Advice on gaming laptop for college student

[mset]

Hi guys

Did a search and saw similar threads here, but I have some specific questions that I couldn't get answered.

Helping a friend find a gaming laptop for his son, 1st year university. The kid knows he won't be able to play games on the highest settings, but has been playing Crysis, Mass Effect 2, Bioshock 2 and Assassins Creed 2 on his 1 year old desktop with 2 GB of RAM, 2.2 GHz Dual core proc and an ATI 3650 HD 512MB GPU. Budget is $1000 tax in or very close. I did some research and found a few like the Asus UL80VT-A1 which I thought was ok but is not reviewed very well by this guy.

Found the Asus G60VX-RBBX05 which looks better but I can't find it in Canada.

Basically I'd like to know which graphics card I should be aiming for. Are the ATI 4650/5650/5740 series better for me than the lower end Nvidia G series, i.e the G210M or the G230M? What about the G310M? Does the GTX 260M beat them all?

Am I right that for gaming optimization, the order of importance for the hardware is GPU --> RAM--> CPU?

This guy says that the ATI cards aren't good enough and that a G230M beats them all. That seems wrong to me.

Any input about a good gaming laptop for a student, reliable, available in Canada, for $900 + tax, would be appreciated.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

If you are looking for a gtx 260m cheap:

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1836285

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Bring his desktop. Im a first year at UCLA living at the dorms and I brought mine. Makes a nice set up in the room =)

 

[Lonyo]

260GTX-M is comparable to a desktop 8800 card, for a point of reference.
The 210M is comparable to (but almost certainly slower than) a desktop 210 or a 9400 card.
The 310 is a probably slightly faster 210, or the exact same thing with a new model name.
The 230M might come somewhere close to a 9600 desktop card, and will likely be significantly better than a 210 or 220.

The minimum you really want would be something like an HD46xx from ATI or a 230M from NV, which is somewhere close to an HD4650 or a 9600 desktop.

But just taking a desktop would be easier and give better performance.

 

[Fenixgoon]

what about getting a main desktop and a cheap laptop to lug around for school?

i still haven't been able to give up my desktop yet, hehe

 

[heat901]

what about getting a main desktop and a cheap laptop to lug around for school?

i still haven't been able to give up my desktop yet, hehe

I would say build a desktop as well, cheaper and better in the long run.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-634-_-Product

If you were going for a laptop that one from newegg looks pretty juicy.

 

[Schadenfroh]

I made this mistake one time. Just take your desktop to college with you and buy a smaller laptop for use in class, library, etc.

Most gaming laptops are 17" monsters that have poor battery life, hardly considered mobile and are heavy.

But, if you still want a gaming laptop, I would suggest looking into some of the MSI i7 notebooks with a geforce 260m in them that people are customizing (buying barebone and adding the GPU, memory, HDD, etc.) and selling out on Ebay. Those will probably be your best bang / buck ratio. One of my friends has one and it works well, not to mention seems pretty solid.

If you want a good work laptop, checkout the Lenovo Thinkpad (not the consumer level ideapad) T500. I picked up one new very cheap recently due to the T510s launching.

 

[soccerballtux]

Gaming laptops are INCREDIBLY heavy. I wouldn't get one if I were you.

 

[igloo15]

Gaming laptop is a very bad idea especially if he is going to take it out of the dorm room and too class or the library etc.

If you get a gaming laptop about the only thing it would be good for is to stay all the time in the dorm room and to take home on vacation. A gaming laptop is useless if you plan to take it to class or any where else on campus. You will definitely regret it if you try to use it to do those things.

 

[mset]

I guess this is what is meant by 'consensus'. I'll link his Dad to this thread and see what develops. I should say that I don't think this kid expects a 'gaming laptop' which will be able to perform anywhere close to even a moderately high end desktop. Having said that, you guys are aware of the games he wants to play, the frame rates he wants to run them at, and are still recommending against it, so...

Thanks for all the replies so far.

 

[NoSoup4You]

Bring the desktop and buy a cheap and light notebook for non-gaming work. Gaming laptops are heavy as hell and can get very hot, not the type of thing you want to carry around with you all over.

 

[Skott]

I would say don't get any GPU weaker than a 260m on a laptop. If he just needs this for his dorm room and not for toting to classes a SFF rig could be built pretty cheaply and be more powerful than a gaming laptop. Their smaller case and size save on desktop real estate and can be transported between home and school a lot easier than a full size ATX rig. Something to consider anyway.

 

[RoloMather]

I agree with the desktop + work laptop sentiment.

No need for a gaming laptop.

 

[mmntech]

Get a good work laptop with high battery life like a MacBook or it's pc equivilent. Gaming laptops are a bit if a waste if money since they're not really that portable. Battery life will be dismal at best making it useless for work.

Honestly, he won't have much time for gaming, especially with a part time job and homework. Just keep his current desktop or get him a console.

 

[Ichigo]

Get a good work laptop with high battery life like a MacBook or it's pc equivilent. Gaming laptops are a bit if a waste if money since they're not really that portable. Battery life will be dismal at best making it useless for work.

Honestly, he won't have much time for gaming, especially with a part time job and homework. Just keep his current desktop or get him a console.

lol

You find time. Don't be a prude.

 

[dougp]

What about the new Alienware M11x? It's supposed to be $999 or so, and seems pretty darn capable.

http://www.alienware.com/microsite/m11x/m11x.aspx

 

[mset]

That alienware rig looks nice. Trouble is, it's going to be $1500 CDN to get it up here once exchange, shipping, taxes and customs duties are figured in.

 

[fatpat268]

That alienware looks interesting, but I dunno, that just looks gaudy to me.

Honestly, given the budget, he'd be better served by a small and light notebook (not netbook!) something like an Acer Timeline. A good buddy of mine has one, and it's an excellent computer with excellent battery life (he gets about the same amount of battery life as my Macbook in my signature).

Link <- 13 inch laptop at 3.5lbs for $600. It is a single core 1.3 ULV processor, but it should be plenty fast for homework, surfing the net, etc. You can upgrade to a dual core, but it's not really that necessary if he brings his desktop with as well.

And then, spend a little extra money for a new video card for his desktop, and you've got a better solution than any laptop out there for less than $800.