Hey, so I was hoping to get some feedback from you all. I've been doing some research lately on laptops. Looking to spend around $1000-$1500 or so. From what I can tell, MSI and Asus seem to be the top 2 brands. I have one friend that says to go with msi but I've seen random posts in my research with people saying to go with asus. I've always preferred intel over amd. The friend that suggested msi said to go with an i7 4710/4800/4810 MQ and for the gpu go with a 970m.
Thoughts on this? Any other brands I should check out? Mainly looking to play games on steam, guild wars 2, diablo 3. stuff like that.
Thanks
I've been using whatever the top of the line ASUS Gaming laptop is for the last bunch of years - and I always have 3 of them. One for me, one for each of my kids. I've been very happy with them. There was only ever one that I had a slight beef with - and it had nothing to do with performance - just touchpad placement and an annoying inability to turn it off.
Buy them from newegg - save yourself sales tax and shipping.
Well you're in luck because I'm probably one of the biggest laptop gamers here on the site. Due to knee issues I can't sit long hours so I prefer to play with laptops. I have owned both Asus and MSi laptops both have some nice points. One thing that really annoys me about MSI is they use optimus which can really effect some games with lesser support. Basically what happens is that instead of using you dedicated card games will use your on board graphics. This doesn't happen very often, but when it does your basically screwed until they release a driver update or the game patches. That being said I still prefer MSI to Asus because they are simply the best bang for your buck laptop you can find. They have full keyboards, great sound, and lots of options.
I'm personally thinking about dropping 3k on the new MSI titan in a couple of months, but I was waiting to see if they have any design changes on it. A great place to shop for laptops is http://www.xoticpc.com/ which specializes in gaming rigs. Depending on your needs and price range I would also highly suggest Sager. They are the premier boutique style laptop with great options and build quality.
Whatever the case make sure that graphics card wise you get a 900 series Nvidia. They are simply amazing cards that have revolutionized the industry for graphics card. They are as close as you will get to desktop replacements.
Have you considered Sager? Xotic PC is one of the top resellers of Sager laptops and they do very thorough reviews of most if not all of the laptops they sell. At the top end of your budget you could make off with a nvidia 980m with Sager but you'd end up with a 970m if you go with ASUS or MSI. Do you have a preference on screen size?
I have owned two ASUS gaming laptops and have been pleased with both overall but you will definitely get more bang for your buck if you go with Sager. I have never personally owned a Sager laptop but have heard very good things about them. If you don't care about the look of the laptop or the thickness, I don't see how you could go wrong going with Sager. If you care about the look of the laptop, ASUS and MSI are going to be better looking laptops. I for one like the fact that you can get a Sager with all branding removed.
I would stick to a laptop with 1080p resolution for now. No laptop is going to run games in 4k well at this point in time. I would also fork over a little more money and get one with a solid state drive because they truly do make a huge difference.
Xotic PC also sells MSI and ASUS laptops and they offer a small cash or Military discount. I would check out some benchmarks on some of the more graphically heavy games you want to play to see if getting a 980m vs 970m is going to be worth it to you. And do some research on Sagers.
There two ways to laptop game, the off the shelf and DIY boutique system.
Currently as far as off the shelf systems go, Asus and MSI are tops. Just remember they are what you get, both companies white list. So get what you want first time. Both make great systems for the price, but its a static build.
Second is boutique, and right now Alienware and Sager are amongst the tops. Alienware is Dell, so you takes your chances. Sager doesn't sell direct in North America, its the NA disty arm of a much larger Chinese company. As mentioned XoticPC is one, there about 10 companies that resell Sager, most of them are simple reboxers, the buy a Sager as per your spec and then rebox it after a test and custom work you asked for like painted lids etc.
Mine is a Mythlogic, they are a bit of a stand out in the Sager brand, they are not reboxers but actual assemblers, they buy the parts from Sager and assemble them in house. they are a bit pricier then most Sager reboxers though, a true specialty shop. They also support you sending them parts, already own 3 SSDs you want in your lappy? send them and they will install them. they also ship all the test reports and benchmarks from your system.
Xoticpc is a good shop with a great rep, also there are others too. Check around may even find one local to you. However Notebook review forums is a great place to get into from the buyers mouths, every Sager reseller keeps tabs on them, can get a feel; for the company you may deal with, also forums there for ASUS and MSI.
1000 to 1500 for a solid game lappy may be tough, unless you buy used. My Mythlogic cost me 3200cdn shipped to my door.
Exmortis said:There two ways to laptop game, the off the shelf and DIY boutique system.
Currently as far as off the shelf systems go, Asus and MSI are tops. Just remember they are what you get, both companies white list. So get what you want first time. Both make great systems for the price, but its a static build.
Second is boutique, and right now Alienware and Sager are amongst the tops. Alienware is Dell, so you takes your chances. Sager doesn't sell direct in North America, its the NA disty arm of a much larger Chinese company. As mentioned XoticPC is one, there about 10 companies that resell Sager, most of them are simple reboxers, the buy a Sager as per your spec and then rebox it after a test and custom work you asked for like painted lids etc.
Mine is a Mythlogic, they are a bit of a stand out in the Sager brand, they are not reboxers but actual assemblers, they buy the parts from Sager and assemble them in house. they are a bit pricier then most Sager reboxers though, a true specialty shop. They also support you sending them parts, already own 3 SSDs you want in your lappy? send them and they will install them. they also ship all the test reports and benchmarks from your system.
Xoticpc is a good shop with a great rep, also there are others too. Check around may even find one local to you. However Notebook review forums is a great place to get into from the buyers mouths, every Sager reseller keeps tabs on them, can get a feel; for the company you may deal with, also forums there for ASUS and MSI.
1000 to 1500 for a solid game lappy may be tough, unless you buy used. My Mythlogic cost me 3200cdn shipped to my door.
Stay away from Alienware laptops, been there and got returned for a full refund within 2 Weeks,
Stick to Clevo, My last 2 laptops where Clevo gaming rigs, last one was HD7970's in Xfire, still a massive power house even tho have built a new desktop .
http://www.logicalblueone.com.au/store/8_horize-clevo Australian site I buy mine from but you would need to look for a US re-seller
They even put nVidia Quadro 5010m in some of their higher end Laptops, that video card alone is $2,000.00 bucks lol
I have had my MSI GT70 for a few years, and absolutely love it. I also purchased mine from Xotic pc. They are a wonderful company to deal with, and will help you out anyway they can. They know what they are doing in terms of gaming laptops. Just call them, and they will discuss whatever questions you have regarding budget and what will work best for you. I raided on this one in Rift for three years and never had a problem at all with the graphics pulling off my board card, as long as you make sure your Nvidia driver is up to date you will be fine. Even though I probably will be fine to play Pantheon on this computer I will be getting a newer version closer to launch because this one will be quite old by then :)
Carrera said:
I have had my MSI GT70 for a few years, and absolutely love it. I also purchased mine from Xotic pc. They are a wonderful company to deal with, and will help you out anyway they can. They know what they are doing in terms of gaming laptops. Just call them, and they will discuss whatever questions you have regarding budget and what will work best for you. I raided on this one in Rift for three years and never had a problem at all with the graphics pulling off my board card, as long as you make sure your Nvidia driver is up to date you will be fine. Even though I probably will be fine to play Pantheon on this computer I will be getting a newer version closer to launch because this one will be quite old by then :)
I too had a great experience with ordering from Xotic. They have a lot of options and something for about every price range.
I have had a few Alienware laptops strictly for the looks and SLI when they weren't owned by Dell. Now they are mostly plastic and meh, though I still have one of the latest ones out as my personal opinion as they still look better. Sporting two 770m gpus and 32GB of ram it makes a perfect work laptop for me and my VMs I need on the road.
BlueEyedGator said:
I also have an Alienware. Got a great deal on it last year. Couldn't turn it down. Did I mention it has pretty lights I can make any color? You know, the important things. On the upside, it runs our build perfectly .....yeah, I went there, lol. ;)
The pretty lights definitely helped me make my choice. :) Also I wanted to add that I never buy them new I always buy them open box so I paid around 1200 for my laptop about 6 months ago.
I was one of the original adopters in the new era of Gaming laptops by Asus. The Asus G73JH or codename Blackbird. At the time it was a beast of a machine(17" HD Display, dual 500 GB hard drives, 5870m, 8 GB of Ram). This was about 5 years ago now and it just recently crapped the bed.
From my personal experiences, this is what I have to offer.
Rivacom said:
I was one of the original adopters in the new era of Gaming laptops by Asus. The Asus G73JH or codename Blackbird. At the time it was a beast of a machine(17" HD Display, dual 500 GB hard drives, 5870m, 8 GB of Ram). This was about 5 years ago now and it just recently crapped the bed.
From my personal experiences, this is what I have to offer.
- Stay away from the gimmicks that are out there such as the overpriced names like alienware(unless you can pick them up relatively cheap).
- Asus and MSI are both great systems, but don't buy off the MSRP, wait a month or two after their releases and models will drop in price.
- If you have the money, buy the best video card you can get in a laptop. Due to the heat, most Mobile versions are not up to par with their desktop forms. And they will show their age in newer games quickly.
- Consider what others have said about sager and other custom gaming laptops. They might not look as pretty but they perform just as good if not better for similar price or cheaper.
- Think about rather you need a 17" screen or not. Personally I loved the screen size about 70% of the time. But it's a laptop and I took it everywhere. The weight and size was a pain when I wasn't using it on a desk. I know both MSI and GB make ultrabook gaming machines now, as well as Razer. Consider it.
Great points. Luckily I did get mine at quite a discount brand new or I wouldn't have bought it most likely. It's pretty to look at but not worth full price for sure. I've used other Razer products and would probably look into that down the road. They seem quite durable. And while I also love the 17" screen, you are so right! It's very heavy. I use my ipad for most things and only break out the laptop for work or gaming.
BlueEyedGator said:
Rivacom said:
I was one of the original adopters in the new era of Gaming laptops by Asus. The Asus G73JH or codename Blackbird. At the time it was a beast of a machine(17" HD Display, dual 500 GB hard drives, 5870m, 8 GB of Ram). This was about 5 years ago now and it just recently crapped the bed.
From my personal experiences, this is what I have to offer.
- Stay away from the gimmicks that are out there such as the overpriced names like alienware(unless you can pick them up relatively cheap).
- Asus and MSI are both great systems, but don't buy off the MSRP, wait a month or two after their releases and models will drop in price.
- If you have the money, buy the best video card you can get in a laptop. Due to the heat, most Mobile versions are not up to par with their desktop forms. And they will show their age in newer games quickly.
- Consider what others have said about sager and other custom gaming laptops. They might not look as pretty but they perform just as good if not better for similar price or cheaper.
- Think about rather you need a 17" screen or not. Personally I loved the screen size about 70% of the time. But it's a laptop and I took it everywhere. The weight and size was a pain when I wasn't using it on a desk. I know both MSI and GB make ultrabook gaming machines now, as well as Razer. Consider it.
Great points. Luckily I did get mine at quite a discount brand new or I wouldn't have bought it most likely. It's pretty to look at but not worth full price for sure. I've used other Razer products and would probably look into that down the road. They seem quite durable. And while I also love the 17" screen, you are so right! It's very heavy. I use my ipad for most things and only break out the laptop for work or gaming.
Yup, I use to lug my laptop to work , friends houses, and even on business travel(would take it instead of my work laptop.. who wants to use a dell latitude to game on?) So mine's been as far as Cali, and even to Denmark. And like i said not just the weight but the size is what bothered me. That's why if something like the surface 3 had just a little bit beefier option for video, I would be all over it.
Whenever I travel for work I end up carrying:
1) My work laptop
2) My tablet
3) My Asus gaming laptop.
It's a chore - but I've grown as addicted to always having my tablet with me as I am addicted to always having my phone - and I travel nowhere without the ability to game.
:)
I totally game on my 15" macbook pro (late 2013) and while it certainly doesn't run everything at max settings, it runs most games I have tried with reasonable settings fairly well. The only downside is that it gets loud as hell once it heats up and the fans kick in. It also gets too hot to even use it on your lap lol. There is also the fact that it was ~3500 with a 2 year warranty extension with which you could even buy something overpriced like a Falcon Northwest laptop with like half again the performance.
Okay so it's not really a gaming laptop but love or hate Apple, they make the most beautiful laptops on the market. If you want to pick up women in a coffee shop while playing WoW this is what you want! (ok I confess I've never taken it to a coffee shop) Also, don't buy a macbook pro to game on. I just had a monstrous machine before and I don't regret even a tiny bit giving up the gaming performance for something sleeker. If I didn't have to carry it anywhere ever I'd probably go back to a giant beast of a machine.
jezebel said:
I totally game on my 15" macbook pro (late 2013) and while it certainly doesn't run everything at max settings, it runs most games I have tried with reasonable settings fairly well. The only downside is that it gets loud as hell once it heats up and the fans kick in. It also gets too hot to even use it on your lap lol. There is also the fact that it was ~3500 with a 2 year warranty extension with which you could even buy something overpriced like a Falcon Northwest laptop with like half again the performance.
Okay so it's not really a gaming laptop but love or hate Apple, they make the most beautiful laptops on the market. If you want to pick up women in a coffee shop while playing WoW this is what you want! (ok I confess I've never taken it to a coffee shop) Also, don't buy a macbook pro to game on. I just had a monstrous machine before and I don't regret even a tiny bit giving up the gaming performance for something sleeker. If I didn't have to carry it anywhere ever I'd probably go back to a giant beast of a machine.
One of the nice things about the Asus laptop these days is that they vent out the back. I sometimes put it on my lap at home and play for an evening while in a recliner... and it never gets - not even just "too warm" - it never really gets warm, period.
I really am a fan of the Asus gaming laptops - I mentioned in an earlier post that I've had several because I buy for myself and my two kids... but for the sake of clarity, I've had 6 Asus gaming laptops over the years because of rotating them in and out after 3 - 4 years of use. When I buy a new one it normally has nothing to do with the laptop functioning - it has to do with a desire to stay a little more current on hardware. I find them to be rock solid.
jezebel said:
I totally game on my 15" macbook pro (late 2013) and while it certainly doesn't run everything at max settings, it runs most games I have tried with reasonable settings fairly well. The only downside is that it gets loud as hell once it heats up and the fans kick in. It also gets too hot to even use it on your lap lol. There is also the fact that it was ~3500 with a 2 year warranty extension with which you could even buy something overpriced like a Falcon Northwest laptop with like half again the performance.
Okay so it's not really a gaming laptop but love or hate Apple, they make the most beautiful laptops on the market. If you want to pick up women in a coffee shop while playing WoW this is what you want! (ok I confess I've never taken it to a coffee shop) Also, don't buy a macbook pro to game on. I just had a monstrous machine before and I don't regret even a tiny bit giving up the gaming performance for something sleeker. If I didn't have to carry it anywhere ever I'd probably go back to a giant beast of a machine.
That's why I mentioned looking at a lot of the newer ultrabook styles these providers are putting out. GB is huge at this right now, and a few others like Falcon, Cyberpower are trying to make these monsters as light and thin as possible. Even the asus G75 series is almost a inch thinner then it use to be while still adopting a 980 GTX card in it.