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 ... And I already have an Xbox 360 .


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 ... And I already have an Xbox 360 .


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?source...,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

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.