17 replies to this topic

[Comm Pic]

So most of my gaming is done away from home and carting a desktop that is in a rosewill thor v2 is not a possibility.

So onto the point of post.

I need a laptop. My spending limit is $1300. Looking at MSI or ASUS ROG. Really would like a SSD or the option to put one in without voiding the warranty(this is an issue I have read alot about). It is primarily going to be gaming so massive storage is not an issue. I play MWO and EVE online plus a few other games. I believe MWO is the most graphic intensive that I play.
Most be a 17" monitor.

Any and all ideas appreciated.

[cSand]

OK I laptop gamed for many, many years until very recently, so I can provide some advice.

MSI is good, but looks cheesey in my opinion. Build quality is good but not amazing. Support from them was very good.

ASUS is also good, looks less ridiculous, slightly better build quality, but overpriced for what you get IMO.



SAGER is where you want to be at. Per dollar is the best money you will spend. Service was good the one time I had to deal with it.

At a $1300 limit, I will direct you here, the Sager NP8671:

http://www.sagernote...ook-NP8671.html
http://www.xoticpc.c...?wconfigure=yes

i7 4720mq, 8GB RAM, 970m

Will max out MWO no problem.

Don't pay attention to the retail price on the official site, you will find it much cheaper at other stores.

I had a 2013 model (8265-S), was a 15.6", with the AMD 8970m instead. This is by far the best laptop I have owned and cost less for the spec than any competition I could find. Build quality on the Sagers is through the roof, they look good (you won't be embarrased to pull this thing out somewhere, like in a meeting for work or w/e).
I also found the quality of the display to be much better than most of the other laptops I've used.
All internals are easily accessed by a giant panel on the bottom so very easy to service + clean.

I don't work for Sager or anything, this is just my opinion after years of using various laptops (Dell, MSI, Sager, ASUS, Lenovo) for everything (but mostly gaming, haha). Of all the laptops, Sager came out on top by a huge margin. Was very impressed when I got it.

Anyways, hope that helps you out some.

Edited by cSand, 07 February 2015 - 02:14 PM.

[xWiredx]

I've got a Gigabyte P25W V2 with an i7 4710MQ and GTX 870M 3GB. It does pretty well. Grab something off of Xoticpc this powerful or better and you'll be pretty happy.

[Lord Letto]

from the Egg: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16834233059
GIGABYTE P35Wv2-SP1 for $1250
i7 4710HQ (2.5GHz Quad Core with 3.5GHz Max Turbo)
8GB DDR3, 1TB HDD+128GB SSD
GTX 870M 6GB GDDR5 VRAM
15.6" 1080P Screen
Windows 8.1
DVD Drive
2 Year Warranty

[xWiredx]

Lord Letto, on 07 February 2015 - 04:18 PM, said:

from the Egg: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16834233059
GIGABYTE P35Wv2-SP1 for $1250
i7 4710HQ (2.5GHz Quad Core with 3.5GHz Max Turbo)
8GB DDR3, 1TB HDD+128GB SSD
GTX 870M 6GB GDDR5 VRAM
15.6" 1080P Screen
Windows 8.1
DVD Drive
2 Year Warranty

OP can get better than that in his price range, and he wanted 17... http://www.xoticpc.c...0se-p-7799.html

17.3" FHD Matte
NVIDIA® GTX 970M [3GB]
Intel® i7-4720HQ
Up to 32GB RAM
1TB Hard Drive

The SSD won't really matter. The slightly stronger CPU and way stronger GPU in this build will be better for gaming.

[LT. HARDCASE]

Came to recommend the Sager NP8671.

You can add your own SSD, with no risk of voiding the warranty.

[Vassago Rain]

Sager or bust.
MSI is similar, but not as good.

If you can't afford either, and they are both pretty expensive, you can usually find some equivalent acer, but acer laptops are made from the cheapest parts possible, so are guaranteed to suffer wear and tear.

[Lord Letto]

Missed the part about wanting 17", so $1300 for a 17" Laptop with SSD: http://www.newegg.co...N82E16834314681
Acer Aspire V17 Nitro Black Edition VN7-791G-77JJ for $1310 ($10 over Budget)
i7 4710HQ (2.5GHz Quad Core with 3.5GHz Max Turbo)
16GB DDR3 (2x8GB), 1TB 5400RPM HDD+256GB SSD
GTX 860M 2GB VRAM
17.3" 1080P IPS Screen
Windows 8.1 64 Bit
DVD Drive
2 Year Warranty

That Sager NP8671 is right at his budget so he can't have a SSD like he wants and only Single Channel RAM (1x8GB). if he were to get one for that budget from xoticpc I'd say go with this: http://www.xoticpc.c...?wconfigure=yes
GIGABYTE P27Gv2-CF2 for $1200
17.3" 1080P Matte Anti-Glare Ultra Bright Screen
i7-4810MQ (2.8GHz Quad Core, 3.8GHz Max Turbo)
GTX 860M 2GB GDDR5 VRAM
16GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM (2x8GB)
128GB mSATA SSD Stock
1TB 7200RPM SATA III 6GB/s HDD
DVD Drive
Windows 8.1 64 Bit

he would have $100 to play with for Upgrades/extended Warranty.

Edited by Lord Letto, 07 February 2015 - 05:53 PM.

[LT. HARDCASE]

The SSD is not worth going from a GTX 970M to a GTX 860M. The former is literally 2x as fast.

When buying gaming laptops, you blow the majority of the budget on the GPU, other upgrades be damned.

Save up for an SSD later. That's a lot cheaper than trying to upgrade the mobile GPU, down the line.

Edited by Kevjack, 07 February 2015 - 06:42 PM.

[Catamount]

I know someone who runs a slightly older version of the initially recommended Sager, with a 4710MQ and 870M. He runs MWO very well at basically max settings and 1080P, though cfg changes were required to get the most of it. He's a fairly serious player, too, big drop leader in Marik CW, so performance matters quite a bit to him.

Edited by Catamount, 07 February 2015 - 06:55 PM.

[Vassago Rain]

Catamount, on 07 February 2015 - 06:54 PM, said:

I know someone who runs a slightly older version of the initially recommended Sager, with a 4710MQ and 870M. He runs MWO very well at basically max settings and 1080P, though cfg changes were required to get the most of it. He's a fairly serious player, too, big drop leader in Marik CW, so performance matters quite a bit to him.

MWO doesn't run well on any hardware, so is not a good benchmark. Most laptops in the 500+ range will run the game, so there's no need to splurge thousands extra for the sake of MWO.

[Strykewolf]

I use an ASUS G73 series ROG; 17". Replaced the HD with an SSD when the HD took a dive. It's right at 3 years old. Was just over 1k new.

I can run the game high settings but, tend to run on medium with some options on low to cut resource usage/heat generation/increase FPS.

Newer ASUS systems will probable handle things even better than mine does. I game a lot; War Thunder, World of Tanks, MechWarrior, among others. Out of all the games I play, for some reason MechWarrior uses the most resources, especially vid-card wise, out of any of them.

Edited by Strykewolf, 07 February 2015 - 07:41 PM.

[xWiredx]

When it comes to getting a gaming laptop, the rule is this: make sure it has the screen, CPU and GPU you want, then skimp on everything else (assuming you can use a screwdriver and don't do hulk-smash on your machine). My Gigabyte, just like most Sagers (and probably most other higher-end laptops), has a single panel to take off the bottom to get to the RAM, mini PCIe, and msata/m.2 slots. When you buy the machine with upgrades, you definitely get charged more for the part than just getting it off the web and installing it yourself (usually it's anywhere between a $20-100 premium depending on the upgrade). Do research before purchasing to ensure that the upgrades you want to perform are possible, and you're fine.

[Catamount]

Vassago Rain, on 07 February 2015 - 07:01 PM, said:

MWO doesn't run well on any hardware, so is not a good benchmark. Most laptops in the 500+ range will run the game, so there's no need to splurge thousands extra for the sake of MWO.

That's silly. MWO may not run well on any hardware compared to many games, sure, but there is a vast, vast, vast disparity in how well the game runs between less powerful and more powerful hardware. In other words, it's quite a good benchmark. You know what else makes it a good benchmark? The fact that it's the very same ******* game that these forums happen to regard, and what people are generally asking to buy hardware for, and that's exactly what's being asked for here.

I don't care whether you think it's "worthwhile" spending the money required to run MWO reasonably (at least 30s and 40s instead of 20s or lower), something that hardly requires "spending thousands of dollars". The machine I'm referencing cost the person I was referencing around $1500 with lots of extra (chiefly a pair of SSDs). Guess what? The OP doesn't care either. He came on here asking for a good machine with MWO specifically in mind, with a budget to get the kind of machine being recommended, rendering your entire opinion, and the entirely made up numbers behind it, entirely moot.

If you can show me a $500 laptop that runs the game in any fashion even beginning to approach what the OP could do with an i7 and a 970M, then have at it.

Edited by Catamount, 07 February 2015 - 08:35 PM.

[cSand]

Vassago Rain, on 07 February 2015 - 05:43 PM, said:

Sager or bust.
MSI is similar, but not as good.

If you can't afford either, and they are both pretty expensive, you can usually find some equivalent acer, but acer laptops are made from the cheapest parts possible, so are guaranteed to suffer wear and tear.

Additionally with Acer... believe me, I've dealt with their warranty

I guess if you're into S&M it might appeal to you in some way

xWiredx, on 07 February 2015 - 07:42 PM, said:

When you buy the machine with upgrades, you definitely get charged more for the part than just getting it off the web and installing it yourself

This.

Get only necessary parts.. get the rest of NCIX or your store of choice and use the savings to buy a decent cooling pad for when you're at home

ALso.. if you have to sacrifice the SSD and buy it later. Or order it w/o a hard drive and buy your SSD separately. But don't skimp on the CPU/GPU!

8GB RAM is more than enough as well.

Edited by cSand, 07 February 2015 - 08:44 PM.

[Musashi Alexander]

Hi OP.

I recently upgraded my 3 year old laptop which could barely cope with MWO (massive throttling, heat issues, 30-40fps max with dips into low teens). After much consideration I bought an Asus ROG G751JY T7009H
http://www.overclock...rodid=LT-206-AS

ASUS ROG G751JY-T7009H - 17.3" FHD LED / i7-4710HQ / Nvidia GTX980 4G / 24G / 1TB 7200 + 256G SSD


Tweren't cheap and I deliberated between several other options including build your own, build it for you, MSI, and other brands. Also deliberated between GTX970m and GTX980m.

I bought the Asus anyway and can only say, it's a beast of a machine. I was hoping for a steady 40-60fps on very high settings for MWO but I'm getting 100fps+. And there's no heat really...it runs real cool. Sound isn't as superb as you'd want and it's big and heavy. But if you want top MWO performance on a laptop, look no further.

Good luck

[Oderint dum Metuant]

The Asus RoG series are solid gaming laptops

[xWiredx]

Traveling for business and just played my first actual match on my laptop.

Specs: i7 4710MQ, GTX 870M 3GB, 16GB DDR3-1600 CL9, 1TB 7200RPM WD HDD
Settings: Everything on high (particles, shadows on medium, texturing on very high), 1080p, AA off

Vsync is on, and I stayed at 60fps most of the time. I had some dips, the lowest I noticed was 53fps. There might have been a couple slightly lower, but I never had any drastic dips. I never did get into a ton of action (I was in a t-bolt on conquest mode), but I did get 1 kill and 3 assists. The map was Terra Therma.

My biggest issue: my Razer Orochi is a little small for me to be comfortable with it yet. I just got it and this is the first time I've used it. I'm sure that will change with time.