Gaming laptop...

[Krahe]

Howdy,

I've been looking at a lot of different gaming laptops and wanted to see what the consensus was on what is the best bang for the buck. My price range is 1400.00 - 1800.00. I was thinking of buying an Asus laptop. Any suggestions?

[The Fugitive]

Unless you really need the "portablity" of a laptop, a laptop is a poor choice for a gaming rig. For half the price you can get twice the machine if you can live with a desk top.

That being said, I know a couple guys have used CyberpowerPC and have had good results. I'd stay away from AMD cpus because of a problem with hyperthreading and Aces High.

[Krahe]

Sadly I need it to be portable. I've got a great desktop gaming rig. I'm having to work out of town more so I would really like to play Aces while i'm away.

Any suggestions?

[BaldEagl]

Those Asus laptops look pretty nice.  I've always been a Toshiba fan.  Regardless of what you get here's what to look for:

How much are you going to be carrying it?  Those big widescreens look nice but who want's to lug around all that weight?  I'd stick with 15.4" or lower screen size.

In your price range you should be able to get an Intel Core2Duo processor.  2.0 Gb minimum with the 1066 FSB.

2 Gb RAM should be enough.  Try to stick with 2 Gb or 4 Gb even though the computer won't see the whole 4 Gb if it's a 32 bit OS.  Make sure it's DDR2 800.

Get a dedicated video card with a minimum of 256 Mb of memory although you should be able to get 512 with your budget.

10/100/1000 Wireless 802.11 b/g Nic.  Draft n may still change before it's final but does have much higher transfer rates.

A nice touch with the Toshibas is an external volume control knob.

Minimum 6 cell Li battery... 9 cells would be better.  Remember, the more machine performance the lower the battery life.

Hope that helps.

[TheZohan]

http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_buyprebuilt_nb_us2.html

these laptops are all SLI laptops for gaming ..
which i recommend since the mobile GPU processors arent as good as there full powered card versions


points to the one with Q6600 chip in it .. *drools*

i think the alienware laptops have the upgradable video card feature too.

[TilDeath]

I would purchase a "Whitebook" meaning you can create your own laptop, choose your processor (some allow for desktop processors to be used), video, memory and hard disk in addition to choosing your wanted screen size.

[TheZohan]

any links for them to find a place that makes whitebooks?

[MrRiplEy[H]]

If the laptop is purely for AH2 gaming then even lower end laptop will do as long as it's equipped with Centrino2duo and midlevel integrated graphics.

No need to pay alienware prices.

[humble]

A number of decent modular laptops are now out with either 9600M or 9800M for roughly $1000. Asus has a couple of "gaming" laptops in that range. Should have no problem flying AH on default at 60 FPS....

I've seen these for even less at best buy on in store specials
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9050279&type=product&id=1218012519873

Here is one from newegg thats a bit better bang for the buck and doesnt have the 64 bit OS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220488

Here is a link to MSI's "whitebook" page
http://www.msicomputer.com/NB/product_index.asp

One more whitebook builder
http://www.avadirect.com/Notebooks/Core_2_Centrino_2_Notebooks
Here is a place that sells the shells with custom add ons. Tildeath, do you work with laptop shells as well or just desktops?
http://www.rkcomputer.net/rkcnotebooks/index.php?l=product_detail&p=73

[TilDeath]

any links for them to find a place that makes whitebooks?

I sell Whitebooks... you have a be a dealer to get the spec sheets and the QVL and of coarse the good pricing... OCZ has whitebooks, ASUS has whitebooks,  rumor has it evga will be starting to offer whitebooks too.

[TilDeath]

A number of decent modular laptops are now out with either 9600M or 9800M for roughly $1000. Asus has a couple of "gaming" laptops in that range. Should have no problem flying AH on default at 60 FPS....

I've seen these for even less at best buy on in store specials
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9050279&type=product&id=1218012519873

Here is one from newegg thats a bit better bang for the buck and doesnt have the 64 bit OS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220488

Here is a link to MSI's "whitebook" page
http://www.msicomputer.com/NB/product_index.asp

One more whitebook builder
http://www.avadirect.com/Notebooks/Core_2_Centrino_2_Notebooks
Here is a place that sells the shells with custom add ons. Tildeath, do you work with laptop shells as well or just desktops?
http://www.rkcomputer.net/rkcnotebooks/index.php?l=product_detail&p=73

Yes I do... but presently only from OCZ... they to me are the most reliable... up to 17" monitors.  Here are the specs

On all systems must buy memory, CPU and HD

Standard features
17" WUXGA Glossy (1900x1200)
P45+ICH9M-DH chipset
bluetooth
2 MXM 2.1 slots
Lite-On B/G Wireless
2X 2.5" HDD Support
Includes 12-Cell Battery
AC Adapter
Card Reader
Fingerprint Reader
2.0M Webcam

Version 1
DVD BURNER
ATI HD3870 w/512MB (M88XT)

Version 2
BLURAY DRIVE
ATI HD3870 w/512MB (M88XT)

Version 3
DVD BURNER
ATI HD3870 w/512MB (M88XT) CROSSFIRE

Version 4
BLURAY DRIVE
ATI HD3870 w/512MB (M88XT) CROSSFIRE

Just add your processor, memory, hard drive and OS

[humble]

what type of battery life do you get? I'm using a toshiba R-822 (work), its an older tablet model. Love it and its fine but eventually I'm going to need to replace it. I use my desktop mostly now (used to travel a lot more) but the limited battery life (2 hours or so) is biggest issue. I flip flop between thoughts of a lower end (integrated graphics etc) laptop to maximize battery and a more high end one with discrete GPU etc for that reason.

[TilDeath]

what type of battery life do you get? I'm using a toshiba R-822 (work), its an older tablet model. Love it and its fine but eventually I'm going to need to replace it. I use my desktop mostly now (used to travel a lot more) but the limited battery life (2 hours or so) is biggest issue. I flip flop between thoughts of a lower end (integrated graphics etc) laptop to maximize battery and a more high end one with discrete GPU etc for that reason.

About 2 hours in full performance mode and about 3 to 5 hours in standard/low performance mode.  These are rough estimates from OCZ.