Gaming Laptop suggestions?

[PilotA256]

So I've been looking for a good gaming laptop lately, it's more difficult than it looks

 

Ideally it would have the following:

 

- An HDMI port, I use this hooked up to a monitor

- 970/980M GPU

- 8GB+ RAM

- I haven't purchased a proper gaming laptop before, so not sure if it's the same as with the non gaming variety. I'd like at least 4 USB ports (Keyboard with 2, mouse, and a headset). My current one has 2 which is incredibly frustrating having to use a tempremental USB hub.

- Preferably a relatively small SSD for the things I need performance on, along with an HDD for general file storage.

 

Screen size isn't an issue as I pretty much always use it with a larger monitor, the reason I need it to be a laptop is because I move around frequently, dragging a desktop with me would be difficult at best!

Good speakers would be nice but I usually use a headset anyway, and the HyperX cloud II comes with an inline DSP so sound cards don't have to be too extravagant.

 

Primarily I play Dota 2, which I hope to be able to max out and play at a high fps with my next laptop (my Vaio doesn't do anywhere near this at the moment). I also now and then go on Microsoft Flight Simulator X, with several complex addons: I'd quite like that to run relatively well, although if it doesn't run at a million fps the whole time that really isn't a major concern, Dota however is the must.

 

As for my budget, it's a pretty wide range, I have 1000 GBP in a separate place at the moment, but I'm willing to expend most of my pocket money to account for the inevitable difference. To describe it with laptops, I'd say:

 

The lowest I'd be going is probably the MSI GT72 2QE i.e. thereabouts 1300-1400 GBP

And the absolute highest is with the Aorus x7 pro. i.e. thereabouts 1900-2000 GBP

 

I guess a sub question would be, is the x7 pro worth it to get the SLI or should I save the few hundred pounds and stick with one GPU?

 

Given that budget, anyone got any suggestions? The primary issue I have is I know the sort of specs that I want, but I don't know what companies I should be looking at.

 

Edit: Ah, just remembered what I hadn't put in which was why I needed relatively high specs: I'm going to be playing Star Citizen when it's properly released, doesn't have to be anywhere near high settings but I would like it to run reasonably well.

 

Thanks,

 

Anthony

[ShadowCaptain]

Depends what you are looking for

 

Check out the MSI GS60 Ghost

Aorus X3

Gigabye P34x, p35x, p37x, 

MySn/pcspecialist for some clevo models

Alienware 13 and 15

some Asus ROG models etc

HP Omen

 

 

There are tons of options

 

Size

Weight

Performance

 

etc - really depends what you are looking for

[bhagatneel15]

I have been searching for about the same actually, I wanted the MSI GS60 (17 inchers are too big and too expensive) but the GS60 doesnt come with a 970m unless you get way more ram and storage than is necessary..I finally settled on Gigabyte's P34w, a 14 inch 970m slim gaming notebook with 4-5 hours of battery life with light use. The P35w or P35X are 15 inch 970m or 980m respectively, and all come in around 1500-1700$

[bhagatneel15]

Also if you plan to game a 1080p you shouldnt need more than a 970. Although a 980 would be nice, with the p35X for instance, 970m sli or 980m sli is just overkill unless you want 3 or 4k gaming

[CostcoSamples]

I agree that a single 970m will be fine for any games at 1080p with high settings.

 

The size and weight trade off is a big one to consider.  The Asus ROG G751 is amazing (I have one) but its heavy and bulky.  The big advantage with the G751 is cooling.  Under load it runs cool and quiet, which is something slim laptops can not do.  The Aorus, MSI, Razer Blade, the new Gigabyte (see LTT's latest laptop review video) - all of these run hot and loud.  Many of them suffer from thermal throttling under load.

 

If you need something slim and light weight, one thing you can do is get a high quality laptop cooler.  That way, when you are at home playing games, you can leave it on your cooler (hopefully its enough to prevent thermal throttling) and play for hours.  When you are away from home, you will just have to deal with the heat/noise.

 

For me, I was OK with the size and weight of the G751.  Also, it has an IPS screen (very responsive, runs at 75Hz), and all of the other specs you want.  Very nice build quality, plus 1 year accidental damage warranty is included from Asus.  

[ThE_MarD]

Heyyo,

MSI and Asus would definitely be the two main brands I'd recommend for units.

Since you're in the UK, one place to look at buying them that I've always heard good recommendations from is Overclockers.

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/productlist.php?catid=1828&groupid=959&sortby=priceDesc

So be sure to compare their prices to where you might be thinking about purchasing it from. Right meow sadly they have sales on the 800 series GPUs which aren't as awesome as the 900 series. Even the GTX 880M struggles versus the proper awesome GTX 970M in both power/heat efficiency and framerate performance. The only GTX 970M notebooks on sale are pretty small screens but will offer better mobility. I have an Alienware M14x with a 14" screen and 1600x900 resolution. It's ok... but the weak GTX 650M GPU really sucks in it... and MSI had better offerings in the same price bracket even though I bought it on a labor day weekend sale... so I'm never buying Alienware again lol, it's overpriced as heck even on sale. I should have done more research but I guess at the same time I didn't care because of how much income I had and I needed a gaming notebook on the go right away. This was also two years ago... I'm now in a position where I don't make as much money since I'm not a field operator in the oil business no more and am just a shop foreman/dispatch... and then again I don't need a gaming notebook anymore so I gave it away to my gf's brother for pogi points and cause I'mma nice guy.

As for SLI on a gaming notebook? DON'T! Terrible for heat issues since you're doubling your GPUs and they have a bigger risk of thermal throttling so you probably won't get good performance over time when gaming even with a cooling pad under it... Instead of an SLI notebook? You'd probably be better off eyeing up that MSI dock... which would probably work fantastic for gaming at that monitor you were talking about too... but that Intel Iris Pro 5200 iGPU on that MSI G30 Shadow is complete balls for gaming. Intel still trails AMD and NVIDIA for mobile GPUs by quite the margin... so it doesn't surprise me that in their smartphone and tablet Intel Atom SoC's that they use PowerVR's GPU... I wonder why they don't do the same on their regular CPUs... hmmm... but now I'm rambling lol. Meh.

[Neemil]

The Aorus x5 is expected to be released soon and it looks like one stellar gaming laptop.

[D2ultima]

Well, having played Star Citizen, you'll need a CPU that does what it wants, especially if you use an external monitor with a higher refresh rate. For this I suggest the P770ZM or P750ZM.

 

You may need to use some elbow grease (make sure it's all pasted fully well etc) when you get it; maybe a little undervolting via XTU, but otherwise they're the best machines. And they'll be cheaper than the throttle-machine Aorus X7

[Norman_the_Owl]

If you want to run star citizen, you're going to want to hold out.

 

Wait for whatever the hell pascal is gonna bring, because you're damn sure gonna need it