gaming laptop for college pl0x

[Obsidian Spire]

http://www.sco.gatech.edu/downloads/sco2009.pdf

Hello, I was wondering if someone could help me find a laptop that meets my school's requirements, but also can function relatively well for gaming. I don't mean playing games with extreme graphics, like Crysis, on all high settings, just you know normal games (Orange Box, Bioshock, etc.) without terrible slowdown and stuff.

I don't really like Macs/Apple, as it would probably be a hassle to get games running on them and most of apple's consumers are ridiculously myopic.

My dad didn't really give me a budget, but I'll say 2000 $ (US dollars) is probably as high as I can go for just the laptop.

Thank you in advance.

[Ryuujinx]

Re: gaming laptop for college pl0x

For that price?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220538

Throw in a nice bag, an extra battery and a good mouse and your chilling right around that 2g mark.

Also;

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117905

I'm not a huge fan of sony though, tbh. You can actually load XP/Vista on a mac via bootcamp quite easily and they are pretty nice little machines, but way overpriced even with some of the spiffy features (multi-touch touchpad, LED backlighting, etc)

[AlecJ32]

Re: gaming laptop for college pl0x

For that budget you could get a $1,000 laptop and a $1,000 desktop.

As far as the Macs go, no, it wouldn't be a hassle getting games running on them. You'd simply need a copy of Windows, and then it'd just be a matter of partitioning the job to dual boot Windows and OS X.

[Ryuujinx]

Re: gaming laptop for college pl0x

For that budget you could get a $1,000 laptop and a $1,000 desktop.

As far as the Macs go, no, it wouldn't be a hassle getting games running on them. You'd simply need a copy of Windows, and then it'd just be a matter of partitioning the job to dual boot Windows and OS X.

Tbh I'd do that if I was working with a 2grand budget. Buy a ~1k laptop (asus has a decent one for about that mark) and build up a phenom X4/core2 box. Hell you could probably squeeze an i7 system out of 1grand if you're careful what you buy.

[Obsidian Spire]

Re: gaming laptop for college pl0x

For that price?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220538

Blu-ray and 1 TB of memory seem like overkill. The operating system cannot be Vista Home. It has to run on XP Professional, Vista Business, Professional, or Ultimate. The rest of it sounds pretty good, though.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834117905

This one seems to comply with all their requirements.

For that budget you could get a $1,000 laptop and a $1,000 desktop.

As far as the Macs go, no, it wouldn't be a hassle getting games running on them. You'd simply need a copy of Windows, and then it'd just be a matter of partitioning the job to dual boot Windows and OS X.

Well, even if it's pretty easy to run dual OS's on Macs, they still seem more expensive for nonessential items. There are some fringe benefits to them, though; potentially, a free ipod touch, and write iphone/ipod touch games/apps.

Desktop for gaming and then an average laptop for schoolwork? That could work. I'll discuss it with my dad.

[AlecJ32]

Re: gaming laptop for college pl0x

Desktop for gaming and then an average laptop for schoolwork? That could work. I'll discuss it with my dad.

One of the major perks is that if you have a desktop for gaming, you won't need a high end GPU in your laptop which means you can gear your laptop more towards extended battery life and mobility, rather than gaming performance.

You could get a laptop far more suited to college work this way, and a desktop will always be better for gaming than a laptop.

[Ryuujinx]

Re: gaming laptop for college pl0x

Blu-ray and 1 TB of memory seem like overkill. The operating system cannot be Vista Home. It has to run on XP Professional, Vista Business, Professional, or Ultimate. The rest of it sounds pretty good, though.

Tbh they'll all be overkill with that kind of price point. Also you could always buy a copy of vista ultimate and upgrade the os, so that's not a huge problem.

[AlecJ32]

Re: gaming laptop for college pl0x

Please elaborate on why you cannot use Windows Vista Home Premium. I think I missed that.

[Obsidian Spire]

Re: gaming laptop for college pl0x

Vista Home Premium is not listed as an adequate OS in their requirements. I don't really know why they don't like it. Missing features?

My dad said no to the laptop/desktop combo, and said I should look at customized laptops from Dell, Vision Computers, or other places.

http://www.visioncomputers.com/items.asp?cc=WEB-NOTEBOOKS&fil=157:28

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcat17080&type=page&qp=crootcategoryid%23%23-1%23%23-1~~q70726f63657373696e6774696d653a3e313930302d30312d3031~~cabcat0500000%23%230%23%2311a~~cabcat0502000%23%230%23%23o~~f118%7C%7C344742~~nf709%7C%7C57696e646f777320566973746120427573696e657373&list=y&nrp=15&sc=abComputerSP&ks=960&usc=abcat0500000&sp=%2Bbrand+skuid&list=y&iht=n&st=processingtime%3A%3E1900-01-01

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcat17080&type=page&qp=crootcategoryid%23%23-1%23%23-1~~q70726f63657373696e6774696d653a3e313930302d30312d3031~~cabcat0500000%23%230%23%2311a~~cabcat0502000%23%230%23%23o~~f118%7C%7C344742~~nf709%7C%7C57696e646f777320566973746120556c74696d617465&list=y&nrp=15&sc=abComputerSP&ks=960&usc=abcat0500000&sp=%2Bbrand+skuid&list=y&iht=n&st=processingtime%3A%3E1900-01-01

http://www.costco.com/CTO/HPLanding....at56670&topnav=

I liked the first two costco laptops on the left, but I don't know how much I should change the specs for gaming.

[Ryuujinx]

Re: gaming laptop for college pl0x

Well in that case ibuypower is a pretty good bet for the custom build type thing. Dell's tends to be a bit overpriced

For instance compare this model:

http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Confi...s.aspx?mid=394

to this alienware(dell):

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=bncwaw1&s=bsd

With comparable specs, the alienware runs about 400$ more.

I personally would never buy a costco laptop, and best buy's laptops aren't all that hot either for the price point you're considering.

Home premium lacks a few networking features (the ability to join a domain, primarily) which is probably why they don't allow it.

[Eagle101]

Re: gaming laptop for college pl0x

Sager, you cant go wrong there buddy.

[AlecJ32]

Re: gaming laptop for college pl0x

Vista Home Premium is not listed as an adequate OS in their requirements. I don't really know why they don't like it. Missing features?

Maybe they want you to be able to join Domains. You'd have to ask the college in question.

My dad said no to the laptop/desktop combo, and said I should look at customized laptops from Dell, Vision Computers, or other places.

Did you explain to him why a laptop and a desktop would be better than just a laptop? I can think of plenty of reasons off the top of my head.

• A $2,000 laptop is a pretty appealing target for theft. If someone's going to steal a laptop, they're probably going to steal Joe's $2,000 laptop before they steal Frank's $1,000 laptop.
• Any laptop that could possibly cost $2,000 is likely going to be big, heavy, hot and have not-so-great battery life. With a desktop and a laptop, you could get a slim and lightweight laptop with great battery life, while also getting exceptional performance from the desktop.
• Having a desktop you can back-up your notes and assignments to would make data loss extremely difficult. If something happens to your laptop, you can still complete your assignments and keep up with your class, since you'll still have all your stuff on your desktop.
• Laptops aren't workhorses. A $1,000 desktop could most likely outperform even a $2,000 laptop, so you'd be getting a lot more for your money if you get both a desktop and a laptop.
• Desktops are easier and cheaper to upgrade than laptops are. A year or two from now, a $2,000 gaming laptop could be outdated and might not be adequate for gaming. A year or two from now, if your desktop isn't up to par for gaming, you can simply throw in a new video card and you'll probably be set. Also, where with a desktop you can usually just upgrade one or two components, a laptop really must be completely replaced if you want to upgrade.

[Obsidian Spire]

Re: gaming laptop for college pl0x

My dad's not exactly the biggest fan of gaming, so almost all the gaming reasons are null and void to him. The data backups will already be covered with an external hard drive, a flash drive, etcetra. I haven't been able to change my parents minds for a long, long time, not because I can't explain rationally, but because they won't listen.

I'll check out Sager. Thanks, Eagle!

I do have a question, though. What graphic cards serve their purpose the best? Any particular reccomendations in that department, like 512 MB card/ 1 GB cards?

[Ryuujinx]

Re: gaming laptop for college pl0x

In a laptop a GTX260m is the best you'll get. Usually has 1GB of memory.

[Eagle101]

Re: gaming laptop for college pl0x

Here is a list of laptops from the site for under 2 grand:

http://www.sagernotebook.com/categor...9&price_e=2000