Gaming / Graphics work laptop for £1200 ?

Awkward budget area that. See if you can find a Advent 6555/7555/MSI GT725/729.

Best performing chips you'll likely get in that price region would be GTX260m, or a 4850m.

If you can pump a LITTLE higher, you could get a G860 on preorder with I7 and a GTX280m, but I realise that's beyond budget.

The HP Envy is likely to be in that price region too, and has a 4830m.

If you CAN get the HP Envy 15, that's probably going to be the best option for you, as the I7 chip it and the G860 use will serve you better in the likes of photoshop and 3dstudio max, whilst the GPU is about 20% slower than the 4850/260 (the GTX280m is about 10% faster than the 4850 at stock, basically a desktop 9800GTX just so you know.)
 
Just a thought, isn't the 7555 GX basically a rebranded MSI? (can't remember the model exactly, but I know it's in tehir GT series)
 
Yeah it is, its the MSI GT725, basic difference between the MSI and advent versions are that the advent versions use a 1440x900 screen, and dont always have blu-ray. The GT729 is slightly upgraded with a 4850 1GB over 512MB, BUT, if you can find the Advent, given they come with a basic quad processor (newer design so although 2Ghz, compared to a Q6600 its closer to 2.2-2.3Ghz, not to mention they'll accept any Montevina platform processor so you COULD upgrade if you wanted, a QS Q9200 [2.4Ghz] can be had on the bay for £180) and a 4850m which performs around desktop 4830 level, you can play almost anything on the 1440x900 screen, well, they are the absolute best value gaming laptop in the UK right now as far as I've found.

The 6555 and 7555 are virtually the same, IIRC the difference was the 7555 doesnt have Blu-ray.


Originally I was going to buy an MSI GT725, they became almost impossible to find, so I eventually coughed up extra budget and got an M17 from Dell/Alienware, with 4850s(yay), that broke down with a faulty part (happens), but the customer service was utterly, utterly, disgustingly appalling, so I've now got a Kobalt machine on the way.
Expensive, but given they've promised me GPU upgrades if they're MXM3.0b and a bios becomes available, I've got an exceedingly capable machine, hell it'll hold off against a GTX260/280 based desktop that I can walk around with, which is very useful to me for various reasons [number one being I do move around a bit, and my family look after kids for some of the social agencies, so it helps to have somethign I can walk off with]

If I felt I would have been happy with the performance, I would have almost instantly bought a GX7555, at the £900 it was retailing for, it was an utter bargain (comparatively), the UK power/enthusiast/portable workstation market is pretty poor compared to the likes of the US.
 
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Dell studio 15 and dell studio xps 16 with the quad i7's could be an option, not sure how well the gpu's stack up but they're worth having a look if nothing else.
 
Thanks for the good advice Alex, I've read around about the ones you reccomended.

The G860 is too expensive I think.

I do like the look of the HP Envy 15 a lot. I can't find too much info on it though, looks like it's just been released, I've only found one review on it.

What about the Alienware m15x? That is almost exaclty in my price range aswell as the Envy 15. It also seems to have similar specs apart from the graphics card (which I'm not sure which is better)

Are Alienware no good? What's bad about them?

I did notice your sig :p I just want to know why.
 
oL said:
Thanks for the good advice Alex, I've read around about the ones you reccomended.

The G860 is too expensive I think.

I do like the look of the HP Envy 15 a lot. I can't find too much info on it though, looks like it's just been released, I've only found one review on it.

What about the Alienware m15x? That is almost exaclty in my price range aswell as the Envy 15. It also seems to have similar specs apart from the graphics card (which I'm not sure which is better)

Are Alienware no good? What's bad about them?

I did notice your sig :p I just want to know why.
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The Alienware M15x is roughly the same price as the G860, yet has a worse spec, non existant aftercare and more expensive upgrades (the G860 has the GTX280m, the M15x has to be *upgraded* to the GTX260m, and I believe may have slightly lower specs elsewhere)... doesnt make sense to go for it IMO. Also, if you already have an OS, Kobalt will do a £75 cashback for no OS. Hell Kobalt will even sell you a 2 year warranty for an extra £40.

Alienware Europe after sales care is APPALLING. Short version = they lie, dont get back to you like they promise, have terrible internal communication, sometimes send you round in circles of WEEKS, supervisors dont want to take charge, and 'forget' to send you things they promise; parts aren't despatched when they should be, they send back machines from repair faulty, they refuse to follow consumer law unless forced to under threat of small claims court...

I will NOT be buying Dell or Alienware again in the near future, that's for sure.
There are about 10 or so of us over on Kobalts forums, all ex-Alienware customers with similar stories.

For a slightly longer version, read this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=410930

That said if you can find the Advents, go for it. The processor can be upgraded, the 4850m is a little stronger than the GTX260m and a Q9200/QX9300 are roughly on par with the I7, they just dont have the turbo-boost function (the I7 mobile processors can switch off cores and overclock the remaining ones if nothing is using the extra cores).

Edit: LOL...I think they might be rebranding it the Advent 8555 now, still £999 for Q9000, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD and 4850m isn't bad, and is fair chunk cheaper than the others, especially if you have any access to discount there. Hell, you can buy the Q9200s for £180 so with the upgrade it's still cheaper. :D
 
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Regarding the MSI 725, the only downside is the keyboard! Its the worst keyboard layout I have used on a laptop (and I have owned a lot!)
There are some small cramped keys plus the Fn is to the left of the ctrl key (serious pet hate)

I have studio xps 16 at the moment and that is a good option but does suffer from heat issues if not on a cooling pad.

The G860 is a great option for a power user but the batt life is poor. I am looking to get one as a desktop replacement eventually and use a 13" for mobility
 
Yeah I don't think i'll go with Alienware, were they bought out by Dell? was never a fan of Dell anyway tbh.

You would go with an Advent 6555/7555/8555 instead of the HP Envy 15 ?

Thinking about streching an extra £200 or so and going with the Kobalt G860 with default apart from RAM upgraded to 4GB.
 
Yeah Dell bought Alienware.

I would rather the envy than the msi. But if you get the chance go and take a look at them both first. With a laptop there is a lot more to think about than just raw performance ie. heat, keyboard, screen, battery life, weight etc.
 
Well I think I've pretty much made up my mind that I'll get the G860, unless I decided to not spend that much and get the HP Envy 15 instead. Thanks for all the replies :)
 
Hi there mate, glad you made a decision you're happy with. If you go G860, checkout the Kobalt forum if you have any questions or want to do a bit of reading, the shop owners post on thier quite a lot, and are pretty helpful, and there are a couple of regulars who do what they can :)

They're pretty friendly on the phones too.
 
Alexrose1uk said:
Hi there mate, glad you made a decision you're happy with. If you go G860, checkout the Kobalt forum if you have any questions or want to do a bit of reading, the shop owners post on thier quite a lot, and are pretty helpful, and there are a couple of regulars who do what they can :)

They're pretty friendly on the phones too.
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Yeah I've had a read. I will certainly post there if I need anything :)
 
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