Best gaming laptop for around $1,500

[CORKNUTZ69]

I've been looking at Alienware, and the known good gaming laptop makers but just seems there are alot of options. Like I'm a dell fan, my last vostro 1700 worked great for wow etc. The price is flexible but I want something that can play all current games on max settings etc.

 

[WR2]

Going with 16GB RAM over 8GB is the one area where you won't see any improvement in gaming performance. 16GB can be handy for really heavy duty work in graphics, video and some exotic stuff like running multiple virtual machines. But even there it's a luxury rather than a necessity. It's also an area you can always upgrade later to keep the cost down now.

Your own copy of Win7 won't affect the warranty.
The SSD/HDD is the preferred storage setup for high end systems at the moment.

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

Would you rather go with 8GB memory 1600 MHZ? I'd rather have the more memory or faster up front either way you think is the best I'm not really an upgrade later type of guy lol.

 

[Maziar]

8GB is more than enough for today's games/apps so unless you do some extremely heavy image/video editing,you should stay with 8GB

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

Is there any other area that should be upgraded or does it all look good then? What about skipping up to the ole 18 inch screen? It will break the budget a little bit but I can squeek it in for around 2200. THere is only one optionf or that screen though. I also left the 17 inch one as default screen, is there a more preferred screen or is standard working out?

 

[Maziar]

It looks great;however,you can omit the SSD and add an aftermarket SSD(such as Crucial M4)
The screen size is a personal choice really,I prefer the 18.4" but that's me

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

How much, where to buy, and how easy is it to install the crucial harddrive? Also, if its affordable worth geting two for raid 0? THen get the harddrive caddy instead of dvd slot?

 

[Maziar]

It's easy to install and check newegg for prices.With 2 of it's 128GB or 256GB you can get up to 1GB/S speed(Raid 0)

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

You say with 2 of it's 128 or 256, is that the only sizes they sell for the crucial? Also, looking at newegg it's not that much of a prize difference that I can see from buying it from sager. And I only see like 415MB/S read. Can you mayve provide a link? And how much of a difference would I notice running two SSD in raid 0????

 

[chillmelt]

You can buy 2 of 512GBs, but can you afford it? Two will probably cost even more than the laptop itself.

I have 2 256GB Crucials M4s and it's blazing (one for laptop and other for desktop). I've yet to try both in a RAID setup.

You don't *need* RAID 0 SSDs. Nobody does. Also, there is no TRIM support.

Edit - Sequential reads are closer to 500 MBs on a single SSD.

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

10-4 Are all the crucial M4 hard drive laptop compatible looks like i can save 100 bucks installing it myself.......???

 

[Maziar]

If you upgrade the firmware to 009,your read speed increases to 500MB/S
I have a 256GB M4(w/009) and it's wicked fast.
RAID depends on you,I haven't tried it but I checked some benchs and you can get up to 1GB/S speeds. And there "is" TRIM support(under Windows7)

Finally,it's definitely worth it to save $100 getting a faster SSD and installing it yourself

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

10-4, ordering today, thanks all!

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

Ok, last question lol, the 18" has dual gforce in sli or dual HD6990M's. Based off what WR2 is saying the Radeons would be better but........its a $325.00 upgrade!! Would the SLI gforces be ok? There is no option for just one vid card for 18"...........

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

Nevermind, jumped the gun, ordered!

Cleaned this post up a bit.
Thanks again guys!! The only thing I dont like about the 18" is the buttons on the left for gaming, I think it offsets the keyboard too much but we'll see............

1x Sager NP8180 / Clevo P180HM
- Display: 18.4” FHD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glare Type Screen (SKU - S1R602)
- Monitor Calibration: NO Professional Monitor Color Calibration
- Processor: 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM, 2.2-3.1GHz
- Thermal Compound: - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- Graphics Video Card: ATI Radeon DUAL (2) HD6990M's (4096MB Total) GDDR5 DX11 - w/ 300W AC Adapter (SKU - S3R155)
- External Display Video Adapters: No Video Adapter
- Ram: 12GB DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (3x4GB SODIMMS) - Black Friday Special! (SKU - X4P989)
- Branding: Sager Branding
- Exterior Finish: Standard Finish
- Primary Hard Drive: 500GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache) (SKU - S5R207)
- Second Hard Drive: None Standard
- Third Hard Drive: None Standard
- Optical Drive Bay: Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive w/ Software (When selecting a Hard Drive in the Optical Bay, No Optical Drive is Included) (SKU - S7R455)
- - Memory Card Reader: Internal 9-in-1 Card Reader - Back Up - Bluetooth: Bluetooth Included (See “Wireless Network” Section Below)
- Wireless Network: Built-in 802.11 Wireless B/G/N - Stock Wireless Card + Bluetooth (SKU - S8R110)
- Camera: Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- TV Tuner: No TV Tuner
- Sound Card: Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Case: Basic Black Business Case - Included
- Battery: Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- Fingerprint Reader: Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- Mouse / Keyboard Accessories: No External Keyboard or Mouse
- Operating System: No Operating System Standard - Drivers & Utility Software Only
- Warranty: LIFETIME Ltd Labor* 1 Year Parts Warranty Lifetime -24/7 DOMESTIC Based- Toll Free Telephone Tech Support (Labor Warranty through Xotic PC)

 

[Maziar]

That's a beast hope you enjoy it

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

While I'm waiting for my beauty to show up, quick questions. To install that crucial SSD, I will need to remove current HD and plug crucial into that slot I';m assuming? Or is it just jumpered to determine which is primary. Also, I'm assuming that I would make the crucial primary and install operating system and all programs/games to the crucial then any other saved garage drirect to the 2nd harddrive?? Since its only 250 GB I dont want to fill er up too fast.........

 

[Maziar]

Yep,you have to remove your HD and plug the SSD in to it and install the HDD in the optic bay(it should recognize the SSD as the main drive and the HDD as the second one)

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

So do I need a harddrive caddy then? It had an option for 3 harddrives, 2 normal and the third if you wanted it you would have to order no dvd and add a hardrive caddy. I took it as I could fit 2 harddrives without having to remove the dvd rom.

 

[Maziar]

Oh,then you don't need caddy.I first thought it has 2 options for HDDs

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

Cool thanks!

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

FYI WR2/Maziar: Received my 8180 Sager and its the badonk........super massively huge but I love it.......25 lb beast when shoved into the bag with all the goodies, I posted in that other guys forum about that jowa bag to see how/where he got the bag for it. I like the idea of having some padding lol. I got it all loaded up and it screams.......graphics cranked on batman ark, Rage, Call of duty 4 etc. etc. all works great. Thanks again. Dual radeon vids seem to rock I've always been a Nvidia Gforce fan but may be rethinking on home pc builds now lol.

 

[CORKNUTZ69]

Still cant break my 5.9 rating on hardrive on windows performance but from what I'm reading its hard/impossible to do??? I installed the crucial SSD as primary/500 Sata secondary. Still didnt break it. Unless it tests both drives and the sata drags it down?

 

[Maziar]

Congrats !
Well,if the SSD is is the main drive,then your score shouldn't be 5.9.But TBH,windows score isn't important at all.
Try running a SSD benchmark such as "Crystal disk info" to check your read/write speeds

 

[anies45laura]

I think a Lenovo Y570 086264U is suitable for playing games. Its price is $1,000.47. You can find some more gaming laptops at this page:
http://www.squidoo.com/best-gaming-laptop-under-1100-1st-class-graphic-card