[AdelaisAer]

I know, it's this thread again, but now I am far more open and flexible with my choices.

First off, I have until Monday to choose one, because I am getting help buying it. Second, which connects to the former, my budget is roughly $3000, but the lower the better.

TWO CHOICES I HAVE CONSIDERED SO FAR:
Asus G74SX: http://www.ebgames.ca/asus-g74sx-dh7...eb-only/311997
Alienware M17x 3D, which is pretty kick-ass but comes VERY close to $3000.

EDIT: And no Macs please. Windows only. Thanks.

[Grover]

Must it be a gaming laptop? You could build a godly desktop for a budget that size. It'd last longer, too.

Well, if it must, Asus is the way to go. Dell is a bit crap.

[mattatmac]

Originally Posted by Grover

Must it be a gaming laptop? You could build a godly desktop for a budget that size. It'd last longer, too.

Well, if it must, Asus is the way to go. Dell is a bit crap.

I have to agree, if you need something for portability, get a netbook + desktop combo, it is cheaper and more practical.

[AdelaisAer]

Originally Posted by Grover

Must it be a gaming laptop? You could build a godly desktop for a budget that size. It'd last longer, too.

Well, if it must, Asus is the way to go. Dell is a bit crap.

Yes, I'd like to keep it mobile.................as mobile as gaming laptops go, anyway. I go places and I'd like to take my gaming with me.

I have heard a lot of good things about Asus. Not so much about Alienware/Dell, though. o-o Why are they crap, if I may ask?

*Will probably go with the Asus because it's cheaper*

[mattatmac]

Originally Posted by AdelaisAer

Yes, I'd like to keep it mobile.................as mobile as gaming laptops go, anyway. I go places and I'd like to take my gaming with me.

I have heard a lot of good things about Asus. Not so much about Alienware/Dell, though. o-o Why are they crap, if I may ask?

*Will probably go with the Asus because it's cheaper*

It really depends on your price range to be honest, while i'd agree that Alienware is almost always overpriced because of the aesthetics(that make you look foolish anyways), Dell is more of a toss up. I own an XPS and I can say it has been able to handle nearly everything i've thrown at it.

Asus is seen as especially good in the laptop community because they cover accidental in their first year(or at least they used to).

For your price range I would definitely go with Asus, I would look to CNET or perhaps Tom's Hardware for the most up to date reviews and scores, Tom's Hardware has always been good to me.

[AdelaisAer]

Originally Posted by mattatmac

It really depends on your price range to be honest, while i'd agree that Alienware is almost always overpriced because of the aesthetics(that make you look foolish anyways), Dell is more of a toss up. I own an XPS and I can say it has been able to handle nearly everything i've thrown at it.

Asus is seen as especially good in the laptop community because they cover accidental in their first year(or at least they used to).

For your price range I would definitely go with Asus, I would look to CNET or perhaps Tom's Hardware for the most up to date reviews and scores, Tom's Hardware has always been good to me.

My mother has XPS15 and already it seems really good, which made me consider the new XPS17. Albeit it's probably not as good as Asus (at least that's what some say), it does seem pretty decent for its price range. Though I have heard many bad things about Dell's customer support and whatnot. Can you confirm that? o-o;

[Pay919]

Originally Posted by AdelaisAer

Yes, I'd like to keep it mobile.................as mobile as gaming laptops go, anyway. I go places and I'd like to take my gaming with me.

I have heard a lot of good things about Asus. Not so much about Alienware/Dell, though. o-o Why are they crap, if I may ask?

*Will probably go with the Asus because it's cheaper*

17 inch laptops aren't exactly mobile. You should check out 15 inch laptops if you want something lighter.
I have a 15 inch gaming laptop (Asus G51) and its good enough to play any game I want on average graphic settings and I don't have to break my back if I want to take it to school.

Dell laptops are generally referred to as 'crap' because their build quality is not too good. I know a few people that have bought dell laptops and they are having trouble making their laptops last even 3 years.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/l...-win-hp-fails/

Edit:
Also Asus as really really good customer support. My screen was damaged because something fell on it during a plane ride so I called ASUS support to get it fixed. The rep took care of things quickly. The next day a fed-ex truck was outside my house to collect the laptop, and it was returned fully repaired a week later. What's more awesome is that they did a diagnostic, found out something wasn't working as well as it should, and replaced that component too

[mattatmac]

Originally Posted by AdelaisAer

My mother has XPS15 and already it seems really good, which made me consider the new XPS17. Albeit it's probably not as good as Asus (at least that's what some say), it does seem pretty decent for its price range. Though I have heard many bad things about Dell's customer support and whatnot. Can you confirm that? o-o;

The dell customer support i've delt with is almost always outsourced, this means somewhat thick accents, but they're usually good about dealing with issues despite this. If it's in the warranty period there have been cases when they will literally just send me a new model after I return my PC.

Again, this is pretty much dependent on how well the alternatives are, if ASUS has localized support or even European call centers that would be preferable.

Considering your price range though, I'm hard pressed to think of a Dell laptop that comes close to the $3000 price range, apart from Alienware, but you already know my feelings on that. The most important aspect of any gaming specific laptop is the GPU, as games nowadays are still very GPU intensive. For example even a recent game like Skyrim only uses 2 cores on your CPU and 2 gigs of RAM.

[Grover]

Originally Posted by AdelaisAer

Though I have heard many bad things about Dell's customer support and whatnot. Can you confirm that? o-o;

I can confirm via a friend that their customer support is less than stellar, if you expect to be on the line with them often. Still, I see quality of customer support as something that is dynamic. One day you might speak to a bad rep, the next you might not.

Nevertheless, I would still opt for Asus over Dell as they have earned a reputation for reliability.

[RyanC]

3k$? Goddamn, son.

[AdelaisAer]

Alright, Asus it is. Only problem is finding a good Asus laptop, since they won't actually sell any on their main website... *Whut* I already have 1 example on the first post of a good Asus laptop, but Iunno if I can find anything better. Perhaps even a 580M rather than a 560M.

EDIT: 560M is an actual graphics card, right? So I can always just swap it with a 580M instead of buying a new laptop, unless they are very different in size and pins and whatnot.

[RyanC]

Originally Posted by AdelaisAer

Alright, Asus it is. Only problem is finding a good Asus laptop, since they won't actually sell any on their main website... *Whut* I already have 1 example on the first post of a good Asus laptop, but Iunno if I can find anything better. Perhaps even a 580M rather than a 560M.

EDIT: 560M is an actual graphics card, right? So I can always just swap it with a 580M instead of buying a new laptop, unless they are very different in size and pins and whatnot.

I would go for in-store 'tops, etc rather than shopping via an official brand website. Employees at comptuer stores usually have better and more intuitive grasps at what kind of computers are great and which are crap right out of the box. As an example, I bought a random asus at... staples(?) for around 650 and experienced a ton of issues until I got settled into it and solved the problems myself.. (issues with the function keys, wireless adapter, stability, freezing, etc). Only reason I bought via staples was because I had a store credit with them.

Buy from canada computers, tiger direct, summit, etc to get the best deal for your (parent's?) buck.

If you have a specific graphic card in mind, bring the specs with you when you go to shop, and if you're not entirely sure, impress on them you want to make sure you can get a computer that has good customizabilty (ability to swap out for better ram, ddr2/ddr3, motherboard thats compatible with a wider range of graphics cards, etc).

I wouldn't advise buying anything over 1k$, because chances are you'll want to replace it before then.

Also research what kind of specs you want, and build a few custom computers on sites that allow you to do so to to get a feel for specs vs price. System requirements lab is a good place to go to see what you need to run various types of games. I've been disappointed a few times because my laptop needs a graphics card that has some version of pixel shaders or other weird graphics software spec.. :/

[ZSimon]

ASUS ROG class. The top one.

It'll be better than any other. I can tell you without checking. And RoG class ASUS laptops go on sale on X-Mas, almost everywhere.

[Andrew A]

You can't swap out the graphics cards in most laptops as they're actually build as a component of the motherboard. They also often share the system memory. For example, on a desktop, if you've got 4GB of RAM and a 1GB graphics card, then you have exactly what it sounds like. If you have a laptop with 4GB of RAM and a 1GB graphics card, you might get the same thing, or you might end up with 3GB of usable RAM and 1GB dedicated to graphics. So first of all, you have less system memory. Second, system memory is a lot slower for your graphics processor to access than dedicated graphics memory.

[AdelaisAer]

Originally Posted by ZSimon

ASUS ROG class. The top one.

It'll be better than any other. I can tell you without checking. And RoG class ASUS laptops go on sale on X-Mas, almost everywhere.

I just saw the ROG class on the website. Oh dear God it's so nice... My only concern is that I won't be able to swap the videocard out for a better one.