Gaming laptop - Budget £1,500

rotter023

rotter023

rotter023

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Hey all,

My Alienware M14X - R2 is starting to feel it's age now (650m gfx card..) and I'm going to be in the market for a new gaming laptop very shortly. Have a budget of around £1,500 (could stretch a little further if it's for something exceptional) and was wondering if you'd be able to give me any suggestions?

Am quite easy going regarding requirements but would ideally like something that has smaller than 17 inch screen due to table space but it's not a deal breaker if something that size offers serious bang for buck.

Would also obviously like to be able to play most modern games at 1080p/high detail for the next couple of years.

Due to great previous experiences would like to order from Overclockers.co.uk if possible! Am quite liking the look of this actually - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-180-MS

Thanks in advance!

*UPDATE*

Well here's what I ended up going for, I decided to stretch the budget a bit to £1,800! Am thinking the 8GB graphics card should be useful when I get a 4K TV and potentially feel like hooking up the laptop for some big screen gaming.
17.3" Matte LED FullHD 1920 x 1080 screen (I wasn't really too bothered about a fancy IPS display or anything like that)
Intel Core i7 4790S, Haswell, Quad Core with HyperThreading, 3.2GHz, 4GHz Turbo, 8MB Cache
16GB Corsair (2x8GB) - 1600MHz
8GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M
250GB Crucial MX200 SSD
1TB Hitachi Travelstar 7K1000 HDD, 7200rpm, 32MB cache
Samsung SE-208GB/RSBD, USB DVDRW External Drive
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260
Integrated Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi 3
Microsoft Windows 8.1 64-bit - OEM [Microsoft Windows 8.1 64Bit]
2 Year warranty
Dead Pixel guarantee
Arctic Silver 5 TIM CPU and GPU thermal paste

Gaming benchmarks:

FIRE STRIKE
SCORE
8184 with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M(1x) and Intel Core i7-4790S Processor
Graphics Score 9448
Physics Score 9959
Combined Score 3606

FIRE STRIKE
SCORE
8913 with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M(1x) and Intel Core i7-4790S Processor (980M overclocked +135MHz core and +293MHz RAM)
Graphics Score 10346
Physics Score 9991
Combined Score 4052

SKY DIVER
SCORE
21403 with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M(1x) and Intel Core i7-4790S Processor
Graphics Score 29052
Physics Score 9512
Combined Score 19470

CLOUD GATE
SCORE
23017 with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M(1x) and Intel Core i7-4790S Processor
Graphics Score 64062
Physics Score 7099

ICE STORM
SCORE
145379 with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M(1x) and Intel Core i7-4790S Processor
Graphics Score 327053
Physics Score 49378

Could barely hear the fans when running the benchmarks, so I'm guessing the laptop is running relatively cool.

Overall after 6 hours use, I'm very pleased!
 
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For 15 inches you can gethttp://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-184-MS
It runs at 4k but should scale to 1080 for gaming no problems.
 
The CPU is the same. The Asus has more memory and a bigger ssd. So the ssd would be quicker depending on the brand they've gone with. The 15 inch does have a 2nd slot for another ssd. So that's something to consider as possible upgrades but really they are both top specs I would want the 4k screen myself but I think someone mentioned in another thread gigabyte has a new laptop coming so maybe worth seeing what they will offer to compete with MSI Asus etc
 
PooKer said:
The CPU is the same. The Asus has more memory and a bigger ssd. So the ssd would be quicker depending on the brand they've gone with. The 15 inch does have a 2nd slot for another ssd. So that's something to consider as possible upgrades but really they are both top specs I would want the 4k screen myself but I think someone mentioned in another thread gigabyte has a new laptop coming so maybe worth seeing what they will offer to compete with MSI Asus etc
Click to expand...

Oh ok, any hints out atm when the new gigabyte is being announced? :)
 
the ASUS doesn't have a 8gb GTX 980M and for the same money as the Asus you can get a 8GB GTX 980M
Same money as the ASUS:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-041-GI
It has less RAM but it has a 8GB GTX 980M vs a 4GB GTX 980M

- Outstanding Flexibility: Hot Swappable ODD/HDD Slot
- Display: 15.6", 2880*1620 WQHD+
- Processor Type: Intel Core i7 4860HQ
- Processor Cores: 4 (8 Threads)
- Processor Clock Speed: 2.40GHz (3.60GHz Turbo Mode)
- Hard Drive Supplied: 1 x 1000GB
- Hard Drive Size: 1000GB
- Solid State Drive: 128GB SSD x 2
- Hard Drive Speed: 7200RPM
- Memory Supplied: 2 x 8GB
- Memory Size: 16GB
- Memory Type: DDR3L
- Memory Speed: 1600
- Memory Socket: 2 x SO-DIMM
- Max. Memory Support: 16GB
- Operating System: Windows 8.1
- Graphics Chipset: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M
- Graphics Memory: 8GB GDDR 5
- Chipset: Intel HM87 Express
- Optical Drive: DVD Supermulti R/W
- Microphone: Built-in
- LAN: 10/100/1000Mbps
- Wireless: 802.11 b/g/n/ac
- Bluetooth: v4.0
- USB 3.0 Port(s): 2
- USB 2.0 Port(s): 2
- HDMI Port(s): 1
- Mini Display Port(s): 1
- VGA Port(s): 1
- Microphone Jack(s): 1
- Headphone Jack(s): 1
- LAN Port(s): 1
- Card Reader: SD
- Web Camera: HD type
- Dimension: 385*270*21mm
- Battery: Li-Polymer, 75.81Wh
- Product Weight (g): ~2.26Kgs
- Warranty: 6 Month Open Box

Only bit that is a concern is the "Warranty: 6 Month Open Box" might be worth checking with OCUK, as going by the Gigabtye site all laptops have a 2 year warranty. I don't see how opening the box and returning the item to OCUK suddenly loses the warranty.
And in terms of the cooling it comes with "Top-notch Thermal by Supra-cool Technology"
But no matter what laptop you go for I'd recommend a laptop cooler to go under it anyway.
 
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But in the long run as he want to use the laptop for "next couple of years." I'd say 8gb over 4gb any day. At the same price.
 
"would ideally like something that has smaller than 17 inch screen"
and with the 8gb on board he'd always have the option of using an external screen for 4k also. so provides more futureproofing and more to his original desire.
 
PooKer said:
"would ideally like something that has smaller than 17 inch screen"
and with the 8gb on board he'd always have the option of using an external screen for 4k also. so provides more futureproofing and more to his original desire.
Click to expand...

The Gigabyte laptop looks good too, but I'm a bit concerned about the ** OPEN BOX ** bit, what exactly does that mean?

Anyone know if the Gigabyte laptops are really loud?
 
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I would ask in the CS section for more info and may get a gigabyte rep to confirm the 2 year warranty would be honoured. Its a clearance laptop not a B-grade so maybe its an ex-display

A review site had the following to say:
The fans reached approximately 32 dB(A) in routine tasks (office, Internet, etc.), which is also quite pleasant. Even the hard drive spins with roughly 32 dB(A) when accessing data (otherwise 31 dB(A)). We have to criticize the occasional speed increase; the noise level sometimes increased to 36 dB(A) for no reason. However, this behavior is known from other laptops as well (Clevo barebones are infamous for this).

Generally, the P35X v3 is extremely audible in gaming mode. The cooling reached over 50 dB(A) just in medium 3D load. A maximum of 55 dB(A) in the stress test is also steep, and most laptops undercut that. Our review configuration of Schenker's XMG P505 "only" reached 51 dB(A) after one hour of full load (FurMark + Prime95).
 
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Till AMD release the desktop version, usually laptop versions follow and it all depends on how good they are for laptops. But the 980m is a safe bet. Do you actually use the laptop on the go? Or is it always on the desk? As you can get some pretty decent ITX cases now that'll take a full size 980.
 
PooKer said:
Till AMD release the desktop version, usually laptop versions follow and it all depends on how good they are for laptops. But the 980m is a safe bet. Do you actually use the laptop on the go? Or is it always on the desk? As you can get some pretty decent ITX cases now that'll take a full size 980.
Click to expand...

Not really on the go with it, but it's always in use on a coffee table so an ITX case wouldn't really work.

Am thinking I might stretch the budget and am looking at this, thoughts? http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-163-MS

It's got a faster CPU and the GPU is upgradable too right. Could offer a degree of future proofing.
 
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