February Gaming Laptop Purchase

dbonetrain

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May 28, 2011
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1. What is your budget? ~$1800
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 15-17 inches
3. What screen resolution do you want? 1080
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? desktop replacement
5. How much battery life do you need? doesn't matter, will always be around an outlet.
6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
SWTOR, Diablo 3, Skyrim on High
BF3, other shooters 50-60 fps, but can be scaled down to medium or low. the fps is what matters.
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Gaming / Blu ray wathing
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
SSD Boot ~60gigs
HDD Main ~300gigs
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
www.xoticpc.com
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
till death, it will be in my grasp until pried from my cold dead hands, but I understand it will not be future proof. If I get games to play that come out after d3 I will be happy. As long as console ports function it will be fine.
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
blu-ray reader,dvd reader could care less about any burners, mostly to watch any movie in bed on trips
12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I could care less which brands, I have been researching MSI, Sager, and Asus
13. What country do you live in?
Stationed in Germany, but have access to an APO, a US address.
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.[/spoiler] I want this laptop to be able to handle these games for travelling, and when playing on the couch next to the wife. I hate lugging my desktop all over the place. Here are my desktop specs to give you an idea of what performance I play on now.

CPU : i7-2600k w/ hypercooler 212 OC to 3.7
GPU : AMD ATI 6970 2gigs gddr5
Memory: 8gigs 1333
SSD : 64gig boot drive
HDD : 1tb main storage

I would like performance as close as possible to my desktop. I do not care about future proofing because it is just a laptop for SWTOR, and some BF3. I understand performance will likely be behind my current desktop.
I have researched laptops from xotic, sager, eurocom, newegg, aafes, and other misc google returns. I find that the better deals are coming from xotic and eurocom. The GPUs I have been able to find to meet my needs are the 6990m and the 580m. I have not been able to find any laptops that are within budget and have these in sli/xfire. I understand the budget restrain is the most likely cause to not finding the sli/xfire. If an example build with the sli/xfire that is close to budget is available I might be able to convince the wife that it would allow me to overlook other purchases such as purses, shoes, and makeup.



Additionally... you should also consider what support options are available in your area. If say you buy something abroad, will you be able to have it fixed near where you live? Does the warranty apply? How quickly do local accredited technicians fix laptops?
All of this does not really affect me. I can service my own equipment, and send it back if requried.
 

need4speeds

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Jan 6, 2009
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http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8180-clevo-p180hm-p-3250.html?wconfigure=yes
Looks like you click on the $100 off option, then add a second hd-6990M and it comes out to $1885. A bit over budget. It's also a larger 18" laptop.
There seems to be no options for a 17" laptop for under $1800 and has two hd-6990m's.

It's big enough and the battery life is so poor you would start to look at something like a shuttle like box and used 17" screen that you can just take with you. I would call this laptop a "luggable" at best. You could just make your current system fit in a shuttle like box and get a used 17" lcd, its not much heaver than that 18" laptop with the big charger.

Can i offer a word of advice? I have many friends with laptops, it is inconvenient to always have the cord plugged in. The screen is too small to notice stuff like if the aa/af is set on high or not. Sometimes they get dropped and damaged, so spending so much for something that can be damaged is a bit of a risk.

Here is my suggestion:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158196
$619.99 HP Pavilion dv6-6184ca Refurbished Notebook AMD A-Series A8-3500M(1.5GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory DDR3 750GB HDD 5400rpm BD Combo AMD Radeon HD 6755G2 Dual GPU

The lower 1366 x 768 but on the smaller 15.6" screen the pixels are actually smaller than on a 24" 1080p screen so it should still look pretty sharp.

The lower resolution will give the slower cpu/gpus a break so your framerates are still reasonably good.

The battery life is alot better than the huge 18" gaming laptop.
 

dbonetrain

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May 28, 2011
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18,510


I hear you on the advice, but I take great care of all my tech products. I only plan on playing on the laptop plugged in. When I visit coworkers/friends to play games I hook my desktop up anyhow. I am more concerned with the amount of cables to plug in, and all the different things I have to carry. With a laptop I can literally throw my mouse, headset, and laptop in my backpack and I am off. This scenario would leave my desktop alone for the most part minus the mouse and headset.

I noticed the 100$ off, and think I should go with a Sager, 15.6". Ditch the blu-ray, because I can rip it and place it on the HDD. Ditch the SSD for sake of budget. Get a single 6990m, and make sure the ram is even amount of sticks. I noticied xotic likes to through odd amounts in.

I looked at the HP you posted, but I cannot bring myself to consider a 5400 rpm drive, and a 1.5g processor. I feel like overall the laptop would be manageable for SWTOR, and free up essentially a grand. I really do not mind dropping ~1500-1800 on a laptop, but it has to feel like a steal, not a deal. When ever I search for anything under 1500 I feel like the laptops are then just to play it on all low settings. I honestly cannot stand anything less than 35-40 fps.

I really appreciate your time and effort. Thank you.

Do you think a single 6990m on a 1080 screen could run BF3 in the 60 fps range, regardless of settings?

 

need4speeds

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Jan 6, 2009
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A laptop will never be able to match your powerful desktop, some might come close.

The hd-6990M has 1120 shaders is basically a downclocked hd-6870.
I doubt it will run BF3 maxed out at 1080p and have 60fps or higher.
I would say it's on par with the desktop athlonII x4/hd-6850 because of the slower mobile clocks.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6990M.57308.0.html

The A8-3500M paired with the extra card gives you a total of 880 shaders.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6755G2.57278.0.html

Dual graphics doesn't work well so its basically a 480 shader hd-6670 with a athlonIIx4 at 1.5ghz. It's mostly the 1366 x 768 resolution that would give it a break so it can still have playable framerates. You could say that is cheating.

If you see a i7/6990M laptop with a 1600x900 screen that is a good compromise between 1366 x 768
and 1080p.

I have doubts the 6990M can deliver the fps at 1080p and on the small 15" screen it is a waste since you wont see much difference between 1080p and the next lower resolution.

I would maybe look at some laptops in the store to get a idea between the different screens to see the pixel sizes and stuff first.