I'll be heading off to college in the fall, and I'm looking to replace my xbox with a high-end gaming laptop that I could also use for school stuff. I haven't done any serious PC gaming in the past, apart from a bit of COD 4 many years ago, so it will be quite a transition for me. Right now, I'm thinking of getting either the upcoming MSI GS60 Ghost Pro (15.6”, $2200 with 2280x1620, GTX 870M, 16GB RAM, 2 x 128GB SSD + 1TB HD) or the upcoming Razer Blade (14”, $2700 with 3200x1800, GTX 870M, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD). Any advice? Also, recommendations on gaming mice and headphones would be helpful. Thanks!
I would advise you to look into a desktop for the main gaming rig, and a low cost laptop.
Agree with DIY but seeing as you are asking for a laptop I would recomend staying the hell away from razer, alienware, dell and acer. ASUS and MSI are the go to brands for high end laptops. Basicly looking at your price range you want a system with an 870m or higher. AMD equivalent is also an option. 8970m or m280x? I wouldnt recomend the GS60 from MSI, you dont need that high of a resolution, 1080p on a 15 inch will look just as good unless you have great eyes and its just going to put more pressure on the GPU. Mobile GPU's are not power houses like their big desktop brothers.
A quick run down of ASUS and MSI, MSI is great bang for your buck. Great performance and features including many keyboards including macro keys, RGB backlit and such but they dont match the quality of ASUS, Gigabyte is in a similar boat but I dont have a lot of experience with gigabyte so ill just put them with MSI from what people say.
ASUS is more expencive but you tend to get a higher quality build for your money. Anyway take a look at both ranges, remember 1080p, 870m or similar unless you want to save a bit of cash and grab a 770m or even a 860m, both great cards though of cause less powerful. Also in this day in age you expect 1TB of HDD space and 1 or 2 SSD's minimum of 120gb's of space. Also 16gb's upgradable to 32 is an almost must nowa days. Basicly just shop around. Find one you like but make sure they fit what you need. Then look at reviews. Its better to make an informed decition of your own and live with any of your mistakes than to go buy someones recomendation which does not work for you.
But repeating what was said before, Consider a Desktop and a cheap laptop, But not too cheap, It will cost more to build a desktop plus have a $800 laptop but most people who start off with laptops make the switch later down the track to desktop.
Are you thinking of the G550JK from ASUS? It's not out yet but its the only ASUS laptop I've seen that's sized similarly to the others (15"ish screen, 5ish lbs). Pricing seems a bit high though.
I'm in a similar place looking for a high performance laptop and the MSI Ghost Pro (3k or 1080) seems like the best value and MSI seems pretty well regarded as a company.
Never go with Razer, they are like the Apple of the PC world:
- Overpriced for specs
- Thin laptop prone to overheating and burning you
I agree. I have a couple friends with MSI laptops and they love them to death. They look sharp, are quiet, and pack some serious performance. Of course I use my old Lenovo laptop in college and have a custom rig I keep at home (i commute to college). If you want to get a decent gaming notebook for college I would say go for a MSI laptop with a 860m GPU and a 1080p display.
I would recommend an ASUS G series laptop, I have a G74SX and the experience as been very pleasurable and it has been pleasurable enough that I will be buying another G series laptop when the time comes
I've had 2 thinkpads, one of which being my current pc. Really tough laptops, with high build quality and priced well. My current one is 3 years old and I was going to replace it with another. However a family member got one for work and ended up returning it due to problems stemming from its poor build quality.
Now I'm looking at the MSI GS60 Pro or Macbook Pro. I'm really going to miss that little red trackpoint.
Thanks guys (and maybe girls?). Sorry it's taken me a while to respond; I thought it would email me when people commented. I'm definitely leaning towards the GS60 Pro. My only concern there is battery life (about 3.5 hrs from what I've heard). I might consider the 1080p version if it gets much better battery life, but I could always scale games back to 1080p if need be. The ASUS G550JK only goes up to 850M, and I'm trying to squeeze as much power as possible out of my laptop without carrying around 5 of the 10 commandments. The other one I'm considering is the Gigabyte P35W v2. I haven't seen a price for that, and I'll wait for reviews of both.
Reasons why I don't want to get a desktop:
- I have no experience building or gaming on computers (although I could get one custom built for not that much)
- It would be a pain in the ass to transport and set up (and switch dorms every year)
- I won't have time to be the most hardcore gamer around (I'm majoring in Chemical Engineering and want to do research, among other things)
- I want a kickass laptop
That being said, I still might get a monitor and full-size keyboard for a desk setup. Thanks again.
Also, I'm seeing some discussion of Maxwell vs Kepler architecture on the GPUs. It seems like many of the newest laptops are still using Kepler. Should I wait for the best specs on a Maxwell machine?
Dont worry so much about battery life - its a gaming laptop so its gonna suck dry a battery quick regardless. The GS60 Pro is a pretty nice piece of gear. I also wouldnt look at anything with less than a gtx860m. Unless you could score say a previous gen mis rig with a 780m... for a similar price.
You might want to check out notebookreview.com. There are a number of detailed discussions on the ghost and p35 which you might find informative. I can tell you they both run really hot depending on what your doing.
I believe both the ghost and p35 are using Maxwell generation gpu's.
As far as waiting, I wouldn't expect anything massively new till Q1/Q2 2015 when we should start to see some Broadwell/Maxwell. Asus did announce the gx500, which is slated for Q3 2014 and has a 4k screen, large battery, and a 860. Gaming at 4k with a 860 seems unlikely but If scaling from 1080 looks good that might be an interesting laptop, especially if it runs cooler and longer.