Sub-$1000 "Gaming" Laptop

[Lone Wanderer]

I'm going to college in early August, and I'm looking for a good laptop that can play games that isn't an absolute behemoth. I have found plenty of guides for the best Gaming PCs, but I'm looking more for a regular laptop that can also play games. I know this is a bit of a wide-open question, but I know practically nothing about buying computers. Haswell is not necessary, but I would like decent battery life since I will be carrying it with me.

Thanks in advance

[Forlorn Drifter]

For a $1000? I'm pretty sure you'd have to build your own, and I wouldn't be the one to ask about that. Laptops are always higher than desktops, and I know you can build a pretty good gaming rig for about a $1000 or so.

[BoneSnapDeez]

You should be able to find a current Asus Republic of Gamers laptop for around $1,100. Maybe less for an older model?

[Lone Wanderer]

You should be able to find a current Asus Republic of Gamers laptop for around $1,100. Maybe less for an older model?

Aren't this things really big?

I'd like to add that I do most of my current-gen gaming on 360 so I don't care too much about playing on higher settings. I would rather buy a used 360 than pay a bunch of money to play Battlefield 3 at higher settings.

[isiolia]

IMO, if it's one you'll be carrying with you a lot, for schoolwork, I'd just say screw it on gaming performance and buy a business class laptop with an accidental damage warranty.

Build a desktop, have that as your backup machine, your gaming machine, your download from shady sites machine, your render 3D/video machine, whatever.

Depending on how big the school/etc, I'd look at what the bookstore there carries, what they tend to buy for the university, that kind of thing. Not necessarily for discounts, but rather what might have a local service center, or at least established local contractors to fix stuff.

If you really need to game, well, there's still a crapload that'll run on modern Intel graphics anyway.


That said, might want to look at the Lenovo Ideapad y510p. The base model should squeak into your budget, and the GT750M is a decent GPU.
The interesting angle is that if you do wind up gaming with it a lot, the machine can be set up for SLI with a second modular GPU in the multibay, which is a good improvement. Without that second card it comes in under $1k, but that adds $230 to the cost I think.

The ROG laptops are beasts, yes, they're more the kind of thing you tote to a LAN party than bring around campus, but so are most higher end gaming laptops.

[Lone Wanderer]

IMO, if it's one you'll be carrying with you a lot, for schoolwork, I'd just say screw it on gaming performance and buy a business class laptop with an accidental damage warranty.

Build a desktop, have that as your backup machine, your gaming machine, your download from shady sites machine, your render 3D/video machine, whatever.

Depending on how big the school/etc, I'd look at what the bookstore there carries, what they tend to buy for the university, that kind of thing. Not necessarily for discounts, but rather what might have a local service center, or at least established local contractors to fix stuff.

If you really need to game, well, there's still a crapload that'll run on modern Intel graphics anyway.


That said, might want to look at the Lenovo Ideapad y510p. The base model should squeak into your budget, and the GT750M is a decent GPU.
The interesting angle is that if you do wind up gaming with it a lot, the machine can be set up for SLI with a second modular GPU in the multibay, which is a good improvement. Without that second card it comes in under $1k, but that adds $230 to the cost I think.

The ROG laptops are beasts, yes, they're more the kind of thing you tote to a LAN party than bring around campus, but so are most higher end gaming laptops.

The Y500 is actually a better deal now I think, since I can get the $1350 model for $870. I heard the battery life was under three hours though, should that be a problem? And is it a better performer?

[nwalt36]

I know that you're looking for a gaming laptop. An alternative, get a cheaper laptop for on the go and consider the Dell XPS 8700 desktop. It's 750 bucks right now and you can upgrade the video card pretty easy to obtain optimum settings for everything you throw at it. Your best value for cpu gaming is still in a desktop.

[isiolia]

The Y500 is actually a better deal now I think, since I can get the $1350 model for $870. I heard the battery life was under three hours though, should that be a problem? And is it a better performer?

Possible they fixed the trackpad issues in the new one. The 510 has newer generation parts in it, so, better performance.

Battery life would vary on a bit, I've seen reviews putting it the 510 past 3 hours, but honestly 3-4 hours is fairly typical for that kind of laptop. If you want/need more, lower power parts and/or either optional extended batteries, or chassis types that fit larger batteries in to start with like the XPS14 or Macs.

The website I linked to earlier, http://www.notebookcheck.net is a good reference for mobile GPUs though if you're looking around at others.