$100 more. The one from newegg comes with the caddy for adding an extra HDD as well. I have a 480gb SSD and 1tb spinner in mine.

I suppose I should've mentioned it's being sold by Newegg through eBay, in case people were scared away by the link.

The same unit is $1250 through Newegg directly, but I see it has an $80 MIR, which brings it close to the same price. I also see they have a 965m version for $970. I still think it's worth the money for the 965/970m over the 960m, which is only good for medium/light gaming.

The extra bandwidth (192bit vs 128bit) and VRAM of the 970m really puts it ahead though. As shown in the charts above, the 970m can more than double the 960m performance in some cases, and keeps a much smoother frame rate in many games by staying out of the 30fps range. At $1,100 you still get good bang for the buck vs an $800 960m.

 

[timoseewho]

hey all, thanks so far for the suggestions! i'm still looking hahha, but i've decided to drop some of my conditions. 15" and 8GB memory would be just fine, also a 960M would do, but if the price is right, no harm going up to 970 right

i'm not too sold on the Asus systems since i'm not a fan of their panels><. i love Asus as a brand, but dammmn

i've been really digging the Dell XPS 15, any thoughts on that? it's kind of disappointing seeing it so far down on the benchmark

 

[Raduque]

I suppose I should've mentioned it's being sold by Newegg through eBay, in case people were scared away by the link.

The same unit is $1250 through Newegg directly, but I see it has an $80 MIR, which brings it close to the same price. I also see they have a 965m version for $970. I still think it's worth the money for the 965/970m over the 960m, which is only good for medium/light gaming.

The extra bandwidth (192bit vs 128bit) and VRAM of the 970m really puts it ahead though. As shown in the charts above, the 970m can more than double the 960m performance in some cases, and keeps a much smoother frame rate in many games by staying out of the 30fps range. At $1,100 you still get good bang for the buck vs an $800 960m.

The 970 is definitely worth the bump from a 960m. I had a 960 as well and its fast enough, but the 970 is just in a completely different league. The 965 is a decent in between chip, but not worth the premium most OEMs are asking for.

 

[b-mac]

965m or 970m is a substantial bump in GPU performance compared to the 960m. I originally linked that dell because it was within their budget, no 965 or 970 was at the time. If you can get 965 or 970 within your budget now that's even better!

 

[EliteRetard]

hey all, thanks so far for the suggestions! i'm still looking hahha, but i've decided to drop some of my conditions. 15" and 8GB memory would be just fine, also a 960M would do, but if the price is right, no harm going up to 970 right

i'm not too sold on the Asus systems since i'm not a fan of their panels><. i love Asus as a brand, but dammmn

i've been really digging the Dell XPS 15, any thoughts on that? it's kind of disappointing seeing it so far down on the benchmark

I had a chance to look at an XPS 15 in person, it seemed pretty well built. However I have been hearing about a lot of quality control issues. I don't know all the specifics, but it's something to look into before buying. Another problem is the cost, I haven't seen one go on sale yet and the minimum spec quad laptop is $1,200. You get a lot less hardware for your money, in exchange for a smaller lighter package. Up to you if smaller/lighter is worth it.

Here's another random possibility I ran into, a custom Gigabyte P55W V4.
15.6" 1080 unit currently configured to $1,200:
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/saved/1HPB3E
i7 5th gen, 16GB, GTX 970m, 512GB SSD Sandisk X400 SSD (lower end drive)