Looking for a great gaming laptop without...

spending a huge portion of your months salary... I am to lazy to do montly payments, as I know I will forget about them a just let them pull automatically each month spending way more than needed.

I am looking to purchase a brand new PC for my business, and rather than doing what I normally do and buying a cheaper PC to do what I need (basically my work is not anything that is graphics heavy) for $500-$700( I get mass/charity discounts through Dell) I am looking to purchase just one badass computer for myself.

I basically want to be able to play games, and not have to worry if My laptop will have troubles with the game or not. I have been steered towards Alienware as the way to go, and as far as price it is not a terrible choice if I go barebone with the models they offer. I would prefer not to, and want just the best gaming machine, with a low low price.(under $1200, though I would love to see it even lower than that.)

I just did a custom Laptop build from alienware. Here is what I got;

Software & ServicesSYSTEM COLORAlienware M15x, Cosmic Black

PROCESSORIntel® Core™ i7 940XM Quad Core Processor, 2.13GHz (3.33GHz Turbo Mode, 8M Cache)

OPERATING SYSTEMGenuine Windows® 7 Ultimate, 64bit, English

MEMORY8GB Dual Channel Memory (2x 4GB DDR3)

VIDEO CARD1.5GB GDDR5 65W NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460M

HARD DRIVE320GB SATAII 7,200RPMLCD PANEL15.6-inch WideFHD 1920x1080 (1080p)

WLEDWIRELESS CARDSWireless 1520 802.11n Half Mini-Card

BATTERY OPTIONSPrimary - 9-cell (85Watt) Lithium-Ion BatteryINTERNAL

OPTICAL DRIVESlot-Loading Dual Layer Blu-ray Reader (BR-ROM, DVD+-RW, CD-RW)

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While I am inclined to possibly purchase the laptop as is, I would prefer to see a reduction in price. I would also like to believe that a laptop of this caliber will have no problem playing games for the next 5+ years(which really it shouldn't). I have a great desktop that was custom built, and play everything. Now I wan't that with the convienence of a portable laptop. I am required to travel quite often, and would like to be able to game when I am not working.

So I always hear how it is easy enough to build cheap gaming rigs(and I do know that you can do cheap gaming DESKTOPS), but how about a cheap(er) gaming laptop.

Like I said I would like the price to be under ($1200) and I need to have a minimum of 6 GB of Ram.

Why 6gb of ram? if you say you don't do anything graphics heavy....

That build is OK but I have my doubts a 460m gtx lasting that 5+ years of "no problem" gaming.

Why 6gb of ram? if you say you don't do anything graphics heavy....

That build is OK but I have my doubts a 460m gtx lasting that 5+ years of "no problem" gaming.

Human-after-all

When working we have a couple of programs that hog up quite a bit of the memory. I was hoping for some input on a laptop of similar ability, with a cheaper price tag. The one listed about checks out at about $3500.

No computer is going to last 5+ years of playing games without concern for how well they will run. Especially a laptop. And unlike a desktop, you can't really upgrade a laptop (at best all you can replace is the RAM and CPU and your choices are going to be very limited and very expensive). Also, a desktop will always give you more bang for your buck than a laptop. For the same $1200 you spend on that Alienware laptop you could get a desktop that blows it out of the water. And said desktop would be upgradable meaning that in a few years when it starts to have trouble with games you won't have to buy a completely new computer again.

Also, another thing to be aware of with laptops is that dust can outright kill them. My 2.5 year old gaming laptop, for example, can no longer run any game before quickly overheating thanks to the GPU's heatsink getting clogged with dust. And unfortunately the only way to get rid of that dust is to completely disassemble the laptop in order to gain access to the GPU (as is the case with most laptops).

edit: Wow, I just saw your post saying that the laptop you described in your OP was $3500. That's crazy. The desktop in my sig costsomething like $1800IIRC, it was top of the line when I made it and still is for the most part today. That's the kind of discrepancy you're going to get buying a laptop (especially from Alienware).

My Asus G73 runs about 1500 in Canada... I would suggest something like this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220834

I have the 5870 version(slightly more powerful) and i like it alot.

I thought it was better to go for an i5 rather than an i7 because the i7 is overpowered and wont hit its max for a decade.

I was looking at price, gpu and RAM(for some reason more than 4). I think there is an msi with a 5870 and an i5 for 1250 in canada, only has 4 gigs tho.

I thought it was better to go for an i5 rather than an i7 because the i7 is overpowered and wont hit its max for a decade.

I_am_the_moon

[QUOTE="I_am_the_moon"]

I thought it was better to go for an i5 rather than an i7 because the i7 is overpowered and wont hit its max for a decade.

gameguy6700

Well i5 will do for me i cant afford the i7 anyway,would be nice. whats a good GFX card to go with an i5? I seen a gfx card for £1.300 i nearly fell off my chair.

That Asus seems like a pretty good bargain, the main reason for the laptop is that I want to be able to play games inbetween work when I am traveling. I used to bring my 360 but it just got to be to much work, not to mention the only time I was able to use it is if I was back at the hotel. I always carry a laptop, and that is the reason I would like one capable of playing games.

Why 6gb of ram? if you say you don't do anything graphics heavy....

That build is OK but I have my doubts a 460m gtx lasting that 5+ years of "no problem" gaming.

Human-after-all

This

I hear it is technically faster than the 5870M but is held back due to unoptimized drivers. But supposively the newest NVIDIA beta drivers make it a ton faster, so i definitely suggest this.