New Computer - Laptop Gaming

[davdd]

Hello everyone,

I'm a bit of an avid gamer and I'm in need of a laptop. So for me to get a computer that is not able to play games would be a terrible mistake.
I've searched many forums, but I haven't understood much of what they're talking about.

What I need is hardware that will be able to run games like Bioshock, Fallout 3 and Starcraft 2.

My budget is about $1500. And though this is a laptop, I'm also open to ideas for mice.

Any help is much appreciated
thanks,
David

 

[Mithness]

Are you going to be traveling or something? if your not whynot get a Desktop it'd be alot better and more future proof.

 

[bbgink]

Welcome to Forum
Give as much information as possible, your information you give, will help us to recommend the right laptop.

1. What is your budget?

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?

3. What screen resolution do you want?

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?

5. How much battery life do you need?

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)?

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?


9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
no preferences, but prefer reliable site


10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?


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.

13. What country do you live in?

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

 

[davdd]

Thank you all for the responses! I've only just been notified by the website.

mithness:
I do see the value in getting a desktop, however I'm off to university next year and so I'd like to get a laptop that I'll be able to bring to class with me.

bbgink:
My budget is $1500.

Anything over 15" seems a bit big in my opinion.

I want a resolution that doesn't compromise the graphics of the games listed, namely bioshock.

Battery life isn't much of an issue because I doubt I'll be playing games in class.

I'd like my games to be high quality.

The only other noteworthy thing I'd be doing would be watching movies.

Capacity should be at least 300gbs.

I have no sites in mind I intend to buy from.

I'd like my laptop to last me through university.

As for the disc drive, I didn't even know that you could get bluray for computers. How
much extra would it cost for that?

I don't know anything about brands, I'm just looking for you guys to tell me what you like and don't like about them.

And I live in Canada.

Dadiggle:
I'd only be playing games in my spare time, when I would be at home, so that's not a problem. Thanks for the heads-up though.
As far as I can tell, that seems like a pretty cool computer, but what does the '8XDVD super multi drive' mean?
And I guess my biggest question would be, could it handle a game like bioshock?

 

[davdd]

yes. Asus laptops especially the G73 series are the best bang for buck. The other brands either have a good cpu with a crap old gpu or like with Dell you pay twice the price for half the specs that you would get with Asus.
Although is a sort of gaming laptop its got a good cpu, good gpu and is balanced overall better than the others to perform every task you intend to throw at it.

do you know anything about sager? the g73 looks a little big, and sager has the np8150 which is about 15 inches only.

 

[guitarjanitor]

I've got an Asus f50sf. I got it for about $800 and it's seen me through a lot of gaming. Of course, it doesn't run everything maxed out, but it's more than adequate for why I bought it (graphic design at college). Asus does have some decent specs for the price.

Mine is a cautionary tale about Asus brand laptops. I'm not saying it will happen to everyone, but I had some terrible experience with Asus. I got some screen-flicker after a few months of use (it just started to happen one day, I'm not one to abuse my computers). So I had to RMA the laptop.

I waited 3 months and didn't hear back. So I ended up calling them every couple of days until they finally decided to fix it. Another month went by and they finally sent it back.

Fun bonus: they told me to send my power supply when I had it RMA'd. They didn't send it back. I called them and asked if they could send it and they assured me that I'd get it. It's been at least a month since then. I've seen no sign of a power adapter in the mail. I ended up buying a replacement from Amazon (which I am still using to this day).

They had to replace some pieces of the laptop, and I ended up getting a free blu-ray player installed (I don't know if it was part of the new motherboard, or they did it to compensate me for the 4 month repair time; I don't know why the thing is in my laptop at all, really). However, if it came down to having my laptop repaired in 10 business days (as originally promised when I bought the laptop) versus waiting 4 months and having a blu-ray drive, I surely would have chosen the former.

There you go, you've got my life story. Just be careful in dealing with Asus. If you have any reason to suspect that your laptop will need service in the future, just do yourself a favor and see if your local computer shop will take a look at it.

 

[davdd]

I've got an Asus f50sf. I got it for about $800 and it's seen me through a lot of gaming. Of course, it doesn't run everything maxed out, but it's more than adequate for why I bought it (graphic design at college). Asus does have some decent specs for the price.

Mine is a cautionary tale about Asus brand laptops. I'm not saying it will happen to everyone, but I had some terrible experience with Asus. I got some screen-flicker after a few months of use (it just started to happen one day, I'm not one to abuse my computers). So I had to RMA the laptop.

I waited 3 months and didn't hear back. So I ended up calling them every couple of days until they finally decided to fix it. Another month went by and they finally sent it back.

Fun bonus: they told me to send my power supply when I had it RMA'd. They didn't send it back. I called them and asked if they could send it and they assured me that I'd get it. It's been at least a month since then. I've seen no sign of a power adapter in the mail. I ended up buying a replacement from Amazon (which I am still using to this day).

They had to replace some pieces of the laptop, and I ended up getting a free blu-ray player installed (I don't know if it was part of the new motherboard, or they did it to compensate me for the 4 month repair time; I don't know why the thing is in my laptop at all, really). However, if it came down to having my laptop repaired in 10 business days (as originally promised when I bought the laptop) versus waiting 4 months and having a blu-ray drive, I surely would have chosen the former.

There you go, you've got my life story. Just be careful in dealing with Asus. If you have any reason to suspect that your laptop will need service in the future, just do yourself a favor and see if your local computer shop will take a look at it.

That sounds terrible. Do you think this is something consistent?
Also, what games were/are you able to run on it?

 

[guitarjanitor]

I sure hope you have better luck if you go for Asus. Of course, I bought the laptop because it had a decent amount of gaming power for the price. It should play Bioshock (if not maxed, then on decently-high settings). It runs Fallout 3 near maxed (you can max it out, but don't expect a stable framerate).

If you want to play Starcraft II, then avoid getting the same laptop as me. You can only run it on about medium, and it's really ugly compared to what you can get on high-ultra settings. Then again, I was outputting to a 1080p monitor, so it may run better at the laptop's native resolution.

All I know is that Asus is terrible with customers (lots of waiting on hold, and lots of uppity support reps who almost seem annoyed that you called for help). My experience was not isolated to one phone call, every time I called I was met with ill-informed reps who were not helpful (also many calls were dropped, and I waited on hold for what felt like ever).

At any rate, avoid getting a laptop if you can; you won't get any gaming power (even for the rather steep price of $1500).

My honest advice: get a cheap netbook so you can type and take notes in class (and access campus wi-fi), then put your remaining $1300 into a desktop. That way you can go home to your nice gaming rig and unload your days notes and stuff from the netbook and do all of your homework on a powerful machine (and of course you can enjoy your games at ultra-quality in your free time )

Hope you can learn from my experiences. Have fun with your new machine(s)

 

[davdd]

Best answer selected by davdd.

 

[davdd]

I sure hope you have better luck if you go for Asus. Of course, I bought the laptop because it had a decent amount of gaming power for the price. It should play Bioshock (if not maxed, then on decently-high settings). It runs Fallout 3 near maxed (you can max it out, but don't expect a stable framerate).

If you want to play Starcraft II, then avoid getting the same laptop as me. You can only run it on about medium, and it's really ugly compared to what you can get on high-ultra settings. Then again, I was outputting to a 1080p monitor, so it may run better at the laptop's native resolution.

All I know is that Asus is terrible with customers (lots of waiting on hold, and lots of uppity support reps who almost seem annoyed that you called for help). My experience was not isolated to one phone call, every time I called I was met with ill-informed reps who were not helpful (also many calls were dropped, and I waited on hold for what felt like ever).

At any rate, avoid getting a laptop if you can; you won't get any gaming power (even for the rather steep price of $1500).

My honest advice: get a cheap netbook so you can type and take notes in class (and access campus wi-fi), then put your remaining $1300 into a desktop. That way you can go home to your nice gaming rig and unload your days notes and stuff from the netbook and do all of your homework on a powerful machine (and of course you can enjoy your games at ultra-quality in your free time )

Hope you can learn from my experiences. Have fun with your new machine(s)

I suppose that's what I'll do then, though I'm not very fond of netbooks. I might just scrape together a few more bucks and buy an alright laptop instead.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[guitarjanitor]

Oh, I know you've made your mind up, but I just wanted to say I got Bioshock 2 the other day. At native resolution, it maxes out and runs totally smooth on my laptop. That'll give you a good idea of the power a mid-range laptop can put out (plus the unreal engine has some awesome optimization )

So... just saying. I'll get out of your hair now. Best of luck finding a solution that fits your price range.