College Gaming Laptop

[The James]

I will be entering college in fall 2013, and I plan to buy a laptop that can sustain my college life for a few years. Here is the deal: I want a thin, portable laptop that will bring ease of travel, but also the ability to play games. Essentially the sleek design of an ultrabook, and the raw power of a bulky gaming laptop. Now, obviously this is unrealistic, so I have to compromise somewhere.

I have searched through several different laptops, but they are either way too bulky, or way too expensive.

I am not willing to compromise on the following:
1. No less than a 15" screen. (17" preferred, if possible)
2. Reasonable portability (including battery life)
3. Able to run games like Skyrim and Guild Wars 2 on at least medium settings.

With all of these in mind, I'm currently leaning towards the Razer Blade, but the significant overpricing is a large deterrent. My budget is $1800 or less, but I am willing to go slightly over if it is worth the extra cost.

I know these are some tough expectations to meet, but hopefully someone out there can perform some voodoo to find me a laptop.

 

[Fireraga]

Pump 1200$ into a desktop and go buy a cheap 400$ laptop. You will never find a laptop that will fill the niche a gaming desktop can.

 

[BrainY]

Good luck finding one. This is almost impossible man. Just travel around with a cheap laptop and if you want to game.. take your bulky laptop with you.

You can't want everything.

 

[lengcaifai]

MSI GX60 will give u best of amd mobile graphic performance and just cost around $1200, well the APU may be weaker than most intel's mid/hi range offerings, i think it should be very sufficient for college use

 

[combine1237]

I agree, do not mix gaming with work I have had bad experiences in the past with stability. I completely agree with Fireraga as desktops are far more suited for gaming, and you will have a much better experience gaming on one( at least I have). However I do believe you could do better spending about 1000 total on a desktop and monitor and about 600 on a laptop and get an ssd in it.

 

[lazyboy947]

HP ENVY M6-1105DX with an A10 apu with 7660g graphics. Costs $630 online at bestbuy and my friend has and plays skyrim on high at the native resolution its a 15.6 inch screen, 750gb hdd, 6gb ram, a10 4600m, and dont forget the beats audio

 

[bigcyco1]

That is hard one i would settle for one of these if not good luck! http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Y580-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Dawn/dp/B009AEPQDI/ref=amtcd_B009AEPQR4_B009AEPQDI

 

[killerhurtalot]

http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=product_info&model_name=NP9170

go to customize

upgrade the screen to the 90% NTSC Color Gamut one.

upgrade cpu to 2.7ghz

upgrade gpu to 670mx

upgrade the wireless card (free upgrade)

$1834 + $100 instantly off.

should be able to play all games maxed @ 30+ fps @ 1600x1050 resolution if not 1920x1080.




Yes i know it's going to have terrible battery life (3-4 hours at the most) but you're not ever going to find a laptop capable of gaming at good settings with great battery life.

 

[cbrunnem]

desktop plus cheap amd ultrabook from walmart.

if you dont get something portable you will quickly start leaving that laptop at home. dont know why you are willing to pour such a large quantity of money into a laptop though. you are in college, that laptop will be put through twice the amount of abuse a normal one would. hence why a cheap amd ultrabook plus desktop is a good idea.

 

[killerhurtalot]

desktop plus cheap amd ultrabook from walmart.

if you dont get something portable you will quickly start leaving that laptop at home. dont know why you are willing to pour such a large quantity of money into a laptop though. you are in college, that laptop will be put through twice the amount of abuse a normal one would. hence why a cheap amd ultrabook plus desktop is a good idea.

I went through college with a 17" 10 lb Dell laptop :/ it's no more of a hassle than any 15" -_- you have it in your backpack most of the time anyways and there's plugs everywhere... are you REALLY going to notice that 2-3 pounds on your back and when you take it out like 5 times a day?


And yes, i do realize that a $1200 gaming desktop will be way better than anything mobile but is it worth the hassle every break to basically take it apart, pack it up and ship it everywhere??? (I assume he is going to game during breaks)

But then again... I did go to school on the east coast while my home was on the west coast. The gaming desktop would be a lot more acceptable if he went to college within driving distance of his home...

 

[cbrunnem]

I went through college with a 17" 10 lb Dell laptop :/ it's no more of a hassle than any 15" -_- you have it in your backpack most of the time anyways and there's plugs everywhere... are you REALLY going to notice that 2-3 pounds on your back and when you take it out like 5 times a day?


And yes, i do realize that a $1200 gaming desktop will be way better than anything mobile but is it worth the hassle every break to basically take it apart, pack it up and ship it everywhere??? (I assume he is going to game during breaks)

But then again... I did go to school on the east coast while my home was on the west coast. The gaming desktop would be a lot more acceptable if he went to college within driving distance of his home...

i never mentioned size and weight like you say i did but one thing that all my friends that had 17" laptops all said was that they do not fit in normal size bookbags.

also yes it would be in your bag most of the time but a book bag is not a safe for a laptop. actually it can do more harm then good. you hit things with the edge of the laptop with its in a bag and corners and hinges take a beating. id much rather tote around a cheap laptop that might get broken then an expensive one and i havent even begun to talk about spilling things on a laptop. careless friends in dorms have a habit of doing just that.

 

[killerhurtalot]

i never mentioned size and weight like you say i did but one thing that all my friends that had 17" laptops all said was that they do not fit in normal size bookbags.

also yes it would be in your bag most of the time but a book bag is not a safe for a laptop. actually it can do more harm then good. you hit things with the edge of the laptop with its in a bag and corners and hinges take a beating. id much rather tote around a cheap laptop that might get broken then an expensive one and i havent even begun to talk about spilling things on a laptop. careless friends in dorms have a habit of doing just that.

just spend $30 and get a cheap 17" laptop backpack/bookbag... and on expensive laptops, I've always purchased extended/accidental damage warranty.... (roughly 8-10% of laptop value for 3 year warranty)