Need help picking a laptop.

[Jchappers]

Hi,
Just been browsing the site looking for a new laptop, and need some advice on which one would be best to buy.
It will mainly be used for gaming, but i will be doing some other work on it, just basic stuff on word and so on. Ive got a budget of £1000, willing to go over slightly if need be. I dont know to much about the best processors and graphics cards so If anyone could help i would be very greatful.

Thanks.

 

[JonnyPx]

Well it depends first of all, what size laptop screen you want. A 15.6 inch or 17 inch. Then, it also depends on the type of games you are going to play. If they are mostly older games, then the enigma III with a gt540m will easily suffice. If they are newer games, perhaps first person shooters like bad company 2 or crysis 2 etc, you may need to look at the vortex II with a gtx 460m, which is a faster graphics card. Both of those are 15.6' screens. If you get back to me with some more info, I'll do my best to try and help you, as I'm in a similar position, but have a bit more knowledge (for once!) on these things.

 

[Jchappers]

I think i would go for the 15.6 screen size. Yeah sorry about the lack of information i wrote down on my first post, i didnt go into much detail at all. i would want the laptop to run the newer games, games like battlefield 3 ( gameplay trailer looks immense! ) haha, yeh and just new games in general. Would you say that my budget will be able to get me a laptop to run new games? or should i think about maybe trying to gather some more funds to get a slightly better laptop?
Thanks.

 

[randommonicle]

well i have gone with the enigma III specs as follows:
Chassis & Display
Enigma III 540: 15.6" Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glossy
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2630QM (2.00GHz) 6MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
8GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
nVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M - 2GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 3 in 1 Memory Card Reader (SD, MMC, MS)
Network Facilities
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1102 WIRELESS 802.11N - IDEAL FOR ONLINE GAMING
USB Options
4 PORT USB 2.0 EXTERNAL HUB + STANDARD USB PORTS
Bluetooth & Infrared Options
ENIGMA SERIES INTEGRATED BLUETOOTH ADAPTER (£7)
Battery
Enigma III Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,100/5,200 mAh)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 120W AC Adaptor
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard & Mouse
Logitech® Wireless Desktop® MK250 Keyboard and Mouse Combo (£18)
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Speakers
Logitech® V-20 USB Powered Notebook Speakers (£39)
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1.3 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Surge Protection
6 Socket Compact 2M UFO Surge Protector (£9)
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days
Quantity
1


I intend to be using this one for gaming and movie watching. If you are still undecided by the time i get it, im happy to give a review for you

 

[JonnyPx]

Chassis & Display
Vortex II-15: 15.6" Full HD LED Backlit 16:9 Widescreen (1920x1080) Super Clear Glossy

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2630QM (2.00GHz) 6MB Cache

Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 2GB)

Graphics Card
1.5GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 460M - DirectX® 11 (15.6" Vortex II)

Memory - Hard Disk
320GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD3200BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)

Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)

Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD (STANDARD)

USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD

Battery
Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (3,800 mAh)

Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 180W AC Adaptor

Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)

Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)

Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL

Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE

Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM

Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft

Warranty
3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

This spec costs £1037, and it has a quad core CPU, 4gb RAM and a gtx 460m. If you go on this link: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-G73SW-Notebook.45917.0.html

It shows a laptop with a similar spec, and if you scroll down to games performance, it can run COD black ops at 55fps with 4xAA, basically completely maxed out graphically! So I would think it could run battlefield 3 at at least 30fps, which is good for a battlefield game!

 

[Aeolus]

Hi there,

If you are planning on going online and gaming, then you might want to upgrade the wireless card. The standard one is acceptable, but Killer 1102 is design to fasttrack the game data so as to reduce drag/latency. Obviously if you are gaming you'll likely have the laptop docked/plugged in so using a cable beats wireless hands down.

All depends if you think it it worth it. I don't personally, but something to consider with your budget and if you have a gaming


Also, JonnyPx, your pentium looks like a race car against my (soon to be replaced!) dell celeron...

 

[JonnyPx]

Ha Aeolus. When my PC looks like a "race car" against another PC, you KNOW you have a bad computer!

 

[Jchappers]

Thanks for all the replies.
Hmmmm would you say its worth it to spend the bit extra for the vortex?
Going to uni this year and all the connections are wired (i think) so hopefully that wont be a problem.
I think i am swaying towards the vortex, just wondering, Whats the difference between the 1x4gb ram and the 2x4gb ram? i mean performance wise, if any? you can tell im good with computers...
Thanks again.

 

[JonnyPx]

Thanks for all the replies.
Hmmmm would you say its worth it to spend the bit extra for the vortex?
Going to uni this year and all the connections are wired (i think) so hopefully that wont be a problem.
I think i am swaying towards the vortex, just wondering, Whats the difference between the 1x4gb ram and the 2x4gb ram? i mean performance wise, if any? you can tell im good with computers...
Thanks again.

i'm going to Uni this year too! I'm personally going to get the enigma III with a gt540m. It won't be able to play the latest games at very high resoltuions, but that's OK for me, because I like to play strategy games that are a bit less demanding than what you like, e.g. Battlefield 3. If you want to play FPS's at high resolutions etc, you'll probably have to go with the vortex, but for me the enigma's fine.