New laptop

The laptop of my oldest stopped working. So I gave her mine. Unfortunately that means I have to get myself a new one.

I'm considering an Asus from the G750 series, with a Intel Core i7 4700HQ and a NVidia GTX 770M to go. This one supports 3DVision, which I've come to appreciate on my stationary. (I do look good wearing those glasses). Apparently it also has only the NVidia GPU, not a combined Nvidia/Intel setup. Which is good, since updating GPU drivers is problematic with the GPU combo.

Another one is an Alienware M70x.

Anyone got experience with those 2 or similar monsters?

pibbur who always is ready to support his daughters when it comes to hardware.

I still have an Asus G73JH, which I use as a gaming laptop when travelling. It's rock solid, and the additional fans is definitely required given the hardware it's carrying. It would probably melt without those.

You should be aware that those laptops are huge though. Immense. They're massive bricks, more "desktop replacements that's easy to re-locate" than laptops. If you, like me, need such laptops due to gaming, the Asus ROG series really is a very good choice. You get quite a bit of bang for you buck, and I've never had any issues worth mentioning.

Originally Posted by Maylander
I still have an Asus G73JH, which I use as a gaming laptop when travelling. It's rock solid, and the additional fans is definitely required given the hardware it's carrying. It would probably melt without those.

You should be aware that those laptops are huge though. Immense. They're massive bricks, more "desktop replacements that's easy to re-locate" than laptops. If you, like me, need such laptops due to gaming, the Asus ROG series really is a very good choice. You get quite a bit of bang for you buck, and I've never had any issues worth mentioning.

Thanks.

I know they are big and heavy. Does''t matter, I've got a sufficiently large backback for laptops (sometimes I carry two in it).

pibbur

I had a high end Alienware laptop long ago. Very powerful but had a persistent heat problem which kept burning out the motherboard. I had purchased a 3 year warranty for it and the first time I called in they told me that it wasn't covered by warranty. After paying alot of money for this computer that wasn't even close to an acceptable answer and of course I got it covered but that they even told me that pissed me off. This problem came back once a year so it went back to them several times until it was finally out of warranty and died. Their stuff is powerful but If I pay a premium price I expect premium service which I did not get. I would not recommend them.

I bought the CEO of the company I work for an ASUS G series laptop last year and he loves it. Rock solid so far. Those excel spreadsheets take some serious power you know.

I have an Alienware M14x that I have had for about 2 years now. I couldn't be happier with it. Easy to get around and spits up and chews out anything I throw at it. I have had no trouble with it though so I have no input as far as customer service goes. Although that will be like most companies. Some will love it, some will hate it.

But is an "M70x" a new laptop? I havent heard of that one before, and I couldnt find one on their website. Am I blind, stupid, or both?

I simply assumed it was the M17x, but there could be some secret laptop I don't know about.

Thats what I assumed too, but i figured i would ask.

I work for a large IT contractor that has some very large clients (City, Hospital, Oil and Gas, Power, etc), and from what we've seen doing deployments, support, and coming through the imaging labs (one lab does 100s of desktops/laptops on a daily basis) And the results we've seen are the following:

1) Our earlier hardware contracts with Dell (which includes the XPS and the Alienware line) had impressive hardware numbers, but if they weren't sitting on the desk for most of the time, then we ran in to a lot of HDD, and motherboard issues. Same with the HPs.

2) Since we've moved to Asus and Samsung, and moved mostly SSDs, all our clients are a lot more happy. The drivers work great, they hold up to a lot of abuse (for a laptop of course).

3) The panasonic toughbooks that get carried around a lot by police/ems/fire have seen a huge decrease in returns by replacing constantly failing hard drives with SSDs.

Basically, statistically speaking, the Asus laptop with an SSD is going to most likely give you the best chance at longevity and reliability and least amount of setup headaches. Just get the extended warranty. I think that's one of the few items where an extended warranty is worth it.

When you finally get your specs, just run another option - Clevo. These guys spend their money on cooling (=laptop life) and hardware rather than marketing which is why you probably haven't heard of them. Chances are for the same $ you'll get much better specs eg 780m gtx (and less well advertised quality cooling and other innards).

Clevo are the ODM, OEM's include deviltech, pcspecialist.co.uk etc. I used to be a Clevo fanatic because they supported their laptops for ages so you'd get BIOS for eg new GPUs or CPUs that you could fit yourself. Recently though, they seem to be cutting back on that, and the cooling in my last laptop was good, but not the 'oh wow excellent' it's been for the last 8 years.

I have an Alienware M17X R4 with the 7970m video card. I love it and would definitely recommend Alienware as a company. Had very few problems with mine and it works great! I'd get the newest Alienware with the 8970m or similar card and you'll be all set. Good luck!

They're massive bricks, more UMOH Resin & Dow VAGH Resin " desktop replacements that's easy to re-locate" than laptops.

Check out Sager from LPC-Digital. Zero problems with mine and unbeatable price performance, very configurable. The NP9380 Special Edition is a great configuration.

I haven't seen Clevo or Sager available in Norway. At least the vendors I use regularly don't have them.

Anyhow, as mentioned in the "I just bought" thread, I got myself an ASUS G750JH (Sorry that I forgot to post it in this thread). Very happy with this one. Very fast, very stable and very silent.

pibbur who find the Windows 8 GUI hideous, who thanks to Stardock has kept the Start menu, and who wish he got payed from Stardock for saying this…..

That's a nice laptop. I really like the Asus cooling design. The only problem I've had with the Asus line is their insistence on using "one model down" on their graphics cards. It does keep the cost very competitive though.

Originally Posted by ToddMcF2002
That's a nice laptop. I really like the Asus cooling design. The only problem I've had with the Asus line is their insistence on using "one model down" on their graphics cards. It does keep the cost very competitive though.

This one comes with the 780 card. And yes, the cooling is very efficient.

pibbur