Reccomend me a badass gaming laptop

So I've got a beastly desktop that's fast and lovely, but a bit long in the tooth and in need of replacement soon. Since my life style makes a big desktop pretty much unwieldy to have I figured I can just get the best gaming laptop available and hook it up to my 32 inch samsung whenever I'm home and get the best of both worlds.

After a very brief shopping session tonight my impression is that the Alienware MX18 is one my better options, with some pretty badass specs(faster than my desktop in most cases) and of course a neat glowing red case. However I do know that a lot of folks swear against Alienware, so I figured I'd look for some advice. What's the best lap top I can get with a price range of around two grand? What's the best way to go about building your own laptop?

I saw someone else ask this question a long time ago and heard from nearly everyone that Alienware computers are prone to catching on fire.

just work out how much you have to spend and just get the best specs you can for your money.

Yeah I hear tons of Alienware horror stories, but then again my desktop is Alienware and it's never caused me a problem. Is Alienware in some sort of partnership with Dell? Cause Dell I do have a problem with.

@Sarnecki said:

Yeah I hear tons of Alienware horror stories, but then again my desktop is Alienware and it's never caused me a problem. Is Alienware in some sort of partnership with Dell? Cause Dell I do have a problem with.

Alienware has been a Dell subsidiary for a while now.

EDIT: Since 2006, actually.

How much can you spend?

Lets say 2500 is my ceiling. Since I have a GTX560 in my desktop PC I'm considering buying a laptop with one 560, then ripping out my desktop 560 and dual running both cards in the laptop. Save money and double performance.

@Sarnecki said:

Lets say 2500 is my ceiling. Since I have a GTX560 in my desktop PC I'm considering buying a laptop with one 560, then ripping out my desktop 560 and dual running both cards in the laptop. Save money and double performance.

Uh... I don't think you can do that. I was always under the impression that, aside from RAM and HDD's and disc drives, you couldn't change anything in a laptop without a lot of soldering and jerry-rigging.

@Sarnecki said:

Lets say 2500 is my ceiling. Since I have a GTX560 in my desktop PC I'm considering buying a laptop with one 560, then ripping out my desktop 560 and dual running both cards in the laptop. Save money and double performance.

You can't do that, the closest to something like that is an external graphics card that runs in its own enclosure, which isn't a great solution since it's limited to 4xPCI-E bus I believe, instead of the normal 16x.

@Sarnecki: A simple google search led me here.

@Sarnecki said:

Lets say 2500 is my ceiling. Since I have a GTX560 in my desktop PC I'm considering buying a laptop with one 560, then ripping out my desktop 560 and dual running both cards in the laptop. Save money and double performance.

While you -could- do that, adding an external graphics card to a laptop that doesn't have something like thunderbolt is a serious amount of work, right? The amount of soldering you'd need to do is crazy and even someone like myself, who constantly pulls laptops apart to component level finds the thought of adding an external GPU like this a daunting task. Not to mention, as someone else pointed out, you're seriously limited by a very slow PCI-E bus.

On top of that, a laptop 560 does not compare to a desktop 560. The performance isn't even close, as compromises have to be made in order to make something portable that won't kill your battery before you can boot into windows or turn your laptop into a ball of molten slag because of heat.

Sorry, I don't really have any recommendations when it comes to laptop gaming. I find the whole idea a bit goofy as you're constantly going to be tethered to an outlet, whether you're gaming or not. There aren't any "gaming" class laptops I could recommend, as I recommend systems that -I- would personally use.

If I wanted mobile gaming, I'd probably look at an HP Envy 15. Powerful enough to run games on medium-high, but light enough and portable enough to be a laptop you can actually carry around. Then, with the remaining 1k money, I'd build a PC dedicated to your home theater. Use dropbox to sync your game saves across the platforms.

Any shot just making a really small form factor PC is an option? It seems like you just want this for your home, but prefer something small and convenient. You could just buy one of those small cases and build from there. Or maybe something like the Alienware x51 that just came/is coming out.

EDIT: Nevermind, I misread what you said. I would say it's still probably better to pick up an Envy like the person above said so that you don't lose the convenience of having the laptop just for the sake of power.

That shows what I know, I assumed that a desktop 560 would be the exact same as a laptop 560. My idea would be that since I'm so mobile I would use a laptop as a mobile desktop so to speak. Plugging in is no problem because I would only use it for motel rooms and at home etc, I'd use my PSP or DS when I'm flying.

Ideally I wanted a laptop so that I had the option of having something smaller and more mobile. A big bulky desktop case and a big 32 inch Samsung TV tying me down at all times is the bummer here, and I was hoping to have a mobile version of my desktop so I can use it like I usually do, but also uproot and take off with my desktop experience easily whenever I need to. Sadly it sounds like that's just not as easy as that from what you guys are saying.

I would go with an ASUS republic of gamers laptop over an Alienware.

If you really want to spend $2500, go with something like this: http://doghousesystems.com/v/mobius_TL.asp

You should expand your search to include other brands like http://www.ibuypower.com/IbpPages/Notebook.aspx. I bought my desktop from them and so did a friend. Great quality. If I was in the market for a killer laptop, I would go to them first.

Thanks for the link Sins. While browsing I found this Asus deal. Looks like a steal to me.

http://computers.toptenreviews.com/gaming-laptops/asustek-computer-inc/asus-g74sx-review.html

That Doghouse website has a killer desktop build haha.

My Asus G73JH treats me very well.

Build one.http://www.malibal.com/laptops/

Sager has great rep. Worth checking out if money is not an issue.

@Sarnecki: There is a simple answer to this question. Find a dealer of CLEVO/SAGER laptops (usually called some dumb marketing name like "Vortex" but nothing else is changed) and pick your favorite.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/592609-clevo-guide-v3-0-faq-reseller-info-read-before-posting.html

Personally, I have a p150hmx and it's a savage, very awesome, solid laptop with no ridiculous alienware casing to slow roast your GPU.

That said, it's still a good idea to get some sort of cooling stand like this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cooler-Master-Notepal-U3-Notebook/dp/B00482XM7E/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&qid=1327429923&sr=8-7

Hope you find what you were looking for.

Buy ASUS! My G73 has done very well. Never mad any problems with overheating which is what you really need to consider when buying a gaming laptop. It runs anything, mostly on max settings (I sometimes have to knock down lighting settings to normal or high to keep the frames up). Played the Witcher 2 last year and we are unlikely to see anything more demanding than that any time soon. ASUS laptops don't look like something I would have sketched in the back of a maths textbook alongside a picture of a spunking cock and a Charizard.

I have a Malibal laptop.

Good little... er I mean fat machine.

Honestly, I prefer MSI to asus. Alienware (aka Dell) is overpriced shit. Check out the MSI gt780dxr. It has a core I7 2670qm, gtx570m 1.5mb gddr5, 17 inch screen, 12-16 gb of ram, and choice of hard drive.

I got the one with a tb of space in a raid array and 12gb of ram and the 2.2 gtz cpu(default is 2.0) for about $1650 and I couldn't be happier. It also has dynaudio speakers with a subwoofer. I maxes out pretty much every game I have and comes with MSI's own overclocking software.