Gaming Laptops Buying Guide

I’ve been looking at gaming laptops recently, as I find myself in a situation where I might have to lose my ‘office’ at home, and with it the space for a computer desk.

So, I’ve been thinking of ways to keep my PC without taking up valuable space in the house, and that set me off investigating laptops that are suitable for more than just word processing.

So Many Gaming Laptops To Choose From

There’s been an increasing number of hardware companies that offer so-called gaming laptops, usually for a huge premium over the rest of the laptops in their range. But what makes a laptop suitable for gaming? What is the definition of a gaming laptop? They have to offer at least the following:

• Large widescreen display, with 17 inches being the starting point.
• Serious graphics processing power, with the Nvidia GeForce Go 8700M GT appearing to rule at the moment.
• A beefy CPU, preferably a dual-core chip with a clock speed of at least 2.3GHz.
• Plenty of RAM, with 2GB being the minimum.

Bearing these points in mind, I set myself a budget of £2000 and found the following gaming laptops that seemed to fit the bill (best in class is highlighted in green, worst in pinky red):

The prices quoted are the best I found online, although it is worth noting that Alienware, Dell and Rock only seem to sell direct or through a very limited number of stockists. The other makes are more easily available, so discounts are possible if you shop around.

Advantages Of Gaming Laptops

There are two rather obvious advantages to laptops. The first is portability, the original purpose laptops were designed for. With all of the laptops mentioned above you’ll get a wireless network card, so all you need is a wireless router and you can set up your laptop anywhere in your house … or in the office … or even in town if you can find a wireless access point. Want to go round to your mate’s house for a PvP game? Easy, just pop your laptop in a bag, sling it over your shoulder and off you go.

The other advantage is space, or rather less need for space. You don’t need a big desk to fit a base unit, screen, speakers, keyboard and mouse. No, all you need is a few square inches on your kitchen table to start playing.

Gaming Laptops Have Disadvantages Too

Looking back at the table above, you’ll probably have noticed the massive problem with these machines. Price!

For the same amount of money as the cheapest machine above you could get a better-specced desktop PC AND a cheap laptop. This over-inflation of price isn’t unique to gaming laptops, but the manufacturers know they can really rake in some fat profits on these machines. With their designer cases and cutting-edge technology many gaming laptops are considered cool … Alienware and Dell in particular are very good at marketing their gaming laptops as fashion accessories.

Mostly this is just hype, and it does fool a lot of people, but if you really need a gaming laptop then I’m afraid you’re going to have to pay extra for it.

The other disadvantage is that you don’t get a full-size keyboard and you don’t get a gaming mouse. So, to boost your in-game performance you’ll really want a good gaming mouse, and maybe even a gaming keyboard to plug in. However, isn’t that removing some of the advantages mentioned above?

Decisions, Decisions

So after considering the laptops above, I’ve made a decision. Do I want one? Sort of, but only out of necessity. I’m happy with my current desktop PC, but if it has to go then I want to be sure I’ve still got a good machine for playing games on.

First out of the running are the Sony and Toshiba machines. Expensive and low on GPU power in relation to the other brands, these machines aren’t really aimed at the gaming market. There are no GPU upgrades available so you can’t spec twin 8700 GT cards for SLI, as you can with the Alienware and Dell machines, and they both have an air of ‘business’ about them rather than gaming fun.

Next out of the running is Alienware’s offering, simply because it’s overpriced. I am very tempted by the design of the Alienware and I know they’re a popular brand, but I’m not buying to impress people. There are plenty of options to upgrade graphics, memory and hard drive but these take the machine well over my spending limit and I want to make sure I’m getting value for money when I’m forking out £2grand.

I was quite intrigued by the Rock Xtreme. I only heard of Rock recently after seeing a four-page magazine advert. They seem to have lots of glowing magazine reviews and the specs of the machines are good, as well as the styling of the case and accessories. One big feature is that Rock seems to be the only company that makes gaming laptops that can have a GeForce 8800 GTX, which means serious pixel power! However, while cheaper than Alienware the prices were still a little on the high side.

So that leaves the Dell and the Acer, and it’s a close call between the two on specification and value for money. However, it’s not that hard for me to make a decision and it’s the Dell that I’ll be going for.

Why? My current work laptop is a Dell Inspiron and it has served me well for over 3 years now, with no failures (other than the exploding battery, but that was quickly replaced by Dell for free). I also know a couple of people who have bought laptops from Dell, and they’ve been pleased with the service, the quality of the machine, and the price they paid.

That’s not to say the Acer isn’t worth buying, I’ve just never used one so don’t know what they’re like.

So what about you guys, have you tried an Acer? Do you think Alienware is asking too much, or does the extra style justify the price? Do you think gaming laptops are way overpriced or about right? Let me know what you think.