Buying laptop for College

Softtissue

Baseband Member
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Ok so I have about 1,800 dollars to spend. (excluding the service and accident protection etc.) I was wondering the best laptop for gaming that I can buy with this money. Atm, it looks like my best bets are Dell XPS and an Asus any thoughts?

By the way i am ordering tonight so I kinda need some help :D
 
Easiest way to help us find you the best laptop for you is to answer all these questions -
1) What is your budget?

2) What size notebook would you prefer?

a. Ultraportable; 12" screen or less
b. Thin and Light; 13" - 14" screen
c. Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen
d. Desktop Replacement; 17"+ screen

3) Please select your country's flag as a post icon and tell us what country are you buying this in.

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?

5) What tasks will you be performing with the notebook?

6) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places or leaving it on your desk?

7) Will you be playing games on it; if so, which games?

8) How many hours of battery life do you need?

9) Do you mind buying online without seeing the notebook in person?

10) What OS do you prefer? Windows (XP or Vista), Mac OS, Linux, etc.

Screen Specifics

11) Would you prefer standard or widescreen?

12) From the choices below, what screen resolutions would you prefer?

Standard
a. XGA -1024x768 - Large and easy to read text + graphics icons, but you fit less stuff on the screen.
b. SXGA - 1400x1050 - Compromise resolution between XGA and UXGA.
c. UXGA - 1600x1200 - Very small text and graphics icons, you can fit lots of stuff on the screen.

Widescreen
d. WXGA or WXGA+ - 1280x768/800 or 1440x900; Wider viewing version of XGA, good for movie viewing or spreadsheets.
e. WSXGA+ - 1680x1050; Wider viewing version of SXGA, good for movie viewing or spreadsheets.
f. WUXGA - 1920x1200; Wider viewing version of UXGA, good for movie viewing or spreadsheets.

13) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen?

Build Quality and Design

14) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?

15) When are you buying this laptop and how long do you want this laptop to last?

Notebook Components

16) How much hard drive space do you want; 40GB to 200GB?

17) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a DVD-ROM, DVD-CD/RW or DVD-RW drive?
 
I live in the US, and am looking for purely a gaming laptop

As far as screen size goes, 13-15 inches is prime.

I was looking at the XPS M13 series but it looksl ike the graphics card is kinda out dated. The asus looks like the best bet for the money right now.

Any other thoughts?
 
Either of those he posted looks good. Im actaully looking at them now. I have been needing a new laptop too
 
OK
Here's some benchmarks on the different GPU's from this site which look reasonable:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9700M-GT.9454.0.html

And if you want a pure gaming purpose laptop then you might want to get a Sager. Right now there the best prices and up to date laptop's I have seen. And you can customize them.
For a 15 inch gaming computer I would go with this:
http://www.sagernotebook.com/product_customed.php?pid=90599&action=customize
It's small and has a power house of a 9800M GTS. The only notebooks that have the 9800M's are Sager's right now.
If you wanted a extreme power house of a gaming laptop I would sacrifice the compactness of the laptop and get this 17 inch monster:
http://www.sagernotebook.com/product_customed.php?pid=51114&action=customize
If you get that now you can save FIVE HUNDRED dollars on a special promo which is insane. A 2200 dollar Laptop for 1800 Dollars?

If I had the money, I would buy that 17 inch right away. Sadly I don't. :(
Not that well familiar with Sager but I'm looking for reviews right now.

Looks like a great company and found a great looking review here:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4590
 
Easiest way to help us find you the best laptop for you is to answer....

You should always give credit where credit is due.

OK
Here's some benchmarks on the different GPU's from this site which look reasonable:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-9700M-GT.9454.0.html

Looks like a great company and found a great looking review here:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4590

I suggest you stay with ATI for now.
http://investorvillage.com/smbd.asp?mb=476&mn=98191&pt=msg&mid=5130975
 
I would love to and that link there makes me want to even more but from a bit of searching I found TWO notebooks with a ATI Gaming GPU in them; The OCZ White Book and the CyberPower Gamer Xtreme M1.
Links:
CyberPower Gamer Xtreme M1 - $2300
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Gamer_Xtreme_M1/
OCZ Whitebook - $1800 Standard (No customizations)
http://www.xoticpc.com/force-extreme-built-arima-w840-p-2495.html?wconfigure=yes

There both pretty good build's but I really like the Sager ones too. I would have a hard choice. I'll look up benchmarks later.
 
Personally I would like to stay with a Nvidia.

I also looked up Sager on the BBB and they have an F rating, so I think I will pass on that one.

Any more suggestions? I am ordering one tonight.

A lil more information, I would LIKE a 13" screen but 15" is fine or 14. Currently my desktop is running

E6850
8800gt
asus p5k
120 gb 10,000 rpm hd

So basically, I would like to buy a laptop equivalent or a little bit less powerful than that. (I am selling my desktop cause I barely use it since I'm always on the move)

I ended up getting the M1330 from Dell, they have the 30 percent off right now so I saved around 500 bucks. Pretty good deal I might say. I decided I needed the portability of the smaller screen, adding I know it wont compare to my desktop, but I am using my computer less and less for gaming, and using my 360/ps3 more and more.
 
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