Super Gaming Laptops

[Kryzaach]

Hello peeps,

I own a Clevo M590K.
It has died.
I need a new laptop.

I don't really have an upper limit to my replacement budget as the gf will be salary packaging it. Having said that, I'm not going to pay a trillion dollars for a badge.

Has anyone been keeping up with the state of gaming laptops.

I'm thinking of waiting for the new Clevo D901C successor, but I'm looking for alternate options. Especially if they actually exist

So, my question is this, given that you were after a super beast of a laptop that you'd have to carry around on your bike and you wanted it to last for 3 years while not paying extra for marques or gimmicks, which machine would you get?

I eagerly await your responses....

[Milo]

Alien ware... except they are not really laptops... more so desktop replacements..
Drool. Pricey, but pack the punch. And drool worthy.

[Kryzaach]

The problem with alienware as far as I am aware is that they are effectively rebadged clevo machines.

The M590K was otherwise known as the ALIENWARE mALX, but cost 4.5K fully spec'd as opposed to 7K or near enough..

I'll have a look through and see if there is anything newer and better though, cheers.

Any other suggestions?

[Milo]

Other than that i will have to look back in some pc powerplay/Atomic mags... Well havea gander and post if i see anything speshal.

[Kryzaach]

Furthermore, Holy Crap!

I just "customised" an alienware m17x to include almost everything that a fully worked D901C would have in it, 3 x 7200 rpm drives in raid 5, 4 gigs of ram instead of 6, an x9000 instead of an E8500 and 2 x 9800GTX's in SLI.... total price.. 9.3 grand without shipping. Clevo's price 6.9k delivered..

So, I think I'll be skipping Alienware...

Edit: That's actually with 9800m-gts instead of 9800m-gtxs so it's even more of a rip off.

[Kryzaach]

Other than that i will have to look back in some pc powerplay/Atomic mags... Well havea gander and post if i see anything speshal.

Cool, thanks.

[Reidstah]

I was under the impression the Dell XPS series were good gaming laptops. Can be pricey also but the top range ones will do the job I'm sure.

[Batman]

Go the Dell XPS 1730 for gaming....

[Kryzaach]

Hmm, that XPS 1730 looks like quite a nice machine. It's not as ridiculous as the Clevo, but seems like it might be more useable, particularly if I'm moving around a bit, it's on the shortlist.. any others?

[xanthian]

+1

Gaming laptop is an oxymoron, but the dell xps is about the only option I'd look at if I ever decided it was a good compromise.

[Farkass]

+1 for 1730 XPS. its got LED's and shizz too!

[D'Artagnan]

A few years ago I bought a gaming laptop for gaming LANs in Victoria. I looked at the XPS but found configuring a 'standard' laptop with exactly the same specs worked out several hundred dollars cheaper. Just a thought.

D'Art

[L2P]

I bought a Dell Inspiron 1720 and upgraded the hardware via their site. This was about a year or so ago and the only difference between my laptop and the second-best XPS at the time was I had a smalled HDD. Saved myself ~$500 I think from memory.

[chee]

macbook pro

[xanthian]

A few years ago I bought a gaming laptop for gaming LANs in Victoria. I looked at the XPS but found configuring a 'standard' laptop with exactly the same specs worked out several hundred dollars cheaper. Just a thought.

That's odd, because there are very few laptops that are capable of taking graphics as powerful as an XPS. The only noteable exceptions off the top of my head are some macbooks, alienwares & other "desktop replacement" bricks, and sometimes the very infrequent powerful Sony or Asus ultraportables (with the Sony normally having driver issues).

[Kryzaach]

Well, so far, nothing has really toppled the Clevo from my list. The XPS isn't too bad, and it actually might be "light" in comparison, but it sacrifices too many specs for me to be completely sold on it.
The macbook isn't even in the same league.. no enthusiast graphics card, no raid.. sure, it looks pretty, but it's no gaming machine. It's certainly not a gaming machine with a multi year life span...

In other news, I pulled apart my 590K and resoldered the dry join that was causing its death, so it's back up and running now. I'll hold off for a while, at least until the D90xF comes out, before I get a new machine. After all, the 590 still plays crysis with all the fruit on, so it's not exactly past its prime just yet....

If anyone has any other suggestions, feel free to post 'em up!

[xanthian]

The macbook isn't even in the same league.. no enthusiast graphics card, no raid.. sure, it looks pretty, but it's no gaming machine. It's certainly not a gaming machine with a multi year life span...

That comes down to individual models.

The official macbook pro ships with a 512MB NVIDIA 8600M GT ; which is actually head and shoulders above average for a notebook, yet not hot enough to melt the plastic it's made of. But one of the guys I know bought a macbook back when geforce go chipsets had only just emerged; he had a Go-6800 in his system. This was pre-xps when the only real alternative was alienware, too. Yeah, his nice white macbook had some serious yellowing on the exhaust vents.

Sure, it's no 8800M in SLI like what you get on an xps, but it's also no 20 minute battery life either.

I can't actually seem to come up with specs on a clevo that are any higher than a 9300GS; what's the one that you're building got in it?

[DaveR6]

I don't really have an upper limit to my replacement budget as the gf will be salary packaging it. Having said that, I'm not going to pay a trillion dollars for a badge.

thats pretty generous of her company to pick up the fringe benefits tax bill!

[Parana]

I have a Toshiba Satellite Pro 200 and it is great.. I play WOW flat out and it has no lag or other issues even on a sunday night when half the world is on!!!. I also play Flight sim on it with all the frame rates turned up and all the options added and it flows very smoothly. Also has a 17 in screen which helps. I have had mine a year now with no issues what so ever and will def be getting another one in 2 or so years time.

My 2 cents.

Also DVD's show up great.. which helps with all the flying i do!

[xanthian]

You play WOW with no lag?

Like, you have your own wow server or something?