14 replies to this topic

[Leafia Barrett]

Just to stop these comments before they start:
No I can't get a desktop, I need something I can take with me to school for schoolwork as well as use as a gaming rig. Do not suggest getting a desktop.
Anywho...

I'm looking to purchase a laptop (or have one custom-built) capable of handling MWO and similar games on at least medium graphics, if not higher. Any suggestions? In particular, what graphics card and CPU should I get? Will 8GB RAM be enough or should I go for 16?

[Caswallon]

My Wife plays MWO acceptably (its OK not great) on her Laptop which is a Gateway NV52L She gets 45 fps under light load with dips to 20 under LRM apocalypse situations, that son Low settings 1280 x 800 full windowed mode. This LT cost us in a clearance $315 at Microcenter if that helps. I upgraded the 4 Gb Ram to 8 Gb a month after we bought it and that helped a bit too. It runs Win 8.1 its main drawback is the shared video mem so she has 7.5 gb for system and 512mb foir vid mem which is less than ideal but thems the breaks. Look for a LT with 1gb dedicated Vid ram and 8+ System certainly.

I'd like to see how other lap tops compare and see if the wiser Techs than I had recommendations and stuff for the future.

As a possible help to you also add Razors Game booster to your machine. We tried it on her LT & my desk top and each gotand got about an extra 5-6 fps + we can make videos of the game play Hehehe.

Where in the world are you? US or EU or....? If I see an equivalent model to the missus's Gateway I'll let you know IF the above stats are acceptable to you?

Edit: Of course if you in the USA and have no Money issues at all there is always this.... Link

For a Grand this might work at full Med settings LINK Your results may vary... but the GPU has a similar Passmark score to those I know run at Med settings. Or maybe this one for similar money. Good luck!

If you use Passmark as a guide as I do, then full medium settings require a GPU that puts out 1550 on their scale. The mobile (laptop) GPU that meets that criteria is the GeForce GT 750M If you can find a lap top in whatever budget you have with that or the 755M you should be about OK. Be sure to buy a COOLER Pad regardless mind you as the LT will get warm playing MWO!

Edited by Caswallon, 28 December 2013 - 12:10 PM.

[Gremlich Johns]

Get a Sager

[Catamount]

Leafia, the first thing we need to know is what your budget is, and then how much travel you intend to do (just how far will you lug this machine around in a given day?).

You SHOULD get the highest clocked i7 on the market and a pair of GTX 780Ms, but most people, myself included, are in no position to buy hardware like that, and it might be heavier than you're willing to deal with. In general, gaming laptops may technically be laptops, but they're hardly mobile "cart around" type machines. I do schoolwork on the go, too, and I have a desktop and a Nexus 10 precisely because there's no laptop that can both game (not remotely well) and meet my mobility requirements.

Edited by Catamount, 28 December 2013 - 11:24 AM.

[Sen]

http://www.xoticpc.com/

Lots of good stuff to choose from if size/weight are not a factor.

If you're on the go constantly and aren't interested in giving yourself a hernia hauling a 10lb notebook through airports [I spent 3 months constantly on the go for work doing this and almost did ^^] there are a few really good high performance light/thin solutions, most notably the razer blade

http://www.razerzone...ems/razer-blade

And razer blade pro

http://www.razerzone...razer-blade-pro

Both very high quality machines, under 5 lb, thinner than a dime, and at $2000 and $2500 respectively [with 128 gig SSD] they're definitely in the "luxury" category. The blade pro I know from EXPERIENCE will run MwO at max settings at 40-50 FPS [with occasional dips down to 38, but those were rare]

If you're not made of money, but still looking for a powerful thin and light solution, there is also the MSI GS70

http://www.newegg.co...N=-1&isNodeId=1

About a grand less than the razer blade pro, Same CPU/GPU, more ram, SSD/HDD combo.

It's not quite as "solid" chassis wise as the Razer, and it's two piece chassis instead of one [from what I've read] but it's definitely the more affordable option. It SHOULD [since it has the same CPU/GPU] run MwO as well as the blade pro.

I say should, because I've never actually gotten a chance to play with one.

Edited by Sen, 29 December 2013 - 07:30 AM.

[Catamount]

Jesus... for those prices the OP could build a gaming desktop twice as powerful as any of the laptops mentioned here, and still have enough money left over to just get a normal laptop for school use! Scratch that, the OP could build a high-end gaming rig and still have enough money to buy two laptops, or even a modest gaming laptop, or a laptop and a tablet

(This is the non Apple user in me coming out )

Edited by Catamount, 29 December 2013 - 07:39 AM.

[Bashiba]

I agree with the above posters, a gaming laptop is a pretty big compromise.

Buy something like this for School - Asus t100a
http://www.bestbuy.c...0&skuId=1846005
Lightweight, its fairly quick, has full windows and comes with office. I just picked one up on sale for $299 and its great, and it would be a great school hybrid.
Then build a decent gaming desktop for $700-$800. You can have the best of both worlds for $1200 or even much less if you want to skimp a bit on the desktop. You will have a much better gaming experience when you play at home, and you won't kill yourself lugging around a giant laptop at school. If your on a budget you could even build the gaming PC in stages, start out buy buying a decent used last gen videocard on ebay for cheap and upgrade it later, things like that.
And if you spent $1200 on just a laptop you are going to be getting a much more marginal gaming experience. And a much less portable laptop as well. Besides Mechwarrior needs to be played on a big screen, I feel bad for anyone playing it something less than 24 inches.

[Sen]

Cat:

I simply wanted to stress the portable form factor, as the O/P states that a mobile solution is a requirement. I don't work for Razer *OR* MSI, but from time to time for work I get to live out of a suitcase for weeks or the occasional month at a time and BELIEVE ME hauling around a 10lb notebook + mandatory work notebook *STINKS*! As such, there is definitely a niche for these ultra thin relatively powerful gaming notebooks. For a decent grade gaming notebook that'll max MwO you're looking about $1300-1500 anyway, so the MSI at least falls into the "relatively inexpensive for a high end gaming notebook" category.

BELIEVE ME I'm all for self built desktops. . but sometimes you gotta base your hardware around your lifestyle, ya know?

Edited by Sen, 29 December 2013 - 06:58 PM.

[Catamount]

Oh I know, Sen, and there's nothing wrong with those machines, either, for the niche they fill. I may well end up needing something like it myself in a year.

It's just that for most people, I would think a notebook like that would be more like my notebook: something to get after one has the desktop thing good and covered, that or that tiny niche of people who truly can only own ultra-portables and nothing else.


For the OP, someone who has neither a good gaming desktop or laptop, I think Bashiba has it. The OP seems to understand that the answer to "what gaming laptop should I buy" is almost universally get a desktop instead, and the OP seems annoyed by that fact, but it's the default answer for a reason: desktops aren't a little better than a laptop for gaming, they're lightyears better. OP, the reason it's the answer you always get when you ask about gaming laptops is because it's the correct answer.

For 99% of people, it is better to get a gaming desktop and live with a non-gaming laptop on the side than to spend the same sum of money on a gaming laptop. Now, again, if you live in a submarine or something, or spend 9 months of the year in hotels traveling, that's different, but "I need a computer portable enough for school and a gaming computer" DOES NOT necessarily equate to "I need a gaming laptop".

Edited by Catamount, 29 December 2013 - 07:37 PM.

[ice trey]

Yeah. I'm keeping my eyes out for something like this, as well

I tried opening my Asus G73S a little while back for the first time, and I had never opened a laptop up beyond accessing the ram ports at the back.

What I ended up doing was removing the ribbon cables incorrectly, instead tearing pins off the motherboard. Again, was doing things the way that - at first glance - they appeared to be done... The online video I was following at the same time was doing stuff like saying "Brown part" when the sections are black if not nearly so... Regardless, I ended up tearing pins off my motherboard, and I can't find anyone that'll solder them back on.

Luckily, as I'm very gentle in my computer breaking, the computer still runs (I'm typing on it now), it's just that a few of the keys on the keyboard now no longer work. and I'm forced to use a USB keyboard. As such, when I come back home to Canada, I'll be looking for a new beast of a lappy to replace this one ASAP.

Laptop because, let's face it, if I don't have a stable housing situation, a desktop is a hell of a thing to move, especially if you have a powerful gaming rig

Edited by ice trey, 29 December 2013 - 08:50 PM.

[Sen]

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

not necessarily. ignore the screen/stand setup and focus your attention to the black box under and to the right. That's a cooler master Elite 130 case. I can actually fit the thing in a good sized backpack. Mini-ITX build with a 4770k cooled by a Corsair H80i closed loop water cooler, fits a full sized PSU [mine's 1000 watts] and fits just about any sized video card you could want. It takes a bit of zen to get all the cables managed (highly recommend a fully modular PSU) but it's DEFINITELY worth it for the portability factor.

[edited: Added 2nd pic of side of case to show size with Galaxy S3 for reference and vid card displayed for video card clearance.]

Edited by Sen, 30 December 2013 - 07:19 AM.

[Daishi8]

Leafia Barrett, on 28 December 2013 - 08:17 AM, said:

Just to stop these comments before they start:
No I can't get a desktop, I need something I can take with me to school for schoolwork as well as use as a gaming rig. Do not suggest getting a desktop.
Anywho...

I'm looking to purchase a laptop (or have one custom-built) capable of handling MWO and similar games on at least medium graphics, if not higher. Any suggestions? In particular, what graphics card and CPU should I get? Will 8GB RAM be enough or should I go for 16?

Can you give us some main factors, like size of laptop, budget, planning to connect external monitor, battery life.
And 8gb of ram start to become not enough for high modded games, or using multi virtual machines.

My personal opinion would be: to wait for broadwell and maxwell till next new year if you planning to make light, fast, and long battery lasting gaming laptop.

Edited by Daishi8, 30 December 2013 - 07:55 AM.

[Catamount]

Sen, that is a sexy piece of computer right there.

[Sen]

Trust me Cat, it's nothing compared to the most awesome wife in the world who, when her GFX card died three days ago, not only kindly allowed me to give her MINE and get a new one, but who was actually in the store with me when we found the only high performance card left in stock and DIDN'T immediately have me committed when I so much as suggested it.

Sure, she's still giving me a hard time about it, and afterwards she mentioned something about having bought an "unspecified" amount of MC on the Credit card a few days before [I'm afraid to look] but with 80-130 FPS at 2560 x 1080 maxed out, I'm too distracted to pay attention


ON TOPIC:

It also occurs to me that the O/P could always get an inexpensive ssd equipped ultrabook and a compact mid line computer for gaming. Sure, you won't be taking the thing to coffee shops for gaming sessions [less than ideal anyway] but your back will thank you for not hauling an extra 15lbs of gaming notebook and power brick everywhere you go ^^ You could probably do it for less than or equal to the cost of a mid-range gaming notebook as well.

Edited by Sen, 31 December 2013 - 10:11 AM.

[dragnier1]

I totally agree with giving your back a break by getting a normal laptop for work, if you intend to lug it around. I used to game on the asus (i think it was the G75) and it was really heavy. Unless you're a body builder and want to do squats using it as weights...