Best gaming Laptop

[Garandhero]

So seriously...

Who makes the best gaming laptop under 2,500 Dollars?

Best Graphics/Processor, overall best gaming laptop for under 2,500 dollars.. thanks.

[BDron]

I think it's the Asus G2S-B1, which I bought 3 months ago. I did a TON of research before buying mine and considering all the individual components and overall specs, the really sweet extras, the included warranty and the price I concluded that it's the best gaming notebook out now for the money. I'm pretty sure a side-by-side comparison with its competition would prove it, too.

On a somewhat related note, I'm actually selling mine 'cuz I'm going to be traveling for a few years and need something lighter, but I LOVE it and I'll miss it. Lemme know if you're interested. Either way, it's an awesome choice for what you're looking for.

[Bill]

You can buy a clevo D901C starting at around that price, with like a single hard drive, single graphics card, and maybe a quad core CPU and 2 GB of slower ram.

You can upgrade to things like wireless N, SLI, 3 hard drive raid setup, ect later. (basically could upgrade to be specced similar to my machine)

A single 8800M GTX will run any game out now well except crysis on high settings.

[Guest KockM]

The Sager 5972 is about $2400 for a 2.4Ghz Processor, Geforce Go 8800m 512mb GTX, 2GB Ram, and Vista. The m9750 is $2400 and has Dual Geforce Go 7950 512mb GTXs, 2.0Ghz, 2Gb Ram, and XP. The m9750 is beating the sager in performance and is upgradable to two 8800ms, but currently does not yet have the 8800m. It will though. The Sager is a great price for DX 10 but only is able to have one card. The m9750 can take two and the two 7950s are beating one 8800m GTX in benchmarks. The 8800m is good for DX 10, but not many games offer it yet, and they run poorly. The 8800m might not support DX 10.1, which is coming out Q1 of this year. I have the Alienware and love it. Do not get the 8700s they are worthless and Dells are not a good price. The m17x and m15x Alienwares are coming out soon aswell. They will offer the 8800s.

[Garandhero]

So Sager is best?

Im thinking the NP5792 with 8800MGTX.

whatdya thinks.

[Bill]

I would still recommend the D901C type models (equivalent to sager NP9262)

You can get the same laptop I have with the starter configuration and the 1920x1200 screen for $2509.

http://www.xtremenotebooks.com/index.php?s...h&category=

Just select the "HD 17" WUXGA (1920 x 1200) Super Wide Angle Glass View LCD + $150.00" option after clicking the link, almost exactly 2500.

That comes with the 8800M GTX too.

Later you can easily add 2 more hard drives and put them in a very fast RAID 0 or 5 configuration.

You can also add a second 8800M GTX in SLI.

You can also upgrade to a quad core CPU, and more RAM.

However if I were you I would sell something off and make sure you get at least the 1920x1200 LCD upgrade and 2 GB of RAM when you buy it. Those should come with your laptop, not be future upgrades.

If you don't plan on ever running 1080p video (like from a bluray movie), you could get the RAM upgrade, and not the LCD, and even with shipping it should still be under $2500.

You can also buy these without an OS and install your current copy of XP for free.

Better gaming speed than VISTA. Will get more out of your money.

Sager doesn't sell their laptops without an OS, but xtremenotebooks does.

I bought mine from there and it is really nice.

Xtremenotebooks also paints theirs nice colors, not funky orange or fake carbon fiber cheap stuff like some other D901C vendors.

This laptop also has one of the best cooling systems in laptop history. 2 fans directly blowing over the CPU heat sink, and 2 more for the graphics cards.

[Guest KockM]

I would wait til Friday! Alienware just announced that their m15x is going to be released this Friday!! This computer packs the Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme, nVidia Geforce Go 8800m GTX 512mb, 4Gb Ram 667, and Vista Home Premium. The starting configuration will be below $2000 aswell. It is everything the sager is, but with Alienware's reputation and packed into a small case for easy travelling. I would get this if I was in the market again, but I love my m9750. I would take the m9750 over the Sager IMO.

[Guest KockM]

D901C type models (equivalent to sager NP9262) are also tanks! They weight a lot more than the m9750, which is only 8.5 lbs, and are thicker. The alienware m9750 is only 1.5" thick. That is something on its own. The m15x will also be smaller and weight a lot less than both the m9750 and the D901C.

[Bill]

I wouldn't go Alienware, especially with the SLI problems one of our mods had. (he gave up trying to get it working)

As far as I'm concerned Alienware has never had a good reputation. Sager will have much better customer support, driver support, ect. (xtremenotebooks also has good support too)

With only 1 graphics card and 1 hard drive a lower end 901C will not weigh as much. Even though I'm lazy and have never worked out, I have no problems carrying around a completely fully loaded D901C plus power supply.

Its also a very quiet laptop. (cooling system)

And if you wait till the end of January, you may be able to get a D901C with a motherboard that is confirmed compatible with the 45nm quad cores about to come out, so you can upgrade.

I think they will be selling a quad 2.66 GHz one for around $320-$350. It will own, even for gaming.

Even now UT3 needs a quad core, or very highly clocked dual core, to high 60 FPS at WUXGA res with all settings turned up high. It and future games will fully support quad core CPUs. Especially as intel fades out dual cores for laptops this year. (will probably happen)

[Redeemer]

I wouldn't go Alienware, especially with the SLI problems one of our mods had. (he gave up trying to get it working)

As far as I'm concerned Alienware has never had a good reputation. Sager will have much better customer support, driver support, ect. (xtremenotebooks also has good support too)

With only 1 graphics card and 1 hard drive a lower end 901C will not weigh as much. Even though I'm lazy and have never worked out, I have no problems carrying around a completely fully loaded D901C plus power supply.

Its also a very quiet laptop. (cooling system)

And if you wait till the end of January, you may be able to get a D901C with a motherboard that is confirmed compatible with the 45nm quad cores about to come out, so you can upgrade.

I think they will be selling a quad 2.66 GHz one for around $320-$350. It will own, even for gaming.

Even now UT3 needs a quad core, or very highly clocked dual core, to high 60 FPS at WUXGA res with all settings turned up high. It and future games will fully support quad core CPUs. Especially as intel fades out dual cores for laptops this year. (will probably happen)

I'm an AW customer and I can vouch for the customer service being crappy at times. Also, the SLi problem has been one of the most problematic problems - and the main reason for me not switching to Vista. There is some sort of a lock on all AW Lappies with SLi that doesn't let you put on custom drivers and enable SLi...really weird.

As far as the ALX laptops are concerned...they have insane specs and killer looks and the stock drivers always kill everything. But if you want to do anything other than stock - tough luck. some work, some don't.

I still love my M9700 - least amount of problems ever, virtually no problems.

Edited January 8, 2008 by Redeemer

[Garandhero]

Alright so I ordered my new laptop this is what I got.

17inch WSXGA+ LCD with Matte Finish (1680x1050) - I was considering the WUXGA but I cant justify the cost. I dont intent to watch BDRAY movies.

Intel Core 2 Duo T7700/ 4MB Cache 2.4Ghz, 800Mhz FSB

512MB DDR3 Nvidia Geforce 8800MGTX (woot!)

Vista Home Premium (64bit - I think becuase I chose 4Gigs of RAM and it said 64bit was required and the option thing said 32/64bit?)

4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667Mhz

200GB 7200RPM SATA 300 Harddrive

Intel Pro Wireless A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module

8X DVD Drive

Internal Bluetooth

Intergrated Webcam

Whatdya think?

Only thing I wasnt sure about was the OS.. When Customizing the Option says

Windows Vista Home Premium 32/64bit so I selected that.

Then for RAM I selected 4GB's which had in red next to it (Requires 64bit OS) Is it safe to assume then, Sager will put the 64bit OS on there?

[Redeemer]

Alright so I ordered my new laptop this is what I got.

17inch WSXGA+ LCD with Matte Finish (1680x1050) - I was considering the WUXGA but I cant justify the cost. I dont intent to watch BDRAY movies.

Intel Core 2 Duo T7700/ 4MB Cache 2.4Ghz, 800Mhz FSB

512MB DDR3 Nvidia Geforce 8800MGTX (woot!)

Vista Home Premium (64bit - I think becuase I chose 4Gigs of RAM and it said 64bit was required and the option thing said 32/64bit?)

4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667Mhz

200GB 7200RPM SATA 300 Harddrive

Intel Pro Wireless A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module

8X DVD Drive

Internal Bluetooth

Intergrated Webcam

Whatdya think?

Only thing I wasnt sure about was the OS.. When Customizing the Option says

Windows Vista Home Premium 32/64bit so I selected that.

Then for RAM I selected 4GB's which had in red next to it (Requires 64bit OS) Is it safe to assume then, Sager will put the 64bit OS on there?

make sure you get the 64-bit if you want to utilize all of the 4gbs of ram...

Other than that, was SLi an option? If so, I would have suggested it, but i'm sure you can upgrade later. What was the final price? we want some pictures! :-)

Congrats!

[Bill]

If I was you and was going to spend some money on an upgrade, I would have went with XP 32bit, 2 GB of RAM, and a second or 3rd hard drive in a RAID setup. Also would have gotten quad core if I had money left over.

For the price of the 7200 RPM 200 GB drive you could have gotten 3x100 GB drives in a RAID 0 or something like that.

[Garandhero]

bah humbugs! i dont want 3 100gb drivers i want 1 200gb :)

i dont know i think im quite happy with this config.

[Bill]

3 hard drives would have been a lot faster. (almost 3 times as fast)

Also your gonna have a lot of issues getting things running in vista probably, and performance decrease while gaming.

[Garandhero]

I dont know, I have VISTA now on my Dell and it runs fine, i fixed all the "issues" i ran into by taking 30 seconds searching google.

I personally am a fan of Vista. Dont perf. drops either from my XP system tbh, i just disable all the extra vista crap when gaming.. sidebar, windows search thingy. ect. ect.

either which way im excited, its gonna be vastly superior to what i got.

[Bill]

How can you be excited about a DRM bogged down OS with a broken audio system? (that stuff is hard or impossible to fix with just "tweaks")

I might be upgrading the sound card on mine to something new, which wouldn't function correctly in Vista.

However, getting back to constructive discussion, you might be able to swap the LCD screen from that E1720 of yours with whatever clevo you just bought. (if they are both 17 or 15.4 inches)

That would be a really good way to save money on a 1920x1200 screen.

Swap the LCDs then sell the old laptop to a clueless person.

The LCD won't be hard to get at on the Dell, on the clevo I don't know. (might have more steps, but could be just as easy)

[Guest Tom]

I think it's the Asus G2S-B1, which I bought 3 months ago. I did a TON of research before buying mine and considering all the individual components and overall specs, the really sweet extras, the included warranty and the price I concluded that it's the best gaming notebook out now for the money. I'm pretty sure a side-by-side comparison with its competition would prove it, too.

On a somewhat related note, I'm actually selling mine 'cuz I'm going to be traveling for a few years and need something lighter, but I LOVE it and I'll miss it. Lemme know if you're interested. Either way, it's an awesome choice for what you're looking for.

You F(&^*** idiot, do you know anything about modern gaming at all, or are you just a total Crysis fanboy?. I played Crysis at full res with all graphic settings on high, on my 8700M. LET THIS BE MESSAGE TO ALL CRYSIS FANBOYS. Crysis is not some gift from god, its not some unattainable godlike prize that no one can handle. ITS JUST AN FPS, LIKE ANY OTHER, COD4 PISSES ALL OVER CRYSIS.

[Guest Guest]

You can buy a clevo D901C starting at around that price, with like a single hard drive, single graphics card, and maybe a quad core CPU and 2 GB of slower ram.

You can upgrade to things like wireless N, SLI, 3 hard drive raid setup, ect later. (basically could upgrade to be specced similar to my machine)

A single 8800M GTX will run any game out now well except crysis on high settings.

Are you a F(&^*** idiot, or just a total Crysis fanboy?. I've played Crysis with all graphic settings on high and at full res to boot! on a 512mb 8700M. LET THIS BE A MESSAGE TO ALL CRYSIS FANBOYS. CRYSIS IS NOT SOME UNATTAINABLE GIFT FROM GOD THAT ONLY RUNS ON 5 768mb 8800's. ITS JUST AN FPS, I'VE PLAYED IT AND IMHO COD4 PISSES ALL OVER IT. GET A LIFE AND/OR A BETTER GAME. Idiot.

[Bill]

The game is meant to be played at around 1920x1200 or higher resolution with everything set on high or highest graphics settings and achieving an average frame rate of at least around 25 FPS or higher. (this is so you get the full experience the game developers meant for you to have)

A single 8700M GT cannot do that. With the patch I have found that turning all settings to a little higher than high except for textures and world detail at medium and the frame rate is still not as high as it should be at 1280x800 with 2 SLI'd 8700M GTs. Even trying to run graphics settings close to that at 1080p just doesn't run smoothly at all with the SLI setup. The game needs another patch and/or better drivers. The game should (but doesn't) have SLI performance at least around 80% higher frame rate than a single card. It also needs a better frame rate smoothing mechanism like in UT3.

We are not Crysis fanboys. (although I would consider myself probably a UT3 fanboy)

I think by your double posting and word choice you are the one who looks like an idiot.

[Guest KockM]

Ok I don't know what you were on when you thought you were playing Crysis on High with a single 8700m, but even two 8700m GTs can barely run the game with a playable frame rate on Medium settings. Dual 7950 GTXs can only run this game Medium with about 35 Avg. FPS and one 7950 out performs two 8700s. The 8700s are worthless! The 8800m is the only single mobile card that can run this on mostly Medium and some High Settings with a decent frame rate. I am no crysis fanboy. I hate the game, but these are facts. I would go with the m15x by the way. It will be cheaper than the D910C, and smaller. It is rumored to have 4-5 Hours of Battery life, but I tend to doubt that. I also disagree with Bill completely about Alienware. There are no problems with SLI with the m9750 and m9700. They have fixed the problems and their customer support is great! The m15x doesn't offer SLI anyway so you won't have that issue. The 8800m currently has issues supporting SLI and that goes with all laptops not just alienware. Thats why Sager delayed their 17" and alienware is not announcing their m17x. You can also download any driver you want. I don't know where the whole stock driver thing came from. I have a m9750 and I am using the 169.28 Drivers from this website. There are no heating issues with these laptops and alienware learned this lesson from the m5500s and m7700s that would give people 3rd degree burns.(Sarcastic) The m9750 is literally silent and I am sure the m15x will be. The m9750 is also the thinnest SLI notebook ever made. The D910C is pretty big and no matter what configuration it will be heavy. The graphics card probably only weighs .5lbs so minus that off the total weight and there it is. The Sager 5972 was a great deal, but it will be beasted by alienware. People will not accept that alienware has become competitive in its prices. They no longer overcharge that much, if any, on their laptops. If your computer stops working they will send you a new one. Its easy. They are also based in the US so if your from the states they are "local". Correct me if I am wrong, but Sager is in Europe I think. The point made about getting 3 Hard Drives though makes perfect sense. I understand that it doesn't sound that way, but what makes it is raid. Raid makes all of your hard drives work as one drive. Since they work like one the RPM works like one and if they are all the same size and speed then it multiplies the RPM by the number of hard drives. So you get 3x faster loading. Please don't hurt yourself by getting anything, but the m15x right now.

[Bill]

I mentioned Alienware and SLI problems because this guy sold off his laptop, bought a desktop, and basically left the forums because of his SLI problems.

He was even getting close to having moderator powers too because of his help with SLI topics. (Edit: He is still a partial mod)

While we had some disagreements (me believing the SLI problem isn't as bad as he made it out to be) he still must have had some serious trouble to actually get rid of his laptop.

So, just a fair warning to you guys.

I've also not liked Alienware and their driver support, having to have customer type codes to get drivers, ect.

Reputable manufacturers have driver downloads open to everybody. If Alienware doesn't do this anymore I would like to know about it.

I do think that guy a few posts above must be on crack, or maybe in denial himself because his computer can't run the game on high settings well.

I've decided to leave his two posts there so everyone can see how much crack hes on or something.

If I merged the posts it might make him look like an intelligent rule-following poster.

[Guest KockM]

That is unfortunate, and I wish that I never have to go through that. It is no longer an issue with the new alienwares (m9750). Alienware does make their drivers readily available to anyone though on their website now. Click anything on their mainpage then on the next page put your cursor over support and there is downloads and drivers under that tab. Click that and boom any driver you want for any part that they have on their computers. Well atleast all of them for my laptop. They are a very reputable manufacturer. I have three friends and myself who own Alienwares and no issues. They get the job done in customer support.

[monacoKid]

I've recently bought a sony-vaio centrino dual core with 1.8 ghz 2gb ram and nvidia 8400m gt at 128mb vram (896 turbocache) and must say i'm really happy with it can run most games on high for instance bioshock can be maxed out on high at 800x600 resolution with all dx 10 effects and it looks pretty amazing with higher res i have to turn down a few visual effects bit still performs really well with no stuttering or lag, gears of war also really well on 1024x726 everthing on max wihtout vsync and dx10 for some reason if i enable dx10 the game crashes don't know why as 8400m gt is a dx10 card. pretty much all new games run very well on this machine i even played crysis with low and some medium effects on, but it's nothing close to what it really looks. i'm using 169.04 drver wchich is really good and running vista home premium 32bit with no problems

[KockM]

Yeah running at those low resolutions will let whatever game run fairly well.