New laptop advice

[juggalomike]

I will be purchasing a laptop this fall for school/gaming. I have never owned a laptop so i would say it is fair to state that my knowledge in regards to them in minimal. My budget is around $2,000. So far what seems to have the best bang for buck is the Gateway® P-7808u FX Edition, which has gotten pretty good reviews from almost everywhere i look. The only flaws that people tend to point out are that it is heavy and the battery life is terrible. My question is are there any better comps i could get in the same price range? Keep in mind i am primarily a gamer but will be using this laptop to do schoolwork as well as watch movies/shows.

 

[TheStu]

A lot of people recommend that you spend about $800 or so to build yourself a really solid gaming desktop, and then the rest on a small & light but still relatively powerful laptop, something in the 13-14" range. Those will still have full keyboards and decent size screens (will do 720p native for example) and can sometimes be had with decent graphics chips.

 

[IlllI]

Originally posted by: TheStu
A lot of people recommend that you spend about $800 or so to build yourself a really solid gaming desktop, and then the rest on a small & light but still relatively powerful laptop, something in the 13-14" range. Those will still have full keyboards and decent size screens (will do 720p native for example) and can sometimes be had with decent graphics chips.

this exactly


'gaming' laptops arent all that. unless you spend a pretty penny, but then you could spend the same amount and get a better desktop for gaming and a light, mobile laptop

also for games and movies sound is kind of important. laptops generally have craptastic sound from those teeny tiny speakers, unless you use headphones, but then if you play for hours you might get ear fatigue

 

[TheStu]

In the 13" realm, I am going to go ahead and suggest the white plastic MacBook, $999 order before the end of summer you get it for $949 and you get a free iPod Touch 8GB (after rebate).

You can dual boot with Windows, but depending on your major, OS X may prove to be a more appropriate OS anyway (Unix based, so unless you are doing VB coding, it is better IMO for programming work).

 

[juggalomike]

As of right now i have a pretty solid gaming desktop, the problem is i will be living in a dorm and don't really have a lot of room, so i don't want to clutter up the room with a desktop.

 

[alimoalem]

If you know anyone who's at least finished one year of university (and was a gamer) if they still play games. Most people stop or play a lot less. I'd listen to the other guys in the thread. If you're going to game, anyway, you'll want a desk. I'm not sure how you'll be adding much clutter if you stick the tower under the desk.

I also agree with TheStu on the size of the laptop. I was a desktop-only user before college so I thought a small screen wouldn't do it for me, so I went with a 14.1" laptop. After being here for 3 years, I think smaller is better. Go with a 13". Macbook, Lenovo, Dell (Vostro or Latitude maybe), or something else.

 

[Rottie]

Originally posted by: TheStu
In the 13" realm, I am going to go ahead and suggest the white plastic MacBook, $999 order before the end of summer you get it for $949 and you get a free iPod Touch 8GB (after rebate).

You can dual boot with Windows, but depending on your major, OS X may prove to be a more appropriate OS anyway (Unix based, so unless you are doing VB coding, it is better IMO for programming work).

Hate to disappoint you but Apple Macbook Pro is not a gaming notebook and there are not many games for Apple. OP is lookin for gaming notebook so Apple is out. Dell XPS notebook is good enough for you. You didnt say what kind of game? Most budget notebook can play some decent games such as Civ4 but Crysis? You need to buy a Voodoo notebook

 

[Emulex]

yeah im doing the 2730P mac-daddy for like $1100 (huge discount) then a desktop when necessary.

1. business notebooks get 3 year service, with rapid action available. consumer laptops are a pita unless its a mac to get serviced quickly.

2. hp elitebook are mil-spec and semi resistant to getting thrown around. this is not rugged but lil but tough.

3. $800 laptop is worth $0 if it doesn't work..

4. gaming overheats laptops. kinda like first gen 360's you unless a world of hurt on the machine after it ages and gets full of dust etc.

 

[fffblackmage]

Originally posted by: Rottie

Originally posted by: TheStu
In the 13" realm, I am going to go ahead and suggest the white plastic MacBook, $999 order before the end of summer you get it for $949 and you get a free iPod Touch 8GB (after rebate).

You can dual boot with Windows, but depending on your major, OS X may prove to be a more appropriate OS anyway (Unix based, so unless you are doing VB coding, it is better IMO for programming work).

Hate to disappoint you but Apple Macbook Pro is not a gaming notebook and there are not many games for Apple. OP is lookin for gaming notebook so Apple is out. Dell XPS notebook is good enough for you. You didnt say what kind of game? Most budget notebook can play some decent games such as Civ4 but Crysis? You need to buy a Voodoo notebook

If you noticed his previous post, TheStu recommended using a desktop as the primary gaming machine and the laptop as his mobile work platform.


I totally realize space could be a concern, but I took my desktop and CRT to the dorm during my first year. I replaced the CRT as soon as I got my first LCD after black friday ($80 for a 17" 5:4 LCD, incredibly awesome deal considering this was over two years ago).

As long as you have the tower on the floor, space shouldn't be too big of a deal.

Obviously, there are tradeoffs when you consider difference laptops. Larger laptops, especially gaming laptops, you'll typically find lower battery life. Not very useful if you need to run off a battery basically.

But if you consider smaller laptops, you get better battery life, but the smaller screen not quite as awesome for movies.

If you have a desktop, you'll probably bring a decent screen for movies, games and whatnot. Plus, people won't steal it. It would suck if someone stole your godly expensive and awesome $2000 gaming laptop. It happens. Laptops are too easy to steal. So, that's another thing to consider.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Rottie

Originally posted by: TheStu
In the 13" realm, I am going to go ahead and suggest the white plastic MacBook, $999 order before the end of summer you get it for $949 and you get a free iPod Touch 8GB (after rebate).

You can dual boot with Windows, but depending on your major, OS X may prove to be a more appropriate OS anyway (Unix based, so unless you are doing VB coding, it is better IMO for programming work).

Hate to disappoint you but Apple Macbook Pro is not a gaming notebook and there are not many games for Apple. OP is lookin for gaming notebook so Apple is out. Dell XPS notebook is good enough for you. You didnt say what kind of game? Most budget notebook can play some decent games such as Civ4 but Crysis? You need to buy a Voodoo notebook

I never mentioned the MacBook Pro.

My recommendation to the OP was to spend about $800 or so on a gaming desktop since that would get quite a lot of system. Then take the remainder of the $2000 budget (so $1200 now) and get something small and light but still a 'real' laptop... so not a netbook. I suggested a 13-14" laptop since those can still get some pretty good battery life and have full size keyboards.

I then suggested the white MacBook since I have one and it has survived me for the past 3 years, so it gets my vote. Plus, since I was studying Software Engineering I saw that in OS X I had a lot fewer problems with the coding work that we were doing as opposed to my friends using Windows. At least until we got to VB work, and I had to boot into Windows at that point (Visual Basic wouldn't play nice with VMWare.)