24 replies to this topic

[Colorfinger]

I was pricing out a reasonable desktop build based on the starter set of:


AMD Quad Core Configurator
AMD FX-4100 Processor 4GB DDR3-PC1600 NVIDIA GT520 1GB Video ASUS USB3SATA3 MB 1TB SATA3 7200 RPM HD 24X DVD+-R/+-RW Drive

and I noticed they also sell gaming laptops. Now I have been out of the loop for computer tech over the last 8 years or so but 'in my day' laptops and gaming just didn't work, even when they advertised it as a 'gaming laptop'. Do the gaming laptops, such as the one below, really work for games like MWO?


Xplorer X6-9120
15.6" 1920x1080 Full HD Intel Core i7-3610QM CPU 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-1333 RAM NVIDIA GT640M 2GB Video Intel HM65 Mainboard 500GB 5400RPM SATA300 HDD 8X DVD Rewritable Drive

edit: Also, please save your key strokes on the build it yourself comments. I use to make those same posts 10 years ago and I understand the benefit of building your own. It just isn't happening. No matter how much of a difference it will make, it won't be home built. I do appreciate all the input the home built guys add and I understand fully why you build them yourself, it just isn't an option for me right now.

Edited by Colorfinger, 06 July 2012 - 06:30 PM.

[That Guy]

ive got a gaming laptop from these guys. its pretty powerful, and cappable of running alot of very high end games. though not as well as a desktop

[Alexander Diaz]

My buddy and I were looking at both CyberPower and iBuyPower for new gaming rigs. He was initially pretty gung ho for the laptop but eventually decided to go desktop for the boom per buck factor.

Both sites have really nice gaming laptops but you're going to pay about $500 bucks more and still not exactly get the same power or longevity you would out of the desktop. We both ended up plopping a bit more than we initially planned on our rigs (I blame the $250ish 27' LCD) but we're happy with what we're getting. I'd watch out about shipping though. They charged us about $130 dollars for ground once all said and done. Might be because of the size/weight/amount of stuff we ordered but, it was a lot steeper than I was prepared. 'course, we saved more than that in components but, still not fun to face after building your "dream box".

Again, the laptop may be significantly less due to weight.

I guess the real question would be, "Why do you want a performance gaming laptop?"

If it's because you want/need the mobility, then it might be a really good option. I have quite a bit of down time away from home with access to wifi and lan broadband so, it was enticing at first, but when I concidered that my laptop might be struggling a bit in 2 years vs a desktop, I felt the desktop was best for me.

If you're doing a lot of gaming away from home, might be a strong reason for you to make the lap top choice. Just my two c-bills.

Also, consider the mouse space you may need when gaming with a laptop. I find I'm sometimes limited in mouse real estate with being on the go. I'm thinking you're going to want a good platform since the mouse will be your primary aiming device.

Edited by Alexander Diaz, 06 July 2012 - 07:25 PM.

[Vulpesveritas]

-if- you are going to go with a laptop, then go with a Sager, however;
A laptop at any given price will still be far, far slower than a desktop at the same price. That 640m is slower than the recommended graphics settings for MWO, at minimum you would need a 650m.

[Koshadows]

Mmm if you're really going for the laptop on that site, go for either the $1299 or the $1399 9400/8100 for their better graphics card. The GTX 640m on the laptop you listed is pretty blasted weak. The $1299 one offers the gtx 670m while the 1399 offers the gtx 675m. I haven't checked what the difference between the 670 and 675 but hey, they're WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY better than the 640m I can guarantee that.

Of course you COULD in theory get a different customized laptop from http://www.originpc.com/, but they are much more expensive. HOWEVER! these people do provide both the brand spanking new 7970m which is slightly slower than the $300 7870 desktop GPU OR you can get the GTX 680m which is a slightly slower $400 GTX 670 desktop GPU.

Not sure if that'll make you actually wanna spend 2-2.5 grand on a laptop. But hey those things are freaking cool imo.

Edited by Koshadows, 06 July 2012 - 07:48 PM.

[Damion Sparhawk]

the most typical problem with a laptop for gaming is heat, just like any laser boat mech, if you run it to long at full alpha strike it's going to crash itself and leave you in a lurch, the new laptops are in fact much better than they were a few years ago, but there is only so much they can do for heat expulsion in a compact chassis.

[Kyuzo]

i just put together a desktop for $1411 which should run everything xD

i put it together doesn't mean i own it lol.



Laptops overheat alot unless you plan on getting that fan stand for laptops. but still laptops get hot and gaming ones are no different

Edited by Kyuzo, 07 July 2012 - 01:53 AM.

[Colorfinger]

The heat and price issues were the same issues we had 10 years ago. Sounds like things haven't changed. Honest reason I was considering it is I am self employed and often have to sit for a couple hours at the office in evening waiting on employees to get back and I figured I could sneak in a gaming every now and then instead of spending every waking hour doing spreadsheets. Sounds like I could get two basic PCs (one for office and one for home) for less than getting one laptop that wouldn't be as good as the desktops. So it sounds like you guys have some experience with cyberpower and ibuypower. Any opinions or advice with them?

[Vulpesveritas]

Building your own is still a better option should you have the time to work on your own. Otherwise they're fine, though you are going to want to make sure to get a good PSU.

[Damion Sparhawk]

Colorfinger, on 07 July 2012 - 07:32 AM, said:

The heat and price issues were the same issues we had 10 years ago. Sounds like things haven't changed. Honest reason I was considering it is I am self employed and often have to sit for a couple hours at the office in evening waiting on employees to get back and I figured I could sneak in a gaming every now and then instead of spending every waking hour doing spreadsheets. Sounds like I could get two basic PCs (one for office and one for home) for less than getting one laptop that wouldn't be as good as the desktops. So it sounds like you guys have some experience with cyberpower and ibuypower. Any opinions or advice with them?

well they've gotten a lot better with the heat over the decade, but it's still, and always will be, an issue.

[Scilya]

there is no such thing as a gameing laptop and there is next to 0 reason to have a laptop i dont know what this thing is people have for laptops
then they cry when its slow in 6 months time
screw the laptop get a desktop

[Alexander Diaz]

Colorfinger, on 07 July 2012 - 07:32 AM, said:

The heat and price issues were the same issues we had 10 years ago. Sounds like things haven't changed. Honest reason I was considering it is I am self employed and often have to sit for a couple hours at the office in evening waiting on employees to get back and I figured I could sneak in a gaming every now and then instead of spending every waking hour doing spreadsheets. Sounds like I could get two basic PCs (one for office and one for home) for less than getting one laptop that wouldn't be as good as the desktops. So it sounds like you guys have some experience with cyberpower and ibuypower. Any opinions or advice with them?

Yeah. I was feeling the situation was something like that. I know that for under $1500 a pop, you could have two pretty damn sweet rigs that will last you awhile. One at work, and one at home. Nvidia 560 is what I got, even though I wanted the ti. Another thing is, you can cut that 1.5k estimate down if you got Radeon graphics card and AMD mother board. Maybe two sweet rigs at 1.2k? Probably more than you woulda paid for 1 laptop but they'll both perform better and last longer.

I spent $1.7k but that included shipping and a pretty expensive $279 monitor. I'm confident with my build. Intel board, nvidia card. Just do a bit of research. Just by shopping around you'll start recognizing the hot items on the top systems.

And one could be a tax right off? Business expenditure? Just claim it's 95% business use at the end of the year if your feeling like covering your arse. Hell, might not even be necessary depending on what your business is. Maybe you have MWO on your office computer to entertain clients? ;p

Edit: Adding System Specs. I got some of this on sale but, nice stuff for the price. You can easily down grade some of it and still run the game very well.

1 x Case Corsair Vengeance C70 Gaming Case - Gunmetal Black 0 x Case Lighting None 0 x iBUYPOWER Labs - Noise Reduction None 0 x iBUYPOWER Labs - Internal Expansion None 1 x Processor Intel® Core™ i7-3770K Processor (4x 3.50GHz/8MB L3 Cache) - Intel Core i7-3770K 0 x iBUYPOWER PowerDrive None 1 x Processor Cooling Liquid CPU Cooling System [SOCKET-1155] - ARC Dual Silent High Performance Fan Upgrade (Push-Pull Airflow) 1 x Memory 16 GB [4 GB X4] DDR3-1600 Memory Module - G.Skill Ripjaws X 1 x Video Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 - 2GB - Single Card 1 x Video Card Brand Major Brand Powered by AMD or NVIDIA 1 x Free Stuff [FREE] Creative Labs Fatal1ty Gaming Headset - Free with Purchase of any system over $999 1 x Free Stuff [FREE Game Promo Pack] Tribes: Ascend - Free with purchase of Intel i5/i7 CPU or Intel Motherboard or Intel SSD 180Gb or above 1 x Free Stuff [FREE Game Download] - Mass Effect 3 - Free with purchase of Intel X79 chipset based systems, or with Intel Core i7 3770K 1 x Motherboard ASUS P8Z77-V LX 0 x Intel Smart Response Technology None 1 x Power Supply 750 Watt - Thermaltake TR2 TRX-750M - Free Upgrade to 850 Watt W0319RU ($20 Savings) 1 x Primary Hard Drive 2 TB HARD DRIVE -- 64M Cache, 7200rpm, 6.0Gb/s - Single Drive 0 x Data Hard Drive None 1 x Optical Drive 24X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive - Black 0 x 2nd Optical Drive None 0 x Flash Media Reader / Writer None 1 x Meter Display NZXT Sentry 2 Touch Screen Fan Controller & Temperature Display 0 x USB Expansion None 1 x Sound Card 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard 1 x Network Card Intel Pro 10/100/1000 Network Card 1 x Operating System Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium + Office Starter 2010 (Includes basic versions of Word and Excel) - 64-Bit 1 x Keyboard iBUYPOWER USB Keyboard 1 x Mouse iBUYPOWER Internet Mouse 1 x Monitor 27" LCD TV 1920x1080 -- Sceptre X270BV-FHD - Save $90! Free Upgrade from 27" Sceptre X270W-1080P 0 x 2nd Monitor None 1 x Speaker System iBUYPOWER 2.1 Channel Stereo Super Bass Subwoofer Speaker System 0 x Video Camera None 1 x Advanced Build Options Tuniq TX-2 High Performance Thermal Compound - The best interface between your CPU and the heatsinks 0 x Case Engraving Service None 1 x Warranty 3 Year Standard Warranty Service 1 x Rush Service Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) - No Rush Service, Estimate Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days Subtotal : $1,626.00 Tax : $0.00 Ground Shipping : $125.00

Edited by Alexander Diaz, 07 July 2012 - 04:00 PM.

[Damocles]

This is a personal review of Ibuypower;
I built a PC through them several years ago (2008) and though I got pretty much everything I wanted, they seem to be consistent about screwing up your disk drive. I ordered a combo drive (DVD RW+-) and did not receive it.

A friend of mine whom I forwarded to Ibuypower got only a DVD burner in his build although he ordered the same drive I did. He verified that he got the wrong hardware and returned it. They did replace the drive but still gave him a BS story that he "didn't activate his drive correctly" ........lol

In the long run; if you have any rudimentary hardware knowledge, just build it yourself via newegg and save some money.

/Damo

[Koshadows]

Scilya, on 07 July 2012 - 11:23 AM, said:

there is no such thing as a gameing laptop and there is next to 0 reason to have a laptop i dont know what this thing is people have for laptops
then they cry when its slow in 6 months time
screw the laptop get a desktop

I'm not sure what you mean by that, especially if you look at some of the higher end $3,000 laptops from originpc.com. The gtx 680m is basically a desktop gtx 670 underclocked. It can beat the snot out of most of the average gaming builds that uses anything that's less in power than a gtx 570/HD 7870.

By the way, this is actually customizing that laptop to have some higher end hardware like SSDs, 1600 8 gig rams, and of course, the gtx 680m.

Is it overpriced compared to a desktop? Yes

Can you build something better for half the price? Yup

But is this a gaming laptop? definitely yes, and its most certainly easy to carry to a friend's house without dismantling your entire desktop.

[Scilya]

Koshadows, on 07 July 2012 - 07:00 PM, said:

I'm not sure what you mean by that, especially if you look at some of the higher end $3,000 laptops from originpc.com. The gtx 680m is basically a desktop gtx 670 underclocked. It can beat the snot out of most of the average gaming builds that uses anything that's less in power than a gtx 570/HD 7870.

By the way, this is actually customizing that laptop to have some higher end hardware like SSDs, 1600 8 gig rams, and of course, the gtx 680m.

Is it overpriced compared to a desktop? Yes

Can you build something better for half the price? Yup

But is this a gaming laptop? definitely yes, and its most certainly easy to carry to a friend's house without dismantling your entire desktop.

this is why people sell lan cases which are good sixe and portable some have handles

but hey if people buy a £3000 laptop only so they can take it round to there friends house why dont they just by 2 desktops and have 2 at each house would still probbably be cheaper

thats no a valid reason for a laptop, a laptop is for buisness users ONLY and thats for only when there on a train or plain ect so they can stilll work.

its a status thing pure and simple, like apple macs are but they still suck

[Vincent Vascaul]

I build PC's all the time and I still like to have a Gaming laptop around, its not my main rig but as long as it has the horsepower to push the res on the screen its fine, I dont see why there is so much hate for them. They aren't even overpriced when you consider how hard it is to cram all of those components into such a small package. I had a Asus G74 (I think thats what it was or a G73) Swapped in a 1080p screen and it played every game I asked it to, was it my 5 monitor 32gigs of ram Liquid cooled SLI'ed X79 monster that I have at home? No but I had fun on it and thats all I really care about.

Edited by Vincent Vascaul, 09 July 2012 - 08:25 AM.

[Capacion]

http://www.pugetsystems.com/

Pricey, but you won't get better unless you have the time to do it all yourself.

Personally I'm running a customer rig from Systemax. Picked it up about 2 months ago for a hair over $1400.
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
System RAM: 8159 MB
CPU Name: Intel® Core™ i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz
CPU Speeds: 3301
Physical CPUs: 1
Virtual CPUs: 4
Video Card Description: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 Ti
VRAM: 1024 MB
Primary Display Resolution: 1680x1050
Multi-Monitor Desktop Resolution: 1680x1050
Microphone: False
Language: English (United States)
Free Hard Drive Space: 801758 MB
Total Hard Drive Space: 912406 MB
Windows Experience Index Rating: 5.9

I looked at Cyberpower/Ibuypower and was very doubtfull after reading all the reviews, they may be cheap but but that means their cheaply made and probably not tested beyond a power on test.

[Vincent Vascaul]

Capacion I actually just did a review on Cyber power, as a builder myself I was really quite impressed, they really do seem to be putting out a quality product these days. Check it out http://mwomercs.com/...youtube-review/

[Koshadows]

Scilya, on 09 July 2012 - 06:19 AM, said:

this is why people sell lan cases which are good sixe and portable some have handles

but hey if people buy a £3000 laptop only so they can take it round to there friends house why dont they just by 2 desktops and have 2 at each house would still probbably be cheaper

thats no a valid reason for a laptop, a laptop is for buisness users ONLY and thats for only when there on a train or plain ect so they can stilll work.

its a status thing pure and simple, like apple macs are but they still suck

Correct in all of your above points! But that does mean my point stands: That IS a gaming laptop.

Its overpriced, heavier than normal laptops, and probably has a **** poor battery life. But I'd totally buy one if i had the money just because during the year I have to go to a few friend's places and unplugging my desktop while taking the heavy pos down the 3 flights of stairs ****** me off.

On actual discussion: Cyberpowerpc is nice and usually recommended as a builder to people who really doesn't like building their own stuff. Its priced well and the quality is definitely not horrendous. I'd prob tell you to get a desktop from them if you're actually on a budget

[Colorfinger]

I appreciate the opinions. I'll have to check out cyberpowerpc and puget more closely. If anyone has any other suggestions, let me know. I am leaning towards a reasonably priced desktop that will end up at the office and then based on its performance, I'll get something for the house. I'll likely be able to do both for less than one gaming laptop.