• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Gamer-approved laptop recommendation thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
littleworm said:
Just thought I'd throw this out there Newegg has a great deal on the ASUSG53SW

It has:

CPU:I7-2630QM 2.0 GHz
RAM:6GB DDR3
Hard Drive:500GB
GPU: Nividia GTX460M
VRAM: 1.5GB GDDR5

Its 200 dollars off so you get it for 892.99 and you can get an additional 100 dollars off with a mail in rebate from ASUS.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ark=&IsFeedbackTab=true&Page=2#scrollFullInfo
Click to expand...

This seems like a really good deal. The only reason why I'm hesitating is due to the reviews at Newegg. A significant amount of people, are having problems with the power button (the laptop doesn't even turn on). Could this be why we're getting such a good deal?

Before possibly jumping on this deal, I was thinking of just waiting until black Friday, for the absolute best deals. Or, is this deal too good to pass up?

Thanks
 
hmmmdonuts said:
This seems like a really good deal. The only reason why I'm hesitating is due to the reviews at Newegg. A significant amount of people, are having problems with the power button (the laptop doesn't even turn on). Could this be why we're getting such a good deal?

Before possibly jumping on this deal, I was thinking of just waiting until black Friday, for the absolute best deals. Or, is this deal too good to pass up?

Thanks
Click to expand...


was maybe going to order but didn't realize the power button issue... -_-
 
I'm looking for the ultrabook Asus UX21 but I don't plan to game much on it.

ASUS-UX21.jpg


This or I don't have enough patience and get a Mac Book Air. No problem to put Windows on a Mac today ?

What says you GAF ?
 
Kuroyume said:
I'm looking for a laptop to replace my ancient PC and I was wondering if you guys could help me pick a good one. I'm looking to spend upwards of $1,200 or a bit more (after taxes/shipping etc). I would prefer something in the $900-$1050 range. I was looking at these:

G74SX-BBK7

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/ASUS+-+...lack/2712579.p?skuId=2712579&id=1218346639131

X17L-781ELS

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dell+-+...lver/2817237.p?id=1218353394481&skuId=2817237

Anyone have any opinion of these or a better suggestion?
Click to expand...
I'm thinking about getting the G74SX myself. Anyone have any impressions of it? In particular I wonder how the keyboard feels, what the viewing angle on the screen is like, and how the colors are out of the box. Also, could a GeForce GTX 560M (2GB) graphics chip play Amnesia: The Dark Descent at full settings? And would the game look good at 1,600 by 900 (720p HD) resolution on a 17.3-inch screen? That's the main game I'd want to play. That's part of the draw, along with simply having a computer that does basic things faster (which I imagine it would do with 8GB, versus the 2005 budget Dell laptop I'm using now).
 
I'm looking at getting a new laptop for the wife. She uses it primarily for school (nursing master's program) and facebook. I would also like to be able to use it for casual gaming, which for me would be games like Tropico, Sims 3, etc. I have a dedicated desktop for the heavy hitters (BF3, Diablo 3, etc) but sometimes the kids want (games) or have to (school work) use my desktop so I would like to be able to game a little when I can't get to my desktop or game TV for whatever reason.

I do not want to spend more than $1000 which she will probably balk at anyway but she needs and deserves something nice whether she likes the cost or not! ;)

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
 
The Vaio is a solid choice, as long as 16.4" isn't too bulky for her to want to carry to class.
 
K.Jack said:
The Vaio is a solid choice, as long as 16.4" isn't too bulky for her to want to carry to class.
Click to expand...

Nah, she had a Toshiba 17.3" before this one but the power jack kept falling off and inside the case of it so size wasn't an issue.

Best Buy had one left, the display was listed at $1249 but the guy was checking the stock and the register showed it as $1049, that's when I decided to pull the trigger on it.

She already likes the look of the unit and quality of the image on the screen. I've been making sure all the updates are done plus getting some of her programs loaded. Also loading Steam on it for good measure. ;)
 
Quixzlizx said:
I've had my Asus G53SW for about a month, and no power button issues so far.
Click to expand...

Did you do a clean install when you received it? I'm thinking about doing a clean install on mine when I receive it but I'm not sure how. Do I just insert my W7 disc, wipe everything currently on the HDs, and reinstall drivers when W7 is installed? Any advice on should I or should I not partition the hard drives?
 
My Acer AO522 netbook started making loud clicking noises today. I left it on sleep mode overnight, so I turned it off for awhile and when I turned it back on it still made the clicking noises, but now it was almost a like crunching sound. First thought was of course dying HDD, but I've had the thing new for less than a month. I did a disk check in Windows with no problems and now the clicking seems to have disappeared. Should I still be concerned? Any advice aside from "start backing up your files"?

edit: I lied. The clicking is back. Save me laptopGAF
 
whitehawk said:
I don't really need it for gaming, but I assume you guys know about laptops in general, so what do you think about this one?

http://www.bestbuy.ca/en-CA/product...spx?path=7bac591dcc34ce44b99dd045a7d1f91ben02

On sale, and I LOVE the design. This is, the laptops battery is built in, is that good or bad?
Click to expand...
It's cute, but I'd look around for reviews first.

bs000 said:
My Acer AO522 netbook started making loud clicking noises today. I left it on sleep mode overnight, so I turned it off for awhile and when I turned it back on it still made the clicking noises, but now it was almost a like crunching sound. First thought was of course dying HDD, but I've had the thing new for less than a month. I did a disk check in Windows with no problems and now the clicking seems to have disappeared. Should I still be concerned? Any advice aside from "start backing up your files"?

edit: I lied. The clicking is back. Save me laptopGAF
Click to expand...
It's either the HDD or the cooling fan. If you hear the fan running independently of the grinding, it's the HDD.

So hurry and save your data, before it completely locks up on you.
 
My np8150 came last week and runs great. Sager is such a great company and you get a ton of power at a competitive price compared to Alienware.
 
Got my laptop today! Updated the Radeon's drivers, currently downloading stuff to try with Steam :) :) :) :)

Question... Is there a way to swap out how the function keys react so I don't have to hold down Fn in order to use them as function keys?

This is HP's dv6t quad, if that matters.

edit: ....

I fear I may have purchased a 1080p monitor prematurely. Hooking it up to my laptop isn't exactly bringing out what I wanted. I read somewhere of something about a firmware update... but I don't know how that'd help.

To put it in few words: 1080p interlacing, 30 hertz. :| Maybe I need to install the monitor's drivers... not that I can find the cd for it.

Maybe the driver will help.

edit2: no they don't.

edit3: Found a solution, not perfect, but it works. Turned out there was a 1080p 50hertz option w/o interlacing that I didn't notice for some reason. Still gonna try installing updated drivers, though.
 
Hi guys!

I'm looking for a laptop, some gaming would be nice but it isn't the highest priority, I just want a fast, good looking and easy too use laptop. I have to buy it from Newegg since i have a giftcard there.

I'm looking for something between 600-800 bucks. I want somewhere between 14-16" Here are some models i glanced on:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834127540
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220865
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230096
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152270
What do you think of these or do you have any other tips?
 
I was pretty close to pulling the trigger on an NP5165 but then I was reminded how big 15" laptops are. I wish there were decent 13/14" choices that weren't the Alienware m14x. Why does picking a laptop have to be so hard :(
 
alexthekid said:
Hi guys!

I'm looking for a laptop, some gaming would be nice but it isn't the highest priority, I just want a fast, good looking and easy too use laptop. I have to buy it from Newegg since i have a giftcard there.

I'm looking for something between 600-800 bucks. I want somewhere between 14-16" Here are some models i glanced on:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834127540
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220865
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230096
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152270
What do you think of these or do you have any other tips?
Click to expand...
I would step through door #3.
 
Gaf, I'm looking for a laptop for just browsing, movies, and school work. Try to keep the price as low as possible the screen size has to be 10+.
 
I cannot suggest anyone to buy a laptop with a 540m. After numerous driver issues, bsods, and the only workable fix being to down clock the card it is more of a headache than a slower gpu with gddr3 is worth.
 
Hello, I'm looking for netbook (or laptop that isn't too heavy) with long battery life (for programming and writing things) and can play some games. I have been looking around and on CompUSA (not online) there's the Asus 1215b for $312. Also there's the HP Pavilion dm1-4010us but the price difference is more than $200 after taxes (that's ok but I wouldn't want to be wasteful).

These are the netbooks:
books:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230005
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158075&Tpk=4010us

I can wait until January or February but I don't know if I should just buy the 1215b right now. I have been searching for videos with games running on the 4010us but I can't find nothing, so I don't know if spending money for it is worth it. I would be happy with just playing Source games smoothly (I don't mind low or mid settings).

If you guys have any other recommendations (that are below $500), I would be happy to hear them.
 
Le-mo said:
Gaf, I'm looking for a laptop for just browsing, movies, and school work. Try to keep the price as low as possible the screen size has to be 10+.
Click to expand...
Can I have a specific budget and screen size, please?

ThreeSix said:
I want to get a new laptop specifically for PC gaming with current releases, and video editing. And I was wondering if the following would be a good package for the price, and be able to accomplish what I want to do.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834214393

$1100 is the highest I'm willing to spend at this point, and I'm also open to look at other models that either are lower priced for similar specs or have higher specs for a similar price, if anyone knows something off hand.
Click to expand...

You really need to get an i7-2630QM in this this day and age. This G73 suits you better.

99hertz said:
Hello, I'm looking for netbook (or laptop that isn't too heavy) with long battery life (for programming and writing things) and can play some games. I have been looking around and on CompUSA (not online) there's the Asus 1215b for $312. Also there's the HP Pavilion dm1-4010us but the price difference is more than $200 after taxes (that's ok but I wouldn't want to be wasteful).

These are the netbooks:
books:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230005
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158075&Tpk=4010us

I can wait until January or February but I don't know if I should just buy the 1215b right now. I have been searching for videos with games running on the 4010us but I can't find nothing, so I don't know if spending money for it is worth it. I would be happy with just playing Source games smoothly (I don't mind low or mid settings).

If you guys have any other recommendations (that are below $500), I would be happy to hear them.
Click to expand...
Since you can wait, I'd do just that. The new Intel/AMD tech coming early next year will make current netbook graphics looks anemic.

AppleSmack said:
Guys I'm looking for a desktop replacement laptop for a total of 1100-1300 dollars that will allow me to run BF3 on high settings. Any suggestions. I'm Canadian so please take into consideration canadian pricing.

Right now im strongly considering the Sager 8130 from this website:

http://www.reflexnotebook.ca/index.php/sager-notebooks/sager-np8130.html

Has a 560m. How well will that run modern games and battlefield 3?
Click to expand...
The GTX 560M will do well. You should be looking at high settings.
 
K.Jack said:
Since you can wait, I'd do just that. The new Intel/AMD tech coming early next year will make current netbook graphics looks anemic.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I guess it now depends on how much I can wait. Got any links/information about the new tech? Would like to know a bit about what's coming from both Intel and AMD.
 
Hey guys,

I sold my PC a while back and the company I work for gave me a cheap dell laptop which I've been using for a while. I'm quitting the company though and I need to buy a new PC (mostly for working but I'd like to get back to PC gaming gradually) and based on my budget I decided to go for this:

Dell Inspiron 15R said:
Intel Core i7-2670M 2.2GHz /1333 MHz DDR3, GT2, 650-1300 MHz Gfx Turbo/ 6M
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 525M (128-bit) 1GB (Quad)
8GB RAM DDR3
1TB SATA HDD (5400RPM)
15,6" LED Screen (720p)
Click to expand...
It costs about U$900. Honestly it's all I can afford right now. I know this isn't going to run the latest games on high settings but I'd settle for running stuff in low resolutions. I'm not a Crysis-Rage kind of guy (i.e. latest games running at the craziest settings) but I'd love to be able to play not-so-recent RPGs (Witcher, Two Worlds II, Fallout, Dragon Age, Mass Effect 1, etc) and I wouldn't mind if it manages to run Skyrim with low-mid settings.

What's the word? Should I try to get a desktop instead? I don't really need it to be a laptop but the mobility factor does have some weight in my choice. Again, this is primarily for working and the only reason why I'm choosing it to have a dedicated video card is because I want to try and get back into PC gaming even if I have to run games on low settings while I get the money to get something better.
 
If you can afford another $75 or so, I'd buy this with the two year warranty.
99hertz said:
Thanks, I guess it now depends on how much I can wait. Got any links/information about the new tech? Would like to know a bit about what's coming from both Intel and AMD.
Click to expand...
Ivy Bridge and next-gen AMD Fusion are good places to start.
 
K.Jack, was that meant for me? If so, I'm not in the states (should have mentioned that before, apologies) so that means importing from newegg (or any other place) will ring up an additional 26% for import taxes.

I've been looking at the local HP and Dell alternatives, maybe I should start considering Asus or others as well.
 
Has anybody dealt with Nvidia Optimus? Just got a Alienware M11x with Optimus and shit is pain in the ass to get it working for some reason. Its that all my games are from Steam and some games load and some don't? Even with games like Portal or TF2 (on high settings), the framerate will chug some, (which I'm expecting that those games are running in the Integrated Graphics instead of Nvidia.) Other than having problems with getting the games to run properly, this laptop is really impressive and quick to boot. I have a I7 processor as well with (Turbo Boost). Any way to enable it/overclock?
 
not a gaming laptop but just got my lenovo T420 with I5 and 4gb ram 150gb SSD

battery life is just amazing with this thing 7-8 hours
 
K.Jack said:
Can I have a specific budget and screen size, please?
Click to expand...
Sorry for the late respond, I thought this thread was dead. Budget is around $300 and the screen just has to be bigger than 12".
 
duk said:
not a gaming laptop but just got my lenovo T420 with I5 and 4gb ram 150gb SSD

battery life is just amazing with this thing 7-8 hours
Click to expand...
The T420 is an excellent piece of hardware, very good choice. And the SSD makes it one of the very top considerations for business users. And the good thing is that you can WoW flawlessly on it.
 
Hey guys, I'm in the market for a new laptop in the $1,000- $1,400 range that will double both as a workstation for Photoshop/Illustrator work as well as gaming (which will most likely be Skyrim and Battlefield 3 in the near future).

Right now my front-runner is this ASUS G53SX-XA1, the Core i7 processor and GTX 560m seem like decent options given the comparatively not-too-shabby price-tag of $1,159.99. I'm not a tech expert but I can only assume that combo will be enough to run Skyrim and BF3 at a decent frame-rate without the visuals taking a complete beating with the ugly-stick (although since Bethesda has yet to release the minimum specs for Skyrim, I'm just assuming for now).

Battery life isn't that big of a concern, I've heard these normally have around 3.5 hours as long as you don't try to do anything too heavy, which is fine. I'm opting for the 15.6 inch over the 17 inch because I do plan on connecting this to an external monitor, so I don't need a gargantuan screen that would completely negate the idea of a portable computer. The one issue I have is figuring out where to buy this thing.

tigerdirect.com has what I think is the same machine albeit the one they have listed apparently has a blu-ray player but a smaller hard drive (640GB). While the Amazon listing only mentions a typical DVD drive. Anyone have any experience buying from them before?

Any thoughts or input in general would be greatly appreciated.
 
Le-mo said:
Sorry for the late respond, I thought this thread was dead. Budget is around $300 and the screen just has to be bigger than 12".
Click to expand...
Take a look at this.

Loxley said:
Hey guys, I'm in the market for a new laptop in the $1,000- $1,400 range that will double both as a workstation for Photoshop/Illustrator work as well as gaming (which will most likely be Skyrim and Battlefield 3 in the near future).

Right now my front-runner is this ASUS G53SX-XA1, the Core i7 processor and GTX 560m seem like decent options given the comparatively not-too-shabby price-tag of $1,159.99. I'm not a tech expert but I can only assume that combo will be enough to run Skyrim and BF3 at a decent frame-rate without the visuals taking a complete beating with the ugly-stick (although since Bethesda has yet to release the minimum specs for Skyrim, I'm just assuming for now).

Battery life isn't that big of a concern, I've heard these normally have around 3.5 hours as long as you don't try to do anything too heavy, which is fine. I'm opting for the 15.6 inch over the 17 inch because I do plan on connecting this to an external monitor, so I don't need a gargantuan screen that would completely negate the idea of a portable computer.

Any thoughts or input would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
The G53 is a solid pick. You may want to also consider the Sager NP8130.
 
K.Jack said:
The G53 is a solid pick. You may want to also consider the Sager NP8130.
Click to expand...

Hmm, the Sager does seem pretty enticing, but I have a very noobish question with regards to one of the customization options.

I'm not all that well-read up on PC-part jargon, so when I have the option under "External Display Video Adapters" to have either "none" (the default) or say a " 1x USB to DVI/VGA FHD Video Adapter (Laptop Display+External Display From Laptop+ USB FHD Adapter = 3 Total Displays"

If I choose "none", does that mean the usual VGA port on most laptops will not be included and I will be unable to connect the laptop to an external display at all? Or is this simply referring to comething extra or in addition to the VGA port? It's just worded a bit oddly for the uneducated :P
 
That's them offering an external accessory, in case you need to hook up to multiple external displays. The notebook has 1 x DVI and 1 x HDMI ports built in to it.
 
K.Jack said:
That's them offering an external accessory, in case you need to hook up to multiple external displays. The notebook has 1 x DVI and 1 x HDMI ports built in to it.
Click to expand...

Gotcha, I guess I was misinterpreting what "External" meant in that description. Thanks for the advice man, looks like I've found a winner :)
 
I highly recommend that you spend the extra $65 for the 95% NTSC glossy screen. It's amazingly beautiful, and you'll regret passing on it.

It's the absolute best 15" notebook screen available, that isn't an IPS panel.
 
K.Jack said:
I highly recommend that you spend the extra $65 for the 95% NTSC glossy screen. It's amazingly beautiful, and you'll regret passing on it.

It's the absolute best 15" notebook screen available, that isn't an IPS panel.
Click to expand...

I don't know, from what I hear there is not much difference in image quality between matte and glossy, not enough to make up for the glare.

I'd recommend trying to price match a retailer that offers regular matte screens as an option, or get the 95% screen if you're going to upgrade.
 
I've compared the data sheets of the screens. The 95% glossy (B156HW01 V.7) has an objectively higher contrast ratio and average brightness than any stock matte screen out there.

The real concern is that there is seemingly a bad batch of the 95% matte screens in the channel, which have a bad ghosting effect, so I haven't felt comfortable pointing people towards that option.
 
Guys is there a custom laptop retailer in the US that would takea configuration from MALIBAL, pricematch it and also beat the price? This is the laptop configuration from MALIBAL that I'm highly interested in:

Promotions: $125 Off Configurations Over $1500
Display: 15.6" 1920 x 1080 FHD LED Backlit Glossy Display
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM, 6MB L3 Cache, 2.0-2.9GHz
Memory: (8GB) 8192MB, PC3-10660/1333MHz DDR3 - 2 SO-DIMM
Graphics Card: AMD® Radeon HD 6970M 2GB GDDR5
Hard Drive: 750GB 7200rpm 2.5" SATA 300
Optical Drive Bay: 8X Multi DVD+/-R/RW RAM Dual-Layer Drive
Wireless: Intel® 6300 Ultimate-N 802.11A/B/G/N LAN Card
Cooling: IC Diamond 7 Thermal Compound, CPU & GPU
Keyboard: English: US & Canada
Power Cord: US & Canada
Branding: MALIBAL
Build Time: 5-7 Business Days
Warranty: LIFETIME Ltd. Labor and 1 Year Parts Warranty with 24/7 Support (CA)

For a total of 1,374.00 without taxes and shipping but including the discount.

Also, its very important that the website will ship to Canada. I hear USPS only has a 5 dollar brokerage fee. Is that true? Is so its quite awesome because thats what I'm selecting as my shipping.
 
THE NO LIFE KING said:
Has anybody dealt with Nvidia Optimus? Just got a Alienware M11x with Optimus and shit is pain in the ass to get it working for some reason. Its that all my games are from Steam and some games load and some don't? Even with games like Portal or TF2 (on high settings), the framerate will chug some, (which I'm expecting that those games are running in the Integrated Graphics instead of Nvidia.) Other than having problems with getting the games to run properly, this laptop is really impressive and quick to boot. I have a I7 processor as well with (Turbo Boost). Any way to enable it/overclock?
Click to expand...

I have a lot of trouble with optimus not correctly choosing the right gpu. I have to make nvidia profiles and assign each game to be used by the dedicated card. In my experience Optimus always derps on Source games like HL2, Portal, etc and tries to run them on integrated. Anymore, I assume Optimus will not work and just make profiles for each of my games.

Some games like Minecraft will not work properly even with a nvidia profile. For Minecraft I have to right click on the Minecraft shortcut and choose Run With Nvidia GPU or whatever it is.

My 540m is my second Nvidia card, and it's nice when it works, but getting it to work can take a lot coaxing. Not too happy with this card.
 
So I've got a bit of a situation on my hands. I'm in the UK and I've been trying to get an Asus G Series G53SW-XN1 for the best part of a month off a website called pickrice.com and it's just been one problem after another, so I've finally thrown in the towel there.

I'm currently in Manchester at University but I'm visiting London next weekend and it would be hugely helpful if I could get a laptop delivered by then so I can transfer things from my home pc. I've been looking around some UK websites but I can't find it anywhere else.

If someone could recommend me a similarly powerful laptop for £750 max that could be delivered within a week I would be eternally grateful
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Rants from a disillusioned aging gamer…
2 3
113
655
Schnauzer replied
PC Gamer - Microsoft's year of shame
Analysis 
38
285
kruis replied
Switch games recommendation
2
62
5K
Poppinfresh replied
Help my indecisive ass pick the right gaming laptop
2
86
536
Krathoon replied
For those of you with a gaming laptop....Specifically a Lenovo Legion
12
379
Sand Dan Glokta replied
Top Bottom