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Gamer123
@74.64.23.x

Gamer123

Anon

looking to buy a gaming laptop for 1000 to 1300 USD

i havent looked at computer parts in the last 5 years

My cousin wants a gaming laptop for 1000 to 1300 USD. From my experience, laptops are not ideal gaming machine because of the constant jamming of keyboards.

What would you recommend, a prebuilt laptop from a place like bestbuy or do you go to a chinese shop and ask them to build you a gaming laptop? If the latter is the case, what are the specs i should look for?

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok

Premium Member

CyberpowerPC, iBuypower, etc. if you need mobile gaming.

John97
Over The Hills And Far Away
Premium Member
join:2000-11-14
Spring Hill, FL

John97 to Gamer123

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to Gamer123
»www.newegg.com/Product/P ··· orebbr=1

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok to Gamer123

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to Gamer123
When buying a gaming laptop, dump as much money as possible into the CPU, video card, and chassis choice (with an eye towards multiple HDD slots), as such things are not upgradeable later.

When building it, it is usually cheaper to NOT upgrade memory, HDD, or SSD via the manufacturer. Purchase these components on sale from Newegg or Amazon.

For instance, choose the standard 500GB/1 TB hard drive, purchase an after-market 240 GB SSD for ~$90, flash the boot drive to the SSD, swap the two, then put the HDD in the secondary drive bay. Ditto with the ram--it's much cheaper to upgrade afterwards than purchase the upgrade from the manufacturer.
asdfdfdfdfdf
Premium Member
join:2012-05-09

1 recommendation

asdfdfdfdfdf to Gamer123

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to Gamer123
You can also check out xoticpc. For example they have this sager:

»www.xoticpc.com/sager-np ··· 987.html

It has 8GB ram, a quad core i7, 870M graphics. NOTE IT DOES NOT come preconfigured with an operating system but you can choose one when you customize the machine. With a copy of windows it will be a bit over 1300 but the 870m is considerably better than the 860m(which will be common in this price range) for the 1920 resolution displays that you will typically see.

If the mobility is not really key then explain to him that he could get a considerably more powerful desktop for less money for a gaming setup.

DownLow
Nope...I Got Nothing
Premium Member
join:2001-04-25
Long Island

1 edit

DownLow to Gamer123

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to Gamer123
I second the recommendation to check out the Lenovo Y50. Going to pull the trigger myself on this one likely in the next week or so (waiting on a new client project to close first).

DKS
Damn Kidney Stones

join:2001-03-22
Owen Sound, ON

DKS to Gamer123

to Gamer123
I have a Lenovo Y510 P that I very much like. »shop.lenovo.com/us/en/la ··· features

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok to asdfdfdfdfdf

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to asdfdfdfdfdf
said by asdfdfdfdfdf:

You can also check out xoticpc. For example they have this sager:

»www.xoticpc.com/sager-np ··· 987.html

It has 8GB ram, a quad core i7, 870M graphics. NOTE IT DOES NOT come preconfigured with an operating system but you can choose one when you customize the machine. With a copy of windows it will be a bit over 1300 but the 870m is considerably better than the 860m(which will be common in this price range) for the 1920 resolution displays that you will typically see.

If the mobility is not really key then explain to him that he could get a considerably more powerful desktop for less money for a gaming setup.

This right here is the best deal in the thread-- i7-4810MQ / Nvidia GTX 870 6GB / 1 TB HDD / 8 GB ram. Buy an SSD or MSATA SSD afterwards.

gamer123
@74.64.23.x

gamer123

Anon

thanks for the responses but isnt 8gig ram kinda low?

Ghastlyone
Premium Member
join:2009-01-07
Nashville, TN

Ghastlyone

Premium Member

said by gamer123 :

thanks for the responses but isnt 8gig ram kinda low?

Not for gaming. It's plenty.

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok to gamer123

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to gamer123
8GB is likely more than you'll ever need, and you can always upgrade it later if you want to, as it comes with 1x 8 GB dimm.

A second 8GB DDR3 1600 dimm is $68: »www.newegg.com/Product/P ··· 20313298

What is NOT upgradeable is the GTX 870M, which is considerably faster than the GTX 860M in the other offerings people have posted. I would go with the XoticPC build for that reason alone.

Then, if you really want to turbo-charge your computer, you get the following upgrades:
• Second 8GB ram dimm - $68 (link above)
• 250GB mSATA drive - $160 - »www.newegg.com/Product/P ··· 20147316

This doubles your ram to 16 GB and gives you a 250 GB SSD boot drive while keeping the 1 TB HDD in its bay. All you have to do is use a program like Acronis to flash the OS to the SSD.

Points where I would splurge on the XoticPC build, if possible:
• upgrade GPU from Nvidia GTX 870M to Radeon M290X - $75 (incremental step up)
• Copper Cooling upgrade - $79 (cooling is ALWAYS an issue with laptops, and moreso with gaming laptops, so I'd consider this a worthwhile investment)

Understandably, this will run you over budget, but I just wanted to throw these two possible upgrades for your consideration. Anything else upgraded through the manufacturer is likely a wash.

I would NOT select the following:
• Any of the overclocking options, this will almost always reduce the life of the laptop and make it run hotter
Krisnatharok

Krisnatharok

Premium Member

Pretty sure this is the same anon we shot down in that thread and he's just butthurt and just trolling, but in the event he is serious, I'll bite.

Gaming laptops are low-power variants of the desktop variety (i.e. a Radeon R9 M290X does not perform anywhere near a desktop R9 290X), so I would not recommend a mobile APU as a gaming laptop, assuming OP requires mobility.

If he doesn't care about the portability requirement, we can change the discussion, but we likely wouldn't be recommending an APU at that price point.