Gaming laptop needed

Furbs

Furbs

Furbs

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17 Oct 2002
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Hi all I am in the market for my first gaming laptop. I am looking to also use if for a bit of browsing etc on the sofa. I have a decent ish rig (780ti) but I need to be more flexible about where I game and won't always be at my desk.

I play a mix of Fifa, football manager, cs:go as well as new releases like fallout, witcher and the division etc.

My budget is between £1500 and £2000mark.

So far I have considered:

Alienware 15 r2 6700hq, 16gb ram, 256ssd+1tb, 980m. But from what I read the screen brightness is an issue.

15" seemed about right do to my brain thinking 17" will be bulky.

But I have also considered the MSI 17" offerings (so many to choose from) and the Alienware 17" option (non 4K screen).

Does anyone have thoughts or experiences on this?

Thanks.
 
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I am in the same boat, After doing some looking about i think im decided on the Alienware its by far the prettiest (all gaming laptops are bulky ugly angular mess's imo) but the dell looks OK. the specs are actually decent money for dell and their build quality is arguably one of the better out there.
dont bother with 4k @ 15" or 17" total waste of time especially on a "M" card. 1440p would be nice at 17" i guess.

the fact the dell has the graphics amp is a nice touch if you ever want to set a dock system up later and having Dell's support in the background is some what comforting for me as i have used Dell support and it is very good.

I spent about half an hour playing GTAV on a current 15" alien with the 970m and i was mighty impressed at how well it played on high settings. Of course the fan noise was a little up their but again i think its one of the better ones. You certainly need a headset when gaming.

I spend a night or two away from home in hotels so having a portable gaming rig is going to save my boredom and liver from the bar lol.
 
I'm very happy with the MSI GT72 6QE there are various flavours in that price range.

Bulky but the thermals are good, wish I could have afforded the gtx 980 (no m) Dragon edition model.
 
The MSI's look good but I don't know if I could live with a 17" gaming rig on my knee when surfing the web. Maybe I am thinking they are bigger than I think?
 
Thanks, I went with an Alienware 15" 980m model. Dell live chat gave a decent discount from retail price as well.

Now I need to work out if the laptop would actually be more powerful than my desktop with an amplifier and my 780 inside. It could possibly replace the desktop completely as it still runs a 2500k.
 
Before you buy anything the industry is in the throws of a major industry standard upgrade with the introduction of Skylake CPU's, Thunderbolt 3 technology has been introduced using a USB-C standard which will be adopted by every computer maker in the world over the next few years.
The high end MSI GT72S and GT80 models (maybe other models too I haven't checked all MSI Models).
With this USB-C type port you can completely recharge your notebook at 100 watts recharge rate and if you buy a active copper USB-C cable you will get transfer rates of 20GBps, later this year the standard will be upgraded so you then will be able to use a USB-C optical cable and get the true 40GBps transfer rates.
Which means through a "Thunderbolt 3 (TM) USB-C Dock" you can run your Ethernet cable. Up to 16 HDD enclosures, 2 x 4k monitors at 60Hz, a full audio system or just speakers and earphones, plus the cable that is used for the thunderbolt dock also when connected to the notebook recharges the battery carrying a 100 watt charge. All on just 1 USB-C type cable.
For instance:
http://www.caldigit.com/USB-C/
These days you get what you pay for... If you want a cheap gaming rig that just brings you up to today's specs then buy the lower end notebooks.
But if you spend that bit more on some brands that are making features in their products that can be updated or replaced in the future its the prudent thing to do.
After a lot of looking around and doing my head in on different combinations of notebook the GT72S 6QE-038AU was my choice. $3800 Aust. I can overclock the intel i7 6820HK CPU to 4.0 Ghz without the notebook overheating or crashing. It has G-Sync and I am running off a LG 4k TV. All my games are in 4K resolution.
My internet connection use to give me 20mbps transfer rates, the Killer Ethernet card when I first plugged it into the net got me 5mbps faster rates.
This model also has the PCIe card that can setup two m.2 pcie SSDs in raid0 giving the user up to 4GBps transfer rates.
I have a Toshiba P870 I bought in 2012, its only 500g lighter than the MSI, plus the MSI have all its fans pushing out from the back away from your legs. MSI is around 8 pounds with battery. 3.78kg
The battery in the MSI is embedded so there is no interchanges of batteries etc.
https://www.msi.com/Notebook/GT72S-6QE-DOMINATOR-PRO-G.html#hero-specification
 
I got a Gigabyte P35 (I think) last year.
15" 3k screen, 16Gb Ram, i7, 2x SSD's in raid 0, 1Tb mech HDD, 8Gb 980m graphics.
Was £1500 when I bought it. Although it's probably been superseded by now.

It's a good size and quite a good spec. My mate has a 17" alienware and it's about the same size and weight as a paving slab.
 
pat5zero said:
Before you buy anything the industry is in the throws of a major industry standard upgrade with the introduction of Skylake CPU's, Thunderbolt 3 technology has been introduced using a USB-C standard which will be adopted by every computer maker in the world over the next few years.
Click to expand...

Over the next years, any high end laptop you buy today will invariably become obsolete as a high end gaming laptop... buy what makes sense today.
 
Any I7 with TB3/USB-C and an MXM GFX card should do you. MSI have said that their current MXM slots should manage 3 future generations (iirc) of cards.
 
Furbs said:
15" seemed about right do to my brain thinking 17" will be bulky.

But I have also considered the MSI 17" offerings (so many to choose from) and the Alienware 17" option (non 4K screen).

Does anyone have thoughts or experiences on this?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

If you do not plan on moving the laptop every day and will use it on a desk as opposed to your lap (and why wouldn't you if you care about body ergonomics) then I strongly recommend a 17" gaming laptop. The screen is easier on your eyes, the keyboard is larger and more comfortable, and the cooling is better thus leading to a quieter machine. It is also (unless you're a small girl) still portable enough to carry around for impromptu LAN sessions or taking away to the family for christmas.

Now I've had a 17" I could never go back to a 15".

drakioned said:
Over the next years, any high end laptop you buy today will invariably become obsolete as a high end gaming laptop... buy what makes sense today.
Click to expand...

Ditto... there is no reason not to buy now. USB 3.0 is still plenty fast for everyday use and I haven't hit any limits of HDMI yet.
 
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Furbs said:
Hi all I am in the market for my first gaming laptop. I am looking to also use if for a bit of browsing etc on the sofa. I have a decent ish rig (780ti) but I need to be more flexible about where I game and won't always be at my desk.

I play a mix of Fifa, football manager, cs:go as well as new releases like fallout, witcher and the division etc.

My budget is between £1500 and £2000mark.

So far I have considered:

Alienware 15 r2 6700hq, 16gb ram, 256ssd+1tb, 980m. But from what I read the screen brightness is an issue.

15" seemed about right do to my brain thinking 17" will be bulky.

But I have also considered the MSI 17" offerings (so many to choose from) and the Alienware 17" option (non 4K screen).

Does anyone have thoughts or experiences on this?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Randall8686 said:
I am in the same boat, After doing some looking about i think im decided on the Alienware its by far the prettiest (all gaming laptops are bulky ugly angular mess's imo) but the dell looks OK. the specs are actually decent money for dell and their build quality is arguably one of the better out there.
dont bother with 4k @ 15" or 17" total waste of time especially on a "M" card. 1440p would be nice at 17" i guess.

the fact the dell has the graphics amp is a nice touch if you ever want to set a dock system up later and having Dell's support in the background is some what comforting for me as i have used Dell support and it is very good.

I spent about half an hour playing GTAV on a current 15" alien with the 970m and i was mighty impressed at how well it played on high settings. Of course the fan noise was a little up their but again i think its one of the better ones. You certainly need a headset when gaming.

I spend a night or two away from home in hotels so having a portable gaming rig is going to save my boredom and liver from the bar lol.
Click to expand...

Hi Guys,

Looking at both your requirements and desires we believe the following is worth considering. Skylake, 16GB raam, 128SSD +1TB and has a GTX970m with 6GB vRAM....

We have this on promo with OcUK, and it really does represent excellent value:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...x-970m-6gb-gddr5-gaming-laptop-lt-066-gi.html

Also, note that with any of our P35 (15.6") or P37 (17.3") range, come equipped with a "hot swappable" optical bay. We ship with a caddy that enables you to install additional HDD or SSD (or simply install the caddy for weight saving benefit if that suits better). GREAT flexibility.

You will see there are options with GTX970m - these will be the "W" models, and also GTX980m options - they are the "X" models.

In addition to those from the ULTRAFORCE range, we have a new chassis recently launched, not so slim, but a really nice quality feel to the unit, and again OcUK have a strong promo running until Wednesday on this unit:

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...r4-128gb-m.2-ssd-1tb-hdd-win10-lt-074-gi.html

For the 15.6" screen version, check P55W models.


So that covers what we believe to be relevant from the Gigabyte range;


If you wanted to push the boat out a little further, but exceed GTX980m performance, wrapped in a very stylish but classy chassis you should also consider the AORUS X5, was priced at £1,899- BUT AGAIN discounted at OcUK until Wednesday @ £1,699 and bundled with FREE Gaming Mouse (£69.99rrp)

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/aoru...5m-sli-8gb-gddr5-gaming-laptop-lt-012-au.html

Food for thought anyway, and hope it helps :-)

Regards,

Atom80
 
Atom80 said:
Hi Guys,

Looking at both your requirements and desires we believe the following is worth considering. Skylake, 16GB raam, 128SSD +1TB and has a GTX970m with 6GB vRAM....
Click to expand...

For a £2000 gaming laptop I would not be suggesting anything with a GPU of less than 980m performance, certainly not a 970m.
 
Richdog said:
For a £2000 gaming laptop I would not be suggesting anything with a GPU of less than 980m performance, certainly not a 970m.
Click to expand...

We don't think a suggestion of £1,279 for a GTX970m is an unreasonable based on the target budget. Bare in mind that sort of spec was close to £1,500 not so long ago. We try to offer suggestions under budget, as well as in the exact target range. Hence why we also mentioned the alternatives available with the GTX980m card P35X and P37X.

We were simply highlighting what we know to be representing excellent value for money for the performance available.

You are obviously entitled to your opinion, but us simply suggesting nothing than our models with highest mobile GPU on the market would, in our opinion, be a bit,,,, narrow. Other GPUs, especially GTX970m offer adequate performance for a lot of gamers needs.

Regards,

Atom80
 
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I've got one of the Gigabyte laptops and it's very well put together and a pleasure to use.

If going for a 1920x1080 screen then the 970 will be plenty.
 
Atom80 said:
We don't think a suggestion of £1,279 for a GTX970m is an unreasonable based on the target budget. Bare in mind that sort of spec was close to £1,500 not so long ago. We try to offer suggestions under budget, as well as in the exact target range. Hence why we also mentioned the alternatives available with the GTX980m card P35X and P37X.

We were simply highlighting what we know to be representing excellent value for money for the performance available.

You are obviously entitled to your opinion, but us simply suggesting nothing than our models with highest mobile GPU on the market would, in our opinion, be a bit,,,, narrow. Other GPUs, especially GTX970m offer adequate performance for a lot of gamers needs.

Regards,

Atom80
Click to expand...

£1500-£2000 budget with future-proofing (as far as laptop goes) and you suggest a £1279 laptop with 970m? Not sensible. At all.
 
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