I'm looking to buy myself a new gaming laptop and really don't want to touch Dell any more as their products seem to be getting worse - the XPS I'm using has survived 4 years and still works okay, just not great for newer games, while the Inspiron 17R that's 2 years old has now gone through 2 hard-drives. I was wondering if anyone knew anything much about what's really good for a laptop and what's not worth it. Also if there are any recommendable brands or websites to use. Budget-wise I can't really go much over £1000 (~$1660/~AU$1780) so I'm trying to make do without SSDs. I did cost up a laptop on PC Specialist which is below and shows roughly the sort of specs I'm after and comes in at £1033. Would appreciate any advice you guys can give me! PS: Don't even mention Alienware because Dell.
To your PS, I say: Alienware may be owned by Dell but it doesn't necessarily mean they are as bad as Dell... It's bad enough you're looking for a "gaming laptop" for that price range, Alienware/CyberPower probably are the best places to look. Aside from that I say... Desktop. You're throwing money away on a "gaming laptop."
I would love to just get a tower but I regularly go to friends' places to play, I travel a lot for work and such, and I have nowhere I can really put a desktop as there is no space in my room for a desk and chair. Once I'm in a more permanent place (like my own flat) I'll definitely be looking to get myself a proper PC but until then there's just no point. And as for budget, that's kind of hard to change as that comes to 2-3 weeks pay (after tax) depending on how many days I work and normally just rent is one week so I like to keep some money in the account for other stuff...like you know...food. However your CyberPower suggestion is looking tempting. Can get a comparable laptop seemingly for less than £900: Product Name: Fangbook Evo HX6-100 Next Day Price: £825.00 ______________________________________________________________________ *BASE_PRICE:[+721] ADAPTER:Full Range AC adapter 180W, AC in 100~240V ~ 2.5A 50~60Hz, DC output 19.5V, 9.5A BAGS:NONE BATTERY:6-Cells Lithium-Ion battery pack 11.1Vdc 4400mAh 49Wh BLUETOOTH:Built-in Bluetooth CD:8X DVD±R/RW/4X + DL Super-Multi Drive CPU:INTEL® Core™ i7-4810MQ Mobile Processor 2.80 GHz 6M Smart Cache, Max Turbo Freq. 3.80 GHz FLASHMEDIA:Built-In 2in1 Media Reader FREEBIE_VC1:FREE Borderlands The Pre-Sequel [+0] FREEBIE_VC2:FREE Free2Play £90 In-Game Credit for Warface, Heroes of Newerth and Path of Exile [+0] HDD:1TB Seagate Momentus XT Sata6Gbs 64MB Cache Hybrid Hard Drive w/ 8GB SSD Caching [+37] HDMI:Built-in HDMI Port INSURANCE:NONE KEYBOARD:Built-in 15.6" UK Full Size Keyboard w/ Red Backlight MEMORY:16GB (8GBx2) DDR3-1600 SODIMM Memory [+67] (Kingston or Crucial) MONITOR:NONE MOTHERBOARD:Mobile INTEL HM87 Express Chipset Mainboard MOUSE:Built In Multi-Touch Pad MSSD:None NETWORK:Killer E2200 10/100/1000 Mbps Gaming Network Card NOTEBOOK:CyberPowerPC FANGBOOK EVO 15.6" FHD LED-Backlit 1920x1080 Display w/ Red backlit performance keyboard with programmable keys, Built-in 720p HD webcam, HDMI Port, Li-Ion Battery, & Universal AC Adapter NOTEBOOK_COVER:Fangbook EVO HX6 Cover OS:Microsoft® Windows 8.1 (64-bit Edition) RUSH:Fast Track Service !!! Ready to Ship in Next Day with no Overclocking Service SOUND:Supreme HD Audio w/ THX True Studio Pro Technology SPEAKERS: Premium Stereo Speaker System TABLET:None UPS:None USB:Built-in 2x USB2.0 Ports + 2x USB3.0 Ports VIDEO:NVIDIA GTX 860M 2GB PCIe Video WAP:NONE WARRANTY:LAPTOP STANDARD WARRANTY: 1 Year Labour, 1 Year Parts, 1 Month Collect and Return plus Life-Time Technical Support WEBCAM1:Built-in HD Webcam [+0] WNC:Standard AW (WLAN802.11a/b/g/n + Bluetooth4.0) Wireless Combo Card Module XWNA:NONE
Ouch. Yeah, if you can't really sit down and enjoy a desktop that makes it more difficult. But CyberPower is pretty good - though I might recommend looking at their Fangbook Evo HX7-400 and seeing if you can squeeze in the GTX 870M at all. It gives a bit more power so games are at least more playable on higher settings at 1920x1080.
Hmm, seems the HX7-400 only allows me to buy it with an AMD Radeon HD R9 M290X graphics card. I'll see if the HX6 I was looking at can take the GTX 870M, might not be so much extra. EDIT: Nope, seems to me that they all only have the one option for dedicated GPU. That one only allows the GTX 860M.
Huh, that's weird. US site version and UK version must have different options - it gave me the choice of the R9 M290X, 870M, and 880M. R9 M290X seems to be getting similar FPS as the 860M which isn't necessarily bad or even terrible, but cranking things up and running it at 1920x1080 would be a challenge. If you spot any of the models with the 870M though, definitely shoot for it if possible.
Will look around. Got to make the pounds stretch to something halfway decent at least. Meanwhile I just opened up the Inspiron to clean it having realised it's not been cleaned since the day it arrived. Also plugged in my spare 320GB HDD to check that the machine itself is fine and it's just the hard-drive that's the issue (which diagnostics have indicated). It's currently running Windows repair as the last time it was plugged in to something was my way old laptop that proper died when it fell off my bed (I'm not going to explain what was happening on the bed that would be weird). It's repairing Windows Vista and it's making me laugh. Anyway, here's the filth I removed from between the fan and the exhaust port, pure thick dust which explains the overheating:
Currently using an Ubuntu USB boot to move all the files off my 320GB internal HDD so I can do a fresh Windows install on that to keep the laptop in use...at least it can be used for work even if I can't save a load of games etc in it. Hopefully by the end of the week I will be in possession of three working laptops...
Alas too late! I went for a CyberPower laptop in the end after @Supplice suggested it. Minecraft at 300fps is silly but still worth it for other games. I'll paste the specs here for you though: Fangbook Evo HX6-100 - NOTEBOOK: CyberPowerPC FANGBOOK EVO 15.6" FHD LED-Backlit 1920x1080 Display w/ Red backlit performance keyboard with programmable keys CPU: INTEL(R) Core™ i7-4810MQ Mobile Processor 2.80 GHz 6M Smart Cache, Max Turbo Freq. 3.80 GHz HDD: 1TB Seagate Momentus XT Sata6Gbs 64MB Cache Hybrid Hard Drive w/ 8GB SSD Caching MEMORY: 16GB (8GBx2) DDR3-1600 SODIMM Memory MOTHERBOARD: Mobile INTEL HM87 Express Chipset Mainboard VIDEO: NVIDIA GTX 860M 2GB PCIe Video That's the interesting stuff, can always grab more deets if you're super curious. Actually got a smaller laptop for once. So light!
