G-Z06

I am looking to get a new laptop and I am leaning towards a gaming laptop.

- Not a big gamer anymore, but would like to have the option if I am building one.


Here are the 4 different wants I am looking at

Sager NP9262 (Beast of a laptop but no HDMI connection?)
AlienWare M17 (QUAD processors but only uses ATI not NIVIDA)
AlienWare M17x (Dual Core w/NIVIDA)
Dell XPS M1730 (I have an XPS Desktop that has proven itsself so why not get a laptop?)

Does anyone know the pros and cons or have any other "gaming" laptops that they would suggest but not mentioned above?

Pricing for these is around $1999.00 bottom of the line upwards to $6500.00 top of the line.

My price range is around $2500 - $3500 shipped to my door.

Any help would be appreciated!

Thanks
G

Mr Powell

iTrader: (1)

Dell is going to be nice and so is the Alienware, but you'll pay out the *** for Alienware.

The one thing to think about is the amount of heat on the higher-end ones. The game I play gets my IBM T61p REALLY hot. It doesn't crash but it sure does make the fans spin.

G-Z06

The only big game Ill prob be playing is Diablo 3 when it comes out and a few shoot em up games

Have you heard of that Sager company? Seems like the internals are f'in ridiculous for a laptop

Mr Powell

iTrader: (1)

Diablo 3 = Lame!! Then again what I play is another one of Blizzard's hook em and drain them for all they are worth games.. LOL! Starcraft 2 on the other hand is going to be GANGSTER!

Never heard of Sager, but it sounds pretty bad *** minus they lack there of a HDMI port. I hardly look at laptops anymore because no matter what I have to have an IBM due to the company. I just rebuilt my desktop with a Quad-core, 9800GTX, 4gigs, 160gig 10K rpm drive, 26" monitor, etc. I can now FRAPS stuff like a champion!

NEED MO POWA!

iTrader: (2)

I have a dell xps m1710 and it is very reliable, very good quality, I have played some heavy games on it and performs very smooth. I use it alot for drafting and rendering and it performs like no other.

Cons: It does generate alot of heat, even under normal use, under heavy loads the heat becomes pretty bad, you cant have the computer in your lap unless u want to fry your nads, this thing gets HOT. It has several fans and can get pretty loud when they are all on full blast.

These computers tend to be big, bulky and HEAVY, they becomes pretty impractical if you plan on carrying them around alot. The power brick is literally the size of a brick!

Battery life as you would imagine is very short i get about 2hrs max on power saver.

If you can live with some of these impracticalities, I would definately suggest the xps i have never had any issues with it. I dont have any experience with any of the others so i can't give an opinion, however I would imagine that the cons i listed would also apply for any other computer of this nature. Just my 2cents Good luck!

Slash8915

iTrader: (21)

Dell=Alienware Just cheaper. Seriously... Dell literally owns them.

Despite that, yes, the Dell is VERY nice. My friend has that same one and loves it. HP makes a few nice ones too. Hp makes a desktop PC called the "Blackbird", that is VERY nice, and I heard they are going to make a laptop version of it, so keep a heads up for that.

CySevans

ATI 4800 series is top dog in the gaming world right now. Don't knock it 'til you've tried it.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...deon,2218.html

G-Z06

Yeah Just built an XPS system

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9300 (2.5GHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1, 64-bit
MEMORY 4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz
HARD DRIVE Speed: 320GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) with Free Fall Sensor
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE CD / DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW Drive)
VIDEO CARD NVIDIA® SLI™ Dual GeForce® 9800M GT with 1GB GDDR3 Memory
PHYSX CARD AGEIA PhysX™ 100M Processor
WIRELESS CARDS Intel® PRO/Wireless 4965a/g/n Mini Card
MOBILE BROADBAND AT&T built-in cellular mobile broadband (HSDPA 3.6)
BLUETOOTH Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR)
BATTERY OPTIONS 9-cell Primary Battery and 9-cell additional Lithium Ion Battery
SOUND OPTIONS High Definition Audio 2.0

$2,521.15 shipped

Is that video card two 512mb? or two 1gb cards?

02ws666

iTrader: (1)

alien ware is the stupid choice of ppl that know nothing about computers. go build your own, or just buy the xps

Slash8915

iTrader: (21)

But he's wanting a laptop. If he were looking for a DESKTOP, I'd definitely say build your own. I've been building them for 10 years, and every single time, I've gotten way more for my money that way.

HTX

iTrader: (1)

Alienware is owned by Dell but still seperatly managed. Alienware uses better parts. ell is good if you compare it to HP or Gateway. But to compare a Dell XPS to and Alienware or ASUS or even Voodoo is crazy. XPS is way underperformed in comparison.

By the way i own two XPS because of price. But does not compare to a REAL gaming machine. If you dont mind spending 3 grand on a laptop buy a topend one. If you dont want to spend money and want that accidental warrenty buy the XPS.

IT looks like you made a good choice

twitchtwice

iTrader: (12)

i have a macbook pro. would never get anything else. i dual booted mine with windows xp so i can have windows games if i want. macbook pros are leaps and bounds ahead of the other retailers in perfomance. the new ones have 7200rpm drives, ddr3 memory, led screens, 45 nanometer processors, they also have dedicated video card, and also have onboard video with shared memory.

i would never go with anything else for a gaming laptop btw. i work for geeksquad.

if you have any questions let me know.

CySevans

I guess you're not a power gamer. No eye candy for you.

I don't game on laptops because I run high-res with max eye candy. Quad core, 3GB RAM, RAID 0, with a pair of HD4870s (a single HD4870x2 would get you there, too). Dual boot XP and Vista. Soon to be triple boot with XP, Vista and OpenSuSE 11.

twitchtwice

iTrader: (12)

well i have a desktop as well, i dont game on my laptop, im just saying. if i were to buy a laptop for gaming it would be a macbook

my desktop is plenty powerful

redz_02

iTrader: (4)

I have a Gateway FX, payed 1200 for it a little over a year ago. At the time I could play full crysis on it, which says alot.

MESS

iTrader: (5)

All my computers and laptops have been Dell XPS's

99Hawk6spd

iTrader: (2)

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1218012519873

Just picked up one of those about 3 weeks ago at Bestbuy. If you want a little better proc, you can find the other models on newegg for more $$$. I wouldn't waste the money for a Dell or A-ware though. This Asus is sturdy, and games awesome.

CySevans

Meh. If you want ASUS for gaming, this is the one I'd get coupled with the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4870x2 (dual graphics):

http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1...12&modelmenu=1

BigLittles

I was wondering how far through the thread I'd get before someone recommended to buy a macbook pro My macbook pro is about a year old now and its model generation is 2-3 years old, and it's got a core duo 2.53ghz with 800mhz fsb and 6mb l2 cache, 4gb of ram, sudden motion sensor, etc. The audio on this laptop is phenomenal. The video card is a GeForce 8600M GT (PCIe) with 512mb of dedicated memory, max res: 1440 x 900. The new mac books are even better as stated above.

Surfing the web I get about 5 hours of battery time on my laptop, with the screen dimmed a little. Playing games, about 2 hours full brightness. I can play any steam game natively in mac using crossover/wine, and it's as good as my PC (my PC's a quad core phenom with a 640mb GeForce 8800 GTX, barracuda 7800.11, 4gb of ram, creative xfi elite pro). Starcraft and Warcraft III also run natively.

For the hefty games that don't run in MacOSX, I can dual boot windows xp and it's a good as a PC.

And nevermind the gaming, it's a mac. The user experience on a Mac is ridiculous. I've been using my mac as my university computer (papers, surfing the web, listening to music, typing papers [iWork > office]) and I'll never go back to a PC. In fact I plan to sell my PC rig at the end of the year and replace it with a new octo-core Mac Pro and dual boot Vista

Once you go mac you never go back.

joe

JScamaro

iTrader: (6)

Laptops suck for gaming. I speak from experience. Once it gets outdated it will be hard to upgrade.

I would recommend building a custom pc. Check out newegg.com for good prices.