Laptop Options ~£800

Brexan · 20 Jun 2013 at 16:16

Hi all,

I've been toying with the idea of getting a 'gaming' laptop for quite a while - I'm looking to spend £800 (or less) and am baffled by all the various processors and graphics card models which mean nothing to me!

I'm looking for something able to play modern games reasonably well although not expecting 'Ultra' settings. My gaming is largely offline - Skyrim I'd imagine is the most graphically intense, but I do play online MMOs like SWToR, Diablo3which I'd like to have reasonable performance with. After a 17"~ screen, not too hung up on the looks.

My window shopping so far:

-I had read some good reviews about the Lenovo y500 and was close to buying one at £700 until I realised it was an i5 3230 processer rather than the I7-3630QM which comes in at £800 (both GT 650M / 8gig memory).

-I have looked at the OcUK Gamer W370ST with an £830 set up (i7-4700MQ 2.4ghz / 8gig memory / 1TB HDD).

-My last thought was an Inspiron 17r from the outlet. I'm a little hesitant with Inspirons just because Alienware seems to be Dells gaming venture. At £570 this one has an i7-3630QM / 8gig memory / GeForce GT 650M. (I know it'll probably be gone by the time I decide, but I can always look out for a simlar spec).

Any advice as to which of these (if any!) would be best value?

Many thanks!

daver · 20 Jun 2013 at 16:40

Bear in mind the OCUK one at £830 doesn't include an OS but the 765M is signifcantly stronger than a 650M

Jimbo Mahoney · 20 Jun 2013 at 16:59

I replaced my desktop with an XPS 14 Ultrabook and I'm pretty happy with the 630m in it. I'm playing Darksiders 2 at 720p with full AA at 40 fps (max 60, min 30).

For portability, I would recommend this route.

However, if weight or size isn't an issue, then I'd be looking at the 17R SE or the Alienware as you suggest.

I didn't consider the 17R because it's too big and the Alienware is too heavy - I travel a lot, and the 2.1kg of the XPS 14 is the most I could stand.

I had the XPS 13 before, which is stunning for portability but just doesn't cut it for games except Torchlight etc.

Marine-RX179 · 20 Jun 2013 at 18:49

daver said:
Bear in mind the OCUK one at £830 doesn't include an OS but the 765M is signifcantly stronger than a 650M

Yea. The 765M 2GB is basically the desktop's GTX650Ti 128bit with around 100MHz lower clock. Considering the GTX650Ti is roughly on par with the 5850/6870, the slightly lower clock on the 765M would mean it should be around GTX460/6850 speed, but without the short-coming of 1GB vram!

thepharcyde · 20 Jun 2013 at 23:09

Lenovo Y500 is good value . SLI option too

Brexan · 21 Jun 2013 at 10:45

Thanks for the replies guys!

I'm not sure I could work with a 14" screen, I do want something portable but by that I mean having sat in my car and carrying into the office!

The SLI option on the Lenovo would be a bonus, but I've read that its difficult to get ahold of the second graphics card for it - plus of course that's an extra cost. The backlit keyboard looks purty!

Marine's comparisons of the 765M to the GTX460 make it very appealing. That is actually a significant increase over my current desktop! I'd be looking at the basic OCUK model but upgrading to 8gm memory and the 1TB Samsung HDD.

The only other factor is the Warranty - 3 years on the Lenovo I've seen, 1 year parts 2 years labor for the OCUK one.

I think the clincher for me would be whether the Lenovo with a second graphics card would trump the OCUK laptop? I could look to buy the second card in the future as an upgrade.