Best Gaming Laptop

[Knightshade Dragon]

So, it is a VERY long story, but I just got handed back 1500 bucks for my laptop in refunds.   Anybody have any suggestions on laptops?  I want a gaming rig that sports a nice high-end graphics card, some solid amount of RAM, and a BluRay drive.  I'm not adverse to any particular brand - I just want something I can trust.  I can add a few hundred to that 1500 for a really high end system, so recommend away...

Here are a few I've been looking at. I'll keep adding as I find ones that wow me:

MSI GT780DXR-446US (A GTX 570 card is a pro)
Asus G74SX  (a GTX 560 graphics card is a con, comparatively)
Cyberpower Xplorer X6-9500 I've never heard of this company...that makes me more than a little nervous.  Customization options are much better though.

Alienware M17s similarly configured with a GTX 560 comes in around 2300 - way overpriced.  The M18 is right out.

[TheAtomicKid]

Remember those are mobile variants, which are, well, never, the equivalent of their desktop brethren. To be checking the specs before pushing the button!

Atomic

[Knightshade Dragon]

Remember those are mobile variants, which are, well, never, the equivalent of their desktop brethren. To be checking the specs before pushing the button!

Atomic

Right.  I'm gonna do some benchmark research.  The laptop will be docked for my wife to play with me, and will travel with me for mobile gaming.  I doubt I'm gonna run Crysis 2 on it.    (but hey, I might!)

[JCC]

On your CyberPower laptop, I would spend $25 to upgrade the data drive to 7200rpm.

[Knightshade Dragon]

On your CyberPower laptop, I would spend $25 to upgrade the data drive to 7200rpm.

Absolutely. 

[drifter]

dude you want one of these:

http://store.razerzone.com/store/razerusa/en_US/pd/productID.243119900

at $2,799.99 its a bargain and very cool.  Geeks will bow to you and pay homage to your visage by light candles, burning incense and chanting non-sensical verbage.

[Grimwar]

I highly recommend the G74SX.  I have one and have not been disappointed with it.  It runs Skyrim quite well.  You can't max AA and shadows, but with FXAA on, high shadows and everything else maxed it ran very well.  BF3 did well on it too. If you want to run everything on max settings, you won't like the G74, but it holds it's own well and will play anything out there on high at least with good frame rates.  It's also nice and quiet and stays very cool.  My only gripe was the screen, but I am really picky.  It has a blue tint to it that drove me nuts, but no one else who saw or used my laptop seemed to notice.

However, the G75 is coming soon, as are new laptops for MSI.  The G75 will have a 660M in it with the new Ivy Bridge processors and 12GB RAM.  I have not heard any definite hardware specs on the new MSI laptops.  Unfortunately, based on early testing, the G75 won't be a major upgrade from the G74 but I think it would still be a good idea to wait because I am sure the G74 will drop in price. 

[Knightshade Dragon]

Well, the answer to this question ended up being.....NONE of them!   I ended up ordering the MSI GT780DXR-446US but while it was in transit, the newer laptops came out with more RAM, more and faster HDDs, better graphics cards, and are the same damned price.   So....now I wait until the end of the month for the Ivy Bridge based laptops to ship.  Wheeeeee technology!

[Purge]

You want a Razer. Then you can review the switchblade thingamabobber.

[Knightshade Dragon]

You want a Razer. Then you can review the switchblade thingamabobber.

The Razer has a 555 in it and 8GB of memory.  The laptop I'm looking at has 16GB of memory and a GeForce 670 in it.   I think I'm comfortable with my decision for ~400 less than the Razer. 

[Purge]

Fine. Get Razer to send ME it to review.

[CeeKay]

you can have my old one:

Spoiler for Hiden:

[Knightshade Dragon]

So I ended up going with this monstrosity.  Here are the important bits:

•    Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM Processor (Ivy Bridge)
•    Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit
•    17.3" Full HD Anti-reflective Display (16:9; 1920 x 1080)
•    NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 670M discrete graphics (DDR5 3GB VRAM)
•    64GB SSD + 64GB SSD RAID + 750GB(7200RPM)
•    16GB DDR3 1600MHz system memory
•    Blu-ray Disc burner

The RAID0 SSDs push the throughput to 1.9Gbps for the hard drive read/write.  That's INSANE, and awesome.   This is a full desktop replacement - exactly what I had in mind.  Glad I could convince MSI for some special pricing if I reviewed it!

[rittchard]

Thanks a lot Ron 

I have no real need for a giant heavy desktop replacement but after reading the specs you posted I almost pulled the trigger on one of these.  I had to force myself to stop trying to justify getting one lol.  But now I can't stop thinking about it.  I should probably avoid reading any review you do, unless it turns out you hate it 

[rittchard]

I can neither confirm nor deny anything regarding this, but all in all I still blame Ron!!!   

[Jag]

Any recommendations for the cheapest laptop that would run DIII at low settings?

[Knightshade Dragon]

Thanks a lot Ron 

I have no real need for a giant heavy desktop replacement but after reading the specs you posted I almost pulled the trigger on one of these.  I had to force myself to stop trying to justify getting one lol.  But now I can't stop thinking about it.  I should probably avoid reading any review you do, unless it turns out you hate it 

I absolutely LOVE this thing.  I was playing D3 (for the short time it was up) connected to my 74" Plasma, running everything on max.   What's not to love?

[Knightshade Dragon]

Any recommendations for the cheapest laptop that would run DIII at low settings?

Hell, I have an M170 Dell XPS I'd sell ya on the cheap - it should run it on medium or high.  Just needs a new battery (battery dies in about 7 minutes)

[rittchard]

Thanks a lot Ron 

I have no real need for a giant heavy desktop replacement but after reading the specs you posted I almost pulled the trigger on one of these.  I had to force myself to stop trying to justify getting one lol.  But now I can't stop thinking about it.  I should probably avoid reading any review you do, unless it turns out you hate it 

I absolutely LOVE this thing.  I was playing D3 (for the short time it was up) connected to my 74" Plasma, running everything on max.   What's not to love?

That sounds like a great idea for me to try this weekend!!

[Jag]

Any recommendations for the cheapest laptop that would run DIII at low settings?

Hell, I have an M170 Dell XPS I'd sell ya on the cheap - it should run it on medium or high.  Just needs a new battery (battery dies in about 7 minutes)

Sent you a PM.