Best brand for a gaming laptop

aggie1295

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Feb 12, 2009
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I'm looking for a gaming laptop, preferably one with a 17-inch screen, a Haswell processor and a Geforce 770 GPU. I've been looking pretty closely at the MSI GT70 models and the Toshiba X-70 models, but I've also given some consideration to Asus and Cyberpower. I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on any of these brands and which one my be the best quality wise.

I also have two other questions concerning components. First, although I'd prefer to have 16 GBs of RAM, will I notice much of a difference between 8 GBs of RAM and 16 GBs of RAM? If I settle for 8 GBs of RAM will the system still run well both for regular daily use and for games.

My other question deals with the optical drive. Is it worth it to get a Blu-Ray Drive or am I just as well off sticking with a DVD drive? I've read of some problems actually playing Blu-Ray movies on Blu-Ray drives without having some expensive software, so I've wondered if I would actually see much of an advantage if I got a Blu-Ray drive over a DVD drive.

Any thoughts on these questions would be appreciated.
 
When lappie hunting, fFirst understand the difference between "Brands" and "Manufacturers"

The vast majority of laptops on the market (94% in 2011) are manufactured by a small handful of Taiwan-based Original Design Manufacturers (ODM), although their production bases are located mostly in mainland China. Major relationships include:

Quanta sells to (among others) HP, Lenovo, Apple, Acer, Toshiba, Dell, Sony, Fujitsu and NEC
Compal sells to (among others) Acer, Dell, Toshiba, Lenovo and HP/Compaq
Wistron (former manufacturing & design division of Acer) sells to Dell, Acer, Lenovo and HP
Inventec sells to Toshiba, HP and Lenovo
Pegatron sells to Asus, Toshiba, Apple, Dell and Acer
Foxconn sells to Asus, Dell, HP and Apple
Flextronics (former Arima Computer Corporation notebook division) sells to HP

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/91510-clevo-guide-v2-0-faq-reseller-info.html

CLEVO is a large Taiwanese computer company specializing in laptops. While the Clevo brand name is perhaps not widely known, their products are re-branded and sold by known boutique brand OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers)… notably Sager, VoodooPC, Falcon Northwest, Eurocom, etc. They are also considered (by whoever knows about notebooks) to design and manufacturer the best of the best notebooks in terms of superior build quality and innovative designs.

Established in 1983, as an ODM (Original Design Manufacturer), they sell barebones ranging from laptop to portable computing solutions for both AMD and Intel processors. Clevo is one of the world's most preferred ODM partners and markets their products in more than 50 countries, and have established service centers in the USA, Germany, Britain, China, and Taiwan.

Id recommend the Clevo P151SM $1589 customized as below and before discounts
http://www.lpc-digital.com/sager-np8270-special.html

17.3" Full HD LED-Backlit Display with MATTE Surface (1920 x 1080)
Switchable GPU by NVIDIA® Optimus™ Technology
nVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 770M 3GB GDDR5 Memory w/ Optimus
4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ Processor (6M Cache, up to 3.40 GHz)
Intel® HM87 chipset
IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
Genuine Microsoft Windows® 8 64-Bit Edition (All 7 and 8 versions are options)
16GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 2 X 8GB - FREE Upgrade Special!
750GB Seagate Momentus XT ST750LX003 7200RPM 32MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 8GB Solid State Hybrid
6X Blu-ray Reader/8X DVD±R/2.4X +DL Super-Multi Drive - SPECIAL!
Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 - 802.11A/B/G/N Wireless LAN Module - SPECIAL!
8 cells smart Lithium-Ion battery pack 76.96Wh
Integrated Fingerprint Reader
FREE UPS Ground
High Definition audio interface
S/PDIF digital output
Built-in Microphone
Built-in two speakers made by Onkyo
Built-in one sub-woofer made by Onkyo
External 7.1CH audio output supported by headphone, microphone, S/PDIF and Line-in jack
Sound Blaster X-FI® MB 3
Full size illuminated keyboard with numeric pad
Integrated illuminated touchpad with multi-gesture and scrolling function
1 HDMI™ output Port (with HDCP)
1 DisplayPort 1.2 output Port
1 Mini DisplayPort 1.2
1 USB 2.0 Port
3 USB 3.0 Ports (One powered USB port, AC/DC)
1 eSATA Port (USB 3.0 combo)
1 Mini-IEEE 1394a Port
1 Headphone Jack
1 Microphone Jack
1 S/PDIF output Jack
1 Line-in Jack
1 RJ-45 LAN (10/100/1000Mbps)
9-in-1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/SD/Mini-SD/SDHC/SDXC)
Two MiniCard Slots,
- 1st for WLAN Combo module (Half size Mini Card with PCIe and USB interface).
- 2nd slot for mSATA SSD Full size Mini Card with SATA interface).
Kensington® Lock

Discount info here
http://www.lpc-digital.com/notebook-review-members-military-and-student-discounts.html

If cuctom lappies weren't available from Clevo, I'd prolly get an Asus or MSI
 

01002920

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Jun 30, 2013
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18,560
i have the same question, i started lokking into those so called gaming laptops and reviewing brands and stuff and came to these conclusions:

1. The main difference between a gaming laptop and a normal laptop is that a gaming has 2 fans cooling system. wich is good because one of the biggest problems on computers is the heat.
2. Most gamig laptops recommend corei7 but still corei5 versions are avaible (I wonder why they don't offer AMD, weird).
3. The keyboard is optimized for gaming functions, location, etc. Some even got mechanical keyboards, wow.

Finally as many thing in this frigging modern era, choose the one you like the most. I like the Republic of gamers designs. Definatelly don't go for alienware, except if mony is not a problem for you.

Keep Gaming.
 

01002920

Distinguished
Jun 30, 2013
11
0
18,560
i have the same question, i started lokking into those so called gaming laptops and reviewing brands and stuff and came to these conclusions:

1. The main difference between a gaming laptop and a normal laptop is that a gaming has 2 fans cooling system. wich is good because one of the biggest problems on computers is the heat.
2. Most gamig laptops recommend corei7 but still corei5 versions are avaible (I wonder why they don't offer AMD, weird).
3. The keyboard is optimized for gaming functions, location, etc. Some even got mechanical keyboards, wow.

Finally as many thing in this frigging modern era, choose the one you like the most. I like the Republic of gamers designs. Definatelly don't go for alienware, except if mony is not a problem for you.

Keep Gaming.