MSI GT683-297US, Gaming Notebook (Black) - Intel Core i5-2410M (2.3GHz), 15.6" Full HD Glossy (1920x1080), 6GB RAM, 750GB HDD(7200RPM), NVIDIA GTX 560M 1.5GB, DVD-writer, Wireless N, Gb LAN, Bluetooth, HDMI 1.4, USB 3.0, 9-cell, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, 2-year Warranty

It's on sale for $999.99

Seems right for the price; nothing bad about it if you just plan on watching tv/movies and doing work.

What's the battery life?

It's probably like 3 hours

Ill be honest, battery life is not a major component of gaming laptops as most of the time, preformance is hindered in battery saving mode for gaming laptops.
In which case, if you turn down to the lowest setting possible, 2 hours tops.

So in most cases, your laptop will be plugged in anyways for your gaming.
And you'll have enough power for like 1 lecture if you choose to use your laptop in lecture.

I have an asus g51-jx, and i got it for $1500, and I guess times have changed because the specs, besides the cpu, surpass a lot of my specs.

It's perfect because it also has USB 3.0, which will grow in popularity soon so you are prepared to utilize it fully.

I would definitely recommend it, IF YOU ARE NOT GRAPHICS HEAVY.
For the budget, and for casual gaming, yeah go for it.
But if you're expecting to play crysis or something on max, you need a better budget.

Or build a more than decent gaming pc for $500-600 and buy a netbook for $150-$200 to take your notes on.

Dont get a gaming laptop... Build your own rig and get the most customization and cheapest price

Originally Posted by zango

Or build a more than decent gaming pc for $500-600 and buy a netbook for $150-$200 to take your notes on.

Netbooks are cramping, they're really limiting.
Besides, building your own rig, indeed cheaper, but the cheapest gaming rig i've ever built is at least 900 dollars. A reasonable gaming rig anyways.

You could build one that's 600, but I personally wouldn't call it a gaming rig, just a super casual gaming machine. No offense.

Gaming laptops are convienent, take it to lan parties, play at thode, or if you have a plug in lecture, play a game in the most boring redundant class ever. (Highly not recommended)
But still, you can still take notes on a gaming laptop.

I mean, it's doable. Besides, having a gaming rig means 2 things.
#1. You will be spending at least a chunk of your time at home not spending time with friends.
#2. It will purely be used for gaming purposes only.

I personally think a gaming laptop is a good merger between the 2. I mean, i debated getting the m11x, but in all honesty, if you seriously use a netbook for too long, you can develop serious eye conditions.

But like I said, this is only me, and it's not the same for everyone.

I disagree, you can definitely game on $600, and not casually either.

From reddit:

http://media.photobucket.com /image...uide/Guide.png

That's a terrible deal. For 1000$ you should be getting an i7.

What are you going to use it for? It's a bad buy for schoolwork, but an okay buy if you will be plugged in most of the time and want to game. And yes it will run Crysis, not sure what about the specs made others think that this isn't a capable notebook. Sure it won't max out the AA and AF, but you can pull off high settings.

You might want to see it in person because theres one thing in that spec sheet that can ruin everything else... full glossy screen. Those can be a huge pain, their to shiny so sometimes you're just seeing reflections all day long

Aright thanks for the info guys. I'm going to be using the laptop for gaming (Battlefield 3, Diablo 3, Skyrim, Mass Effect 3) as well as school work. I don't usually take my laptop to class anyways since I prefer writing my notes down. It's also probably quite heavy as well ~7.7 lbs. But the reason I was going for an i5 was because I thought it might be more battery efficient than an i7. I know the processor is rather weak, but I've never seen a laptop for $1000 that had a GTX 560.

I haven't really decided if I'm going to get this yet...do you think I should just go for a GT 550/555 with Optimus? I wanted a laptop that can play games at least for the next 2 years, which is why I wanted the GTX 560.

Originally Posted by Mr.Prodigy

Aright thanks for the info guys. I'm going to be using the laptop for gaming (Battlefield 3, Diablo 3, Skyrim, Mass Effect 3) as well as school work. I don't usually take my laptop to class anyways since I prefer writing my notes down. It's also probably quite heavy as well ~7.7 lbs. But the reason I was going for an i5 was because I thought it might be more battery efficient than an i7. I know the processor is rather weak, but I've never seen a laptop for $1000 that had a GTX 560.

I haven't really decided if I'm going to get this yet...do you think I should just go for a GT 550/555 with Optimus? I wanted a laptop that can play games at least for the next 2 years, which is why I wanted the GTX 560.

This sounds like you just need a desktop. You can have a fairly good one at that for $1000.

Originally Posted by zango

I disagree, you can definitely game on $600, and not casually either.

From reddit:

http://media.photobucket.com /image...uide/Guide.png

Just wondering if someone wanted to build there own do they have to buy the parts separately and put it together themselves or do you get someone to do it for you. I'm assuming if its the former there are guides on how to do it on the net, but how risky is it etc.