Decent gaming laptop that doesn't look like a hopped up Honda Civic

GilmourD

GilmourD

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jun 17, 2004
Messages
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I'm tired of finding that every gaming laptop I look at is all gimmick and no substance. Sure, it may have good hardware on the inside, but the price is doubled because it's metallic orange, has wings, is four feet thick, and has enough LEDs to be seen from orbit.

The thing is that this will be a desktop replacement as I will be losing my home office space once the wife and I have a kid.

I just want a plain laptop that will let me play games.

My requirements:

  • a minimum 16" wide-screen display
  • GPU good enough to play Team Fortress 2 at a good clip with moderate AA and AF settings
  • solid-feeling keyboard with a number pad (I seem to like HP's layout most)
  • simple color scheme
It just seems that there isn't a laptop out there that has all of those simple features. It boggles my mind. Those aren't the technical requirements, but those are more flexible or really just available as options on every single laptop out there now.

  • Good processor that I won't be complaining about in a couple years (preferably AMD, but I can suck it up and get something from Chipzilla)
  • minimum 4 gigs of RAM
  • minimum 500 gig HD
  • BluRay
  • HDMI output
  • 64-bit Vista Home Premium (with upgrade to Windows 7)
So... Suggestions? Links?
 
Why 16"? That limits your options big-time. Just get a 15" WUXGA. If you need a bigger screen, hook up to an external LCD while at home.

Look into the Lenovo T500.
 
Yeah, I would second the Thinkpad T500 suggestion, with dedicated HD 3650 graphics. Or a W700 if you need the screen size, power, and have the money.
 
Arainach said:
Why 16"? That limits your options big-time. Just get a 15" WUXGA. If you need a bigger screen, hook up to an external LCD while at home.

Look into the Lenovo T500.
Click to expand...

I will no longer have a desk upon which to put a monitor. Hell, ideally I'd like a 17" or larger, but I've found I'm OK with a 16" screen and I also realize that a larger screen will have a higher res which will require more GPU horsepower.

Besides that, anything smaller than 16" seems to not have a number pad.
 
TF2 is a source game meaning it'll generally be cpu bound; it's multi-core support is still sub-par as well. So if playing TF2 is your main goal, focus on getting a fast cpu and don't worry so much about anything beyond a dual-core.
 
Tekara said:
TF2 is a source game meaning it'll generally be cpu bound; it's multi-core support is still sub-par as well. So if playing TF2 is your main goal, focus on getting a fast cpu and don't worry so much about anything beyond a dual-core.
Click to expand...

Well, this will be a general system that is my desktop replacement, but I want it to be able to play TF2 decently since that's really the only PC game I'm playing these days.
 
Intel mobile processors are the way to go in my opinion.
 
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GilmourD said:
I'm boycotting Sony.
Click to expand...


Yea same here, Sony's are seem to be bad of Styrofoam.

I left a friggin plastic ball point pen sitting in the corner of the laptop where it meets the monitor... then I close the monitor all to hear loud crunch.. Monitor killed by a plastic pen. Awesome.

Sorry for the rant.
 
you got a price range?
Go to HP's website and get a DV6t to order - $899 = 4gb ram, 500gb hd, 512mb Radeon 4530, Vista Home Premium 64bit with Free Win 7, 16 incher...
Or DV7t to order $899 = 4gb, 500gb hd, 512 mb Radeon 4530, Vista 64 bit with free Win 7, 17 incher
Or trick it out a bit more for $1049 to get a 1gb Radeon 4650...
Watch the discount sites for additional savings... Yes, they all are Intel...
Closest thing I could get with AMD and HP is the DV6zae2 model $1024.99 = 4gb ram, 500gb hd, vista home prem 64 with free Win 7, Radeon 4650 with 1gb, 16 inch
FYI: all come with a usb calculator keyboard for free (nice addon)
The HP 9700T I have runs the Orange Box and any of the steam source mods quite well... and it is a 8600 gs graphics card...
 
AthlonXP said:
Another vote for that, has the GTX280M and quad core support.
Click to expand...

Would agree. Looks like a good pick. I did see on that one it says the video card is user upgradable. Does this mean you can swap it out pretty easy?
 
Brucey69 said:
Yea same here, Sony's are seem to be bad of Styrofoam.

I left a friggin plastic ball point pen sitting in the corner of the laptop where it meets the monitor... then I close the monitor all to hear loud crunch.. Monitor killed by a plastic pen. Awesome.

Sorry for the rant.
Click to expand...

Sorry but that's not Sony's fault, that's yours. That problem can and does happen to virtually all laptop PC's when you try and crush a pen inside them. (The pen almost always wins BTW.)
 
Dan_D said:
Sorry but that's not Sony's fault, that's yours. That problem can and does happen to virtually all laptop PC's when you try and crush a pen inside them. (The pen almost always wins BTW.)
Click to expand...

I was about to say the same thing. It's not Sony's fault you left a pen between the monitor and tried to close it.

My fiance's Sony VAIO laptop is very nice. I'm jealous but she lets me touch it sometimes.
 
HvyMtl said:
you got a price range?
Go to HP's website and get a DV6t to order - $899 = 4gb ram, 500gb hd, 512mb Radeon 4530, Vista Home Premium 64bit with Free Win 7, 16 incher...
Or DV7t to order $899 = 4gb, 500gb hd, 512 mb Radeon 4530, Vista 64 bit with free Win 7, 17 incher
Or trick it out a bit more for $1049 to get a 1gb Radeon 4650...
Watch the discount sites for additional savings... Yes, they all are Intel...
Closest thing I could get with AMD and HP is the DV6zae2 model $1024.99 = 4gb ram, 500gb hd, vista home prem 64 with free Win 7, Radeon 4650 with 1gb, 16 inch
FYI: all come with a usb calculator keyboard for free (nice addon)
The HP 9700T I have runs the Orange Box and any of the steam source mods quite well... and it is a 8600 gs graphics card...
Click to expand...

How's the Radeon 4650 compare to your 8600gs? ATI has so many model numbers it's hard to keep track.
 
GilmourD said:
How's the Radeon 4650 compare to your 8600gs? ATI has so many model numbers it's hard to keep track.
Click to expand...

they have no more model #'s than nvidia

4650 is their current midrange part, think 9600 or whatever the latest rendition of that is (because re-naming is entirely a working substitute for actual engineering)

Gateway's P-Series FX is about $1000 and comes with a 9800GTX M (was an 8800GTS at one point, again, name changing is entirely an OK substitute for actual engineering), the price is not "doubled" because of its styling, and its actually on the less expensive side of gaming capable laptops

if you absolutely have to have a balls to the wall DTR, the Alienware with SLI would probably be the pick
http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/laptop-alienware-m17x?c=us&l=en&s=dhs

a bit more toned down:
http://www.alienware.com/products/a...Code=PC-LT-AREA51M15X-AI1&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT
 
GilmourD said:
How's the Radeon 4650 compare to your 8600gs? ATI has so many model numbers it's hard to keep track.
Click to expand...

I pretty much have the same question. Wondering how the radeon 4650 compares to an 8600gt m (video card i have in my current laptop).
 
Dan_D said:
Sorry but that's not Sony's fault, that's yours. That problem can and does happen to virtually all laptop PC's when you try and crush a pen inside them. (The pen almost always wins BTW.)
Click to expand...

Especially a Bic ballpoint, those things are near indestructible!
 
if i was gonna spend $1600 on laptop
i would get something with more powerful gpu
 
Incidentally, the 18" version somehow costs less with the same specs otherwise...

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...w&email_id=1009362&jumpid=in_r329_emailconfig

Not sure how that happened.

My issue there, though, is that I think the resolution would be too much for the GPU. Hell, that's a higher res than I'm running now with a 9800GT on my desktop. LOL

My current setup is 1680x1050 = 1764000 pixels
HDX 18t setup is 1920x1080 = 2073600 pixels
HDX 16t setup is 1366 x 768= 1049088 pixels (more manageable)
 
Oh, also, for $1600, there's some extras, like BluRay and an extra battery.
 
If you don't want a hopped up Civic, then I suggest the Thinkpad W700 (mack truck) or a Dell XPS (silver Audi).
 
sphinx99 said:
If you don't want a hopped up Civic, then I suggest the Thinkpad W700 (mack truck) or a Dell XPS (silver Audi).
Click to expand...

So, then, which would be the Mustang GT? :D

In other words, something that costs less than a Mack Truck or an Audi but still performs as well and looks nice. :)
 
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