New laptop

[AndyClarke]

The time has come to buy a new laptop, I've just had a nice amount of money come my way so I can go a bit more mad than I perhaps would normally. I've been looking at some of the higher end kit on the market, but not sure I can bring myself to spend £1,500 on the Alienware 17 I've been eyeing up!

Any advice would be appreciated, I need it for day to day use, the likes of Football Manager and Flight Sim, although a decent bit of kit opens up more gaming options that I perhaps haven't been able to explore before.

[hogso]

Why laptop and not desktop?

[AndyClarke]

Ease of use whilst doing other things to be honest. Don't really have the space as such, unless I want to be in a separate room to my 4 month old. Although it is a fair point looking at some of the desktops around along with a top end screen.

[tarjei]

£1500 would get you a great gaming laptop, but you can get one quite a bit cheaper. Alienware is not a cheap option, and you pay for the brand.

I.e have a look at this: Toshiba-Satellite-L50

 

Brand                    Toshiba

Item Weight              2.4 Kg

Product Dimensions       42.5 x 36.5 x 8.5 cm

Batteries:               1 Lithium ion batteries required. (included)

Item model number        L50-A-1FD

Series Satellite         L50-A-1FD

Color                    Silver

Form Factor              Portable

Screen Size              15.6 inches

Processor Brand          Intel

Processor Type Core      i7

Processor Speed          2.4 GHz

Processor Count          4

RAM Size                 8 GB

Computer Memory Type     DDR3 SDRAM

Hard Drive Size          1000 GB

Graphics Card Desc       NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 740M

Graphics RAM Type        DDR3 SDRAM

Graphics Card Ram Size   2 GB

Voltage                  240 volts

Operating System         Windows 8

Lithium Battery Energy Content 48 watt_hours

Lithium Battery Packaging batteries_contained_in_equipment

Lithium Battery Weight   320 grams

The downside is that it's only got a screen resolution of 1366 x 768, and it's got a mechanical hard drive (5400rpm). But it's a good example that you can get something decent for much less. I haven't exactly looked around much.

You should be able to find one with HD-resolution, a SSD and a decent graphics card for around £1k, I think.

[hogso]

That looks just fine...but knowing that Andy has a lot to do with FM, I'd assume he'd want a bit more punch from his processer than that? Granted it's an i7, but I'd want something faster if I was buying a new piece of kit.

Then again you'd be looking at overclocked machines to get a much higher processer speed than that in a laptop, so it comes down to how much you want a laptop again, really.

...actually, I should probably get over the laptop thing. If that's what suits you best then there you go

Found this which appears to tick all the boxes - nice big screen, full HD, great graphics card, good make, HDD + SSD, (just, just, only just) under 1k. The review their seems to point out though that the track pad isn't very good, however...

Edited May 18, 2014 by hogso

[RunRickyRun]

You could configure your own at PC specialist:

 

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/laptop-computers/

[AndyClarke]

Cheers guys, the missus has stepped in and insisted that we will be better off with a desktop for the simple reason that the kids will destroy a laptop. This is a fair point to be honest as my little girl is 4 months old and will soon be dashing around.

So, top end desktop and obscenely big screen is the order of the day now!

[darrenm]

You'll get a lot more bang for your buck from a desktop as well. Most people who buy gaming laptops never take them anywhere anyway.

[hogso]

Hooray, desktop! Now the fun really starts - build your own!

[AndyClarke]

Just seems like a lot of hassle to do it that way, I understand that it can end up being cheaper though.

Edited May 18, 2014 by AndyClarke

[tarjei]

I enjoy it quite a lot. Haven't bought a ready made one in 15 years. My current one, except for a new SSD, have only got left over parts from different builds. That's one advantage. You buy parts that last. My PSU is fully modular, but probably 10 years now, and have been used in 4 PCs.

I made a gamble once as I thought a new motherboard would fit in an old case, but it didn't so I ended up using a cardboard box lined with plastic. Worked quite well, I was super proud of it. But my next purchase was a gigantic modular cube case, that will probably last forever. Who would want kids when you can spend your time building a computer?

Edited May 18, 2014 by tarjei

[Gillz]

I'm planning no getting myself one of these as a laptop for gaming. Excellent spec for that price.

 

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-146-MS

[Davkaus]

Is a desktop out of the question? You'd get a PC that can run pretty much anything you can throw at it at a decent framerate. The 840M is going to struggle at 1920*1080 on even medium settings, it's an entry level card. Gaming on a laptop is always a compromise.

 

For the price it's ok, you won't get a significantly better laptop for gaming for that price, but you'll need to lower the resolution or graphics settings to run things smoothly. Some sample framerates here.

 

Of course if you don't play new AAA titles, it may be just fine.

Edited May 19, 2014 by Davkaus

[LxYoungAVFC]

Building your own is also better because a lot of companies put cheap (key) parts into their PCs (i.e. RAM, CPU Cooler etc.)

[limpid]

You could configure your own at PC specialist:

 

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/laptop-computers/

I used to recommend this lot. I placed an order and they contacted me after 3 days to say they couldn't get the chassis I ordered

 

Still using my 4+ year old Alienware 17, but it's getting s-l-o-w-e-r every day.