Good Gaming Laptop under $2000

M

Majin

2[H]4U
Joined
Feb 4, 2005
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Hi,
I will be needing a Laptop soon and have never really spent much time learning about Laptops, so I am kinda confused on a lot of the gear. What's good what's bad, what's fast what's slow. I want to spend under two grand including shipping but want to end up with a laptop that will last me a couple of years and still be useful. I already have a blazzin fast Computer at home so I don't need anything cutting edge. I also don't care about Fingerprint readers, or built in cameras and mics, having 1Tb of HDD space or super long lasting battery life. I just want something that will play games with decent GFX and is fast and will serve me well.

Things I do want it to have.
- Multi core CPU
- 300 Gb+ HDD
- 4 Gb Ram
- Good GFX
- Decent Speakers

Any help will be great!
 
We need to know some other information:
1. What size screen are you looking for? 15.4"? 17"?
2. What aspect ratio (16:10 or 16.9)?
3. Is build quality important?
4. What about resolution?
5. Do you have weight restrictions?

Personally, I am holding out for the MSI GT627. See the pre-order here and the specs: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001P5GKCQ. Not too shabby for $1399!
 
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BMWfreak said:
Save even more money...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9172511&type=product&id=1218043606827

I have one and I absolutely love it ! Be carefull, though. I bought an earlier batch model and I have a WUXGA (1920x1200) screen, but this was a manufacturing error, and the new units come with WXGA+ scrrens (1440x900). Also the price was $1050 for the first week and now jumped up tp $1150. Still a great deal !
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's a good deal, but he said he already has a beastly desktop, so he's probably looking for a more portable 15.4".
 
gtg465x said:
Yeah, that's a good deal, but he said he already has a beastly desktop, so he's probably looking for a more portable 15.4".
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I'm in the same boat. I've done a lot of looking around and the MSI laptop looks like the best bang for the buck, imho. The Asus laptop is definitely a good deal as well, but the orange is ugly as sin (for some reason, the red on the MSI laptop doesn't bug me as much).

The brushed aluminum finish is a nice perk as well.

Alternatively, you could go with a 15.4" Clevo notebook. It will probably run you about $1700 after a 3 year warranty, though.
 
I have to go with the gateway mentioned earlier, I have one of those also and for the 1050 I paid for it it was the best value for the money for gaming. It is huge for a laptop but it is a fantastic machine. I have the previous revision and I replaced the 1.8 ghz cpu with a 2.5 penryn for 300 so for 1350 I have a total beast of a machine.

If you want portablity look elseware, but if you want good gaming cheap this is the best value I've found.
 
gtg465x said:
The only downside to that one is the low res display.
Click to expand...

calling a 17" display with that resolution low res is the understatement of the year imo :D

but I am a bit of a resolution whore

I looked around and if I were you I'd look into the Thinkpad W500 or the Dell Precision M4400. HP Business has many nice 15.4 offerings but right now they don't seem to have quite as nice graphics options as the others - but I have an hp business laptop and love it. I've never held the Precision but on paper it sounds like a decent offering. As far as the HDD goes you should consider (imo) just getting the cheapest option the vender offers and get one of those 320GB drives (ideally 7200rpm) that you see on sale all over. Many do a similar thing with RAM. Another concern is that the speakers might not be the best in these offerings - but IMO you'd be better served with a decent set of headphones anyway :D but if it's worth anything the best laptop speakers I've ever heard were harmon/kardon speakers that were offered on Toshiba Qosimo's.
 
Spetnaz Op said:
calling a 17" display with that resolution low res is the understatement of the year imo
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Dude, he was talking about the ASUS, which is 15.6" and has nothing on Gateway for the same price ! Except for the size, of course ;)
 
Awsome I have found a couple of good ones listed here. But let me ask some questions of you ppl who know.

1. What is a Good Intel CPU for a Laptop that will be gaming?
I have seen Centrino's and Core 2 Duo's things like P8700 and so on, but I don't know much about them. Power drain isn't a big issue casue I'll have it plugged in all the time at school. What I want is something that can Multi-task well and power todays and tomorrows games.

2. Whats a good GFX card in a Laptop?
I have seen nVidia 9650GT or something like that. What would be able to take advantage of a native res of a good quality 15.4 screen and play games like FEAR 2, World At War, EVE Online, Dead Space ect.

3. What does SXGA or WVGA or WVGA+ mean exactly?
I get that it has to do with the screen and the quality or resolution of said screen. I also understand that WVGA is the lowest.

4. Are ASUS laptops good quality?
I have built my last 3 rigs using ASUS hardwear and I have never been let down. So I think I might want to keep with something I know. But I don't know how they are when it comes to laptops. So are they good machines?
 
Majin said:
Awsome I have found a couple of good ones listed here. But let me ask some questions of you ppl who know.

1. What is a Good Intel CPU for a Laptop that will be gaming?
I have seen Centrino's and Core 2 Duo's things like P8700 and so on, but I don't know much about them. Power drain isn't a big issue casue I'll have it plugged in all the time at school. What I want is something that can Multi-task well and power todays and tomorrows games.

2. Whats a good GFX card in a Laptop?
I have seen nVidia 9650GT or something like that. What would be able to take advantage of a native res of a good quality 15.4 screen and play games like FEAR 2, World At War, EVE Online, Dead Space ect.

3. What does SXGA or WVGA or WVGA+ mean exactly?
I get that it has to do with the screen and the quality or resolution of said screen. I also understand that WVGA is the lowest.

4. Are ASUS laptops good quality?
I have built my last 3 rigs using ASUS hardwear and I have never been let down. So I think I might want to keep with something I know. But I don't know how they are when it comes to laptops. So are they good machines?
Click to expand...

Most of the new nvidia 9000 series laptop chips are just rebaged 8000's with shrinked dies, and the asus which i have, plays every game you have listed at max setttings, maxed aa & af with 60fps+

The build quality of the asus, is in a word, amazing. The cooling system of it is positively the best cooling system ive ever seen in a laptop, even when its oced, it never gets hot, it barely even gets warm! even after 4 hours+ of straight gaming. If you get the asus, i daresay you will not be displeased.
 
Personally, I'd check out the msi GT725 or 727. They're appearing on amazon as preorder - due out in january. Under 2k and one has blu-ray. Every model I've seen has the new ATI 4850 mobile in it.
 
Yeah, those are the ones. Supposedly the 727 will be a DDR3 laptop. I think that's the only difference.
 
Only problem with those MSIs (which if you're willing to go to 2grand, the GT725-075U would be where I'd be looking) is what decade they actually get released. I got sick of waiting for the 074U and snapped up a 1920x1200 Gateway 7805u FX (also mentioned in this thread). Not quite as much of a graphics beast but a killer value, and I could have it now instead of sometime in the indeterminate future.
 
It's true. the 7805 is a great value. If you head over to notebookreview.com and read those forums you'll probably find some good info on it.

I think overclocked the 7805 scores about 9500 maybe 10000 in 3dm06. They were projecting the 4850 to be just above that mark.

Also, it seems that some people are still scoring 1920x1200 screens even in newer batches. The boxes of the 7805u say "specifications subject to change without notice". I think they're so cheap because they throw parts they've got lying around in there lol.
 
Yeah gateway doesn't seem to have any rhyme or reason but if you get the 1920x1200 batches they're a sweet deal. Mine scores 9800 on 3dmark06 with XP installed on it.
 
Don't overlook the Sagers that got posted earlier. One advantage that they have over most of the suggestions posted above is that you can get a 9800gtS gpu in a 15.4" laptop. The GTS series are far, far superior to the standard GT. I think the default setup for a 15.4" with that gpu is $1500, which is a great price in my opinion. I don't think I could possibly bear to lug around anything larger than a 15.4" laptop no matter how powerful it is.
 
big mike said:
Only problem with those MSIs (which if you're willing to go to 2grand, the GT725-075U would be where I'd be looking) is what decade they actually get released. I got sick of waiting for the 074U and snapped up a 1920x1200 Gateway 7805u FX (also mentioned in this thread). Not quite as much of a graphics beast but a killer value, and I could have it now instead of sometime in the indeterminate future.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean; I'm waiting for the MSI GT627. I called MSI, however, and the representative said they will ship to retail stores early or mid-February. I won't hold my breath, though :p.
 
MSI's are great. If you want something now that will work well go with the lower models. 1651-ID2 barebone has the WSXGA+ screen, NVIDIA® Geforce 9600M-GT 512MB, built in blue tooth, etc...

And then you can put whatever you want to put in there to make it badass.
 
DarkenReaper57 said:
I know what you mean; I'm waiting for the MSI GT627. I called MSI, however, and the representative said they will ship to retail stores early or mid-February. I won't hold my breath, though :p.
Click to expand...

Didn't see that one, not a huge fan of the resolution but for a 15" with a decent graphics board in it it'd be a nice lugable machine that you can do something with. I really didn't want a 17" behemoth but my main use for it outside of screwing around (and probably not gaming nearly enough to justify buying it) is autocad so the 1920x1200 really made the deal, though it can be a little on the "small" side. I liked the 1680x1050 you could get on the MSI, and the 4850 mobile sounds like its going to be much less cut down than most mobile graphics cards, but I got sick of waiting and the G-way was like 300 bucks less.
 
The P-7805u FX gets a 10/10 from me. I absolutely love the performance/style of this machine. Its run all of the major games I play just fine, and displays the movies in crystal clear picture.
 
For your budget, I would absolutely wait for Radeon 4870 based laptops, the full gpu from the desktop version will not be castrated at all, it will still have 800 units and a 256 bit memory bus with hopefully GDDR5. The best Nvidia mobile gpu right now is only as good a 9600gt.
 
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