Maxing out the game = max graphics settings in UI with X resolution, X AA, X AF, with an average FPS over 60 and never dipping below 30 in a benchmark that is representative of the whole experience. For example, the GTAIV official benchmark is BS so it should not be counted. No graphics mods. Example: I can max Crysis out at 480i, 0x AA, and 0x AF.

I think desktop > XBOX360 > laptop. With an XBOX360, you won't have to tweak any settings; games will run out of the box. You get to keep all your current games. With a laptop, you may have to tweak graphical settings to get the most optimum quality:performance ratio. However, if you are interested in quality PC exclusives, then maybe the laptop would be a good choice.

[QUOTE="simplyderp"]

Wireless is just bad for gaming. It's unstable, causes higher ping, and will be affected by interference in crowded areas such as your apartment. A gaming router is like a discrete NIC gaming card. It doesn't do **** but you pay $50 more for it anyway. If you want a real gaming router, buy a WRT54GL and put Tomato or dd-wrt (I prefer Tomato, especially for a linux-compatible router) on it. That way, you can set up QoS exactly how you want it and have features that beat almost all consumer routerrs, such as bandwidth monitoring.

KLONE360

My bad for taking it out of context. Wireless ping is not bad. I get sub-20 ping with wired on one game server, but above 30 with wireless. That in itself is not bad at all, but the instability gives me headaches. When I use wireless for gaming, I get random lag spikes, lost packets, and sometimes disconnects. Then again, I live in an apartment. It is probably better in less crowded areas. Using WRT54GL with Tomato.

Mac is cheaper than PC!

Wireless is just bad for gaming. It's unstable, causes higher ping, and will be affected by interference in crowded areas such as your apartment. A gaming router is like a discrete NIC gaming card. It doesn't do **** but you pay $50 more for it anyway. If you want a real gaming router, buy a WRT54GL and put Tomato or dd-wrt (I prefer Tomato, especially for a linux-compatible router) on it. That way, you can set up QoS exactly how you want it and have features that beat almost all consumer routerrs, such as bandwidth monitoring.

what are you guys thoughts on Alienware?vIGAMEIv

If you don't want to build a computer, then maybe an Alienware will be fine. However, there are disadvantages with going with a pre-built PC (I don't know how much of this applies to Alienware).

1. Overpriced. Like Apple, Pre-built PC Vendors may charge an insane mark up on the actual value of the PC. Some low-end pre-built PCs costing around $300 are cheaper than pre-builts, though.

2. OS comes bloated with 30 day trials and useless programs running in the background.

3. Horrible tech support. You get your call outsourced to India and Ireland. They get payed below minimum wage and could care less whether you fix your problem or not. Google.com is best.

4. Sometimes, they may cut corners to save costs and that is reflected in the quality of the product. A lot of pre-built computers come with a cheap ass PSU that will not support future hardware and a mini-ATX board with little to no expansion. Some are advertised as 'extreme gaming computers' but come with a 9600gt.

I would recommend building your own PC using parts from sites such as newegg.com and tigerdirect.com and looking at benchmarks to decide which parts are right for you. If you give a budget, we can give you some recommendations.

About warranty. All my parts have at least a 3-year warranty. My PSU and HDD have a 5-year warranty.

Hey Maybe somthing is wrong with your grafic card or procesor while they where diliviring it maybe is just the CD

MrMegaReaper

What?

Gunbound? What is Win 7 doing on there lol..

VLC media player.

^

Either that or your laptop (assuming M15x) is using the integrated 9400m to play games. To test: in BIOS, disable 9400 and SLI to see if framerates improve. This is not a permanent solution as your battery life will drain quickly, but at least you can find out if that's the problem.