Looking for new Gaming Laptop

NathanielB

Hello,

I'm looking to get a new gaming laptop and have found this so far, with the best spec of the lowest price I can find: cyberpowersystem.co.uk/system/Xplorer_X6-9200_Notebook/

I can get it for £680.94 with a 3% off promo code I found, but I was wondering if anyone knows where I could get it for cheaper? Or anything of the same or higher spec for around the same price, or again cheaper

Here are the specs of the above laptop which I configured:
ADAPTER:Universal AC-DC Adapter
BAGS:Free Deluxe Carrying Bag for 15.6 Inch Notebook
BATTERY:6-cells Li-Ion Battery Pack 4800mAh
BLUETOOTH:None
CD:8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive (NB-353-DVDRW)
CPU:Intel® Core™ i5-2410M Mobile Processor 2.40 GHz 3M Intel Smart Cache, Max Turbo Freq. 2.90 GHz [-38]
FLASHMEDIA:Built-In 3in1 Media Reader
FREEBIE_CU1:FREE Game - Shogun 2 Coupon: Total War
HDD:500GB 5400RPM SATA300 HARD DRIVE
HDMI:Built-in HDMI Port
KEYBOARD:Built-in Keyboard
MEMORY:8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-1333 SODIMM Memory [+44] (Corsair Value Select or Major Brand)
MOTHERBOARD:Intel HM65 Chipset Mainboard
MOUSE:BUILT-IN TOUCHPAD
NETWORK:Built-in 100/1000 Mbps LAN Network
NOTEBOOK:A15HC Gaming Notebook 15.6" Full HD 1920x1080 Display w/ Built-in 2.0MP Webcam, HDMI Port, Li-Ion Battery, & Universal AC Adapter
NOTEBOOK_COVER:Xplorer X6 Gaming Notebook Cover
OS:Microsoft® Windows® 7 Home Premium (64-bit Edition)
SOUND:BUILT-IN AC 97 SOUND
USB:Built-in 2x USB2.0 Ports + 2x USB3.0 Ports
USBHD:NONE
VIDEO:NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M 2GB PCIe Video
WAP:NONE
WEBCAM1:Built-in 2.0 Mega Pixel Webcam
WNC:Built-in Wireless LAN 802.11b/g/n + Bluetooth v3.0 Card module
WTV:None
XWNC:NONE

Thanks in advance,
Nathaniel

jaydeeuk1

If you're expecting to play todays games at 1920x1080 on the 540 you're going to be disappointed I'm afraid.

Sainsburies were doing a medion laptop for £379 with i3, 4gb ram and a geforce 460, probably sold out by now, but would offer similar performance in most games and you could at least max some games out on its 1366x768 screen, and save £300 to upgrade to something better in 18 months time.

Its not too bad for the price, can get similar spec acer laptops with a quad core and 4gb ram for similar to lower price.
Do you need 8gb ram? Can't imagine any game being released in the next 12-18 months that requires that much, and by then the gpu in the laptop wouldn't be powerful enough to run a game that demanding anyway at a decent setting. Save some cash and get something with 4gb or 6gb.

NathanielB

Thanks for the reply jay, I know I dont need the full 8gb ram, but it was cheap to double up from 4 to 8 so I thought I might as well add to the order

I agree with the 460m over the 540m as its ranked much higher here http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

Do you think I would be much better off going for a 1366x768 screen rather then the full hd screen?

Last of all, any links to some good laptops which would do for online gaming? I and happy to spend around £700 if needed, but ofc the lower the better which is why I came here for some advice

jaydeeuk1

And you'll notice they all have one thing in common, they're bloody expensive.

Try this one

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=n09s5530&c=uk&l=en&s=bsd&cs=ukbsdt1&model_id=vostro-3550

£399 (don't forget quidco)
i3 sandy bridge,
radeon 6630
4gb ram
15.6" screen, 1366x768

Not bad for the price.

If its just for gaming, then the 1366x768 may be better, otherwise you'll end up having to scale the resolution to fit, therefore looking blockier, and having to increase AA to counter it, which is a drain on performance. at 1366x768 you'll be able to play at a decent setting still on most of todays games.

The 1920 screen would be better for stuff like web browsing and full HD media playback, and older games will look better, so its a bit of a trade off.

NathanielB

Thanks for the list of "best gaming laptops" but they where all easy to find as i know where to look for them if I wanted to spend £1000+ on one, but I have my gaming rig for that which cost my over £1000. The laptop is more for when I go out etc and I feel like having a game or two on say BC2 on MW etc.

Thanks for the advice Jay, I will defo keep in mind that 768 would be better for the bigger games. I have a new tv for watching movies etc on (which I can stream from my pc etc as its a samsung smart hub 3d tv) so I would have little to no need for watching movies etc on the laptop.

The main use for the laptop would be:
General web use
Some work (I work with websites and in seo)
Online gaming
So basically, I would be using the laptop when I cant be bothered to turn on my main PC, when a friend comes over and wants to use it when I am on my PC, or when I go out/stay over friends etc.

Thanks for the link, I will take a look, but Im not a big fan of dell as when I got a so called gaming pc from them some years back it was f'ed and I aint even looked at a product from them since lol

On the specs side of things, I dont think an i3 would be the best options, dont you think going for an i5 would be better? as they are a higher spec and cpu is important for gaming.

jaydeeuk1

i5 would be better, but will be more expensive. For a limited budget, its often a trade between gpu and cpu. An i3 with a geforce 550m will be quicker in most, if not all games, than an i5 and a 540m at 1366x768.

I've never bought a dell in my life, but most people I know seem to think they're ok, and they have the occassional cracking deal.

NathanielB

Man I am so lost when it comes to laptops lol

Looking at http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html they rank the 460m over the 540m and so on, so I think I would be better of going for a 460m correct?

And for the cpu, I simply need to make sure to get as high spec as I can meaning say the i5-460M would be the best for price and performance correct?

Budgets not so much of a problem, like I said I am happy to spend upto £700 on a laptop thats going to last me a while, but after talking with someone I play games with on the PC he said he would spend that much on a laptop, but he dont know much about mobile g-cards and so could advice on what would be best for my money and still give me something good to play games on.

But we did both agree I would need at least 4gb ram and an i5 cpu. HD etc dont matter too much as I can always upgrade that, so now I'm just stuck on which g-card would be best for the games I play (fps games like bc2, cod etc). I think the 460m is looking to be the best option, but now I just need to find a laptop for cheap with those higher specs.

Yer, I know what you mean about dell, maybe my one bad experience with them was just bad luck, so I will keep them open as an option if its going to save me money

jaydeeuk1

Yeah, a 460 with a sandybridge i3 will be better for gaming (in most titles) than a sandy i5 and geforce 540m, but the 460 is an older model (hence cheap prices to clear stock) so may be difficult to find.

NathanielB

Thanks for all the help Jay, much appreciated

I have been having a look and found these:
http://www.ebuyer.com/261785-acer-aspire-5742g-laptop-lx-rj002-013
http://www.producesell.com/index.php/toshiba-qosmio-x505-q894-18-4-inch-laptop-computer.html?___store=default
http://www.producesell.com/index.php/asus-g53sw-xa1-republic-of-gamers-15-6-inch-gaming-laptop.html?___store=default
http://www.producesell.com/index.php/qosmio-x505-q8104-18-4-inch-gaming-laptop-omega-black.html?___store=default

The links might not be the cheapest, but this is just to find out which I should buy, and then I will looking around for the cheapest place to order

System

have you looked at some of the custom laptop makers - seem to offer better gpu's and cheaper ram upgrades - pcspecialist/kobalt etc

be careful where you are buying from too, you don't want to order from outside the uk unless they specify a uk keyboard....

NathanielB

the_r_sole wrote: »

have you looked at some of the custom laptop makers - seem to offer better gpu's and cheaper ram upgrades - pcspecialist/kobalt etc

be careful where you are buying from too, you don't want to order from outside the uk unless they specify a uk keyboard....

Yer the specs I posted above are from a custom gaming laptop company, but they charge a lot! Which is why I am here asking for advice on what I could get, thats just as good, but not as costly!

Kobalt are one of the most expensive I have seen so far, so they are a no go for me The cheapest I could find in that field was cyberpowersystem.co.uk which is where the specs above come from.

I have looked on ebay in the past for this type of thing, but they are all second hand, which I dont really want to go for when spending this much money on a laptop as its not covered

But I am happy to buy of ebay from stores etc that can offer cover etc for the laptop, as thats one of the major things I look for when buying computer equipment!