Gaming Laptop (I know...)

[Bort]

When I go away to college this fall I am going to need a laptop. I don't see having a desktop there as well as a laptop reasonable so I am going to need a laptop that can satisfy my gaming needs.

I'm looking for something in the mid price range so probably 1200-1800 USD would be the spot.

One option I found is the ASUS G73JH:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220695
Which features an i7 720QM, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD, and an HD5870 for $1600. The same laptop with 1TB of hard drive space is available for $1750. Plus they both just look ridiculously awesome.

Another one I've taken a look into is the Toshiba Qosmio X505:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834114797
Which has a larger screen, same processor, same HDD space, but only 4GB RAM and a GTS 360M card for $1500.

Reviews I've read are generally positive for both but I'm looking to expand my horizons and I was wondering if anyone out there had knowledge of any other laptops at that price point which might satisfy my needs. Thanks!

[CaptainHaplo]

Check the specs on the cards. Make sure that they have dedicated memory (vs system memory sharing). This is critical to gaming.

My suggestion would be the Asus box - good hw in it and in the range of what you want to spend. The bigger screen would be nice though....

[VipertheSniper]

A friend of mine has the Asus G73 with the core i5 cpu, and that thing goes like a rocket. I don't know how demanding Dirt2 is, but he's running it on full details... I'd definitly go for the Asus if I had the money. Also a plus is, the cooling concept makes it a very quiet laptop.

[JSLTIGER]

My vote would be for the ASUS machine. Better specs, and you'll still want a shred of portability if you're going for a laptop in the first place. 17" is large for lugging around to begin with, you're not going to want anything bigger. Plus, I know from experience that ASUS makes quality machines (though sometimes their customer service can be frustrating). I love my ASUS laptop.

[CaptainHaplo]

Viper - Dirt2 is very demanding (and blasted pretty)! If the Asus runs that - it will pretty much run anything.

[Bort]

Thank you very much for your input, guys. It really seems like the Asus is the hot ticket right now and gets the job done better than pretty much anything else around for a pretty good price. I will probably go with that when I go out shopping in a few weeks. :salute:

[PeriscopeDepth]

Core i5 or i7, 4 Gb RAM, dedicated vid card and you should be OK.

PD

[JSLTIGER]

Thought you'd appreciate this: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3662/asus-g73jha2-affordable-xlsized-gaming

The short story is that while the G73Jh isn't without competition, it's easily the best bang for the buck among current gaming laptops. There are a few flaws like missing features—if you want FireWire, eSATA, USB3, or ExpressCard you'll need to go elsewhere. We also would have liked a Blu-ray combo drive, although it sounds like that will be available with other models (it should add ~$100 to the price). I'm sure opinions on the aesthetic are going to be highly polarized as well. Like most gaming laptops, the G73Jh is quite large, but it makes no appolgies for its size and it manages to do a lot with the added girth.

High on the list of great design decisions is the inclusion of four SO-DIMM slots. You can get 2x4GB of DDR3 in competing notebooks, but the price premium over the 4x2GB in the G73Jh adds another ~$300. Another great element is the Radeon Mobility HD 5870. NVIDIA is going to have a difficult task pushing DX10 hardware when all the latest hype revolves around DX11, and just as Fermi/GF100 was six months late we expect mobile DX11 parts from NVIDIA to be quite a few months away. NVIDIA's ace in the hole has been Optimus, but on high-end laptops no one is doing Optimus anyway, and the top GTX 260M/280M/285M don't support the feature. Alienware's M17x still supports SLI with switchable graphics, but then you have to worry about driver updates so it's not a great solution.

(http://images.anandtech.com/doci/3662/asus-g73j-23-open-powered-right.jpg)
When we look at the whole package (http://detonator.dynamitedata.com/cgi-bin/redirect.pl?user=u00000626&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.provantage.com%2fasus-g73jh-a2%257EAASUL0RM.htm), the simple fact of the matter is that there's nothing else that competes with the G73Jh that doesn't cost at least $500 more. Say what you want about the G73's "Stealth bomber inspired (http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=8je5Ot4HBnKOdT81)" design—and it's definitely a bomber and not a fighter!—but it feels a lot more solid than the Clevo W870CU and it looks a lot better (i.e. less tacky) than the 18.3" M980NU/X8100. We're certainly not going to downgrade our rating of the G73 just because some people will think it's ugly—and they will. The G73 is big, and big can be beautiful for the right user. Besides, the large chassis happens to do an excellent job at cooling and noise control, with the result that this is one of the coolest running and quietest laptops we've ever tested, in spite of the high-end components.


At this point, you should know whether the G73Jh is for you or not. It's not without flaws or omissions (see above), but it gets all the important stuff right. If you've been looking for a great gaming laptop that won't cost over $2000, the G73Jh has what you need. It can handle virtually every current game at high quality settings and 1080p while staying above 30FPS. (Crysis continues to struggle unless you drop to Medium/Mainstream quality, but what's new?) What's more, the LCD is a pleasure to use and the keyboard works well and has backlighting to make gaming in the dark easier. If you're a frequent LAN party attendee, the G73Jh would be an excellent weapon of choice, and it even comes with the necessary gaming mouse and backpack if you get the A2 package (which is what we'd recommend unless you can find the G73Jh for closer to $1450). In short, for mobile gamers it tops our current list of recommendations, and we're pleased to award the ASUS G73Jh-A2 (http://detonator.dynamitedata.com/cgi-bin/redirect.pl?user=u00000626&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.provantage.com%2fasus-g73jh-a2%257EAASUL0RM.htm) our Gold Editors' Choice award.


If you have no interest in gaming notebooks, of course, there's little reason to consider such a beastly notebook. Similarly, if $1500-$1600 is too much for your pocketbook, we'd suggest taking a closer look at the $750 Acer 5740G (http://www.anandtech.com/show/3631/acer-aspire-as5740g-6979-budget-priced-gaming). It may not have the build quality or high contrast LCD of the G73Jh, but performance with the native 1366x768 panel is only surpassed when you get into $1000+ laptops. For those interested in battery life and gaming, the Alienware M11x (http://www.anandtech.com/show/3620/alienware-m11x-worlds-smallest-gaming-laptop) is still a good option, though the driver situation still concerns us. And for everyone else, we have plenty more laptops lined up for review over the coming weeks.

[Bort]

Thanks a lot, JSLTIGER, I hadn't seen that review. I think the deal is sealed. :)

[Bort]

Just to follow up on this thread for any of those that helped me out, I ended up purchasing the Asus G73Jh, but I not the one I posted links to. Turns out Best Buy sold a cheaper version for $1200 which was a welcome discount. And although it came with only 6 gigs of RAM and a 1600x900 screen instead of 1920x1080, it is the same in every other way and is an absolute monster. I almost prefer the lower res screen since it is still pretty high res and I fear the 1920x1080 screen would have affected the performance from the mobile graphics card.

It devours just about anything I throw at it with full settings with ease, the only notable exceptions being ArmA 2 and Crysis, whose settings have to be moderated in exchange for better performance. And as CaptainHaplo said, DiRT 2 really is devastatingly pretty and it runs it at a constant 50+ fps with every option on. Couldn't be happier with the purchase so thanks for the advice and the happy ending! :yeah: