Laptops for gaming....

[Lord_Twisted]

I turn 40 in June and decided I was due for a new laptop, and I want a gaming system not on of the slim little tiny ultra portable notebooks. Anyone have some really good first hand knowledge on these?
Currently I run a three year old Toshiba that was top of the line back then, with it state of the art ATI mobility video card. Of course it is worthless now days, and even back then it was a problem running a game with good graphics because of the heat it produced.

So what I am looking for is a 17" or larger screen. At least 8GB ram, at least 750GB 7200 RPM hard drive. Good video card most seem to be the GTX 560M which should be plenty? Good cooling system, no over heating. Back lit keyboard.

What would be nice to have, but not a must have is the Nvidia 3D vision kit in it, bigger hard drive, more ram, etc...

So far looking at the ASUS G74SX series, they have one matching all of my requirements, plus has the 3D vision kit for under $1900. And the Alienware systems, I can get with in my requirements for under $2000.

Has anyone had the Nvidia 3D vision set up that can tell me it's worth it? And does anyone have experience with ASUS, or Alienware? I have had a few Dells, which owns Alienware and never had major issues, and what little issues I did have Dell dealt with easily, but that was years ago, and I have read a lot of poor reviews on their customer service lately. ASUS I have had dealings with when buying PC parts, but never bought a machine from them.


Or does anyone have any other recommendations for laptops I should look at?

[Wortdog [sherpa]]

I turn 40 in June and decided I was due for a new laptop, and I want a gaming system not on of the slim little tiny ultra portable notebooks. Anyone have some really good first hand knowledge on these?
Currently I run a three year old Toshiba that was top of the line back then, with it state of the art ATI mobility video card. Of course it is worthless now days, and even back then it was a problem running a game with good graphics because of the heat it produced.

So what I am looking for is a 17" or larger screen. At least 8GB ram, at least 750GB 7200 RPM hard drive. Good video card most seem to be the GTX 560M which should be plenty? Good cooling system, no over heating. Back lit keyboard.

What would be nice to have, but not a must have is the Nvidia 3D vision kit in it, bigger hard drive, more ram, etc...

So far looking at the ASUS G74SX series, they have one matching all of my requirements, plus has the 3D vision kit for under $1900. And the Alienware systems, I can get with in my requirements for under $2000.

Has anyone had the Nvidia 3D vision set up that can tell me it's worth it? And does anyone have experience with ASUS, or Alienware? I have had a few Dells, which owns Alienware and never had major issues, and what little issues I did have Dell dealt with easily, but that was years ago, and I have read a lot of poor reviews on their customer service lately. ASUS I have had dealings with when buying PC parts, but never bought a machine from them.


Or does anyone have any other recommendations for laptops I should look at?

My only personal experience was a Dell XPS laptop that I had several years ago. At the time, it was a great, reliable, 17" screen laptop. It played all of my games at the time.

What games would you be playing on it?

[Lord_Twisted]

Mostly looking to get started on SWTOR, and the upcoming Diablo 3. Maybe Guild Wars 2. Mostly RPGs, and MMO's coming out in the next year. Would love to think it would be capable of playing newer games for the next couple years, but that's a lot to ask.

[Wortdog [sherpa]]

Mostly looking to get started on SWTOR, and the upcoming Diablo 3. Maybe Guild Wars 2. Mostly RPGs, and MMO's coming out in the next year. Would love to think it would be capable of playing newer games for the next couple years, but that's a lot to ask.

Even some of the mainstream companys might be able to handle those games with their dedicated video card laptops. I like Dell laptops all around. I think for Alienware laptops you pay more for the name. Dell XPS laptops are more suited for "Gaming on a Budget."

When you get the laptop and load up SWTOR, check out our MOSK Guild.

MOSK Guild for Old Republic

[Lord_Twisted]

Did your XPS have any cooling issues? I know the alienware and ASUS G74SX series have added large cooling fans, and larger vents to accommodate the graphics card extra heat.

[ToneLoc777]

Do you travel with the laptop or would you be playing games at a desk? I've never been a fan of the big screen laptops. A pain if you travel with it, and even at 17" it's still a small screen and will be at an awkward viewing angle when you play on it. With my last purchase I decided to go with the Dell XPS 14z. For non-gaming use, the screen is big enough, and when I'm at home or work and want to use it for games or After-Effects/Photoshop stuff I use the HDMI out to connect it to a larger screen and connect a mouse/ keyboard to it.

[Wortdog [sherpa]]

Did your XPS have any cooling issues? I know the alienware and ASUS G74SX series have added large cooling fans, and larger vents to accommodate the graphics card extra heat.

I do remember it getting fairly warm if I was gaming on it for several hours at a time. I think it had a nVidia 7900GX card in it. Mostly played Battlefield 2 on it. I don't doubt current generation video cards have better fans and vents.

[Lord_Twisted]

Do you travel with the laptop or would you be playing games at a desk? I've never been a fan of the big screen laptops. A pain if you travel with it, and even at 17" it's still a small screen and will be at an awkward viewing angle when you play on it. With my last purchase I decided to go with the Dell XPS 14z. For non-gaming use, the screen is big enough, and when I'm at home or work and want to use it for games or After-Effects/Photoshop stuff I use the HDMI out to connect it to a larger screen and connect a mouse/ keyboard to it.

I don't travel a lot. I am going with a laptop over desktop for mobility around the house. With a wife that runs a childcare, and two kids of my own, plus work full time, and go to school part time, I just want to be able to find a quite room to relax and play a game for a couple hours once in awhile.
So most of the time sitting in my lazy boy with it, and during the kids nap time I am at my desk, and then at night when I have put my youngest daughter to bed I will sit in my bedroom and play for an hour or so while she does her, "I need a drink", "I need to go potty" routine before she actually falls asleep.

One of the laptops I was looking at has a "Push to TV feature"? Never used it before, but it allows you to use a HDTV as the display through a wireless connection. Makes me wonder if there is any transfer delay.

[Lord_Twisted]

My niece sent me a seven day pass to SWTOR even though I told her my laptop wouldn't run it. So I did some tweaking on my laptop and got the game to run, on very low settings but it does run. So going to check out your guild and see how it goes for the seven day trial and if it works out maybe I will pick up the game before I get my new laptop.