Need help buying a gaming laptop - spec questions

[EpcotMatt]

I posted this on the Budget Board, but figured I'd post it here too. My DSS will be turning 16 soon, and we’re going to get him a laptop as his big gift. He will be using it mostly for gaming, so I was hoping some of the people in-the-know on the DIS would be able to help out. I’m expecting to spend in the $1000-$1200 range, but I want to make sure that money goes towards the appropriate specs so that we get the most bang for our buck. Which companies are better known for their quality gaming laptops? We normally buy Dell products, but I’ve read that they’re not the best with gaming laptops. Is that true? Who should I look at? Also, what “guts” for the laptop do I really want to focus on and what internals are not really that necessary? I appreciate the help & thanks in advance.

 

[Lucky82061]

Gaming and laptop generally don't go very well together. Alienware has always stated they are "gaming" laptopt but I feel they are overpriced... of course you also kind of need to define "gaming" as well.

If you are talking about state of the art game's, then you will need a beefier laptop than what 1000-1200 will get you... but with that said you can probably find a decent one that will work.

The biggest thing in a Laptop that you want to focus on will be the graphics card. A majority of laptops do not have a graphics card suitable for gaming. You will want one that had a separate GPU (graphics processing unit)... you can usually see this buy locating a nvidia or ati sticker on the laptopt. Also, very important is the RAM on the laptop. This is where it can get tricky, alot of laptops will have a ati/nvidia sticker on it making you think that it is good for gaming... you need to make sure that the system RAM and the graphics RAM are separate. Usually what will happen is that the laptop will say 1GB system RAM and 256MB Graphics memory or something of that sort.. but when you read the fine print the 256MB is shared... effectively cutting the 1GB down to 768Mb...

So to sum that all up.. you will want a laptop with a good graphics chip with its own ram, also around 512-1gb of system RAM... also you will want decent CPU.

I think that Falcon northwest makes great pc's for gaming and such... also IMHO Dell doesn't make good gaming pc's... anyways just my thoughts.

On another note.. man I'm a geek

 

[cancer_survivor_06]

Hi I don't know much about comps but what I do know is that my husband is and he just bought a laptop custom made for his gaming needs from Alienware you might want to check out there site to see what they have they are ranked #1 for gaming comps and Dell comes in 2nd. Have a great day and best of luck. If you have any questions just send me a PM and I can ask him or get him to answer any questions.

 

[Tumblwd501]

I have to echo Lucky's sentiments here. Are you deadset on getting your DS a laptop instead of a desktop PC? At least for gaming, the desktop is the better way to go, and you should be able to get a good desktop for the price range you mentioned. Either way, the items of concern Lucky detailed are spot on. Although I would go for closer to 1 Gig of RAM vs the 512 MB.

One other thing to consider, what kind of gaming is your DS going to be into (or more likely already into)? If he's into the online games (as most kids seem to be), then you're going to also need to consider his internet connection. If you're buying a laptop for the mobility, then do you also have a wireless network? If you don't have a wireless network and he's primarily into online games, that might be another reason to look into a desktop, since he's going to be anchored to the modem or cable outlet anyway.

Just some food for thought.