Gaming Laptop for £1000

[lolage]

Hi guys, I just wanna carry on from this thread: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18345658 (sorry for making another one but the old thread title is not relevant now)

Basically looking for a laptop which will be able to play the majority of new games, along with handling photoshop/illustrator etc. I'm hoping for a 1920x1080 screen mostly for photoshop/illustrator, an i7 (i5 if I have to), 8gb ram.

After a fair bit of research I've come across the following:

• Asus N55SF - Looks perfect, just wish it had a bigger res!
• MSI GX660R - I remember looking at this laptop a while back, specs look good but only an i5. Have looked at an i7 version but it only has 6gb ram and they seem to not sell them as well as the 8gb i5 version for some reason.
• Dell XPS 15z

Is there anything else at all I should be looking at? Cheers!

 

[Legionaire68]

I wouldn't worry about ram as you can buy it cheap and install it yourself, its the easiest thing to do on a laptop.
I got an XPS17 L702x with an Nvidia GT 555 and its pretty good for games as long as you don't expect desktop performance.

 

[JimboJet]

I dont think you should be considering the 15z as it doesnt have the graphics grunt you require.

I did give incorrect gen on the n55sf thinking it was the 1920x1080 display on offer for the £750 price, but the 1600x900 display i7 is still only £750 which is good value especially as it comes with blueray as standard at that price!

The m14x you originally suggested has max res option of 1600x900 as well, but costs way more.

Current 15.6" offerings with 1920x1080 include the clevo based machines (arguably the best performer at this size) for about £1500 with 6990m graphics, the MSIs such as the gt683 at around £1300 for gtx570m. Older MSIs can be picked up just under £1000 with last gen graphics (5870) if you can still find them.

Other than that you have to start making concessions on size/performance. The m14x was reported to have "the perfect graphics card for its screen" (gt555m with 1600x900) the m11x r3 with gt540m also does well on its 1368x768 display for the same reasons.

I would argue that 1920x1080 displays on 17" machines and above are the norm but less important on 15.6" machines and below. 1600x900 on 15.6" laptops is ample and in effect gains you more fps for a given graphics card vs the same graphics card at the higher res.

 

[Crimefighter]

Wow Im glad you made this thread, I was going to make a similar one this morning as I am in the market for sub £1k gaming laptop as well!

Personally I think that Asus looks great - anyone have any experience with it? (Or Asus laptops in general?).

I notice the MSI laptops have gone up in price both here and other retailers. Over £1k now.

 

[Crimefighter]

1600x900 on 15.6" laptops is ample and in effect gains you more fps for a given graphics card vs the same graphics card at the higher res.

Sorry for the double post, but I agree with this - Im not convinced that 1900x1080 on a 15.6" is worth it, I have it on my 16.4" (nvidia GT330M 1GB) and its pretty pointless.

 

[Stat1c]

I was in a similar position. However, I'm now looking to spend quite a bit over a grand as the gfx cards on the 1k region machines are pretty damn poor and won't play games for long

 

[bum]

You should search for an ASUS G74SX-BBK7 <<<< these are bargains when it comes to factory refurbished!!!

 

[Crimefighter]

I did give incorrect gen on the n55sf thinking it was the 1920x1080 display on offer for the £750 price, but the 1600x900 display i7 is still only £750 which is good value especially as it comes with blueray as standard at that price!

The m14x you originally suggested has max res option of 1600x900 as well, but costs way more.

I went in to Curreez last night to check out that Asus N55S (they had it advertised for £750 with a £50 cashback offer as well), but they were sold out both in store and all across London.

So I strolled in to Cometz and checked it out - it looked a very attractive laptop. I asked a salesperson about their stock levels, and it turned out they only had 2 left!

Im guessing the model is due a refresh, hence the £200 off most places are offering. In any case getting a new laptop (non clevo) with a GT555M for that money isnt easy - nextbest Laptop I was looking at was the Alienware M14x which is significantly more money.

So after 10 minutes of mulling it over, checking out the screen & keyboard quality (good), I bit the bullet and bought one. It was £750, so £50 more than the other place but only £10 more than most online retailers with the same spec PC (some have an older i5 version with a 1366 x 768 screen so for £675ish, watch out for that).

Didnt have much time to check it out last night, but I did get a run of 3DMark Vantage and it returned a score of 6608 which I was very pleased with.

Installed Starcraft 2 as well, but didnt get a chance to patch it and play.

The video drivers installed on the system were very recent (28/9/11) so I was happy with that as well - a very recently assembled PC by the look.
Very little bloatware as well which was refreshing after the myriad of crap that came wth my Sony Vaio.

Anyway it seems good so far.

Can provide more info if anyone is interested.