Author Topic: A good laptop for gaming?  (Read 6862 times)

Offline Gabriel2202

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A good laptop for gaming?
« on: 08 December 2013, 10:39 »
I'm new to pc gaming and have always used consoles - can anyone point me in the direction of a decent laptop that will play games like call of duty ghosts smoothly?

Looking around the £1000 mark - I've heard alienware are pretty good and it is easy to upgrade the hardware later on?

Cheers
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Offline Ridg

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Re: A good laptop for gaming?
« Reply #1 on: 08 December 2013, 11:38 »
Alienware are the best know brand for gaming laptops however they are all also probably the most overpriced.

MSI and razor do nice gaming laptops, gaming laptops are pretty much pointless though given the power drain for the gpu and cpu during gaming, which means you'll need to have it powered for more than an hours worth of play, you'll need fireproof trousers due to the heat they kickout, you'll want a proper mouse and keyboard to play comfortably.  The real reason they exist is so that you can pick them up, take them to LAN parties where you can plug them into a monitor, keyboard and power.

In terms of upgradability, you'll be able to increase the RAM and HDD but 9 times out of 10 the gpu won't be, given how good the cpu's are these days the gpu is the limiting factor in games, for example my cpu will sit around 25% usage whilst gaming, whilst the gpu will be at 80-90% as the graphics are the bottleneck these days, this means once your laptop gpu is outclassed by the game then it's a normal laptop.

unless you have a specific need for a laptop style machine, for gaming a desktop pc is always the best way to go, given how easy it is to upgrade and future proof them, as a guide you can build a pc with an equivalent spec to the ps4 and xbox one for £400-£500

Offline damien010685

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Re: A good laptop for gaming?
« Reply #2 on: 09 December 2013, 10:20 »
First thing is if your not intending on playing games outside the house and you have room for a desktop because for a grand you would get a serious rig for this!! laptop wise you will get Ok machines but they are not upgradeable like Desktops... Alienware Are utter sh!t mate seriously over priced!!

Offline The Mighty Elvi

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Re: A good laptop for gaming?
« Reply #3 on: 09 December 2013, 15:39 »
"Gaming laptop" is an oxymoron.

Don't waste your money. Seriously.

Buy a PC instead, and a PS Vita thingy instead

Offline Gabriel2202

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Re: A good laptop for gaming?
« Reply #4 on: 09 December 2013, 22:06 »
Thanks for the replies!

I understand that a desktop will get me a much better spec for a much lower price, however I'm constantly moving about for the next few years so wanted the ease of shoving a laptop in my bag rather than a desktop or ps3 & TV everytime - I know it seems lazy but figured that there may be some comparable laptops for gaming out there these days compared to a few years ago and I can have it plugged into mains, it's just for ease of transport and to replace my current laptop.

I have seen the MSI laptops and they look decent, nice and light, I'm just not clued up spec wise.

what figures should i be looking at when looking at the GPU's and CPU's? as in what does 2GB mean for a GPU? (sorry I know how amateur this sounds)

If it ends up that I'll have to spend much over a grand to get anything decent I won't be able to do it.
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Re: A good laptop for gaming?
« Reply #5 on: 09 December 2013, 23:01 »
Bought my other half a HP jobby for £500, it runs the current (ghosts,blops2 etc) games fine and probably will for the next 2 years or so.
A gaming laptop will be overpriced and still die just like all laptops do in a mist of smoke and tears :grin:
I would go for a docking station, cooler and a proper 24" screen if your going to do it + a good mouse and board (i use an xbox pad)
You could easily get a good set up for £750
My work laptop is a Dell precision and a bit of a beast, it runs solidworks and other design software with ease and does not over heat.
Cost in excess of £1800 and is starting to creak after 3 years, however it will never beat my desktop in feel and power :smiley:
just make sure you get a good net card and connection so you are not a laggy noob :grin:

Offline The Mighty Elvi

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Re: A good laptop for gaming?
« Reply #6 on: 10 December 2013, 11:16 »
Top tip.

Pick your favorite game, say... Battlefield 4, COD Ghosts.4

Look at the minimum spec required to run the game, and then look for a laptop better that that.

With gaming laptops the dedicated GPU is king. The higher spec the better otherwise the games wont run properly.




Offline Ridg

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Re: A good laptop for gaming?
« Reply #7 on: 10 December 2013, 11:26 »
if you want something you can move around easily, get a HTPC with a decent gpu a HTPC case can be as small as an apple tv (using built in gpu) upto the size of an AV reviver / amp

Offline Gabriel2202

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Re: A good laptop for gaming?
« Reply #8 on: 10 December 2013, 14:24 »
Bought my other half a HP jobby for £500, it runs the current (ghosts,blops2 etc) games fine and probably will for the next 2 years or so.
A gaming laptop will be overpriced and still die just like all laptops do in a mist of smoke and tears :grin:
I would go for a docking station, cooler and a proper 24" screen if your going to do it + a good mouse and board (i use an xbox pad)
You could easily get a good set up for £750
My work laptop is a Dell precision and a bit of a beast, it runs solidworks and other design software with ease and does not over heat.
Cost in excess of £1800 and is starting to creak after 3 years, however it will never beat my desktop in feel and power :smiley:
just make sure you get a good net card and connection so you are not a laggy noob :grin:

3 years!! :-( need it to last longer than that! Haha My current laptops 4-5 years old and runs solidworks - bit laggy as terrible renders but enough to do some smaller designs.

I have a work laptop for the boring stuff now but it's restricted as hell - Facebook, forums etc. So just need something to get my cod fix ;-) where did you get your hp?
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Offline Gabriel2202

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Re: A good laptop for gaming?
« Reply #9 on: 10 December 2013, 14:26 »
Top tip.

Pick your favorite game, say... Battlefield 4, COD Ghosts.4

Look at the minimum spec required to run the game, and then look for a laptop better that that.

With gaming laptops the dedicated GPU is king. The higher spec the better otherwise the games wont run properly.


Good idea, I'll look it up later and decide on a minimum spec!

In terms of htpc - won't I still need a tv? I like the idea of building one of those, although how badly I'm doing at choosing a ready built laptop suggests I probably shouldn't haha
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