Absolute best gaming laptop for <£1000 delivered

Guru · 4 Jun 2011 at 10:09

Hi all,

I've got a strict budget of no more than £1000 for a gaming laptop.

I'm currently looking at this Dell XPS 15, but wondering if people have other recomendations with a limit of £1000, this one comes in at £926 reduced from £1303 after some discounts that only apply until the 9th so I'm looking to make a decision today if possible. Any help or advice would be much appreciated:

2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM processor 2.00 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.90 GHz

Memory 6144MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [1x4096 + 1x2048]

Video Card 2GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M Graphics Card

Hard Drive 750GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive

Optical Devices 8x DVD+/-RW Optical Drive

Wireless Networking Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1030 (1x2 b/g/n+ Bluetooth Combo Card)

Primary Battery 6-cell 56Whr Lithium Ion battery

LCD 15.6 FHD B+RGLED TL (1920x1080) 1080p with 2.0 Mega Pixel Integrated Camera

Is anyone able to spec something better for the same price (really can't afford any more as I'm stretching already)? Or should I just man up and buy this one?

It's a big purchase for me so I want to make sure it's a wise decision and I figure many of you are best placed to help.

I'm also very interested to know how the above laptop would stack up against my PC which I'm hoping it could replace. My PC have a Q6600 running at 3ghz, a PNY GTX285 and 6GB of DDR2 6400 RAM. Will this laptop be as good/better?

I play mainly play COD4, 5, 6, CS Source, L4D2, BFBC2, BF2 and BF3 when it comes out.

Blu-Ray is not important to me because I will never use it for that.

Thanks very much

JDR82 · 4 Jun 2011 at 10:38

The Nvidia 540 that comes with that laptop is pretty med / low end for that asking price, http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=LT-025-MS would destroy it even with the slower dual core processor.

Alexrose1uk · 4 Jun 2011 at 10:41

In a gaming laptop, whilst everything else is nice, the GPU is your primary concern. The 540m is MUCH slower than your GTX285. [laptop performance generally being about a generation behind desktops these days]

In your budget, you should be able to achieve a 5870M or one of the new GTX560M cards. Both of these will be a bit slower than your GTX285, but only by about 10-20%.

You can get other machines which'd be FAR better for gaming than that Dell. MSI, Clevo et al.
Edit: It's worth noting that Dell own Alienware these days; in other words all of Dell's gaming machines are now Alienware branded; meaning Dell machines will be mid-spec in terms of GPU or worse.

Guru · 4 Jun 2011 at 22:36

How does this look for just shy of 1k?

* Intel® Core™ i7-740QM Quad Core Processor
* 15.6" FULL HD Screen
* Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit
* 6GB DDR3 RAM
* 1000GB HDD
* DVD Rewriter
* Dedicated ATI HD 5870 Graphics
* USB 3
* Bluetooth
* HDMI
* 2 Year Warranty
* GX660R-646UK

£999.97

In fact just found it for £1001 with Blu-Ray

DAnDan · 4 Jun 2011 at 23:22

For the price, I VERY much doubt you will be able to beat that! I would definitely go for that one.

Disco Boy · 5 Jun 2011 at 09:34

Err, won't having 1x4gb and 1x2gb RAM sticks mean it won't be dual channel?

Alexrose1uk · 5 Jun 2011 at 10:27

Guru said:
How does this look for just shy of 1k?

* Intel® Core™ i7-740QM Quad Core Processor
* 15.6" FULL HD Screen
* Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit
* 6GB DDR3 RAM
* 1000GB HDD
* DVD Rewriter
* Dedicated ATI HD 5870 Graphics
* USB 3
* Bluetooth
* HDMI
* 2 Year Warranty
* GX660R-646UK

£999.97

In fact just found it for £1001 with Blu-Ray

Decent spec for the cash, OcUK's machine is almost identical bar being about £90 cheaper; but with I5.

Guru · 5 Jun 2011 at 10:33

Struggling to decide between the i5 and i7 in the MSI now :confused

Alexrose1uk · 5 Jun 2011 at 11:08

I5 - cooler, higher core speed on turbo.
I7 - warmer, lower core speed, more cores.

Guru · 5 Jun 2011 at 11:26

Is the gtx460m a much more powerful gpu?

BobbySixKiller · 5 Jun 2011 at 11:46

I'd say there isnt a great deal in it between the GPU's have a look at the fps for yourself and what games you'll be playing

http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5870.23073.0.html

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-460M.33612.0.html

Guru · 5 Jun 2011 at 13:57

I'm thinking about stretching the budget again now, for something with a 6970m, but I would have to get it on finance if I did that.

Struggle to find one though.

BobbySixKiller · 5 Jun 2011 at 14:23

Sager NP8150 can be upgraded with a 6970m the only UK reseller I know of for them is Kobalt Computers with the G150 you ll have to spec the build yourself to the same as the NP8150 or look in to getting one from the States not sure about warranty ect then though

Guru · 5 Jun 2011 at 14:25

Thanks for the tip, I would edit that out in case they are seen as competition (despite the fact that OCUK don't offer anything like that).

Doesn't look like that comapny offer finance, so I might need to sell my PC first.

Would that laptop be better than my q6600 gtx285 machine?

thanks,

BobbySixKiller · 5 Jun 2011 at 14:36

Guru said:
Thanks for the tip, I would edit that out in case they are seen as competition (despite the fact that OCUK don't offer anything like that).

Doesn't look like that comapny offer finance, so I might need to sell my PC first.

Would that laptop be better than my q6600 gtx285 machine?

thanks,

Tbh I wouldnt like to commit either way I take it a new desktop isnt a option ?
As a new desktop will most likely be half the price of a equal level lappy

Guru · 5 Jun 2011 at 15:24

BobbySixKiller said:
Tbh I wouldnt like to commit either way I take it a new desktop isnt a option ?
As a new desktop will most likely be half the price of a equal level lappy

Im looking to go from desktop to laptop for various reasons including to save space, but I don't want to do it if I will be disappointed with the performance.

Alexrose1uk · 5 Jun 2011 at 15:30

Guru said:
Thanks for the tip, I would edit that out in case they are seen as competition (despite the fact that OCUK don't offer anything like that).

The 6970m is approximately equivalent to a desktop 6850, so it should be more or less on par, to slightly faster than your GTX285

If your Q6600 was stock, I'd expect a gen2 I7 sandybridge laptop to be faster; as IPC should be slightly higher; and the cores run at higher frequencies when not all cores are in use. As your Q6600 is at 3Ghz, I'd expect it'll be closer; but I doubt you'd see much of a loss

Laptops are certainly surprisingly nippy these days if you spec right.

Guru · 5 Jun 2011 at 17:47

Part of me is thinking... "oh just get the MSI, it's under 1k!"

But part of me is thinking "they do a matte screen on the G150!! and you can get a 6970 in it!"

In the screen there is:

15.6" 1920x1080 Full HD X-Glass LED Backlit NTSC 60%
15.6" 1920x1080 Full HD Matt LED Backlit NTSC 60% (+£90)
15.6" 1920x1080 Full HD Matt LED Backlit NTSC 95% (+£125)

What do the percentages mean? I am not at all keen on a glossy screen and think it might be worth paying the extra to not have one.

Alexrose1uk · 5 Jun 2011 at 18:13

Basically it means how many colours inside the NTSC colour range the screen can reproduce accurately.
Those matte screens are meant to be rather nice; I've got a glossy as it was the only option, and these make me a little jealous.

Guru · 5 Jun 2011 at 18:34

Which laptop do you have?