Gamer on the Go!

armageddon19

I'm a gamer on the go.... I'm looking for suggestions for the best Gaming Laptops around....

Thanks!!!

Quizzical

You've got some choices.

1)  Don't get a gaming laptop.  Even if you need a laptop and also need a gaming machine, it's often better to buy both a cheap laptop and a gaming desktop than a gaming laptop.  In fact, that's what you should do unless the whole point is to have a gaming machine that you can take with you when you travel, and play games on it when you travel.

2)  Wait for Llano to launch and buy a gaming laptop based on that, and use the integrated graphics.  I'm guessing that they'll go for around $700 for the high bins of the chip.  Llano has the first integrated graphics actually designed for gaming.  It's not going to be great gaming performance, but it will run most games smoothly at moderate settings.  Llano-based laptops will also be much cheaper than other gaming laptops.  The integrated graphics means low power consumption, so they won't be nearly as prone to overheating as most laptops.

3)  Get a laptop based around a Core i7 2630QM or 2720QM, and a Radeon HD 6800M or 6900M series video card.  If it fits your budget, get a solid state drive, too.  Depending on exactly which parts you get, this should cost anywhere from $1200-$2000.  If it's out of your budget, then just wait for Llano.  Such laptops are just now coming to market, as Sandy Bridge got delayed considerably by the defective chipset recall.

4)  Get a laptop that is rather bad.  This is not recommended.  This would include a laptop based on any AMD processors currently on the market, any older Intel processors rather than Sandy Bridge, any lower end or older AMD video cards, or any Nvidia video cards at all.  Nvidia is too far behind in performance per watt, which means a lot more heat for a given level of performance.  In a desktop, you can get a nice case and that's manageable.  In a laptop, it's a big problem.  Any lower end AMD cards besides the 6800M and 6900M series don't perform well enough to justify the extra cost over getting a Llano system.