Thoughts on Gaming Laptops

[Tamu]

Toshiba is releasing a new gaming laptop this week and I wanted to see what opinions you all may have on this system. I am looking at buying this laptop so that when I have to travel I will be able to take my multibox team on the road with me.

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/pdet.to?poid=452634

From looking at the specs I think this laptop can perform as well (or maybe better) than the desktop I am currently using. I have a Q6600 2.4 GHz, GeForce 8800GTS (512MB), 6 GB RAM.

I'm not sure how the video card in the laptop (NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 250M with 1GB RAM) compares to my GeForce 8800GTS.

I also am looking at the Alienware laptops, but I do not see one available yet that has the Intel Core i7 processor.

Any comments / recommendations are appreciated.

Thanks!

[Stealthy]

A mate of mine just emailed me and told me he's getting one of these as well.

There's a fairly good review here:

http://www.laptopmag.com/review/laptop/toshiba-qosmio-x505.aspx?page=1

They basically say that its a very well spec'd laptop, but there are other laptops with better video cards out there (although presumably not with i7 processors).

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Shane

[Bovidae]

That is a very well specced machine. I approve :P

[Xtremepayne]

They look good. my only concern is where they say discrete graphics. Which leads me to believe that your graphics memory comes from system memory. My point is that if its what I think it is that means the graphics processor may be built into the board and if it fails is not replaceable.
That is why I went with a video card laptop. Companies like Sager, OCZ, Alienware/Dell-XPS, etc make those sort of systems. In my case if the video card fails its possible for me to get a card to replace it. It had alot to with my choice. I bring this up because of the price I saw for the one you linked too. 1899.99 for that price you could get a laptop with either SLI or Crossfire.
What is nice is that if you go out there you can have one of those companies customer build your system to the way you want it. Its how I did mine. Mine is Ati 3870s in Crossfire and upgraded the memory after I got it to 4gigs. While mine is only a 2.24GHZ the CPU can be upgraded to a quad core. You can save yourself alot of dough if you willing to do some of the upgrades yourself.
But I will say the spec on the one your looking at looks like it could get the job done. What might also help you in your choice is going to http://forum.notebookreview.com/ and go check out what they have to say about the laptop your looking at. This site had been a great help to my making a choice. Hopefully it will for you.

[Obsidian7]

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7587_102-0.html?threadID=191832

this will help a bit about discrete graphics . Intergated video cards are the ones you do not want to have

that is a nice laptop right within my budget.

[Ogloo]

dang i like that laptop, makes me think, i could sell my i7 boss computer and buy that, for more portability.. .... hummm

[Moorea]

too bad they use a GTS 250M in there otherwise it's be perfect (1920x1200 for the screen is great/minimum for 4x/5x)

[Tamu]

Thanks all for your input... much appreciated!

-T

[Obsidian7]

This may be a old news now but do anyone have a good info on a really good net notebook for gaming other then the MX11 so far I'm leaning toward getting one for checking my ALTs and Auction house. :rolleyes:

[Akoko]

You'd probably want to avoid a laptop for multiboxing.

[Hivetyrant]

I generally stick with the Alienware laptop's but even though I'm a fierce Dell fanboy, when it comes to the gaming laptops, if your prepared to spend the money, you probably won't be disappointed.

That laptop looks pretty sweet and for the price, will give you great performance.

My only advice when it comes to expensive laptops is just don't finance!

[Obsidian7]

No I wouldn't want to multi-box with it but it would be good to be able to still play my single Alt that I used to gather resources and place things on the Auction house even without having a bog down system.

after reading the reviews I think I will go with the alien ware(Dell) but with the I7 CPU upgrade :D

http://codamon.com/2010/06/alienware-mx11-gets-a-core-i5i7optimus-upgrade/

[remanz]

For those who have extensive experiences with high end gaming laptops, how would the machine's performance change over time? Is it just getting slower and slower with time ?

I was always NOT happy with the way laptop performed. So never put up with a high end laptop. I did learn it from other people's experience though. My friend who bought an alienware customized laptop years back. and he basically just chooses the most expensive parts with every option. End up costing more than 3k to build it. And yet alienware took no consideration of the heat problem. They just jam all the parts into a this small box with no additional way to cool it. The laptop runs fine for like a month. Then the heat problem got so severe, and it became barely useable.

My personal experience with my average laptop. It was fine for like a year. Then it got slower and slower (due to heat, I am guessing here).

How can hardware degregate over time ? it didn't crush. I reload the OS to factory default. and it is still slow. The only way I can think of is that the fan got clobbered by dust. and the heat cannot be dumped. And the CPU is configured to protect itself. So it downgrades by itself.

[Hivetyrant]

I still run an XPS M1730 and it runs like a champ to this day (had it for two years)

It certainly runs hot, and the components are a bit dated, but I still bought it with the best parts I could at the time (Extreme Intel/8800M SLI) and can't fault it.

[Lax]

For what it's worth, I got my wife an Asus G73 (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i7+Processor+/+17.3%22+Display+/+6GB+Memory+/+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/9741729.p?id=1218165344675&skuId=9741729&st=asus%20g73&cp=1&lp=1) from best buy and it seems to handle 5-boxing better than my usual multiboxing desktop (which I need to have a box fan next to because my beast runs hot). The laptop is a bit bulky, but the big fat fan compartment in the back seems worth it for multiboxing, and I feel less heat 5-boxing on her laptop, than I do with my Dell laptop just working or even playing 1 instance of WoW.

$1250 i7 laptop that works great for 5-boxing. No Blu Ray but whatever, I wasn't looking for that. Actually I bought it for her for mother's day, she just lets me borrow it to multibox sometimes ;)

[Elektroz]

I bought an m11x a few months ago with the core 2 duo, and it certainly is the best computer I've ever owned. Some days I arena and raid on the couch while watching TV, and other days I play while the laptop is connected to my 24" screen. This thing can handle pretty much anything. I would caution you on the i5/i7 however, since those will make the laptop extremely hot.

I tried to multibox 5 wows on it, and it worked fine for the raid weekly. It certainly handles 1 WoW without any problem on max settings.

[Owltoid]

For what it's worth, I got my wife an Asus G73 (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i7+Processor+/+17.3%22+Display+/+6GB+Memory+/+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/9741729.p?id=1218165344675&skuId=9741729&st=asus%20g73&cp=1&lp=1) from best buy and it seems to handle 5-boxing better than my usual multiboxing desktop (which I need to have a box fan next to because my beast runs hot). The laptop is a bit bulky, but the big fat fan compartment in the back seems worth it for multiboxing, and I feel less heat 5-boxing on her laptop, than I do with my Dell laptop just working or even playing 1 instance of WoW.

$1250 i7 laptop that works great for 5-boxing. No Blu Ray but whatever, I wasn't looking for that. Actually I bought it for her for mother's day, she just lets me borrow it to multibox sometimes ;)

Wow, $1250 for that?! Seems like a great deal. I had no idea that powerful of a laptop is that cheap these days.

[Gurblash]

Quite honestly for the price you cannot beat the power of Asus. They make incredible laptops.

[remanz]

For what it's worth, I got my wife an Asus G73 (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i7+Processor+/+17.3%22+Display+/+6GB+Memory+/+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/9741729.p?id=1218165344675&skuId=9741729&st=asus%20g73&cp=1&lp=1) from best buy and it seems to handle 5-boxing better than my usual multiboxing desktop (which I need to have a box fan next to because my beast runs hot). The laptop is a bit bulky, but the big fat fan compartment in the back seems worth it for multiboxing, and I feel less heat 5-boxing on her laptop, than I do with my Dell laptop just working or even playing 1 instance of WoW.

$1250 i7 laptop that works great for 5-boxing. No Blu Ray but whatever, I wasn't looking for that. Actually I bought it for her for mother's day, she just lets me borrow it to multibox sometimes ;)

Man, this is like the best deal by far for now . Alienware m11 or m17 run for like what 1900 !!?? with a spec far more worse than this.

ATI 5870, isn't that the best mobile GPU on the market ?

TOo bad I just bought a lenovo laptop Idealpad y560

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-id=536DDAD2272C43B4B4EFE41A7A5D7192

With some serious coupon it came out $1100 with 8 GB ram, ATI5730, 15 inch.

[remanz]

THere you have it, the same links as above.

Put in coupon code USPRETHINK it will knock another 100 bucks off. Goddamn Lenovo lol. I just bought it for 1100 a few days back now it is 949.

i7 720 QM CPU + 8GMB ram + ATI 5730 1GB for $949

Edit: I haven't tried. BUT I highly doubt this can 5 box (achieve a decent enough performance) though. It may run 5 wows. But it is gonna be slow and probably have to set all 5 clients on minimal settings. I was not impressed with a single wow instance performance. It can't even get above 50 fps in dalaran with 1 wow. I also tested starcraft 2. Sure it can run with max settings. But in order to play SC2 smoothly, probably best just set to medium -high settings. The laptop runs pretty hot also while gaming. you will need a cooler. All in all 949 is not a bad deal i say.

[thefunk]

Same spec as above but different country: £1680, that's 2.5k in dollars....


I'm moving

edit: link:
http://www.asuslaptop.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=G73JH-TZ008V

It would probably be cheaper to buy it in the states, and air-freight it over. We get hammered on pricing in the UK.

[mikekim]

Same spec as above but different country: £1680, that's 2.5k in dollars....


I'm moving

edit: link:
http://www.asuslaptop.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=G73JH-TZ008V

It would probably be cheaper to buy it in the states, and air-freight it over. We get hammered on pricing in the UK.

remember when you buy from the states, you need to add on sales tax, then shipping and then VAT, when it hits the UK customs.

[Obsidian7]

Just quick update I got the MX11 from dell with i7 cpu and I op to get SSD best money I spent also I can take that thing almost anywhere and it runs really smooth now to work on my new desktop unit :)

[Multibocks]

I dont like gaming laptops based on their bulk and weight. I have an alienware laptop that cost a lot of money and I rarely use it. Just too heavy/hot, but it ran games pretty well.

[sonic777]

I have to admit when I see the words "gaming" and "laptop" put together I used to cring. Now, I have a laptop that is not classified as a "gaming" laptop and it multiboxes just fine with 5 accounts.

I was in need of a nice travel laptop and ran down to BestBuy one day, found that they had released a new i7 that week (BestBuy offers large discounts on new that week computers FYI) so I purchased that laptop.

The Toshiba Satellite A505-S6033 has a fingerprint issue where it's shiny and soaks up fingerprints, fixed it with skinit.com with a nice dragon image. Once I did that, I had to test it out as a gaming laptop, upgraded to 6gb ram and BAM let the multiboxing roll on, coffee shops, parks (g4 connection), and anywhere I damn well please that has G3/4 available.

Cost of the PC when I caught it onsale 850.00+ warranty and then additional memory, still under 1100 for a traveling mega power house.

I'm just saying that laptops are catching up to the original posters of this topic and manufacturers are producing systems that are equal to gaming systems without the "gaming" price. BTW, Toshiba has their gaming laptop out and some versions are not as powerful as the one I purchased but have an additional 500.00US added to the price tag over the cost of my completed package.

Compare mine to the gaming machines out there and you will see there is very little that I can complain about.

Here's to being frugal!!