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with a gaming laptop, there is really only one thing to look at. and that's the GPU. if gaming is your primary purpose, look for the best GPU in the laptop that money can afford. also, if you need battery life, go with intel and NVidia. as NVidia GPU's shut off until they are needed. IE: 3d app.
ohh and I recommend Asus
Evening, droogs!
This wuff got himself a nu ub3r rig recently, and it's riding happily with 2 nVidia 770GTX/4GB vRAM VPUs in SLI, an Intel i7 4870 3.70GHz CPU, and 32GB of Corsair Produkt RAM. Admittedly, she's a beefy little number, but other than the specs, I wanted to put my two cents in about a gaming rig: desktops are going to be able to pack more into a given rig for considerably less (relatively) money, not to mention cooling effectiveness/heat dissipation. While I've certainly seen high-end laptops like Alienwares in regards to good gaming laptops, it's really not the best thing to fit a lot of heat-heavy components into a smaller space.
I will submit that the chummers who wrote the latest 3D Studio Max bradybook did all of their rendertags on a thoroughly suped-up HP laptop (with a modern nVidia workstation VPU, the Quadro, which I suspect would rival my two 770GTXes in cost), and if you don't block the heat output grilles and have decent cooling, I won't count out a laptop for good overclocking/gaming. But it's really not what laptops were designed for, IMHO. If you're short on space, I know you can find quite often one-piece rigs with a good bit of VPU/CPU and RAM block under the hood that probably won't take up anywhere near as much room as, say, my Dawntreader Twelve. Dell makes a number of them, some of which I saw in a newspaper insert locally.
-Worker.
Agreed in principal. I've got a 3.4 ghz i7, Xfire x3 7970s, 16 GB of Ram, and several drives, two of which are SSD. I love it and it's awesome. I tear through any game available at maxed settings with ease and chuckle at how cute the new console specs are. They're such adorable and quaint little things.
However, I also live in Gainesville. A lot of my friends are in school, and they'd have no room for even a light desktop. They are out and about too much to make real use of a huge rig like I've got. Gaming is a more casual and relaxing affair to someone taking classes. Not the hardcore past-time for gamers who spend money and time on rigs like ours.
To someone in that position, a laptop is a better choice. You could probably wedge a one piece with some decent specs into a dorm room, but it would have limited usefulness, no portability, and would generally be a pain to LAN with others outside of a small radius from where it's installed.
I know about the internet, but LAN parties are still a popular way to game in schools and showing up with a laptop is much easier.
Honestly, you don't need near as much as we've got to run any game available at decent settings. There are a few games that need high end Uber rigs for maxed out settings, but those are only a handful of titles.
Like I said, I agree in principal, but realistically a Laptop is the better option for a gamer in OP's current situation. It's more versatile, portable, and flexible to life in school than a desktop, even a small all in one unit.
If he's got the desk space available and has time to sit there and play enough to make use of it, I agree that a desktop solution is best. However, based on earlier posts ITT, I don't think that is the case here.
I recommend getting something with a quad core that's at least 2.8-3.0 ghz, and a decent GPU. Avoid APUs at all costs. They are good for multipurpose casual use, but horrible for gaming. 4 GB of Ram will do, but I recommend trying to find something with 8 GB. The level of importance for gaming performance in a laptop is generally CPU, GPU, and Ram, in that order.
A laptop like that will run any game available at a good framerate at decent settings. It's not going to max everything out in a lot of games, but you could run and play pretty much anything with that well.
Also, yes. Aftermarket cooling is an absolute must for a gaming laptop no matter what brand or model you get. Games are resource intensive and the cooler you keep your computer, laptop or not, the longer it will last. Games can wear a laptop down faster than just about any other type of program. It's not a purchase that absolutely must be made right away, but you should get something within a month or two after getting a new laptop.
