Need a new laptop that can play games

[Mazmaz]

I'm looking to buy a new laptop since this one's getting old, and I don't know anything about laptop components. I mainly use it for school stuff/data analysis/etc. but I'd like it to be able to play games as well. I'm not talking about crazy high end games, but I'd like to be able to run things like Starcraft 2 and Civ 5 on highest settings. I'll probably mostly use it for strategy games, since I'm a consolefag.

Can anyone tell me what components I should keep an eye out for? I don't know anything about the current generation of CPUs/GPUs, especially for laptops.

[Melena]

What sort of price range. More you are willing to spend, better it's going to be. It's been a few years since i've last laptop shopped for my wife and that was about 1100 for a at the time high end sony gaming laptop. Also what size screen are you looking for? 15, 17"?

[Mazmaz]

Err.. probably around $1k? It would be nice if it was a bit smaller, but I understand you gotta sacrifice portability for performance with these things. It's just kinda rough having to lug around a heavy laptop to university every day.

edit: I looked at something like this, but have no idea if that CPU and GPU are good or bad: http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...rchPageIndex=1

[The Stig]

Dig through this 3 page thread if you got time, a few suggestions thrown around there and here.

http://www.bluegartr.com/threads/116...eccomendations

[Mazmaz]

oh thanks I probably should've searched first lol.

[The Stig]

No worries it's very recent, but note that we tried to go very low price until other participants suggested otherwise.

[Mazmaz]

Should I be worried about a 5400rpm hard drive? I found this laptop which seems pretty ideal to me, but the hard drive speed bothers me.

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/produ...rchPageIndex=1

[The Stig]

Nope. Most if not all laptops come with 5400 RPM nowadays for the sake of heat and battery life nowadays. They usually combo it with a SSD though (either a boot variant, or a generous variant which could hold some apps i.e. 64-128gb).

In fact, I'd wager that in a blind test if you could tell between a 5400 RPM and 7200 RPM hard drive I'd be thoroughly impressed

[Melena]

That should be pretty solid. If you want to save some money, see if you can find an I5 with that gpu or close to it. I'm a snob and stick to I7's but from what i have read and heard you won't see much of a difference between the two.

[Mazmaz]

Do these laptops even use more than 8 GBs of RAM? I found one of almost the same specs but 8GB ram instead of 16, and less HDD space, but $200 cheaper and lighter/smaller (15.6")

http://www.ncix.ca/products/?sku=845...I&promoid=1035

[Krandor]

For 99% of users more then 8 GB of RAM is a waste.

Also can't speak for the current version of the GE60, but I owned the previous model and it had serious heat due to the CPU/GPU sharing a heat pipe. Talking in the mid 90c range for the GPU, which is really pushing it for a laptop.

[Mazmaz]

Bummer :/

[Caiyuo]

I'd be wary of 17-inch laptops unless you know you like that size, it's not only going to be heavier and have worse battery life than a 15-inch, but for most people they're also just too much. I had one and ended up returning it for a 15-inch because it was honestly just way too big for what I wanted.

Also if you want a definitive answer on what hardware to look at specifically for Starcraft 2, try this: http://www.notebookcheck.net/StarCraft-2.35167.0.html

There wasn't much for Civ5, but those are all video card rankings for the game at different settings. That way you'll know what ballpark of hardware to look at and what's going to be overboard. For instance, an Nvidia 760M will get just over 60FPS on ultra.

[Anakron]

The build quality of MSI laptops are a good deal below those of ASUS laptops from my experience. I have an ASUS G75VW and have no complaints so far.

You can read up on this: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Top-10-...s.17035.0.html

[cafehh]

You can get the MSI GT70 or the Asus G750 series for less than 2k. They are the ultimate gaming notebooks and not expensive as Alienware or Razer.

If you think they are bulky, you can try the MSI GS70 which is the MSI's approach to Razer Blade but with better specs and lower price.

[Mazmaz]

Welp, bought a MSI GT60 (http://www.ncix.ca/products/?sku=841...I&promoid=1035), which proceeded to malfunction after a week. I now have a $1600 in-store credit. Should I go back and buy the same computer, or tough it out and hope ASUS comes out with a 15" with similar specs? I'd love for there to be a 15" version of g750s, preferably before Black Friday.

[bluefan]

You have a Memoryexpress near you Maz? Their price match policy is pretty nice. Will be a competitors price by 25% of the difference.

If not, I looked at this one over the weekend:

http://www.ncix.ca/products/?sku=875...S&promoid=1377

Lenovo's are pretty nice as well:

http://ncix.ca/products/?sku=80752&v...r&promoid=1377

That one comes with the extra GPU for SLI, but you can buy separate ultra bay stuff like a extra HDD or DVD/Blu-ray drive.