Need help finding a gaming laptop

[Reyo]

Hey,

Was hoping to get some help from the community regarding a new laptop...
Going to type this out as the stickie says and then give some info about my own search.


1_What is your budget?
My max budget is $1700-$1800

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Looking for something between 15-17 Inches

3_What screen resolution do you want?
Minimum 1440 x 900 but would really prefer it to be higher

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Both I guess, but the weight dosn´t really metter

5_How much battery life do you need?
Not really important, but around 3 hours if possible

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)?
Yes.. a few quick examples would be Fallout 3, Diablo 3 ( when it comes out ), Unreal 3 and the like.
Medium to High settings

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing, surfing the web, playing music, watching movies, Etc.)
Right now not too much, some movies surfing the web ect... will be starting to study programming soon, but I assume there shouldn´t be a problem with that on such a machine.

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
Was thinking at least 360GB... 7200 RPM is a necessity

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.
Don´t really care where from, checked a few places though will elaborate in the end.

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
3+ Years

11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them.
Specific things I´m looking for would be 4GB DDR3 Ram, 7200 RPM HD, Very good Graphic card ect

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.
No special preferances or dislikes here.

13_What country do you live in?
Israel... but will likely be puchasing in the US


So I did check a few laptops before coming here and found several that look good in the $1600-$1800 range they include :

Sager NP8662 - $1600 ( $1700 with a full size keyboard )
15.4" WSXGA+ "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright Glossy Screen (1680x1050
Intel® Q9000 45nm "Montevina" Core™2 Quad 2.0GHz w/6MB L2 On-die cache
nVidia GeForce GTX 260M 1,024MB PCI-Express DDR3 DX10
4,096MB DDR3 1066MHz Dual Channel Memory
320GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache

HDX18t - $1800
18.4" diagonal High Definition HP Ultra BrightView Infinity Display (1920x1080p)
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad Processor Q9000 (2.00Ghz)
1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 130M
4GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm
320GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection

Gateway® P-7808u FX $1800
17" Widescreen WXGA+ Display (1440 x 900)
Intel® Core™2 Quad Processor7 Q9000 (2.00GHz, 1066MHz FSB, 6MB L2 Cache
Chassis with NVIDIA® GeForce® 9800M GTS Graphics with 1GB of GDDR3 Discrete Video Memory and Intel® PM45 Chipset
4096MB 1066MHz DDR3 Dual Channel Memory (2-2048MB modules
500GB 5400RPM SATA hard drive



Not sure if that´s the best there is in this price range or if I missed something, and if this is the best, which to choose.

Any help would be greatly appriciated.

Thanks!

 

[lostandwandering]

My vote would be for the Sager, I was actually going to suggest it. Excellent specs for the price.

 

[Reyo]

A couple of questions I forgot..

1. When looking at a few customizable laptops I noticed the Q9000 Processor is priced below the T9600 even though the T9600 is only duo core am I missing anything? is the T9600 Duo actually better then the Q9000 Quad?

2. When I started looking for a computer I had quite a few Brand Names in mind, but I have to say I´ve never heard of Sager before.... anyone has any experiance and knows how reliable they are?

Thanks

 

[lostandwandering]

A couple of questions I forgot..

1. When looking at a few customizable laptops I noticed the Q9000 Processor is priced below the T9600 even though the T9600 is only duo core am I missing anything? is the T9600 Duo actually better then the Q9000 Quad?

Not sure what site you were looking at but sagernotebook.com has them organized by Duals and then Quads. It depends on what you are using it for and the programs you are running. If the programs are optimized for multi core CPUs, the Quad will shine. But if they were designed with single and dual core CPUs in mind, the higher clock speed of the T9600 will pull through.

2. When I started looking for a computer I had quite a few Brand Names in mind, but I have to say I´ve never heard of Sager before.... anyone has any experiance and knows how reliable they are?

Thanks

Look in my signature. I'm running a 1.5 year old Sager NP5760. I have had no issues with it what so ever. Came with minimal bloatware and has been incredibly stable for me. Frozenlead is also running a Sager laptop. Sagernotebook.com and a few other companies are resellers of Clevo laptops. They are used by many different high-end boutique builders like Falcon Northwest, Widow PC and a bunch of others. When you compare them to Dell and Alienware, Sager units are tough to beat price/performance

Here is a review of the unit, it's a little dated component wise but you'll get a feel for the laptop: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4590

 

[Maziar]

Between those defenitely go for the SAGER model,solid specs + solid price

 

[Reyo]

1st, thanks a lot for the replys.

I´m pretty sure I´ll go for the Sager.
One of my last dillemas is still the CPU I guess... I´m honestly not sure which CPU to go for... 1st these are the web sites I checked at :
http://www.powernotebooks.com/
http://www.xoticpc.com
www.sagernotebook.com

Sagers home page is a bit more expensive, XoticPC and Powernotebooks have roughly the same price but it seems Powernotebooks has a very solid reputation so I might buy from them.

Back to the CPU problem, due to budget related issues I can´t buy the:
Intel® T9800 45nm "Montevina" Core™2 Duo 2.93GHz w/6MB L2 On-die cache - 1066MHz FSB 35 watt

My choice is between the:
Intel® Q9000 45nm "Montevina" Core™2 Quad 2.0GHz w/6MB L2 On-die cache - 1066MHz FSB

And

Intel® P9600 45nm "Montevina" Core™2 Duo 2.66GHz w/6MB L2 On-die cache - 1066MHz FSB 25 watt


I´m leaning toward the Quad, simply because I assume most futue ( even current top of the line ) games will be able to utilize the 4 cores... any idea how accurate that assumption is?

Anyway I´ll be using the computer mainly for gaming and compiling... any advice you have would be appriciated


Btw, I did look for some review on the Q9000, benchmarks... anything.. couldn´t really find it.... guess that´s why I´m bothering you

Thanks a lot !

 

[lostandwandering]

Here's a nifty little site and it's as up to date as I've seen a mobile CPU bench suite be: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

The problem with the mobile sector is that there are so many differences in platforms and configurations on the market that no one wants to deal with the hassle of compiling all the info.

 

[maldinilovegame]

If you are looking for a gaming laptop, check this

http://www.laptopforgames.com

It lists most popular gaming laptops for your reference, by price

 

[go49ersrob]

A couple of questions I forgot..

1. When looking at a few customizable laptops I noticed the Q9000 Processor is priced below the T9600 even though the T9600 is only duo core am I missing anything? is the T9600 Duo actually better then the Q9000 Quad?

2. When I started looking for a computer I had quite a few Brand Names in mind, but I have to say I´ve never heard of Sager before.... anyone has any experiance and knows how reliable they are?

Thanks

Im getting the same computer hp is the best computer not only that but the costamer servise is great ill get mine on the 8 of oct

 

[ibnsina]

If you are going to be purchasing the laptop in USA, then I suggest you should go for International brands [Toshiba, Sony,Asus, Dell,MSI]. Else you will have problem with warranty, since you live in Israel.