thinking buying a laptop

[Xing]

So, army is actually my first job ever...
and I discovered I actually made... quite a lot of money. For the most part I spend it on restaurant and other goodies from time to time but truth be told...
I barely spend 1% of my entire earned wealth o0...

So idea came to me to buy a laptop, a decent one with good gaming performance and all. Some people suuggested to me Del, ASUSE, alienware, etc (names that doesnt sound a bell to me!)

I am ready to spend around 2000 CA$, less or more 100. any suggestions?

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[13CentKiller]

Decent ASUS or AlienWare.

AlienWare you will find you will be spending more like 2500 to 3500 dollers.

ASUS you can get a decent laptop, but not as good. For gaming you need a laptop with dedicated video memory. A video card built-in. Anything else will suck.

Good luck:)

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"Three o'clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do."

[Xing]

just went on the alienware website, and I tried to customise the 15 inch sized screen one, and I was like... oookay what are all these things XD

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[13CentKiller]

just click until it falls into your price range :lol:

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"Three o'clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do."

[Lupusy]

dont get a dell ive heard bad things about how they customise everything so that when u need something fixed you have to pay them to do it (also they use cheap components to make sure something breaks down).

how about an Acer? i dont hear much about them in gaming. are they as good as Asus or Alienware?

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[Turkish]

Acer is on the cheaper end of hardware, they offer decent performance and reliability for cheaper than many of their competitors. But its just that, cheaper.

My vote goes for ASUS, they offer good warranty support, well built systems ranging from capable gaming to cheap web-browsers.

Alienware is just, ugh, you're paying for a name and a faceplate. They offer marginally better construction and charge you an extra $1,000 for the wow factor of it.

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I have a fetish for all things Norse.

[13CentKiller]

And charge you an extra $1,000 for the wow factor of it.

Don't they have a software bundle pre-installed aswell? You pay for that too.

Construction is excelent.
Hardware is awesome.

But at the end of the day, my vote still goes to ASUS. COMPAQ HP is also very good. I have never had a problem with their laptops, and offer some nice software bundles and stuff like finger-print access.

:)

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"Three o'clock is always too late or too early for anything you want to do."

[TDLdark]

Being a bloody American, I have no idea how good ASUS are....but I can weigh in on brands more readily available in the US.

Alienware is pathetic nowadays. A while back they actually made great gaming computers that looked nice, functioned well, and came with awesome software. Nowadays, they've gotten bloated with glory and custom PC dominance...so their computers are becoming worse and worse, the software spots is now being sold out to whoever gives Alienware the best benefits instead of what the best software is, and the only thing that is not taking a dive into the mud is the looks...


If you're willing to spend a bundle, there are a few computers....
While 95% of Dell computers stink and should be burned, the XPS is a nice little toy. While the laptop version is a heavy monster, it's hardware beats many desktops to the ground.
On the other hand, Gateway and HP both offer reliable steady computers at normal costs....they are the normal guys. The high end computers they design...are...typical high end computers...simply computers with slightly upgraded internal hardware.

I dunno, but all the Compaq's I've seen are utter crap, even the high end ones. They seem to add a bunch of little trinkets that wow at first, but...really...the novelty wears off when you find they're utterly useless.
I have no idea about Toshiba, since they've practically disappeared from American markets, but what I hear isn't too good. Likewise, Phillip computers are pretty sucky too.

By far, the best PC is the custom built one...by..yourself...or that random techie that's bound to be somewhere nearby.

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TDL Dark pretty much hit the nail on the head..

Ypsilantis Family

[Encheta]

I have an Acer and I can say that they are pretty good in terms of reliability. While I can't say that my lappy is really old (I got it around March last year) it is aging, and so far only the battery has carked it. In its defense though, I am a heavy battery user - discharging and recharging at least twice a day. standard battery use is only once per day, or 1.5yrs maximum lifespan. Also, it didn't help with the fact that when I last went overseas for a month, I left it in my boiling hot room at half charge...

Thing is, Acer is more into business notebooks rather than mobile gaming and you tend to see that in their specs - nice fast CPU, reasonable but still very expandable RAM (mine can go up to 4gb, but at the time I bought it most other brands still only allowed up to 2), sometimes good graphics, but very crummy soundcard. Seriously, stereo only? Most lappies have 5.1 capability, and sometimes even 7.1. Hopefully Acer's licked that. More importantly though, have you heard of Acers customer support? In Australia it's bloody awful (beleive me, I know. Carked battery remember? Don't ask what I went through to get a replacement...)

I'd reccomend Asus over all the other brands, simply because of balance of price, quality and customer support. I'd personally then go Dell's XPS laptops (I've seen someone at uni playing Crysis on one o.O) and then Acer. Alienware's cases are too garish for my tastes..

Oh, and stay away from toshibas like the plague - they have absolutely NO ventilation, except for a hole for the fan which, coincidentally, breaks down a lot. (Experience with two of my freinds' ones - ugh..)

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[Enko]

I bought an ASUS G2S for 1000 GBP two weeks ago, with a bit of tweaking and efficiency grinding I can run Crysis on Medium perfectly smoothly, and with a little overclocking even on High smoothly.

ASUS are definatly good for Med/High end Laptop specs, and the laptop isn't as heavy as Alienware laptops.

As for the Specs:

Intel Core 2 Centrino T9300 @ 2.5 Ghz
4 GB of DDR2 Ram
nVidia GeForce 8700M GT 512MB (Dedicated)

Comes with a very nice screen and audio, the speakers work well and have a nice clear sound compared to some of the choices. It also gloats Dolby Home Theater sound with HD Vision. 2 and a half hours battery life on office work and 1 hour tops while playing full 3D games. Not all that bad for a battery.

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