Gaming Laptop needed

[Bongo]

Right..

So I'm going to college, and the college im going to, doesnt allow me to take desktop pc's... So I have no choice but to take a god-damned laptop. Well I've been searching around for laptops and found this pretty awesome laptop/notebook...

''Killer Notebook Executioner''


.....But, it costs $3500 and my dad wont allow that... SO I need some suggestions for some good gaming laptops/notebooks that are within the 2000-3000 price range.


Thanks.

[Albuquerque]

Dell XPS line for the "uber", or their new Inspiron E1521 line with the optional 8600 for a "sufficient".

The former will probably use up all of your $3000 price tag to get the UBER rig. The latter will probably burn up about half of that for a very good rig.

[Bongo]

Awesome, thanks.. Can I also have some reccomendations in the $1500-2000 range laptops.

[Albuquerque]

The Inspiron that I mentioned would fit the lower pricetag easily. Core 2 Duo of some flavor, 2Gb of ram, 160+GB drive, DVD burner, NV 8600 video, wifi and one of their TrueLife screens should run you around the $1500 mark without all the extra warranty stuff.

Throw in a 3-year protection plan against accidental damage and other such nonsense and you'll be probably around $1800. I did the accidental damage coverage just because I'd be taking this thing everywhere and letting family and friends use it. I'd rather spend the $200 now versus $800 later when my mom spills 32oz of sugar + cream coffee into it ;)

Edit

Just for my own curiousity, I hopped on Dell's website real quick and assembled pretty much a top-of-the-line Inspiron 1520.

Core 2 Duo 2.2ghz
2Gb of ram
160Gb 7200RPM drive
8x CDRW / DVDRW
8600GT video
1680x1050 LCD
3 year protection (lojack, accidental damage, next-day service, etc)
B/G/N wireless
Bluetooth 2.0
Integrated webcam
High-cap battery

Total was $1811. You could EASILY drop one processor grade, go for the 5400RPM drive, take the "standard" wireless, drop the webcam, use a "normal" battery and even maybe back off the LCD rez by a notch and save yourself probably $250 or more

Not bad at all...

[Dresden]

I always thought "gaming laptop" was an oxymoron.

Why won't your college allow desktops?

[Tim Murray]

I always thought "gaming laptop" was an oxymoron.

Why won't your college allow desktops?
What kind of moon college are you going to that won't allow desktops?

Also, maybe you should just buy a console. You'll waste less time gaming that way.

[ShaidarHaran]

The Inspiron that I mentioned would fit the lower pricetag easily. Core 2 Duo of some flavor, 2Gb of ram, 160+GB drive, DVD burner, NV 8600 video, wifi and one of their TrueLife screens should run you around the $1500 mark without all the extra warranty stuff.

Throw in a 3-year protection plan against accidental damage and other such nonsense and you'll be probably around $1800. I did the accidental damage coverage just because I'd be taking this thing everywhere and letting family and friends use it. I'd rather spend the $200 now versus $800 later when my mom spills 32oz of sugar + cream coffee into it ;)

Edit

Just for my own curiousity, I hopped on Dell's website real quick and assembled pretty much a top-of-the-line Inspiron 1520.

Core 2 Duo 2.2ghz
2Gb of ram
160Gb 7200RPM drive
8x CDRW / DVDRW
8600GT video
1680x1050 LCD
3 year protection (lojack, accidental damage, next-day service, etc)
B/G/N wireless
Bluetooth 2.0
Integrated webcam
High-cap battery

Total was $1811. You could EASILY drop one processor grade, go for the 5400RPM drive, take the "standard" wireless, drop the webcam, use a "normal" battery and even maybe back off the LCD rez by a notch and save yourself probably $250 or more

Not bad at all...

5400RPM HD is a bad recommend, in my mind. Everything else you said is spot-on though.

[Bongo]

What kind of moon college are you going to that won't allow desktops?

Also, maybe you should just buy a console. You'll waste less time gaming that way.
__________________



Well.. Its actuallly a boarding school to be honest.. That they call a college lol :roll: ... And I already have an Xbox 360 :D.


I went to the DELL site, built a laptop.. Price came to about $2700... Gotta see if my dad will agree to this lol.. Will keep you guys updated. Thanks again for your replies.

[Albuquerque]

5400RPM HD is a bad recommend, in my mind. Everything else you said is spot-on though.
Not that I disagree, but the vast majority of laptops have been coming with 5400RPM drives. While you will certainly notice the speed boost (and for the better), the higher aerial density of a laptop drive at least partially offsets the lesser rotational speed.

[Dresden]

Well.. Its actuallly a boarding school to be honest.. That they call a college lol :roll: ... And I already have an Xbox 360 :D.


I went to the DELL site, built a laptop.. Price came to about $2700... Gotta see if my dad will agree to this lol.. Will keep you guys updated. Thanks again for your replies.

It depends on what you're willing to spend. "Gaming" laptops tend to be more expensive than a desktop. Alienware makes good laptops that utilize a lot of good hardware, or at least the last time I was in the market for a laptop they did, perhaps there's other companies that took their idea and ran with it. I strongly suggest you think twice about buying Dell anything, seeing as their customer service is in absolute shambles, and their level of quality has taken a nosedive since the height of their popularity a few years back. Their desktops at least, are abominations. Dell turns the interior of their machines into a fortress of metal that requires special tools to disassemble, I learned this the hard way when I had to break the steel box that encased my HD by prying it open with a screwdriver. They do this so whenever you're in the market for an upgrade you have to send your machine back to them.

[Albuquerque]

Alienware makes good laptops that utilize a lot of good hardware, or at least the last time I was in the market for a laptop they did, perhaps there's other companies that took their idea and ran with it.
AlienWare = Dell :)

I strongly suggest you think twice about buying Dell anything, seeing as their customer service is in absolute shambles, and their level of quality has taken a nosedive since the height of their popularity a few years back. Their desktops at least, are abominations. Dell turns the interior of their machines into a fortress of metal that requires special tools to disassemble, I learned this the hard way when I had to break the steel box that encased my HD by prying it open with a screwdriver. They do this so whenever you're in the market for an upgrade you have to send your machine back to them.
What, were you working on a machine that's ten years old?

Less than 10 feet from me, I have seven seperate models of Dell desktops spanning six years. Every single one is a 100% toolless chassis. I can remove EVERY part, down to the system board, with absolutely nothing more than my fingers.

I also personally own a Dell Inspiron laptop, and I've had it open too. Other than the standard phillips and allen screws that you find in any laptop (ThinkPad, HP, et al) it required no "special tools" at all to remove the processor, video card, harddrive and memory.

I've also worked with Dell technical support twice on my own personal machine, and more than a dozen times with various desktops. My problem with my home laptop CDRW drive not reading certain copy-protected disks? They agreed to replace it with five minutes of phone time -- and about three and a half minutes of that were me giving my basic information and a small bit of hold time. A new and seperate model drive was on my doorstop in two days, complete with pre-paid shipping labels to send the other one back.

Problem with my video card not having the RAM that it was supposed to? Fifteen minutes on the phone and they agreed to replace it, with a bit more hold time but nothing that was "bad" or unbearable. The proper part was on my doorstep the next day and again had the proper pre-paid shipping label to send the other one back.

So, I'm not buying that Dell's customer service is somehow "terrible" or "awful" or "the worst". I think anyone can give you bad customer service if you're a complete douche-nozzle on the phone; I'm not, which is likely why I've had almost no bad customer service experiences in my life (except for with Sprint, my long-time-ex wireless provider, but I'm not gonna talk about those assholes in this thread...)

[Dresden]

AlienWare = Dell :)

I wasn't aware of that. I do know for a fact that Alienware isn't the only company that builds desktops and laptops specifically for gamers. There's numerous companies out there, just open any PC gaming magazine and peruse the advertisements.

What, were you working on a machine that's ten years old?

Actually something around that age, yes. I haven't looked back in the direction of that company since. Perhaps they changed their standards.

Less than 10 feet from me, I have seven seperate models of Dell desktops spanning six years. Every single one is a 100% toolless chassis. I can remove EVERY part, down to the system board, with absolutely nothing more than my fingers.

That wasn't the case with the Dell I owned. The only thing that wasn't soldered to the chasis was the motherboard, so anything outside of swapping out your videocard required you to ship it off to customer service.


I've also worked with Dell technical support twice on my own personal machine, and more than a dozen times with various desktops. My problem with my home laptop CDRW drive not reading certain copy-protected disks? They agreed to replace it with five minutes of phone time -- and about three and a half minutes of that were me giving my basic information and a small bit of hold time. A new and seperate model drive was on my doorstop in two days, complete with pre-paid shipping labels to send the other one back.

Answer me this: Is their customer service still outsourced to India? If so then I don't expect it to have changed from when I last dealt with them. Their onsite staff was a handful of knowledge-less idiots who gave me more "I don't know what your problem is" answers than Comcast. Albeit, there was a point when they had superb customer service, then they outsourced and it sank. I've read nothing but complaints from customers, mostly saying they give you an astronomical runaround for the most simplistic of problems.

You don't need to be a jerk on the phone for their reps to be knowledge-less, becoming one is typically derived from their lack of any support whatsoever. I remember screaming at them multiple times, and I never approach a customer service situation both guns blazing unless it's a repeat issue that wasn't addressed properly, ie Comcast.

edit: You may find this interesting. There's hardly any positive press regarding the simple words "Dell customer support"

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=WZPA,WZPA:2006-02,WZPA:en&q=dell+customer+support

[AlphaWolf]

People rarely take the time to post about a positive customer service experience. I think you'll have a hard time finding anyone who has been excited about the opportunity to deal with anyones customer service.

That said Dell does use India for some of their tech support, but all business sales and I believe XPS sales are handled by customer service in NA.

[Albuquerque]

Answer me this: Is their customer service still outsourced to India? If so then I don't expect it to have changed from when I last dealt with them. Their onsite staff was a handful of knowledge-less idiots who gave me more "I don't know what your problem is" answers than Comcast. Albeit, there was a point when they had superb customer service, then they outsourced and it sank. I've read nothing but complaints from customers, mostly saying they give you an astronomical runaround for the most simplistic of problems.
It was still outsourced when I called.

I had no problems understanding them.
I had no problems with them understanding my problem.
I had no problems with them having me jump through unneeded troubleshooting steps.
I had no problems with them resolving my issue in the quickest manner possible.

I can find complaints online about any product EVER created; just to the posters' point above me, the only time you hear someone ranting online is typically to complain. It's my experience (and I have a considerable amount from my previous job positions) that the people who are the most vocal are the ones with a gripe; the ones who had no issues are not very likely to joyously shout to the heavens about their "perfectly acceptable with no complaints" support.

[Dresden]

It was still outsourced when I called.

I had no problems understanding them.
I had no problems with them understanding my problem.
I had no problems with them having me jump through unneeded troubleshooting steps.
I had no problems with them resolving my issue in the quickest manner possible.

I can find complaints online about any product EVER created; just to the posters' point above me, the only time you hear someone ranting online is typically to complain. It's my experience (and I have a considerable amount from my previous job positions) that the people who are the most vocal are the ones with a gripe; the ones who had no issues are not very likely to joyously shout to the heavens about their "perfectly acceptable with no complaints" support.

Of course you can, but Dell has become world renowned for having a steadily declining level of customer support. Because your own personal experience to date hasn't been an unpleasant one, yet, doesn't mean there isn't a large percentage of people who can find more than one problem with their degree of "service." Dell, in my experience with them, is the second worst company I dealt with in my history of dealing with customer service. SO bad, I never bought another Dell to date.


As for Alphawolf, when the level of service's downfall takes a notice by reviewers like Cnet, it typically speaks volumes. That isn't just John McPissedoff ranting on his blog:

http://news.com.com/2100-1042-5162141.html

[AlphaWolf]

As for Alphawolf, when the level of service's downfall takes a notice by reviewers like Cnet, it typically speaks volumes. That isn't just John McPissedoff ranting on his blog:

http://news.com.com/2100-1042-5162141.html


Did you read that article or did you just google it up?

It says their customer service has gotten worse, but its still better than their competition.

[Dresden]

Did you read that article or did you just google it up?

It says their customer service has gotten worse, but its still better than their competitions.

Yes I read it. It's not better than all their competition, did YOU read it? As far as I know HP and Compaq aren't the only other valid computer companies.....

[Dresden]

So you didn't read it. Gotcha.

No. I didn't. In fact, I frequent conjuring up articles I have no familiarity with on internet message boards :roll:

The fact remains when you're 1 point better than Gateway, you're in trouble.

[AlphaWolf]

Yes I read it. It's not better than all their competition, did YOU read it? As far as I know HP and Compaq aren't the only other valid computer companies.....

So please oh great guru list all the PC manufacturing companies that were listed as better than Dell in that article. And considering the article was written in 2004, I'm not sure you can really count Apple, but whatever.

All the article says is that Dells service has gotten worse, it still lists it as mostly satisfactory.

You clearly want to rant on how bad Dell is based on this so I will leave you to it, but if don't have better alternatives to offer for the OP perhaps you should just stfu and start a rant thread somewhere else.

[Dresden]

So please oh great guru list all the PC manufacturing companies that were listed as better than Dell in that article. And considering the article was written in 2004, I'm not sure you can really count Apple, but whatever.

I appreciate your cute dubbing me a "guru," but there's plenty of computer companies out there, you and I know it, regardless of how mainstream they are, they exist. They have customer service. Apparently it isn't making as big a splash as Dell's is.

All the article says is that Dells service has gotten worse, it still lists it as mostly satisfactory.

Isn't that what this entire argument is about? Dell's declining customer service? Or is it more your namebrand reliability stuffing your pants and attempting to brandish it as a weapon when someone says something you don't like?

You clearly want to rant on how bad Dell is based on this so I will leave you to it, but if don't have better alternatives to offer for the OP perhaps you should just stfu and start a rant thread somewhere else.

That's not the case at all, but feel free to put words in my mouth, seeing as you've grown quite accustomed to it. I merely stated my opinion on whether or not I think, I THINK, he shouldn't get a Dell.

[ShaidarHaran]

Not that I disagree, but the vast majority of laptops have been coming with 5400RPM drives. While you will certainly notice the speed boost (and for the better), the higher aerial density of a laptop drive at least partially offsets the lesser rotational speed.

Good point. It's just a matter of weighing which of the two is more important then. I will say this in support of getting a faster drive rather than a larger drive though: one can always add additional storage by means of an external hard drive; you can't add extra speed though ;)

[ShaidarHaran]

Re: Dell
I was an onsite tech for Dell (outsourced) up until a few months ago.
The horror stories are correct, at least in part. When things go wrong, they really go wrong. If you get foreign tech support be prepared for multiple holds, unnecessary diagnostics, miscommunication, and worse. I don't even want to get in to the amount of horror stories I've heard about Dell's "Indian tech support" from angry customers. Suffice it to say that almost every customer I visited had a negative experience with foreign phone support.

However, when things go right it can be a rather pleasurable experience. Assuming the customer's first contact with support goes well (i.e. doesn't piss them off), the problem is properly diagnosed, the part ships out and arrives on time, and the tech that receives the service call is able to schedule for NBD as the warranty "promises" (fine print states NBD service is based on the availability of technicians in your area, so not actually promised), it's doubtful one could have a better experience getting their PC repaired under warranty. Granted, that's a lot of things that need to go well...

Bottom line: if you buy a Dell do yourself a favor and buy an XPS or get the Gold support. If you do either of those things, you'll be speaking to someone in the U.S. more often than not, hold times are shorter, and the techs aren't reading from a script 99% of the time like their foreign counterparts. If you can't afford an XPS system or Gold support, be sure to file all support claims online. At least then you eliminate hold times and don't have to deal with thick accents.

Oh, and if you buy a laptop, get the accidental damage coverage. Chances are something's going to break on your laptop that wouldn't be covered by warranty otherwise. Either you'll spill a drink on it, rip the AC cord out and break the jack, drop it and break any number of components, or someone else will do it for you.
If I were going to buy a laptop, I don't think there's another company I'd buy one from, based on the standard NBD on-site warranty and available accidental damage coverage. Even though I've been a PC tech for many years and can fix any PC I come across, I would never buy a laptop without a decent warranty to back it up. Parts are just too expensive. Crack a screen or fry a motherboard and you may as well buy a new one.

[Cartoon Corpse]

are there any dx10 capable laptops out yet? i heard they were still a ways off. or was that ATI/AMD versions only?

i'd hate to get a laptop at this point that wasn't dx10 ready.

[Albuquerque]

are there any dx10 capable laptops out yet? i heard they were still a ways off. or was that ATI/AMD versions only?

i'd hate to get a laptop at this point that wasn't dx10 ready.
:?: :???:
Just for my own curiousity, I hopped on Dell's website real quick and assembled pretty much a top-of-the-line Inspiron 1520.

Core 2 Duo 2.2ghz
2Gb of ram
160Gb 7200RPM drive
8x CDRW / DVDRW
8600GT video
1680x1050 LCD
3 year protection (lojack, accidental damage, next-day service, etc)
B/G/N wireless
Bluetooth 2.0
Integrated webcam
High-cap battery

[Davros]

heres a question though
is a 8600gt upto the job of running dx10 games at 1680x1050 ?

[ShaidarHaran]

heres a question though
is a 8600gt upto the job of running dx10 games at 1680x1050 ?

Highly doubtful. The 8700M GT would be a better bet, but still unlikely.

[Albuquerque]

Highly doubtful. The 8700M GT would be a better bet, but still unlikely.

:?: :???:
Did an interview with one of the producers concerning the title while at E3. Absolutely the most impressive game displayed period. They had the title running extremely smooth on a e6300, 2 gig ram, 8600 @ 1280x960 using what looked to be a 20" Dell. Everything was well defined from lush vegetation, character models, to animations and explosions.

Crysis at E3, post 104 from this thread: http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=42486

A bit more resolution would likely require a bit of detail tuning, but I don't forsee it being an issue. If you don't agree, save a few bucks and buy one of the slightly-less-resolution monitors like 1440x900 or whatever that oddball size is.

[ShaidarHaran]

:?: :???:


Crysis at E3, post 104 from this thread: http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=42486

A bit more resolution would likely require a bit of detail tuning, but I don't forsee it being an issue. If you don't agree, save a few bucks and buy one of the slightly-less-resolution monitors like 1440x900 or whatever that oddball size is.

The question was whether or not the game would run on a 1680x1050 panel, which has a resolution ~ 40% higher than that of the tested resolution. A mobile part with a 128-bit memory controller isn't going to keep up as well at such a resolution.

[Albuquerque]

The question was whether or not the game would run on a 1680x1050 panel, which has a resolution ~ 40% higher than that of the tested resolution. A mobile part with a 128-bit memory controller isn't going to keep up as well at such a resolution.

If you don't agree, save a few bucks and buy one of the slightly-less-resolution monitors like 1440x900 or whatever that oddball size is.

Do you wish to continue?

[ShaidarHaran]

Do you wish to continue?

Not particularly, it's not like the 8700M GT is available in many laptops anyway, so panel choice is practically non-existent.

[Chunkymonkey153]

Ok heres the best deal I have been able to find. Its a Portable One. It's very solid and very reasonably priced. Heres one example and of course they have ones with bigger screens about the same specs that still come in at under 3 grand. It can't be beat a similar dell with a lower clock speed cheaper t7600 costs over $3,600, and a pretty evenly matched hp retails at $3,300, so the pc one is a steal.

Portable one CX series Final price $2,768

- Operating system Vista Ultimate X64
- 15.4 in lcd monitor
- X6800 conroe chip 4mb cache
- 3gb ddr2 ram
- 160Gb 7200rpm hard drive
- Nvidia 8600m (upgradable)
- 2 mega pixel web cam
- Dual array microphones
- Biometric Fingerprint Scanner
- Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit LAN
- Integrated Intel-N 802.11a+b/g/n Wireless LAN
- Integrated Global 56K Modem
- Integrated Bluetooth PAN
- ASUS TurboEngine ultra silent cooling system
- Touchpad pointing device w/side scroll function
- 3 x USB 2.0, FireWire, eSATA, CATV, S-Video & HDMI ports
- 8-in-1 Card Reader & Expresscard 54 slots
- High Definition 3D Audio System
- 2 x High-Xchange copper molding heat sinks w/heat pipes
- Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compounds (CPU & GPU's)
- Inspice Trace & Recovery Theft & Data protection

[Chunkymonkey153]

Oh and heres the link to the site.
http://www.laptopsinc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc

[{Sniping}Waste]

Theres barebone notebooks made by MSI. You can buy the barebone notebook and add teh CPU, hard drive, ram, and wireless card you want in it and its easy to install the parts. This one is a Intel Core 2 Duo with a Nvidia 8600 in it with 17" LCD and the place will install the parts if you want for you too.
http://www.rkcomputer.net/store/index.php/action/item/id/193/prevaction/category/previd/specials/prevstart//

If you want AMD then this one will do but its very new and I haven't found a place that sells it yet in the US.
http://www.msicomputer.com/NB/product_spec.asp?model=MS-171A

[Frank]

Ok heres the best deal I have been able to find. Its a Portable One. It's very solid and very reasonably priced. Heres one example and of course they have ones with bigger screens about the same specs that still come in at under 3 grand. It can't be beat a similar dell with a lower clock speed cheaper t7600 costs over $3,600, and a pretty evenly matched hp retails at $3,300, so the pc one is a steal.

Portable one CX series Final price $2,768

- Operating system Vista Ultimate X64
- 15.4 in lcd monitor
- X6800 conroe chip 4mb cache
- 3gb ddr2 ram
- 160Gb 7200rpm hard drive
- Nvidia 8600m (upgradable)
- 2 mega pixel web cam
- Dual array microphones
- Biometric Fingerprint Scanner
- Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit LAN
- Integrated Intel-N 802.11a+b/g/n Wireless LAN
- Integrated Global 56K Modem
- Integrated Bluetooth PAN
- ASUS TurboEngine ultra silent cooling system
- Touchpad pointing device w/side scroll function
- 3 x USB 2.0, FireWire, eSATA, CATV, S-Video & HDMI ports
- 8-in-1 Card Reader & Expresscard 54 slots
- High Definition 3D Audio System
- 2 x High-Xchange copper molding heat sinks w/heat pipes
- Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compounds (CPU & GPU's)
- Inspice Trace & Recovery Theft & Data protection
That's about twice what I would pay for it. And it wouldn't be hard to find one for that price with equal specs.