Looking for Advice for Gaming/School Laptop

So I don't quite graduate soon, however I want to look into which laptops i should be looking for/at for the future.

I need my laptop for university primarily; gaming secondly. Ideally, I'm looking for something that has a long battery life and has good graphic capabilities (however you want to put it technically; i want to play GW beautifully). Whether this is possible, I'm not sure but thats why I'm here. Currently, my laptop is pretty.. average. It's not bad graphically, but certainly not designed for it. (Its an HP Compaq 6515b, for your reference).

Now, something I need to keep in mind is that ultimatly this laptop will be a gift for graduating; meaning my parents are the ones paying for it. My dad, sort of on the cheap side, though I don't necessarily know his price range. I, personally, dont imagine him spending over 1000$, and somewhere closer to 750-850. I'd still like to see models up to and around 1000 though, as education's really important in our family and i can always offer up paying for some of it myself

Edit: I should have probably included what type of gaming i intended to use this for. I imagine the games getting the most play time would be GW/GW2. This comes from the standpoint that my laptop could play other stuff, but everything else seems to have failed/corrupted/exploded from my harddrive.. >.> I wouldn't mind being able to play some FPS-type games; i used to have Unreal Tournament 2004 on my laptop. great game, actually worked well, and then exploded. i imagine a more updated Unreal Tournament wouldnt be so friendly on my laptop. The FPS-style games aren't anything to hold me back or anything, forexample if there were an 800$ model that would blow GW/GW2 away, but for an extra 400$ i could play FPS games too... im going with the 800$ model. :P

Here are some models to take a peek at:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220696

Upper range of your budget. Great CPU, very decent GPU, LED backlit screen, and USB 3.0 (which is huge on a laptop at this point, at least IMO) It's got a 16" screen, making it rather large, and weighs 6.5lbs, but it also has excellent cooling for gaming. It maintains some portability, but battery life won't exceed 1.5hrs...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834115792

Weaker overall, both in GPU, CPU (although the difference won't be that significant here...), and HDD speed. Screen resolution is also higher, but not so much that it would worry me too much. 200 dollars cheaper as well, which makes it very worthy as another option. Also, the screen is absolutely HUGE, at 17.3". This laptop is a beast, and won't be very portable given the massive screen and weighing in at 7+ lbs. It does have better battery life than the above laptop, by an hour thanks to the slower GPU and less powerful CPU (slower HDD as well)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220739

Probably the most balanced out of the bunch. Comes in on the high end of the price bracket, but gives you excellent battery life (3+ hrs), a 14" screen (making it much more portable), a very potent dual (quad core if you count HyperThreading) core CPU, a fast HDD, and a very capable graphics card. Though this GPU won't power through every game, it will manage very playable FPS in most average to above average games in terms of graphics. It can run Crysis on medium without issue. I'd recommend this one overall, if you're going for a balance between functionality and gaming.

if you are of even average strength (for a guy anyway) and physical fitness then don't listen to everyone that says 17" laptops are too big and heavy to carry around at college (sorry Rahjah) - It's a pet peeve of mine I'll admit, but really, who wants to play on a 14" screen or even a 15" when you can have a 17"? You will also be the most popular person in your dorm when it's time to watch a movie or youtube clips on there.... chicks dig big screens you know.....

*my 2 cents*

So with the little information I know of computers, and the descriptions and helpful info you've given me Borg I'm liking the look of that third one you suggested. Price is appropriate (considering my brother got a macbook pro. he's a mac person >.>)
Now, I've got a few questions with the little knowledge Ive got of comps:

Does the screen resolution affect graphics at all? Because right now, my laptop has a 14.4" screen and I'm honestly quite fine with it. But does having a bigger screen size/larger resolution mean an inevitable better graphical appearance?

For the third laptop Borg posted, on a scale of 1-10, how well do you think it will perform with GW/GW2 (i know we dont have specs on GW2 yet, but based on your personal opinion)? That's my most important concern for this, as I'll be more than willing to compensate for the FPS games as they'll get less gameplay. Gw/Gw2 will recieve the most playtime so I want to make sure i can get it to play really well. Because it doesn't take the most high end graphics card to use Microsoft Word And if it can handle GW/GW2, it can handle photoshop.

Last question (one i feel begrudged about.. is begrudged a word?):
If I needed to, would i be able to replace the battery on the third laptop to something which would last longer? I ask because my dad had to get an extra battery for his laptop.. and it's quite large. inconveniently large..

Yes, but it's not straightforward. The bigger the screen you have, the higher the resolution you need in order to display the same information. A lower resolution on a bigger screen looks terrible. A higher resolution on a smaller screen means everything is too small to see comfortably.

My advice would be to only use it on battery when doing Uni stuff - all your note taking, word processory spreadsheetery nonsense. When you want to play games, plug the bugger in.

Yes, the resolution makes a huge difference in how good the game looks - in fact in most games raising the resolution from say 1024x768 to 1920x1080 (1080p) will improve the graphics quality more than any other thing, (even low to high textures). Of course the higher you go with the resolution, the more work your computer, the video card in particular, has to do to render all those extra pixels. Think of it as the difference between a 3 megapixel camera and a 10 mp camera. I feel that 1400x900 is a good resolution for a laptop, anything lower than that and I personally think it looks much worse.

Any of the laptops that Sojar posted above ought to be fine in GW1 and GW2.

Yes I think you can find a longer lasting battery for that laptop, but it may stick out from the back of your laptop, esp. if you get a smaller size laptop (aka 14 or 15").

Good luck and may you enjoy which ever lappy you get.

*snograt types faster.......

hehe thanks for all the responses
That was my original plan, i was just worried if i somehow got stuck in a class for like... 2 hours, and all of a sudden my battery was gunna die. That would be unfortunate :/

I can relate to this, ive been looking for a new camera for a while and almost have the cash for an SLR camera. the leap from a a 7.0mp to a 12.3mp is a huge difference. Would I be able to find a laptop with the same functionality as the third laptop, with a bigger screen? I assume itll cost more, so by how much more should i expect the price to be?

Uh... if size isn't an issue, this laptop will tear up most of the stuff you can throw at it...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834114796

It also has an 18.4" screen... making it HUGE. So, if you want big and bad, this one should fit that description to the letter.

heh, yeah that laptop looks like itd be a... little too big xD

So i'm really liking the third laptop from the top post, and I think I only have one other question about it. When the time comes to get it, how would i go about getting? Do i have to order it off newegg? I went to the Asus homepage but couldnt find that specific model (chances are its an older model, and a newer model is taking its place); do they not make it anymore?

i may be wrong with the Asus website though, my browser kept crashing and my internet was pretty slow (think slower than dialup..) for a while and eventually gave up xD

Yes, you would order it from Newegg. Newegg is the top rated electronics retailer in the world, period. They literally are as close to perfect as you can get. Their customer service (the few times I've ever needed to call) were extremely helpful and didn't put an ounce of burden on me.

Agreed on newegg. You could also take a look at the MSI GX640, it will be a little over $1000 and a bit on the noisy side though but comes with a 9 cell battery. One thing you should know also is that notebook core i7 (the quad core ones) CPUs require a lot of battery in order to function so i'd try going with a laptop with either an i5 or the dual core i7 if you want longer battery life.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...pk=msi%20gx640

EDIT: I should mention that the GX640, the N61 and most 17" laptops come with a full keyboard. Depending on the type of studies you are planning to do, the numpad can be a real savior so i'd think about that as well.

EDIT2: I'm on my 2nd asus laptop and i have to say that build quality is from good to very good usually and so far asus customer service has been very good so if the k42 floats your boat go for it.

not a tech person, but i think this is the best

vaio z

so i think I'm basically set on that K42 ASUS laptop, it really seems like it fits what I'm looking for. the only questions I think I have left are more about newegg than the laptop.

How do I find where it will ship from on the newegg website? I live in Canada so i'm using newegg.ca (which apparently doesn't change anything. unlike amazon.com and amazon.ca >.>). I found their headquarters/location/secret hideout is in LA. Is this just their American location, or do they have distributers all around North America, and apparently China? If theyve got multiple distrubuters how would i find out where it would ship from? (I imagine if they do, it'll come from missisauga but its always best to know).

Andddd last question, might sound dumb but oh well. Are the products on Newegg used or brand new? (this is just for clarification. I'm assuming theyre brand new due to the fact their able to sell multiple copies for each specific model, which i find unlikely if theyre all used)

Rest assured my friend Newegg is the best online retailer in the world.... I am not exaggerating either. I have bought hundreds of parts from them and have had 1 single problem (item was not listed accurately) which they immediately refunded my full purchase price on. Just a week or two ago I had a case delivered, which UPS dropped somewhere and broke one of the fans on it, I contacted Newegg and they gave me a gift card with enough money on it to purchase a new case fan (2 actually!)... without me even having to send the old broken fan back in. Now that is service.

Yes the things they sell are new unless marked refurbished or open box..... They are located in southern CA, but I know they have warehouses in NJ, TN, & MN as well (maybe more locations that I don't know of). They rock, you will love them.... and that new laptop looks pretty sweet too!.

^ 100% correct. They will likely ship to you from New Jersey, but it won't matter in the long run, as the shipping price is set. They may even have a distribution warehouse in Ontario now.


Newegg will give you an estimated date of arrival, and it will arrive on that date or before (75% of my orders have always arrived before the date).

I've spent over $40,000 USD since 2004 on Newegg, be they personal or business orders. I've had 1 issue with shipping, 1 DoA part, and 1 shipping charge issue, all of which Newegg fixed immediately.

The shipping issue, they sent me the wrong thing. They had UPS pick it up from my house, refunded all my money, and issued me an additional $20 gift card to make up for the trouble. I was able to purchase something even better because of that.

The DoA part, they issued me a next day air return shipping label, and shipped the RMA part next day air for me as soon as they received the defective part from UPS.

The shipping charge issue: I bought 8 bluray movies, and they split the order, and charged me twice for shipping. I called in, and they recombined the order, refunded both shipping charges, and gave me free next day air shipping.

Believe us when we say, Newegg is the best company on the planet, period.

... oh wow, this really does sound like the best company on the planet ._. LOL
if i can't convince my internet-mistrusting parents about it i'll just buy this with my own cash :P

Thanks for all the help everyone

herp, i thought i had my mind set. however i need to res this thread, to the extent that it's not really a res :P, as I think I may have found something else that might be better. The only things that are really different are the graphics card, screen size (and inevitably weight), and the cost.

The fact that it's larger might not necessarily matter, as I imagine i'll have to find a backpack to put all my stuff in, so ill get a laptop-designed backpack; so weight isnt a problem for this.

I imagine i'll pay for this in the battery, but in comparison to other parts it IS better (4 USB slotsvs3 [i use all 4 of my current slots xD] and the Card reader [but ive got an SD card so it doesnt matter..]).

It is literally the exact same, or better, than the K42 laptop in every category but the graphics. I don't know how to tell which is better, i just know theyre different brands.

The K42 is NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M
The K72 is ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5145

Does this mean the K72 has a better graphics card or a worse graphics card than the K42? if it's better, I am assured on buying the K72. If not, i may have to think about it xD

This came about because an SLR camera i've been looking at is on sale this week (from 999.99$ to 899.99$ CDN) so i think i'm going to get it, but its basically all of the money I have available for spending (the rest of my money I can't touch, as it's all for University). I work till about the end of october/early november, and would have to make twice the amount (the rule in my house is save half/spend half) of the laptop before the end of the season, as I want to get my laptop just before the release of GW2.

/endspeech

Can you help me out?

Edit: Derp, here's the link to the K72 laptop: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220734

Edit2: I did some googling and it looks like the Radeon HD is worse, but I don't really know how dramatically worse it would be considering the intended uses of the laptop. Right now, I play GW max settings on 1280x800 max being everything at the highest setting with Anti-Aliasing at None. I average an FPS of around 14-16 full screen.

Upon some searching (and learning ) my current graphics card is an ATI Radeon X1250.

From notebookcheck: "The AMD ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5145 is a renamed Mobility Radeon HD 4570 with slightly higher clock rates. Therefore (despite the 5000 series name), the card supports only DirectX 10.1 and is still produced in 55nm. The card is only slightly faster as the 4570 and slower than a new HD 5470."



"The Nvidia GeForce GT 335M is a laptop graphics card for middle class gaming notebooks. It is based on the GT215 core (as the GTS 350M for example) but features only 72 shader cores and 24 Texture Mapping Units. Therefore, the GT 335M offers significantly more shaders than the GT 330M, but due to the low clock speed, the performance is not that much better. Compared to the GTS models, the GT 335M does not support GDDR5.

The 3D performance of the GT335M is on a level with the Mobility Radeon HD 5650 in the middle class. Therefore, the GPU is fast enough for all games in 2010. Demanding games like Metro 2033, Battlefield BC2 or Crysis run only in low-medium details fluently. Less demanding games like Call of Duty MW2 or Sims 3 can be played in high detail settings (see Benchmarks below)."


The 5145 is a budget card while the 335 is a solid midrange gaming card. There's a big difference here. It's not that the 335 is anything to write home about, but it will play GW2 much better than the 5145.

If your budget allows for it, it may be better to get both a cheap nettop (er, netbook) for long battery life, note-taking, in-class work, and a separate desktop to play games on. Overall, you'd get better performance than trying to cram both functions into one unit.

that's actually not a bad idea - $300 or less for a new netbook and $700 for a desktop to game on would still kick a $1000 laptop out the door for performance.

Take a look at the Asus U35Jc if you're still looking

What about a netbook and a desktop, or is that not possible?
Also, UT3 is junk (just saying). Best FPS at the moment is Quakelive and it will play on most machines .