Looking for Advice on a Gaming Laptop

[iamdanthemanstan]

I'm in the market for a new gaming laptop, my current one is four years old and not that powerful to boot. I was planning to spend about $2000 I think that will be enough to get something good enough to play all the games that are out now on the top settings as well as play all the games that come out in the next year or two on some settings. But I'm not really sure what model to get. I was leaning toward a Dell Alienware, probably a m15x but after reading that recently NYT article on Dell I'm not so sure anymore. I was leaning toward them since I'm probably going to China and I need something with a good international warranty. Does anyone have any thoughts on what I should do?

[glc]

You may want to check on the Asus international warranty - this looks like a strong machine:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220695

[iamdanthemanstan]

I don't think the warranty is as good but that's pretty impressive for the price. I had never really heard of that brand Asus before recently but now everyone seems to be recommending them.

[mknabster]

Forget Asus, if you want some good bang for your buck, look into Sager. They're a brand built specifically for gaming and come with a wide range of nice options. http://www.pctorque.com/sager-laptops.php. I'm not much of a big computer company fan, I like custom builts or Macs.

[glc]

However, how is Sager's international warranty? Also, what is your beef with Asus?

[mknabster]

I don't have any beef with Asus, I just never had any experience with them, that's all . I guess I should look into and start referring to them? Sager claims they have good international warranties.

[glc]

I'd recommend you take a look at Asus laptops and netbooks if you have the opportunity. I have an Asus EeePC and I love it. Full size Asus laptops seem to be very nicely built, and offer very good specs for the buck.

I'm not saying anything bad about Sager, but they aren't exactly mainstream and it looks to me like they specialize in custom configurations. I used to deal with Chembook, which is a similar concept.

[David M]

In a way, a gaming laptop is almost an oxymoron unless you are willing to spend gobs of money....much more money than for an equivalently powered desktop. Be sure you know which graphics option your laptop has and understand its graphics performance capabilities. Also make sure your laptops hardware at least meets your games typical, not minimum requirements. Also don't expect to run graphics intensive games for hours and hours on a laptop battery.

[Nikon]

ahh, the worst problem ever, the traveling hardcore gamer. the more powerful the computer, the more expencive it is, and the more dismal the battery life.

also, as above, laptop graphix cannot be changed, so make that your top priority. this will murder your budget though.

im a gamer, but i dont use laptops and cant offer much more than that. asus is a good brand, and the asus laptop we have is the only one that can play more intense games than WoW.