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General => General discussion => Topic started by: Gabriel2202 on 08 December 2013, 10:39
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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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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
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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!!
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"Gaming laptop" is an oxymoron.
Don't waste your money. Seriously.
Buy a PC instead, and a PS Vita thingy instead
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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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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:
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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.
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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
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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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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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I bought mine from PC specialist a couple of years ago. Spent £2k and it still plays games like Skyrim and Dishonored at max settings. £1k is too little IMO.
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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?
Got it from PC world, normally steer clear of them for myself but for what she uses it for its fine.
I find laptops start to really go down hill after about two years, a new battery a wipe and a hoover out extends this a bit but they normally start to glitch out at this age.
look on scan or overclockers for a good buy any time but especially this time of year, they still offer W7 which is better than the shocking W8 imo
My work laptop is built for solidworks and rocks it good, has a magnesium case and just about everything else bolted on.
Weighs a ton mind and I have to hump it around everywhere, Easyjet count it as luggage :laugh:
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This isn't looking like a good starter then! Don't wanna pay A grand for two years of play....
This may sound like a dumb question, but with a desktop can you change individual components like the processor and gpu as and when you need to update them? Or would that mean changing other components in the system at the same time to support them?
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http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-098-MS&groupid=959&catid=1828
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This may sound like a dumb question, but with a desktop can you change individual components like the processor and gpu as and when you need to update them? Or would that mean changing other components in the system at the same time to support them?
Yes although it depends on what you buy. If you buy the last gen of a motherboard and then find the latest processor and graphics card won't be supported, you'll have to replace the motherboard. The advantage of a desktop is that you can upgrade individual parts as and when required, so you can upgrade the RAM one year, the graphics card the next, the CPU thereafter etc until you've reached the limit of the technology, then get a new motherboard and start all over again.
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I had a look at that gx70, and the ge70 but reviews say that the CPU and gpu don't work well together on the gx70 and the gpu isn't too great on the ge70.
I don't think I'm gonna go for a laptop, everyone here seems to agree that it's quite and investment for limited use before it's outdated! Looks like ill stick to the old ps3 and work laptop for now and when I stop moving around with work I'll invest in a desktop.
Thanks for everyone's advice! Greatly appreciated - Looks like you saved me a grand ;-)
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Well, my super Dell died a black screen death and I now have to hump it back from Switzerland to see if I can save my data......
It says the hard drive is not connected lol, at least that means my holiday starts today
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lenova ideapad, y850 is what i have i think
ran the onboard blueray player to my second monitor whilst playing battlefield 4 and running a full system scan in the background, didnt miss a beat
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Avoid Alienware like the plague if you want a good gaming laptop for a grand, alienware make good PCs and laptops granted but they are taxxed to high hell. I agree with what a few others have already said, you'll be far better off with a PC, if you cannot use a PC then MSI is probs the best bet for gaming laptops