Laptop Suggestions

[Halius]

Hey all, so here I am now with 3 kids (soon to be 4), full time job, and school. I just don't have the time I used to, to just sit down and game for an extensive amount of time. I know for a cost to performance ratio an actual computer is always better and if I could I would prefer to build my own computer as I have in the past but that really isn't feasible anymore. Anyways, to the main point I am looking at gaming laptops, obviously if I was just playing P99 your low end budget laptop would be fine, but I play other games that I would like to enjoy. FFXIV for instance runs on my current laptop but at low settings and even then it is about 20-35fps. I would like to try newer games like Archaege but I doubt my current laptop could handle it. Also I can't afford anything really over $1,100 or so. So I have a couple I have been looking at, and was just wondering what you all think and if you have any other suggestions, maybe some less noticable brands I may have missed. Thanks for any feedback.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834317890

or

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232122

[Arkaan]

Main thing to look for on a gaming laptop is GPU (http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php) and CPU (http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php).

For a laptop I would also get an SSD. Even if it doesn't come with one originally.

Keep in mind that high performance laptops will either have a crappy battery life, or a huge, heavy battery. It's a trade off.

So many laptops will have ultra low power CPU's designed to preserve battery life. You will likely have to sift through many of these before finding one with a decent benchmark.

[loramin]

Arkaan's comments are 100% correct, but since I've recently been shopping for a gaming laptop myself I thought I'd add a few things.

First, for a gaming machine (as Arkaan said) the most important things to consider are the GPU and CPU. RAM also matters a little, but 8GB (which most laptops will have) should be plenty unless you're doing non-gaming stuff with the machine like serious Photoshop or programming.

CPU is easy to figure out: you just want higher numbers. Let's say you're going Intel: you want an i7 over an i5 if possible, and then within the i7s there are various ghz, and you want the highest you can get (although really the exact amount of ghz isn't that important, so don't sweat that as much).

Graphics cards are trickier though, because there are so many of them out there. Luckily this page takes all the work out of understanding them for you:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.130.0.html

It has every card you might want to consider ordered by power, so all you have to do is just get the highest one on the list that you can afford.

One last thing to consider: hard drive speed. Hard drive's basically come in three flavors these days: 5400rpm, 7200rom, and SSD. This won't affect your gaming as much, but it will matter for how fast your computer can start up, and how fast you can read/write data to your hard drive, so if possible you want an SSD, and if not a 7200rpm one.

Next up, if you want to get the most bang for your buck, you'll want to find a deal. I do this in two ways: first, I check sites like Amazon.com, Newegg.com, and TigerDirect.com every day or so, looking for deals. Second (and this is the more important one if you really want a good deal) I check Techbargains.com daily. That site finds all sorts of coupons and deals, and using it can literally save you hundreds of dollars.

Oh, I also check Google Shopping, but be careful: there are scam companies that list on there, and they'll try to get you to do sketchy things like pay for your computer using an Amazon gift card. So, while you might find a legit deal there, just be skeptical, and if a too-good-to-be-true deal doesn't seem to be legit, it probably isn't.

As for the two computers you mentioned, they are fairly similar, and both have the exact same graphics card. But if you look carefully and follow what I said you'll notice that the Asus has ...


a 7200rpm hard drive (vs. the Lenovo's 5400rpm)
an i7 CPU (vs. the Lenovo's i5); the Asus actually has slightly less ghz, but as I said the ghz don't matter as much as the CPU type
16GB of RAM (vs. the Lenovo's 8GB); as I said 8GB is probably all you'll need, but that 16GB might come in handy someday

So the Asus seems like the winner to me. But before you pick either one, I'd strongly recommend checking the sites I mentioned (especially Techbargains.com) for a few days, and compare what you find to the Asus. You might even want to create a spreadsheet (I did).

Hope that helps.

P.S. Oh, I almost forgot: weight. Personally I consider tech specs more important, but depending on how much you plan to carry the laptop around weight might actually be a bigger issue for you.

[Pokesan]

it would be good if you spent the money on your children instead of video games

just IMO

[Halius]

Arkaan's comments are 100% correct, but since I've recently been shopping for a gaming laptop myself I thought I'd add a few things.

First, for a gaming machine (as Arkaan said) the most important things to consider are the GPU and CPU. RAM also matters a little, but 8GB (which most laptops will have) should be plenty unless you're doing non-gaming stuff with the machine like serious Photoshop or programming.

CPU is easy to figure out: you just want higher numbers. Let's say you're going Intel: you want an i7 over an i5 if possible, and then within the i7s there are various ghz, and you want the highest you can get (although really the exact amount of ghz isn't that important, so don't sweat that as much).

Graphics cards are trickier though, because there are so many of them out there. Luckily this page takes all the work out of understanding them for you:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.130.0.html

It has every card you might want to consider ordered by power, so all you have to do is just get the highest one on the list that you can afford.

One last thing to consider: hard drive speed. Hard drive's basically come in three flavors these days: 5400rpm, 7200rom, and SSD. This won't affect your gaming as much, but it will matter for how fast your computer can start up, and how fast you can read/write data to your hard drive, so if possible you want an SSD, and if not a 7200rpm one.

Next up, if you want to get the most bang for your buck, you'll want to find a deal. I do this in two ways: first, I check sites like Amazon.com, Newegg.com, and TigerDirect.com every day or so, looking for deals. Second (and this is the more important one if you really want a good deal) I check Techbargains.com daily. That site finds all sorts of coupons and deals, and using it can literally save you hundreds of dollars.

Oh, I also check Google Shopping, but be careful: there are scam companies that list on there, and they'll try to get you to do sketchy things like pay for your computer using an Amazon gift card. So, while you might find a legit deal there, just be skeptical, and if a too-good-to-be-true deal doesn't seem to be legit, it probably isn't.

As for the two computers you mentioned, they are fairly similar, and both have the exact same graphics card. But if you look carefully and follow what I said you'll notice that the Asus has ...


a 7200rpm hard drive (vs. the Lenovo's 5400rpm)
an i7 CPU (vs. the Lenovo's i5); the Asus actually has slightly less ghz, but as I said the ghz don't matter as much as the CPU type
16GB of RAM (vs. the Lenovo's 8GB); as I said 8GB is probably all you'll need, but that 16GB might come in handy someday

So the Asus seems like the winner to me. But before you pick either one, I'd strongly recommend checking the sites I mentioned (especially Techbargains.com) for a few days, and compare what you find to the Asus. You might even want to create a spreadsheet (I did).

Hope that helps.

P.S. Oh, I almost forgot: weight. Personally I consider tech specs more important, but depending on how much you plan to carry the laptop around weight might actually be a bigger issue for you.

Awesome, thank you both for all the advice. I know what I need when it comes to building PCs but laptops I am less sure on what is the most important so thank you. I don't check tigerdirect often and usually I find amazon to be more expensive than newegg (just my personal experience) but I will definitely check out techbargains. The only reason I listed the Lenovo was to save a little money, do you think the extra $200 for the Asus would be worth the upgrade from i5 to i7 and double the RAM?

[Halius]

it would be good if you spent the money on your children instead of video games

just IMO

Lol, I appreciate this insightful response. I wouldn't be spending this money on a laptop if I didn't already have enough to provide for my children. Despite what you may think, as a parent you can still enjoy some material things.

Also, there is a reason I am only level 33 after more than a year of being on this server. My children come first, I don't spend all my time playing video games, it's a way to enjoy my nights when they are asleep.

[lawll]

I tend to find that most windows based laptops are very cheaply made with plastic that bends easy. You think if your strapped for time most of the gaming would be done at home since most busy parents wouldn't have time for mobile gaming but to each his own. IMO i would look into building a small itx gaming rig and go from there. I just don't see how using a laptop for gaming is going to make anything faster for you other then if you like to pull out your laptop at work and start playing games. Most games your going to want a mouse (playing a mmo with a touchpad is a nightmare).

If you like to game on the couch as your kids play. You will still need a table for the mouse and so a super hot laptop isn't sitting on your lap. So now whenever you game you need to spend 5-10 minutes setting up a spot for everything and having a AC adapter going across the room. And gaming on the go isn't really much of a option since you going to cut battery life in half by being under load. Your not going to be very happy with a windows base gaming laptop for under 1k. And anything that is small / powerful is going to be around 2-3k. And it's still pretty much just a mobile desktop since whenever you game you need the AC adapter plugged in for full hardware power and a mouse. Build the ITX gaming rig and get a 3ds for on the go.

[lawll]

So many laptops will have ultra low power CPU's designed to preserve battery life. You will likely have to sift through many of these before finding one with a decent benchmark.

When under load the CPU will pickup and use a lot more power to turbo boost the clock speed (intel). The main problem is battery life and how hot is going to get under load. Since anything under 1k isn't designed to efficiently cool down the laptop when it's under load for an hour. And battery life takes the backseat when running under full load.

[loramin]

Awesome, thank you both for all the advice. I know what I need when it comes to building PCs but laptops I am less sure on what is the most important so thank you. I don't check tigerdirect often and usually I find amazon to be more expensive than newegg (just my personal experience) but I will definitely check out techbargains. The only reason I listed the Lenovo was to save a little money, do you think the extra $200 for the Asus would be worth the upgrade from i5 to i7 and double the RAM?

It's hard to say for sure. As I said, the RAM isn't as important for gaming (unless you also plan to run a browser, word, maybe photoshop, etc. while you are gaming), so I wouldn't worry about that. As for the CPU, this page compares the two processors, and while it's clear that the i7 is better, it's not clear that it's that much better:

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4200H-vs-Intel-4710HQ

So, what it amounts to is spending the $200 now might give your laptop another half a year of life (ie. it might be able to run one game in the future that the i5 can't). Then again, it might never be relevant: the graphics card might become the limiting factor first. All I can really say is, the i7 will likely let you have *slightly* better game performance. Throw in the faster hard drive and you'll also get slightly faster startup time and slightly faster read/write of data. Whether that's worth $200 is up to you, but if money is tight I'd think you could do ok with the Lenovo.

What I'd really suggest though is spending a couple weeks on Techbargains.com and checking other sites. My bet is that if you do that you'll find a computer equal to or better than the Asus, for the price of the Lenovo or cheaper :)

[lawll]

I'd only get an i7 if you want to overclock at some point. Other then that the i5 is perfect for most apps and most apps don't even support i7s hyperthreading. The GPU and hdd at this point with hardware will be the bottlenecks for your system.