Gaming laptop purchase advice

Hello, Im new here and first off i apologise for my lack of laptop knowledge and certain terminology. As probably is apparent, i have no purchasing experience for laptops specifically for gaming and so really i just need a low down of what specs ill need etc.

Basically what im asking for is for the best gaming experience, with the cost being realistic, which models, makes or upgrades will i need to get? As i said i know very little, and so i'd grately appreciate a list of links or makes or models of laptops which i'd find useful.

Ill be playing games like WoW, games which stream off the internet and other graphically intense games.

Thanks in advance for any help you can share with me :)

:stupid:

Hi, welcome to Hexus :)

It really depends on your budget, as to what is in realistic range?

But Id either go for a Dell XPS system http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/pr...=dhs&cs=ukdhs1

Or a laptop from Rock http://www.rockdirect.com/

Also what sized laptop where you after 15.4, 17 inch etc?

Like rasta said it really depends on your budget.

Also are you sure you need a lappy? I know a lot of people who've spent loads on a laptop and then never moved it more than a few feet.

Thats a very good point chuck, imo unless your planning on going to a fair few lans, or rarely stay in the same place at once, seriously think about getting a desktop, you'd also get a much better system for your money :)

Laptops are very budget dependent as has already been mentioned. Gaming laptops makes things even more difficult.

£500 - £700 You're looking at the dell vostro. Its configures with the 1.6ghz core 2 duo to the 2.4ghz, 1 to 4gb of RAM etc..and a geforce 8600gt so can fit a lot of budgets.

There is also Zepto and Rizeon laptops which fit these budgets (£600 - £1100) which do the better grpahics cards in smaller chassis is portability is a concern (i.e 512mb 8600GT is 14.1" chassis - zepto 6224)

£700 - £1000 You can get the new rock pegasus 670 (lowest spec) which is much the same spec as the vostro. You can also get a fully specced vostro so thats best for bang for bucks below £1000 has to be the dell.

£1000 - £1200 is where the 17" gaming laptops come into play. The Rock xtreme 7700 is probably the best 17" laptop out there at the moment which is fully configurable hard hard drives/cpus etc.. and has the 8700GT.

£1200 + you can start looking at alienware etc.. but i don't think they are doing any dx10 laptops yet.

If dx10 isn't a concern (which i think it really should be with a laptop due to the difficulty of upgrading/obtaining parts to upgrade) you could get a dell xps m1710 which has the 7950gtx but its the last of a dying breed.

In reply, i'd think about 1000-1200 depending on whether i get the value for money.

If i was to get a certain model, what would i have to customize?

And yeah ill need a laptop as after this year im off to uni, and this year ill be jetting around the world. This is why the laptop needs to be future proof as ill be keeping it for ~4 years.

Ive looked at the XPS models but got confused about all the customization you could do, so if you could explain that then that would be useful :)

Thanks for the advice so far though guys/gals :P

Well you either get to customise pretty much everything, or nothing.

If you buy Rock, Dell, Rizeon, Zepto you customise everything (generally the size or speed of that particular component) including :

Processor
RAM
Hard drive
Grpahics card
Screen type (matte/ glossy and what resolution)
Wireless cards
Bluetooth
Warranty Service
Batteries

Bascially everything but the bare chassis, the motherboard and power supply.

Just take you time and the process is pretty painless, just decide what it is you want to prioritise.

If you go for somthing like HP, Asus, Sony, Samsung you have to pick specific models which have a predefined spec.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by staffsMike

Well you either get to customise pretty much everything, or nothing.

If you buy Rock, Dell, Rizeon, Zepto you customise everything (generally the size or speed of that particular component) including :

Processor
RAM
Hard drive
Grpahics card
Screen type (matte/ glossy and what resolution)
Wireless cards
Bluetooth
Warranty Service
Batteries

Bascially everything but the bare chassis, the motherboard and power supply.

Just take you time and the process is pretty painless, just decide what it is you want to prioritise.

If you go for somthing like HP, Asus, Sony, Samsung you have to pick specific models which have a predefined spec.

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what i mean is what speeds are best to get, for example is there any point in getting more than 2 gig of RAM etc. Im sorry ive said i was a noob at laptop buying :$

2gb is the best for games..obviously more is better but 2gb is all you need.

Hard drives and RAM can be upgraded after you have bought the laptop without voiding your warranty so keep that in mind.
RAM can be very good value from crucial for example. hard drives can be got from pretty much anywhere.. scan for example.

the cpu and the graphics card are the difficult things to upgrade so i always prioritise those..get the best you can at the time of ordering but don't go over the top lol (2.0Ghz core 2 duo is a great chip, 2.2 is good if you have a little extra.. 2.4 doesnt make much sense at its price

To be honest if you have £1000 - £1200 you could spec a dell vostro with everything at top spec. The rock pegasus 670 would pretty much be top spec also.

17" laptops will be lower spec on that budget.

Okay ive been shopping around and ive set my eyes on either the Rock Xtreme 770, or the Dell XPS 1710. Which is better and why?

The first question is if i were to purchase one of these, what would i have to customize? The video card issue is confusing me atm, what is the best card to customize them with?

The last question would be is there any better choices/models out at the moment? If so, what are they?

Really what i need is to be spoon fed the information, sorry to be such a bother :$

Okay, apologise for the double post but ive done some serious sleuthing and ive found alot of info on both laptops:

Rock Xtreme 770 spec:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo T7500 2.2GHz,4MB Cache, 800MHz
Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7950 Go GTX 512MB
RAM: 2GB DDR2 667MHz RAM
Harddrive: 100GB 7200rpm S-ATA
Extras: Built in webcam, carry case, 3yr warranty.

Price: £1516.50 Inc. VAT

Dell XPS 1710 spec:

Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7600 Processor (2.33GHz,667MHz,4MB L2 cache) (more powerful than rock?)
Card: 512MB DDR3 nVidia® GeForce™ Go 7950 GTX graphics card (Same as rock)
RAM: 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
Hardrive: 120GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive (larger than rock?)
Extras: none to be seen

Price: £1618.18 Inc. VAT

Basically the Dell looks to be more powerful but im wondering if theres any point in paying an extra £100 for the increase, is that worth it? I like the extra features rock provide, and both laptops are 17" screens.

Are there any customizations that i have made which are pointless and a waste of money? Also, which personally would you go for?

I'd go for the rock, looks nicer, it's cheaper and 0.13ghz isn't going to make a blind bit of difference in performance tbh.

The dell has a slightly larger hard drive, but 20gb isn't worth a £100, you can get a 500gb external for not much more.

Take the rock. Its DX10 and its the graphics card is very good at dx9 anyway. Not as good as the 7950gt but pretty damn good.

The rock's hard drive is 7200rpm which is worth it for a gaming laptop imo.

cheers people.

Mike, are you saying to just get the rock as it comes and not customize it? It only comes with the 7950gt if i add another £100, and im guessing £100 is not worth it?

I think the main reason i like the rock is because its got a webcam lol.

Yeah, id get it with the CPU of your choice, 2gb of ram (maybe on one stick if your thinking you may want to upgrade to 4gb later), 100gb 7200rpm hard drive and the 8700GT.