Gaming laptops - What do you suggest?

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Hello. First of all, let's get it out of the way that I understand that a desktop gaming system is preferred over a laptop gaming system. That said, at this point, I'm stuck on getting a laptop. I want the portability, I want to lay on my bed while being able to play and surf the net, etc. So it's got to be a laptop.

As you could probably tell from the title, I am in the market for a gaming laptop. Ideally, I would like to spend up to $1500-2000 tops. I wouldn't mind spending only $1000 and saving some money if I could find something that is great bang for the buck.

I want to buy something that is going to last and that should be able to play games for years to come. I am considering skipping the next generation of consoles entirely and just playing games on this laptop, so it would have to at least have the life span of what the next gen console would bring me. I know we don't know those specs yet so that is all speculation, but I really need something top of the line that is going to last.

Primary function is of course gaming, secondary function is internet use but also important is the audio performance. I would like to install some of my music programs like Reason and Fruity Loops from my old laptop to the new one and still get good audio performance when I hook up my midi keyboard. But number one priority is gaming.

So what do you suggest? I was looking at something like the Toshiba Qosmio seen here > http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Qosmio-X875-Q7280-17-3-Inch-Laptop/dp/B0085N1EM2

But if there's even better out there I will consider others. I am far from making my mind up yet, have a lot of research to do, so any tips or advice you guys give would be helpful.

Also, just curious, but why are the Alienware laptops so expensive? I have seen better specs on cheaper laptops from the few I browsed through thus far. Does the Alienware have some sort of ultra graphics card in it? More research needs to be done…

Thanks in advance.
 
We've bought 3 Dell/Alienware laptops, and theyve been really good. One, I bought back in 2003ish (back when they were XPS)and it's still going fine w/ XP, I use it for old games.

I bought a 'gaming netbook' last year from them, which i love, it's truly a compact gaming powerhouse. Not available anymore tho, i got one of the last ones. My wife just bought a 17" gaming laptop, roughly 2,500.oo out the door, loaded w/ kickass card and 8GB of ram. Seems to do the trick on her games.

Their service is quick, we had them soon after our orders. Havent had any trouble, so i dont really know how their tech supt is..
 
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For $1,000 you can definitely find a solid laptop that will run most recent games at 1080p just fine.

How important to you is battery life? How about portability, do you want a thin form factor, or is it OK if it's a big bulky desktop replacement model that's a PITA to lug around?

And how extreme do you need the graphics to be? Are you talking about playing Witcher 2 maxed out with 16xMSAA and ubersampling (if so, prepare to shell out some big bucks for a bulky desktop replacement with dual GPUs). Or would you be OK playing Skyrim at 1080p with anti aliasing turned off and using FXAA instead? (this will be much cheaper and the laptop can be thinner)

Make sure it has at least the following:
- 1920x1080 display
- quad core Ivy Bridge CPU (model number ending in QM)
- GDDR5 graphics card at least Nvidia 645m, 650m, 660m, AMD 7730m, 7750m, or better
 
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Battery life is not that important. The laptop will be plugged in most of the time.

It's also okay to be bulky, but not 50 pounds or anything :D. For the most part it will just be resting in my lap as I'm on the couch or in bed or whatever, so it doesn't have to be ultra thin or anything.

I do hope that it would stay cool even under pressure of 1080p gaming. I don't want another laptop that likes to shut off all the time because it gets too hot. I don't mind undervolting the processor a bit, but I'd just prefer something to work right out of the box if possible.
 
Battery life is not that important. The laptop will be plugged in most of the time.

It's also okay to be bulky, but not 50 pounds or anything :D. For the most part it will just be resting in my lap as I'm on the couch or in bed or whatever, so it doesn't have to be ultra thin or anything.

I do hope that it would stay cool even under pressure of 1080p gaming. I don't want another laptop that likes to shut off all the time because it gets too hot. I don't mind undervolting the processor a bit, but I'd just prefer something to work right out of the box if possible.

No matter what laptop you get, you should really use a laptop cooler when gaming.

This is the one I have, highly recommend it.

And undervolting the processor defeats the purpose of buying laptop with a good CPU. You want it to run as fast as possible when gaming. In fact, many people overclock their laptop CPUs and graphics cards for this purpose.
 
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+1 for a good cooler. Cant tell you how many friends have come to me with bricked high performance laptops, caused by insufficient cooling.
 
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Purchased a Sagar gaming laptop 2 years ago and still going strong. Customer service is outstanding and there are options to configure your build. Check out the website Notebookreview.com forums Tons of information for you there on every make and model you can imagine from actual users.
 
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Thanks Rills. The Sager NP9150-S looks very nice. I will definitely keep that one in mind.
 
Sagar. Message sent via NP9150 with a 680m. :) Best laptop I've owned by miles. Powerful. Reasonably priced. Great cooling = quiet and efficient. Go to the Sagar forum on forum.notebookreview.com and give them your budget. Its a helpful croud. Xoticpc or LPC-Digital are good dealers. They both have good deals. Sagar (Clevo) make great units these days!
 
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I had alienwarem m17xr2 something. Very powerful rig able to run anything with good speakers and excellent screen. However i sold it because compares to my whisper quiet full tower pc the alienware kept horrible noise with its two 60mm ultra high rpm fans. Also its was very fat so it felt like very thick keyboard which is not ergnomic.

My next pc will be silent but powerful minipc. For now the old full tower pc can suffice.
 
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After a little more research, I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy a Sager laptop and customize it on xoticpc.com. Probably the Sager NP9150 Special Edition.

ToddMcF2002, you say your NP9150 runs cool, do you game heavily on it? Also, did you get any of the cooling upgrades available? There are 3 options on xoticpc to enhance the cooling - copper cooling upgrade, a laptop fan cooler and something else. I'm thinking about adding all 3 options but it might be overkill. I don't know yet. Let me know what you think about that.
 
This one is kind of on the bulky side, and the CPU is not very good (i5-3230m), but it is incredibly cheap and it will run recent games at 1080p on high settings:

Lenovo Y500 with Dual 650m in SLI - $899

Thanks for the suggestion, but I think I'm gonna take the plunge and buy something more expensive, make a bigger investment now and hopefully buy something that will last me more years than if I purchased something cheaper. Hoping I can buy a laptop that will take me through the next generation of gaming. My idea is that the $2000 laptop will be great for a few years, then maybe I can swap out the graphics card or upgrade the memory down the road to keep up with modern gaming. I don't know a ton about this type of stuff, but that's what I'm thinking.

I posted on notebookreview, very impressive forum they have over there. Just curious though, how long do these expensive laptops last before becoming obsolete? Is it unreasonable to think that a NP9150 Special Edition will last me for 5+ years possibly? Or is that completely out of the question? Like I said, I'm hoping if the laptop starts becoming obsolete, I can just upgrade it instead of buying another big investment laptop. Just some thoughts I'm having before taking the dive...

Thanks for the help fellas, been very helpful.
 
Hardware is always changing. It is way ahead of software coding so i would say that depending on your system, what you want to run/play on it will be the determining factors as to how viable your system will be in the years to come.

Sagar does build laptops whereby you have option to upgrade your video card. How far in the future you can do this has many variables so there is no easy answer.

One of the biggest issues for a laptop is cooling. Heat shortens the life span of laptops, PCs, etc. Make sure you have a good laptop cooler.

* If $2000 is your actual budget I suggest you strongly consider building your own PC. You can build a VERY nice and VERY powerful system with $ left over.
 
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I would ignore the upgrade options.

Nobody knows what notebook tech will be available in 3 years. Chances are that upgrades won't be attractive then.
Just choose a notebook with enough power to play current games @1080p, stuff enough RAM and an SSD in it and assume it will handle everything for the next year at maximum details, followed by slightly more compromises every year.

Would it make sense for you to buy a cheaper notebook for surfing, older games and work, and a 400$ (+ graphics card) PC for high-end gaming and audio?
 
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Well, I wouldn't need to buy a cheaper notebook for surfing, older games and work, because I already own a Toshiba Satellite and it works great for that stuff. The reason I want a new laptop is because I want to be able to game anywhere with it. I don't want to be restricted to sitting at a desk to play, I want to take it to bed with me and play while in bed, or go downstairs with it and hook it to my dad's LCD TV to play movies, etc. A desktop is too restricting for me.

I'm thinking my best bet is what you said Gorath. Just pick a powerful laptop, stuff it with RAM and pretty much get as much in it as I can for my budget, and just go with it. Hope it keeps up for a decent amount of time and then just make compromises when that time comes, and maybe even upgrade things like the RAM or the video card if I'm able to.
 
Yep.

Realistically, technology and the price of stuff has kinda leveled out. Stick it w/ 8 gigs of ram, top of the line processor, and an awesome card, and you'll be good for a long time.
 
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The cooling design on the Sagar is great and does not need anything aftermarket. It has good size standoff feet underneath and very large vents on the rear. There is nothing on the market that really stresses the 680m, but I've played sessions of Skyrim with lots of graphics mods, Two Worlds 2. Its extremely quiet. Go on the Sagar section of the notebook forums as I suggested - very helpful community. You cannot go wrong with these laptops. They are a great value and no-nonsense. Less bling, more power, more value.
 
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