Buying a Laptop for Gaming

[Lynam III]

Hi there,

I am planning to buy a laptop especially configured towards Skyrim + many mods, as well as planning to use it for other games. I'll also use it for MATLAB, Fortran, C++, etc.

Before people start suggesting a desktop instead, I change continents 4 times a year, so a desktop just doesn't work for me.

I value stability (as in no hardware problems) the most. I know all gaming laptops are prone to over-heating problems, but I'm willing to pay extra to prevent that.

I live in the US. I have no clue on where to find the most reliable & cheap laptops, so I would greatly appreciate any help.

My budget is $1600ish.

Also if I have posted this thread in the wrong place, please move it. And if there are any threads that might be useful, it would be wonderful if you could post them. Thanks in advance!

[OracleofWuffing]

I presume you already have an electrical outlet converter for whichever continents to which you're traveling? If not, don't forget to figure that out when you get a new computer, as most will just come with the order's local AC adapter.

Alienware (http://www.alienware.com/Landings/laptops.aspx) is supposed to be the big brand to go to for powerful machines, though I hear lots of people say they're overpriced for what they are. Sadly, I'm not quite as well off as you are, so I've not been able to use one. My understanding is that one of the guys at Penny Arcade uses at least one.

Lenovo Thinkpads (http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?action=init&current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-id=F2A3EC7C45634AE8AB0F26CCAC867854) are supposed to be built like tanks. Though, I've always heard of them more as an office computer set up, so you definitely want to double-check the provided video cards to make sure you're getting something actually comparable.

I would personally be wary of HP computers at this moment, it seems they're withdrawing a little bit from the consumer market, though I do not know the full extent of their business plans.

[tyckspoon]

Alienware (http://www.alienware.com/Landings/laptops.aspx) is supposed to be the big brand to go to for powerful machines, though I hear lots of people say they're overpriced for what they are. Sadly, I'm not quite as well off as you are, so I've not been able to use one. My understanding is that one of the guys at Penny Arcade uses at least one.


You do pay extra for the fancy casing and the branding, but they're pretty solid as gaming machines. The main thing to watch out for is they're huge and heavy- the x17 line is by no means something you actually want to put on your lap. On the plus side, the extra bulk in the case actually does get used for cooling enhancement, so the need for an external fan is somewhat less. The 14" would be more portable, but you'd want to look into available options to see what it can be customized to.

Asus is the other brand I'd check out for a gaming laptop. Best Buy carries a reasonable range of these things (not sure how much of the gaming line you'll find, tho) so there's a decent chance you'll have a place where you can get a bit of a hands-on.

[Dublock]

Asus is a great place to look and where I would go to first.

I do have a few thinkpads over the years. One was made for Windows 98 that has a Pentium processor, yup the very first one. That is still in working condition and has durability that a desktop can envy. I have a more current Lenovo is an office laptop. I would recommend them, but they do tend to be more office and not gaming machines.

[The Succubus]

My Alienware M17 has been a faithful little beastie over the years and I always give him the very best of care, including regular back ups, scans, defrags and tucking him in at night.

[Maelstrom]

Changing continents with a laptop should not be a problem -- every laptop I've ever had has had a switching power supply transformer and I've only had to buy the power cable that goes from the transformer to the wall every time I've been to a place with a new plug design (I've got four in my bag right now)

My last rig I bought specifically in mind for both business and gaming applications and it is a HP HDX 16. It's has a Nvidia Geforce 9600M GT graphics card on it for 3d gaming -- not the best, but certainly better than most. For any heavy duty gaming, though it's not going to perform to spec (to boot, it's over two years old now, too). Point is, HP is not a bad choice, even given that they may spin off their consumer PC division. Heck, even IBM did that a few years back and their PC's/Laptops are still great (Lenovo), though a bit pricier and less "sparkly" than HP's.

I do have to agree with the Asus suggestion -- I've been a big fan of theirs for many years...

[Sith_Happens]

I have a Dell Studio XPS 16 that was actually slightly better for slightly less money than the Alienwares being offered at the time I bought it. The only game I've run on it so far was Champions Online (I'm mainly a console gamer), but boy did it run. It defaulted me to about 4/5-max settings, but with the amount of resources I had left I easily could have turned it up to max and still been able to run a browser or two at the same time.