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[shockdude]

Hi.

I currently have a fairly decent gaming desktop but I don't use it as much as I'd like because portability is rather important for me. So I'm looking to get a competent gaming laptop.

I'd primarily be using this to play much older games up through some last gen stuff (BioWare games, The Witcher 2, the Valkyria Chronicles port). But I'd also like to do some emulation on it -- PCSX2 emulation particularly (stuff like Dragon Quest 8, Final Fantasy 12, Suikoden 3), but also Dolphin (ie Xenoblade) if possible. I'll probably want to play some current gen games on it, but I have a PS4, and I'm fine playing games on that if I can't play them on the laptop. As far as PC exclusives go, it'll probably be mostly Kickstarter stuff (like Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland 2) that I'd rather play on the laptop than on my desktop.

For budget, I wanted to stick to ~1,000$, but I'm willing to go up to ~1,500$ if necessary to meet my game objectives.

After doing some looking around, these were the laptops that seemed most promising as far as my needs go:

• this: Acer Aspire V3-772G-7616 Gaming Laptop Intel Core i7 4712MQ (2.30GHz) 8GB Memory 256GB SSD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M 2GB GDDR5 17.3" Windows 8.1 64-Bit
• this: Acer Aspire V15 Nitro Black Edition VN7-591G-74LK Gaming Laptop Intel Core i7 4710HQ (2.50GHz) 8GB Memory 1TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 2 GB GDDR5 15.6" Windows 8.1
• this: ASUS ROG G751 Series G751JT-CH71 Gaming Laptop Intel Core i7 4710HQ (2.50GHz) 16GB Memory 1TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 3GB 17.3" Windows 8.1 64-Bit (currently out of stock, but I'm willing to wait a bit)
• this: Lenovo Y50 Touch (59426255) Gaming Laptop Intel Core i7 4700HQ (2.40GHz) 8GB Memory 1TB HDD 8GB SSD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 2GB 15.6" Touchscreen Windows 8.1 64-Bit
• and this: Intel HM87 Chipset, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M GPU, Vibrant 15.6" Full HD LED-Backlit Display

I'd appreciate some input on which of these would be the best option for the best price. Thanks!

This is pretty much the scenario under which I bought my laptop earlier this year (Lenovo Y510P).
I'm on a phone so I can't look up specific laptops at the moment, but I can give you pointers on what to look for.

For emulation, you will require as powerful a CPU as possible (Intel Haswell i5 or i7, no U or Y cpus), and a cooling solution capable of cooling both the CPU and GPU at max load without thermal throttling. The GPU only needs to be good enough like the GTX860M or even as low as the GT750M.
I have an i7-4700mq, 2.4GHz with 3.3GHz dual core turbo. Either an i5 or an i7 is fine so long as it's Haswell and the clock speed is high.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

The cooling on the Sager is impressive though. I played Alien Isolation on ultra for a while and the laptop didn't remotely get hot. There was some slightly warm air coming out the vents, but that's it.

 

[The Reloader]

Edit: nvm, found it.

 

[K.Jack]

Got my Sager NP8268-S yesterday. The look and feel of the keyboard screams "cheap chinese crap." The touchpad is easily the worst I've ever used; you have to position your fingers really far apart for the two-finger scroll to work. I will most likely be returning it.

Like I said in the OP. Great components, great price, mediocre surroundings.

Hi.

I currently have a fairly decent gaming desktop but I don't use it as much as I'd like because portability is rather important for me. So I'm looking to get a competent gaming laptop.

I'd primarily be using this to play much older games up through some last gen stuff (BioWare games, The Witcher 2, the Valkyria Chronicles port). But I'd also like to do some emulation on it -- PCSX2 emulation particularly (stuff like Dragon Quest 8, Final Fantasy 12, Suikoden 3), but also Dolphin (ie Xenoblade) if possible. I'll probably want to play some current gen games on it, but I have a PS4, and I'm fine playing games on that if I can't play them on the laptop. As far as PC exclusives go, it'll probably be mostly Kickstarter stuff (like Pillars of Eternity, Wasteland 2) that I'd rather play on the laptop than on my desktop.

For budget, I wanted to stick to ~1,000$, but I'm willing to go up to ~1,500$ if necessary to meet my game objectives.

After doing some looking around, these were the laptops that seemed most promising as far as my needs go:

• this: Acer Aspire V3-772G-7616 Gaming Laptop Intel Core i7 4712MQ (2.30GHz) 8GB Memory 256GB SSD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M 2GB GDDR5 17.3" Windows 8.1 64-Bit
• this: Acer Aspire V15 Nitro Black Edition VN7-591G-74LK Gaming Laptop Intel Core i7 4710HQ (2.50GHz) 8GB Memory 1TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 2 GB GDDR5 15.6" Windows 8.1
• this: ASUS ROG G751 Series G751JT-CH71 Gaming Laptop Intel Core i7 4710HQ (2.50GHz) 16GB Memory 1TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 3GB 17.3" Windows 8.1 64-Bit (currently out of stock, but I'm willing to wait a bit)
• this: Lenovo Y50 Touch (59426255) Gaming Laptop Intel Core i7 4700HQ (2.40GHz) 8GB Memory 1TB HDD 8GB SSD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 2GB 15.6" Touchscreen Windows 8.1 64-Bit
• and this: Intel HM87 Chipset, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M GPU, Vibrant 15.6" Full HD LED-Backlit Display

I'd appreciate some input on which of these would be the best option for the best price. Thanks!

If you can afford all of them, you take the G751 and don't look back.

 

[The Reloader]

Ok sorry for the double post but now I'm ready with my question:

Country USA
Maximum budget - ~$1400 (maybe slightly higher)
Max size - Screen preferably ~17 inches (matte screen a must)
Planned usage - Grad school, but some gaming on the side (Dark Souls 2 @ 60 fps med settings please), but here's the thing: I don't want a laptop that looks like a gaming laptop. You guys understand.

Thanks!

 

[Parallax Scroll]

Like I said in the OP. Great components, great price, mediocre surroundings.

Yeah I was warned, but I didn't think it would be this bad. That keyboard is hideous. On the other hand, it runs great and the cooling is really impressive. I want a plain looking laptop and most other high performance gaming laptops are blinged out with flashy stuff I don't want. Also, the MSI Dominator I was considering has the exact same keyboard layout as the Sager. There's nothing to separate the arrow keys or numpad from the surrounding keys so it's harder to find them by feel, and page up/page down/home/end are laid out awkwardly. But at least it's not as ugly as the Sager keyboard, and with the MSI I would be able to color-code keys to make them easier to see at a glance.

I may just suck it up and use the crappy Sager keyboard since the rest of the laptop works well. The touchpad still sucks, but I'm getting used to it.

 

[ipitydatfu]

parallax: can you put up some pictures, i want to get a good idea how thick it looks. the stock pictures can be a deceiving

 

[K.Jack]

Ok sorry for the double post but now I'm ready with my question:

Country USA
Maximum budget - ~$1400 (maybe slightly higher)
Max size - Screen preferably ~17 inches (matte screen a must)
Planned usage - Grad school, but some gaming on the side (Dark Souls 2 @ 60 fps med settings please), but here's the thing: I don't want a laptop that looks like a gaming laptop. You guys understand.

Thanks!

This.

parallax: can you put up some pictures, i want to get a good idea how thick it looks. the stock pictures can be a deceiving

Youtube.

 

[Pegosaurus]

are there any 13-14" sager/clevo laptops out there with the 970m??

I know that Gigabyte one is coming out in december but it's a bit up there for me

 

[Linkyn]

I just got my laptop back from the repair service and everything appears to be in working order. Turns out I somehow managed to damage my HDD which fudged boot-up, so they basically just replaced that and reset everything to factory settings (no big loss there, all my data is on an external, anyway). With that said, I'd like to give a big shout out to MSI's UK offices and D&J Henry for the way they handled this situation. It's been a little over 2 weeks since the damage was done and just over a week since they came to pick it up. I was originally supposed to get it back on Monday, but the delivery guy from DPD thought it would be nice if I got it today, instead, so mad props to him. I know that the issue turned out to be relatively minor, but I still figured repair would take longer with pick-up and delivery. Also, even though I am fairly certain I am fully responsible, they still repaired it under warranty and kept me in the loop every step of the way.

To conclude, I am absolutely thrilled to be back in business (I've been gimping on an i3 dual-core with integrated video for the last 2 weeks), and in time for both WoD and AC Unity, too. Hopefully, I've learned my lesson now.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

A couple more issues I've had with the Sager NP8268-S:

Sometimes when the laptop comes out of sleep mode it is unable to connect to any wireless networks until I reboot. I've had to reboot to fix this once yesterday and twice today. This is with Windows 7 (all updates applied) and the drivers included on CD with the laptop.

Today the fingerprint reader went haywire, beeping nonstop because I guess it thought I was doing a finger swipe over and over again, even though my hands were nowhere near the sensor. A reboot fixed this.

I'll see if there are any newer drivers I can apply to troubleshoot these problems.

Edit: Looks like I already have the latest fingerprint driver, but I updated to the latest driver for the wireless adapter. I'll see if that helps.

 

[shockdude]

With my laptop, I had wifi issues after coming out of sleep mode as well.
I fixed it by going into Device Manager, opening the wifi adapter properties, going to the Power Management tab, and unchecking "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".

 

[Parallax Scroll]

With my laptop, I had wifi issues after coming out of sleep mode as well.
I fixed it by going into Device Manager, opening the wifi adapter properties, going to the Power Management tab, and unchecking "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".

I don't want to derail this since this isn't a tech support thread, but thanks. I'll try that if the registry edit I made doesn't help.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

How are the touchpads on MSI's? This Sager touchpad barely even works at all.

 

[Sir Blaming]

I am planing to buy a laptop by the end of this year. I am just wondering would it be smart to blow it off into a laptop with the gtx 970/980 or should i wait and see? I want to be using this thing a lot and also make the most out of it(as in 4 years or more).

Edit: what i would do to abuse my wife;
-heavy editing
-heavy gaming with recording (wanna get into youtube)
-and other normal things like college stuff.
-and modding and map designing.

Let's just say i have crappy computers my whole life now and i want to do shit ton of stuff.

 

[K.Jack]

are there any 13-14" sager/clevo laptops out there with the 970m??

I know that Gigabyte one is coming out in december but it's a bit up there for me

Nope.

I advise you wait and see on how hot that Gigabyte runs.

I just got my laptop back from the repair service and everything appears to be in working order. Turns out I somehow managed to damage my HDD which fudged boot-up, so they basically just replaced that and reset everything to factory settings (no big loss there, all my data is on an external, anyway). With that said, I'd like to give a big shout out to MSI's UK offices and D&J Henry for the way they handled this situation. It's been a little over 2 weeks since the damage was done and just over a week since they came to pick it up. I was originally supposed to get it back on Monday, but the delivery guy from DPD thought it would be nice if I got it today, instead, so mad props to him. I know that the issue turned out to be relatively minor, but I still figured repair would take longer with pick-up and delivery. Also, even though I am fairly certain I am fully responsible, they still repaired it under warranty and kept me in the loop every step of the way.

To conclude, I am absolutely thrilled to be back in business (I've been gimping on an i3 dual-core with integrated video for the last 2 weeks), and in time for both WoD and AC Unity, too. Hopefully, I've learned my lesson now.

Yeah MSI service has been good to me too. No complaints.

How are the touchpads on MSI's? This Sager touchpad barely even works at all.

I went from Sager to MSI, and felt it was night and day. Amazing Steelseries keyboard, amazing speakers, way better touchpad.

 

[K.Jack]

are there any 13-14" sager/clevo laptops out there with the 970m??

I know that Gigabyte one is coming out in december but it's a bit up there for me

Nope.

I advise you wait and see on how hot that Gigabyte runs.

I just got my laptop back from the repair service and everything appears to be in working order. Turns out I somehow managed to damage my HDD which fudged boot-up, so they basically just replaced that and reset everything to factory settings (no big loss there, all my data is on an external, anyway). With that said, I'd like to give a big shout out to MSI's UK offices and D&J Henry for the way they handled this situation. It's been a little over 2 weeks since the damage was done and just over a week since they came to pick it up. I was originally supposed to get it back on Monday, but the delivery guy from DPD thought it would be nice if I got it today, instead, so mad props to him. I know that the issue turned out to be relatively minor, but I still figured repair would take longer with pick-up and delivery. Also, even though I am fairly certain I am fully responsible, they still repaired it under warranty and kept me in the loop every step of the way.

To conclude, I am absolutely thrilled to be back in business (I've been gimping on an i3 dual-core with integrated video for the last 2 weeks), and in time for both WoD and AC Unity, too. Hopefully, I've learned my lesson now.

Yeah MSI service has been good to me too. No complaints.

How are the touchpads on MSI's? This Sager touchpad barely even works at all.

I went from Sager to MSI, and felt it was night and day. Amazing Steelseries keyboard, amazing speakers, way better touchpad.

I am planing to buy a laptop by the end of this year. I am just wondering would it be smart to blow it off into a laptop with the gtx 970/980 or should i wait and see? I want to be using this thing a lot and also make the most out of it(as in 4 years or more).

Edit: what i would do to abuse my wife;
-heavy editing
-heavy gaming with recording (wanna get into youtube)
-and other normal things like college stuff.
-and modding and map designing.

Let's just say i have crappy computers my whole life now and i want to do shit ton of stuff.

I am planing to buy a laptop by the end of this year. I am just wondering would it be smart to blow it off into a laptop with the gtx 970/980 or should i wait and see? I want to be using this thing a lot and also make the most out of it(as in 4 years or more).

Edit: what i would do to abuse my wife;
-heavy editing
-heavy gaming with recording (wanna get into youtube)
-and other normal things like college stuff.
-and modding and map designing.

Let's just say i have crappy computers my whole life now and i want to do shit ton of stuff.

980M would satisfy all of your needs.

 

[ethelred]

If you can afford all of them, you take the G751 and don't look back.

Thanks. That's the one I went with.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

I went from Sager to MSI, and felt it was night and day. Amazing Steelseries keyboard, amazing speakers, way better touchpad.

OK. I'm gonna return it and get this MSI instead. http://www.xoticpc.com/msi-gt60-dominator1065-p-7599.html

By default, that MSI comes with a 1TB 7200RPM drive. I would like to add a small SSD as the primary OS drive and have the 1TB 7200RPM drive for secondary storage. There are multiple places on the configuration screen that I could select the SSD drive though; I could select it as the "primary hard drive" slot, but there's also a separate "mSATA SSD drive (slot 1)" where I could select it instead. Do you know if it makes a difference which one I select?

 

[longlivegaming]

Looks like some people have already gotten their hands on the Gigabyte P35X v3 (w/ GTX 980M). Based on early impressions it seems the CPU actually runs hotter than the GPU.
The CPU has peak temps of 92 °C while the GPU peaks at around 80-82 °C. However the CPU temps can be lowered by up to 10 °C with a thermal repaste and undervolting.

 

[Cloudius12]

OK. I'm gonna return it and get this MSI instead. http://www.xoticpc.com/msi-gt60-dominator1065-p-7599.html

By default, that MSI comes with a 1TB 7200RPM drive. I would like to add a small SSD as the primary OS drive and have the 1TB 7200RPM drive for secondary storage. There are multiple places on the configuration screen that I could select the SSD drive though; I could select it as the "primary hard drive" slot, but there's also a separate "mSATA SSD drive (slot 1)" where I could select it instead. Do you know if it makes a difference which one I select?

The MSI I currently have 2 hard drive slots + mSATA SSD slot that fits 2 of them I think. You won't need to worry about the mSATA SSD unless you are going to buy one yourself. I don't have experience with them, so I currently using a Samsung SSD + 1 TB HDD it comes with.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

The MSI I currently have 2 hard drive slots + mSATA SSD slot that fits 2 of them I think. You won't need to worry about the mSATA SSD unless you are going to buy one yourself. I don't have experience with them, so I currently using a Samsung SSD + 1 TB HDD it comes with.

Oh, I guess mSATA SSD and regular SSD are two different things. Sounds like I should just have them put the SSD in the primary hard drive slot.

 

[Absolut]

Ok, I'm planning to get a gaming laptop by the end of the year, and am currently looking at the MSI GS60 2QE-035NE. At least that's the name here in Sweden, it's the MSI GS60 with 3k screen and GTX 970m.

Does anybody have any experience with this particular model? It seems it doesn't run as hot as the previous model GS60 with GTX 870m. Also the 970m should be sufficiently powerful to last me at least 4 years I hope.

I'm especially after a laptop that's small and sleek, hence me eyeing the GS60. The only thing that annoys me is that terribly ugly 'Gaming Series' shield on the lid. Is there any way to get rid of that, is it possible to remove somehow? Hadn't it been for that I don't think I would have any doubts on whether to get this laptop...

Hoping some nice deals will present themselves around or after christmas for this machine, as my current laptop is really falling apart.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

Ok, I'm planning to get a gaming laptop by the end of the year, and am currently looking at the MSI GS60 2QE-035NE. At least that's the name here in Sweden, it's the MSI GS60 with 3k screen and GTX 970m.

Does anybody have any experience with this particular model? It seems it doesn't run as hot as the previous model GS60 with GTX 870m. Also the 970m should be sufficiently powerful to last me at least 4 years I hope.

I'm especially after a laptop that's small and sleek, hence me eyeing the GS60. The only thing that annoys me is that terribly ugly 'Gaming Series' shield on the lid. Is there any way to get rid of that, is it possible to remove somehow? Hadn't it been for that I don't think I would have any doubts on whether to get this laptop...

Hoping some nice deals will present themselves around or after christmas for this machine, as my current laptop is really falling apart.

I think you're stuck with the shield if you get an MSI. You could put tape over it I guess.

 

[K.Jack]

OK. I'm gonna return it and get this MSI instead. http://www.xoticpc.com/msi-gt60-dominator1065-p-7599.html

By default, that MSI comes with a 1TB 7200RPM drive. I would like to add a small SSD as the primary OS drive and have the 1TB 7200RPM drive for secondary storage. There are multiple places on the configuration screen that I could select the SSD drive though; I could select it as the "primary hard drive" slot, but there's also a separate "mSATA SSD drive (slot 1)" where I could select it instead. Do you know if it makes a difference which one I select?

If you aren't doing a DIY upgrade, just choose an mSATA SSD. It's just a small form factor SSD, that has its own slot. If you choose one, it becomes your primary drive and they'll install the OS there.

Keep it simple.

 

[Kolgar]

This page is a goldmine, thanks!

I've had my eye on an ASUS ROG G751 Series laptop and that looks like a contender.

 

[sohois]

Decided to jump on a new laptop during China Singles Day (which is basically just China Black Friday for the unaware). Went with one of the smaller Chinese brands rather than someone international since they're cheaper, although the quality is going to be more suspect.

Picked up
i7-4710MQ
Nvidia GTX850
4g ram
1TB
1080p

for approx £500.

Good deal, you reckon?

 

[K.Jack]

This page is a goldmine, thanks!

I've had my eye on an ASUS ROG G751 Series laptop and that looks like a contender.

Saw that before the edit. Read the first section of my OP, then ask yourself why you need a gaming laptop.

Decided to jump on a new laptop during China Singles Day (which is basically just China Black Friday for the unaware). Went with one of the smaller Chinese brands rather than someone international since they're cheaper, although the quality is going to be more suspect.

Picked up
i7-4710MQ
Nvidia GTX850
4g ram
1TB
1080p

for approx £500.

Good deal, you reckon?

Yeah you never get an i7, an 850M, and 1080p for £500.

 

[CornBurrito]

So I bought an HP DV6 Quad a few years back. I'm looking for a new laptop now as this one is starting to show its age I think. Looking for something with either similar (or more) power for gaming, for the same (or less) as the DV6 Quad was. Any recommendations would be great.

Country where it will be purchased: United States
Maximum budget: Around the price of the HP DV6 Quad
Max size (can be in screen inches, dimensions, weight): No bigger than the DV6 Quad was.
Planned usage : Medium to high settings on games like Mass Effect 2, Final Fantasy 14, Guild Wars 2, etc...
Desired Battery Life: Would like some good battery life when not playing games.

 

[K.Jack]

So I bought an HP DV6 Quad a few years back. I'm looking for a new laptop now as this one is starting to show its age I think. Looking for something with either similar (or more) power for gaming, for the same (or less) as the DV6 Quad was. Any recommendations would be great.

Country where it will be purchased: United States
Maximum budget: Around the price of the HP DV6 Quad
Max size (can be in screen inches, dimensions, weight): No bigger than the DV6 Quad was.
Planned usage : Medium to high settings on games like Mass Effect 2, Final Fantasy 14, Guild Wars 2, etc...
Desired Battery Life: Would like some good battery life when not playing games.

Which was....?

 

[Sr Kitsune]

Hey gaf I'm thinking about upgrading my laptop. (Desktop is just not an option for me).

I think I'll buy this laptop with this SDD. Around 1,100 usd. I think it is worth it, any thoughts?

I think it's a good deal, but I have never used Lenovo before.

 

[CornBurrito]

Which was....?

I've honestly forgotten and can't seem to find it. I was hoping someone more knowledgeable would know. I'm going to say it was around $1000.00. I do remember it being fairly expensive.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

I just sent the Sager NP8268-S back for a refund. Ultimately the laptop had too many issues for me. Here's a rundown of my experience with it:

- Alien Isolation played super smooth on ultra settings.
- Shadow of Mordor: I let it auto-pick settings and it chose a mix of med-high, and got a smooth 60 fps with that.
- Cooling was great. I was able to play those games with the laptop sitting on a bed and it barely got warm at all.
- The keyboard is really ugly. It's hard to find keys by feel. It's even visually misleading; the numpad has bigger arrows on it than the actual arrow keys, and everything is labeled with a weird oversized font, making it difficult to even visually find keys at a glance.
- The touchpad is crap. Two-finger inputs for right-click or scrolling only work some of the time.
- You can customize the keyboard backlight color, but about half the time I rebooted it switched back to the default blue color.
- I had to reboot this thing a LOT. The wireless card frequently stopped working when it came out of sleep mode, requiring a reboot to fix it.
- Sometimes the fingerprint reader would just go haywire and beep nonstop until I rebooted, even though my hands were nowhere near the sensor. If it started doing this while I was playing a game, it would tab me out of the game.
- Conclusion: Good gaming performance, crap everything else.

 

[K.Jack]

Hey gaf I'm thinking about upgrading my laptop. (Desktop is just not an option for me).

I think I'll buy this laptop with this SDD. Around 1,100 usd. I think it is worth it, any thoughts?

I think it's a good deal, but I have never used Lenovo before.

Not a bad plan.

I've honestly forgotten and can't seem to find it. I was hoping someone more knowledgeable would know. I'm going to say it was around $1000.00. I do remember it being fairly expensive.

This

Conclusion: Good gaming performance, crap everything else.

Yep

 

[OhCrapItsJeremy]

Hey GAF!

Looking to pick up a gaming laptop during this years Black Friday sales. A couple must haves-

• Looking for smaller than 17" form factor. Ideally a 14" or 15" display.
• Game dev - so need it to run Maya/Photoshop, but doesn't need to be a rendering powerhouse. Just need it to run the viewport (ie. OpenGL graphics) at good framerates.
• Want a GTX970 or 980 in it.
• Would love a 256GB SSD/1TB HDD combo in it.
• Budget is $2000 max
  

Possible?

The Razer Blade seems like its a little too expensive for it's tech specs so I was mainly looking at the offerings from Asus and MSI. Any models/brands I should be aware of?

 

[CornBurrito]

This

Oh looks nice. Should be able to run all the stuff I want to run nicely. Do they sell it with Windows 7 instead of 8? Or is 8 not going to cause any compatibility problems?

edit: Also any other suggestions for similar specced laptops?

 

[K.Jack]

Hey GAF!

Looking to pick up a gaming laptop during this years Black Friday sales. A couple must haves-

• Looking for smaller than 17" form factor. Ideally a 14" or 15" display.
• Game dev - so need it to run Maya/Photoshop, but doesn't need to be a rendering powerhouse. Just need it to run the viewport (ie. OpenGL graphics) at good framerates.
• Want a GTX970 or 980 in it.
• Would love a 256GB SSD/1TB HDD combo in it.
• Budget is $2000 max
  

Possible?

The Razer Blade seems like its a little too expensive for it's tech specs so I was mainly looking at the offerings from Asus and MSI. Any models/brands I should be aware of?

If you're sticking with 15", this is your only option.

You'll need to buy the SSD to install it yourself.

Oh looks nice. Should be able to run all the stuff I want to run nicely. Do they sell it with Windows 7 instead of 8? Or is 8 not going to cause any compatibility problems?

edit: Also any other suggestions for similar specced laptops?

Win 8 is fine, just spend $5 on Start8.

 

[Fezan]

k.jak any information about gtx960m

 

[OhCrapItsJeremy]

If you're sticking with 15", this is your only option.

You'll need to buy the SSD to install it yourself.


Win 8 is fine, just spend $5 on Start8.

What about in the 17" form factor? I'd like to keep it thin. The MSI Ghost line looks appealing. Anything else that would also fit those requirements?

 

[ipitydatfu]

I just sent the Sager NP8268-S back for a refund. Ultimately the laptop had too many issues for me. Here's a rundown of my experience with it:

- Alien Isolation played super smooth on ultra settings.
- Shadow of Mordor: I let it auto-pick settings and it chose a mix of med-high, and got a smooth 60 fps with that.
- Cooling was great. I was able to play those games with the laptop sitting on a bed and it barely got warm at all.
- The keyboard is really ugly. It's hard to find keys by feel. It's even visually misleading; the numpad has bigger arrows on it than the actual arrow keys, and everything is labeled with a weird oversized font, making it difficult to even visually find keys at a glance.
- The touchpad is crap. Two-finger inputs for right-click or scrolling only work some of the time.
- You can customize the keyboard backlight color, but about half the time I rebooted it switched back to the default blue color.
- I had to reboot this thing a LOT. The wireless card frequently stopped working when it came out of sleep mode, requiring a reboot to fix it.
- Sometimes the fingerprint reader would just go haywire and beep nonstop until I rebooted, even though my hands were nowhere near the sensor. If it started doing this while I was playing a game, it would tab me out of the game.
- Conclusion: Good gaming performance, crap everything else.

shit.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

shit.

It's apparently a somewhat common thing with laptop wireless cards, but I spent several days fucking with drivers and settings trying to fix it with no luck.

 

[Dsyndrome]

Went balls to the wall and got the following from Xotic PC:

MSI GT72 Dominator Pro-445
4x 128GB SSD's, 1TB 7200RPM SATA III
GTX 980M 8.0GB GDDR5 /w Optimus
32GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM
17.3" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Anti-Glare Ultra Bright IPS Screen
4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4980HQ
Shit ton of Black Friday/November deals for cooling and overclocking

Not cheap, but it wasn't meant to me. Merry Christmas/Birthday/4th of July to me for the next year (had to explain why it was necessary to my wife).

 

[K.Jack]

k.jak any information about gtx960m

Only that it's expected to come from the GTX 960, and that the desktop card is expected in the next couple months.

What about in the 17" form factor? I'd like to keep it thin. The MSI Ghost line looks appealing. Anything else that would also fit those requirements?

The temps with the 970M seem to be much lower than the 870M. It's a nice laptop.

There's also this Gigabyte.

Went balls to the wall and got the following from Xotic PC:

MSI GT72 Dominator Pro-445
4x 128GB SSD's, 1TB 7200RPM SATA III
GTX 980M 8.0GB GDDR5 /w Optimus
32GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM
17.3" FHD 16:9 "Matte Type" Anti-Glare Ultra Bright IPS Screen
4th Generation Intel® Haswell Core™ i7-4980HQ
Shit ton of Black Friday/November deals for cooling and overclocking

Not cheap, but it wasn't meant to me. Merry Christmas/Birthday/4th of July to me for the next year (had to explain why it was necessary to my wife).

Nice, it's an awesome laptop.

I will be going with a GT72 when 20nm Maxwell becomes a reality.

 

[The Reloader]

Does the 970M support Gsync via external monitor? I may want to hook up my laptop to a Gsync monitor.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

There's also this Gigabyte.

That's a bit thinner than a Sager or MSI Dominator. What sort of impact would that have on cooling? I really want to avoid anything that's gonna overheat.

 

[Portman]

Does the 970M support Gsync via external monitor? I may want to hook up my laptop to a Gsync monitor.

Based on what I've been able to find about support for the mobile chips I don't think it exists but don't hold me to it. I was curious about it when I bought my system but could't find any mention of it.

In other news I finally bought a Clevo after wanting one since college 5 years ago! Got a Mythlogic Nyx 3713-A on order. It feels like I'm a traitor to the desktop thread after tracking it for so long but once I landed a real job and thought about it a laptop would work better for me. One of the things that sold me on it was how easy LAN parties are with my current laptop and I wanted to keep that experience. If I was going to spend $4k on a desktop like I was planning I figured I'd put it into a laptop too and get the best of both worlds.

 

[The Reloader]

Based on what I've been able to find about support for the mobile chips I don't think it exists but don't hold me to it. I was curious about it when I bought my system but could't find any mention of it.

According to this post on notebookreview the 900m's do support gsync:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/762758-gtx-900m-series-officially-announced-nvidia-79.html#post9798551

I also found this podcast from PC Perspective and they mention at around the 35 minute mark that they do support gsync:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYbmMkeLC8Q&t=35m43s

 

[Portman]

According to this post on notebookreview the 900m's do support gsync:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/gaming-software-graphics-cards/762758-gtx-900m-series-officially-announced-nvidia-79.html#post9798551

I also found this podcast from PC Perspective and they mention at around the 35 minute mark that they do support gsync:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYbmMkeLC8Q&t=35m43s

Awesome, good to hear. I may have to give in a get a monitor that supports it to try it out in the future.

 

[K.Jack]

Wait you guys are missing a big piece of that puzzle. Gsync works only with the MSI GT72, because it doesn't use Optimus for its GPU switching. Gsync won't work with any Optimus laptop.

That's a bit thinner than a Sager or MSI Dominator. What sort of impact would that have on cooling? I really want to avoid anything that's gonna overheat.

Thinner always means worse cooling. I haven't seen any reviews yet.

 

[Parallax Scroll]

Wait you guys are missing a big piece of that puzzle. Gsync works only with the MSI GT72, because it doesn't use Optimus for its GPU switching. Gsync won't work with any Optimus laptop.


Thinner always means worse cooling. I haven't seen any reviews yet.

Aight. I went ahead and ordered the MSI GT60. I'm still not a fan of the dragon logo on the back, but I'll deal.