Gaming Laptop under 800... good or bad?

[Bobc111]

Hello,
I was looking for the "best bang for your buck" Gaming Laptop and I stumbled upon this one:

http/www.gentechpc.com/config.asp?config_id=Asus-N56DP-DH11

I'm not familiar with how the Asus brand is or the Amd line so can someone please tell me if this is a good buy or can I do better in any way, other suggestions are appreciated

 

[Spelli]

Gaming laptops are never best bang for the buck. If you built a desktop with the same amount of money, it'd be far superior. This laptop would barely run current-gen games at medium settings.
And if you wanted a laptop on which you could game with the same performance as a ~700$ desktop built, prepare to spend about 1800$.

So, if you're dead set on this, you first have to find out what games you will play, and at what quality settings you want to play.
Judging from the hardware requirements, one can then find a suitable laptop.

 

[Bobc111]

O cool thank you for your help.

 

[Bobc111]

Gaming laptops are never best bang for the buck. If you built a desktop with the same amount of money, it'd be far superior. This laptop would barely run current-gen games at medium settings.
And if you wanted a laptop on which you could game with the same performance as a ~700$ desktop built, prepare to spend about 1800$.

So, if you're dead set on this, you first have to find out what games you will play, and at what quality settings you want to play.
Judging from the hardware requirements, one can then find a suitable laptop.

Yea I wouldn't play any really demanding games like BF3 or skyrim, I would play more like Minecraft, Garry's mod, and maybe Dayz. Also I would like to watch hd shows and movies. I needed a laptop for school so I hoped I would be able to play some games on it. Thanks for your help

 

[dj1001]

I would recommend this MSI
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152377

I have had my MSI GE620DX for a little over a year now and it has been the best laptop I have ever owned. The MSi I linked and my GE620dx are the same laptop with different CPU, and GPUs, The linked one actually will perform better than my laptop and I can play all the newest games at full resolution and medium detail no problem.

I've dealt with MSI customer support with another MSI netbook I had and they were fantastic.

 

[humphreybot]

in your original post the laptop you linked to is good for gaming. i base this on practical experience. my laptop has an a8 and mobile raedon 6530. i play skyrim, tf2.....pretty much and of my 100+ games and that is only is third or fourth reason i bought it. i got it to be a mobile htpc, which it does flawlessly. my point is, your laptop is far better than mine. whatever mine does that one will do so much better.

 

[KernalPanic]

A lot of misinformation going around these forums about what laptop GPUs are capable of...

A $700 desktop WITH SCREEN most certainly is not going to outrun $1800 laptops.
Assuming only $120 for a mediocre screen, you now have tom's $500 build (dual core pentium 860/7850) with an extra $80. (so you bump up to 7870 and ive bridge i3)

It isn't hard to find Custom laptops for <$1600 with i7 and 7970m (minorly underclocked desktop 7870) which will give very close performance to that $700 Desktop and which will outperform it in CPU-heavy applications. (dual-core desktop i3 vs quadcore mobile i7)

As for the laptop in the OP... you can do a LOT better.
http/shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-id=5B0116E237099FA0FCA012D9B20ED2FB

That's a Lenovo Y500. An i7, 650m, and 8GB of RAM. No, it won't outrun the desktop i3/7870 in games, but the 650m is quite decent. (underclocked desktop 650)

If you wait for the right deal, often you can find the Y580 for around $800. (660m/i7)

The 650m is about 30+% better than the 7730, never mind the fact the i7 being much better than the A10 as well.

If the ASUS supports async X-fire for the APU+GPU, you might actually get somewhere near the 650m for the gpu in some games, but the cpu performance will still be under the i7.

 

[Bobc111]

I would recommend this MSI
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152377

I have had my MSI GE620DX for a little over a year now and it has been the best laptop I have ever owned. The MSi I linked and my GE620dx are the same laptop with different CPU, and GPUs, The linked one actually will perform better than my laptop and I can play all the newest games at full resolution and medium detail no problem.

I've dealt with MSI customer support with another MSI netbook I had and they were fantastic.

Cool thanks for the suggestion

 

[Bobc111]

in your original post the laptop you linked to is good for gaming. i base this on practical experience. my laptop has an a8 and mobile raedon 6530. i play skyrim, tf2.....pretty much and of my 100+ games and that is only is third or fourth reason i bought it. i got it to be a mobile htpc, which it does flawlessly. my point is, your laptop is far better than mine. whatever mine does that one will do so much better.

Ok thats for clearing that up... I have a dell desktop xp still that I play my games on right nowwith 1 GB of ram XD

 

[Flyingears]

I have one for sale. Im on overclock.net and hardforum and have heatware. All under flyingears

It has a quad core i7 820qm
8gb of ddr3 ram
gtx 470m
1920x1080 15.6" screen

Willing to work out a price looking for somewhere around $800 shipped. Depending on what drive/ssd you want in it.

This laptop is much better than the one your were looking at. Will play most games on med/high settings.

 

[edit1754]

I couldn't really recommend the MSI CX61. The reason is that there is conflicting information about what type of display it comes with. Some sites list the display as 15.6" 1920x1080, and other sites list the display as 15.6" 1366x768.

1366x768 resolution in a 15.6 inch display make things onscreen large, and 15.6 inch displays that have 1366x768 resolution tend to be low-grade LCD panels with very poor image quality due to low contrast. You should make a point to avoid displays like this when it is reasonable to do so, unless you require the larger text for eyesight related reasons.

If this laptop does come with 1920x1080, then it's a great choice, but I can't recommend it until there is definite confirmation on this. If the laptop comes with 1366x768, then it isn't a particularly good choice.

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On a similar note, if you are going to buy the Lenovo IdeaPad Y500, then you need to make sure that you are buying a model that comes with the 1920x1080 display, and not the 1366x768 display.

The cheapest $800 model that was recommended here is not a good choice. All the other available models of the Y500 do in fact come with the better display, but the deals on the Y500 (in the USA) are pretty bad right now. The 1920x1080 models currently don't have any discounts available that bring them down to decent prices.

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The N56DP-DH11 at least comes with a decent display, but you can still get a faster GPU (at the same time as a decent display) for under $800.

HP DV6t (NVIDIA GT 650M, 15.6" 1920x1080 display) - $722 + tax
- Saved Configuration: http/www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/load_configuration.do?destination=review&config_id=7674563
- Apply coupon code NB6893
- Don't downgrade the GPU to the GT 630M or to Intel HD 4000 graphics. The GT 650M is considerably faster than either, and if one of the lower GPU options would work just as well for you then I would probably suggest getting an entirely different laptop.
- Don't downgrade the display to 1366x768. The 1366x768 display makes things onscreen large, and is a low-grade LCD panel with very poor image quality due to low contrast. The availability of the upgraded 1920x1080 display is part of why I'm recommending this laptop; I wouldn't be recommending this laptop if it didn't offer it.

 

[fredy210]

I recommended ACER in another thread and i recommend it here too, It's a great laptop I strongly advice you to buy the model with the 17 inch screen through this site