Looking for mid-price gaming laptop...

Hey guys,

I've been looking days on end for the ideal laptop to fulfill my needs, however I still can't

seem to find that laptop.

When I mean mid-price I mean a laptop no more than $1,150. I know its more edged towards the upper mid-range but whatever.

What I want exactly? So I want to be able to play games like Crysis, Battlefield 2, CoD (newer versions). Mostly modern FPSs. I could list more genres like MMORPGs but I believe FPS games are the most demanding in comparison to the former. I also want to be able to play these at at least medium high quality.

Please, I know there are many gamers who despise laptops out there but I'm going to college soon and do not want to buy a desktop, I know as a fact that that is the better option. But I don't want to be that much of a gamer, its not really about looking like one gamer or another, its just not practical to buy a desktop now.

So yea, it would be great if this laptop would also slightly be portable and have a decent design, having decent multimedia features as well as being able to run Photoshop nicely or certain, high-end music editing/creation software.

I'm hoping I can get good advice and hope that my journey for laptop searching ends here.

Thanks in advance ;)

@sgtbaker: With your budget, I'd go with a Asus G75VW AS71

• Intel I-7 CPU
• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M
• 16 GB RAM
• 17" Screen
• $1,250 - $,1,350

Here's C-NET's review: http://www.cnet.com/laptops/asus-g75vw-as71-core/4505-3121_7-35248863.html

@Stepside: Appreciate the choice, I think I fell in love with the specs, but the laptop itself is not portable enough and is too chunky :( And the weight.... Another thing, its wi-fi range is really weak...which could personally pose a really problem.

That's sorta what you have to deal with if you want a gaming laptop. You can get 15" laptops that are a little more portable but they are still far from svelte. Here's a couple of 15 inchers: http://web.eurocom.com/EC/ec_model_config1(1,225,0) or http://www.malibal.com/boutique/pc/configurePrd.asp?idproduct=525. The only actually smallish gaming laptop I can think of is made by Razer, but it's $2700.

@sgtbaker said:

@Stepside: Appreciate the choice, I think I fell in love with the specs, but the laptop itself is not portable enough and is too chunky :( And the weight.... Another thing, its wi-fi range is really weak...which could personally pose a really problem.

Well, at least you didn't say "I want a gaming laptop that can play things on Ultra for $700."

Compromises have to be made for a gaming laptop and weight is generally one of them. You might find one that's lighter but I'd bet that it's also weaker. Honestly, I think you might be better off building an $800 machine and getting a netbook or an iPad or something to take to class. On that note, I might just be old fashioned but the few times I carried my laptop to class, I found it utterly useless. I am far faster and much less distracted with pen and paper, and now that I'm a Junior I see almost no one taking their computers out during class for Facebook notes. It's pretty much a Freshman thing that dwindles away before long.

I would take a look at a Sager from xoticpc:

http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np9130-gaming-laptop-clevo-p151em1-p-4340.html

or take a look on Sager's website as well.

@believer258: Yea well I'm not that naive :P I'm not asking for a specialised gaming laptop here, the laptop doesn't even have to be classed as a gaming laptop. I just want a decent, portable, sleek one which is capable of playing modern FPSs at medium/high quality - And not going bellow 50/40 frames when in medium quality (no I don't wan't lower my settings even more than that.

And I honestly don't plan on buying an iPad or such, no offense. So ultimately, I understand that the smaller it gets, the lower the performance it would be....

And @monstersnsoup, I like the idea, but I want to buy an official, on-the-market laptop for several reasons...I also heard about the Razer laptop, from what I heard, its a really crap laptop.

Btw, what do you guys think of this? How well would it play Battlefield 3 for example?

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C2H77UA?HP-ENVY-dv7-7212nr-Notebook-PC

@sgtbaker said:

@believer258: Yea well I'm not that naive :P I'm not asking for a specialised gaming laptop here, the laptop doesn't even have to be classed as a gaming laptop. I just want a decent, portable, sleek one which is capable of playing modern FPSs at medium/high quality - And not going bellow 50/40 frames when in medium quality (no I don't wan't lower my settings even more than that.

And I honestly don't plan on buying an iPad or such, no offense. So ultimately, I understand that the smaller it gets, the lower the performance it would be....

And @monstersnsoup, I like the idea, but I want to buy an official, on-the-market laptop for several reasons...I also heard about the Razer laptop, from what I heard, its a really crap laptop.

Btw, what do you guys think of this? How well would it play Battlefield 3 for example?

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C2H77UA?HP-ENVY-dv7-7212nr-Notebook-PC

No offense taken on the iPad thing, it was just a suggestion.

Anyway, I would still say that this @Stepside 's choice is the best choice in the thread so far. I wouldn't touch an HP with a thirty foot pole, I work in my college's IT Help Desk and I've had to declare more HP's physically broken than you can shake a stick at. In your post you sounded like you just wrote off what I said, but be warned: HP's don't seem to be too well made in my experience.

@believer258 Hmm, I've had a hp compaq nc6220 since 2004 and it still is fully functional to this day xD

Felt like saying that haha.

No, but I see where you're coming from, I would understand why you would think that. And I agree that @Stepside's idea is a good one but it would be too impractical for multiple reason's. If I really can't find a laptop, I shall consider it.

How about a Dell XPS 13 maybe? Hmm, the only drawback is it's graphics card. Intel Graphics...I have a question, how do you know which laptops can be changed to completely different graphic cards? What I mean by that is that not all graphic cards are compatible with all laptops right? So can't I ask the pc workshop to install a better graphics card?

I know I would be destroying the warranty and all, but that's not the issue.

I would be able to simply get a better graphics card for a specific laptop (with decent specs of course), remove the current one and install the new graphics card. I'm assuming its not that simple but is compatibility the only issue here?