Gaming Laptop

Harvey616

Harvey616

Harvey616

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Joined
14 Jun 2010
Posts
737
Evening all,

I have recently started to look for a laptop for some gaming and programming. I would like a 17 inch screen and am looking to spend no more than £1000, ideally less.

I mainly play demanding games such as Witcher 2 and BF3, so would like a laptop to keep up with that.

I have been looking at the Dell l702x on the outlet centre. There are a few with dual 500GB HDDs, 3GB GT555M, I7 2670QM processor and 8GB of RAM for about £650.

I didn't want to go for the increased screen resolution, for fear of loss of gaming performance.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers. :)
 
Hi,

I have the l502x with the 1080p screen. I'd highly recommend you get the 1080p screen as it gives you so much more workspace when using it for work.

As for playing games on it.. it handles 720p pretty damn good. I much prefer dropping the resolution down and upping the graphics settings.

I am only using the 540m and it can handle some games ok at 1080p.
 
Something like a pre-owned or new m17x R2, you wont have sandybridge but you'll have SLI and Crossfire support, or even an m18x for all the best bits if you want to wait a while to get the funds (roughly extra £300 from the bay)

Curtis
 
That MSI does look very nice, a bit too pricey though. :/

I was worried that the GT555M wouldn't be too fast, and the benchmarks I haev seen tend to agree. The GTX570M seems to be the better card really.

I will have a look on ebay for some M17Xs, if not then I think custom may be the way to go. ;)

Thank you for your help gentlemen.
 
Don't touch the Alienwares for gawds sakes, i had one, nothing but problems... I ended up getting an Asus G74SX. Simply awesome and cool running!
 
XysteR said:
Don't touch the Alienwares for gawds sakes, i had one, nothing but problems... I ended up getting an Asus G74SX. Simply awesome and cool running!
Click to expand...

the support from alienware has been fairly poor however it's gotten much better recently, although the build quality of the higher end machines are very good and the only time alienware can be a pain is with help resolving software issues, whereas things like hardware replacements i've heard more good stories than bad and often free upgrades offered. Also if your calling alienware to fix your software problems you dont deserve a laptop worth more than £350.
 
wentalong said:
the support from alienware has been fairly poor however it's gotten much better recently, although the build quality of the higher end machines are very good and the only time alienware can be a pain is with help resolving software issues, whereas things like hardware replacements i've heard more good stories than bad and often free upgrades offered. Also if your calling alienware to fix your software problems you dont deserve a laptop worth more than £350.
Click to expand...

Nar they are crap! Dell support is hit & miss.. They can be great, or a complete headache. My problems were not software related on the Alienware machine; Mainly mainboard and GPU failures. And that was with a regularly serviced machine as i never let dust/fluff build up in the HS/fan.

It was the exact same story with my old Dell M170 with GTX7800. And again the same with my Dell M1710. GPU failures, and get this. On a brand new laptop they replace with so called 'reconditioned' parts. Which is a load of nads, as one replacement GPU that was installed was already practically clogged up with fluff/dust. Then after another failure only 3 weeks later the next GPU they sent (although packaged well) had a bent heatpipe!

When the warranty ran out for the M1710 i built a custom copper heatsink and shim for the 7950 GTX card, its been fine for 2 years now.

Alienware/Dell. Never again!
 
XysteR said:
Don't touch the Alienwares for gawds sakes, i had one, nothing but problems... I ended up getting an Asus G74SX. Simply awesome and cool running!
Click to expand...

I have an Alienware, had a few issues but Dell sorted it and it runs every game awesome. Can play bf3 high settings for hours no problem.
 
FredFlint said:
I have an Alienware, had a few issues but Dell sorted it and it runs every game awesome. Can play bf3 high settings for hours no problem.
Click to expand...

For now. If you promise to return here on the day it fails, i fear it is highly likely you'll be back :(
 
Ive never had a problem with dell fixing my M1730. My power brick went bang they sent a new one the next day. My gpus failed they sent an engineer within 2 days and replaced. No problems or arguments on the phone.
 
GT555m = weaker than a 550Ti
GT570m = a bit below the GTX560 (same if you clock it)

I know which I would recommend to a gamer.....

If you feel bold you can get a boutique model from the US.
 
I am a bit wary of the reliability of Dells though, my friend has had nothing but trouble with his and has had many visits from technicians, who have only caused more problems.

I am considering going down the custom route, as it seems that you can save quite a bit on components etc.
 
Id stay away from MSI personally, bought my MSI GX660R about 6 months ago, however on the 5th month it stopped charging so had to send it away for repaire (bearing in mind this was only 5 months old and i had spent a grand on it).

Just received the laptop back yesterday after a month of it being away and no word from MSI and it seemed to be working fine however when i went to turn it on tonight, the screen wouldnt power on and the laptop was unresponsive to any command despite the power button lighting up and the hard drive spinning up.

So looks like im going to have to send it away again. So by the time itll probably get back over the 7 months ill have owned it it will have been away for 2 of those. Rather infuriating I must say.
 
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