Gaming Laptop for Work

[ShinRa]

Ok so I travel a lot for work. Like a LOT. I would say 14 out of 30 days in a month are spent in a hotel room and it's really hindered my game time. So I wanted to buy a laptop for on-the-go. I know laptops aren't as powerful as desktops for gaming, but if you were to buy a laptop for gaming, what would it be?

Criteria:

Between $1500-$2000
Run todays games at max settings
1TB HD (the laptop will also act as a backup drive for my main computer)

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[Lobster]

I am sure you will get a more complete reply, but I can give you a review of a mid range laptop I picked up recently.

I am spending a lot of time in the US lately, and as a result I wanted a laptop I could use away from home. So I picked up a Lenovo Y510P in one of the Black Friday sales 3 months back, they aren't the most popular brand in the world, but the specs seemed nice for under $1000.

Intel Core i7-4700MQ 2.4 GHz Processor (6 MB Cache)
8 GB DDR3 RAM
1 TB 5400 rpm HDD and 8 GB Solid-State Drive Memory
Non-Touchscreen 15.6-Inch Display, Dual NVIDIA GeForce GT750M Discrete Graphics

In terms of game performance we have been playing things like Bioshock Infinite, Borderlands 2, New Tomb Raider, Human Revolution and the later Assassin's Creeds with decent FPS and no problem whatsoever. Things do start to struggle badly in ARMA 3 however, where it is difficult to maintain a playable frame rate. My biggest gripe is that the SLI cards don't support stereoscopic output over HDMI; it would have been neat playing DX:HR on the giant 3D display we were using at my girlfriend's house.

Ultimately I am happy with how it worked out, the thing has surprisingly good speakers, decent cooling, and discreet size and shape. It would have been nice to get something with a little more kick for playing heavier stuff like ARMA and BF4, but my research indicated the cost would quickly skyrocket in that direction.

It's gonna sit under my living room TV at home as a Big Picture box; might stick a SteamOS duel-boot on there if I can.

PS. Windows 8 is frustrating and awful.

 

[ShinRa]

Thanks Lobster. I will definitely look into Lenovo now. Never even heard of them prior.

 

[Wanted Bob]

Can't vouch for the model that Lobster suggested, but I can say that Lenovo is an excellent company based on my previous experiences.

 

[Krynn72]

Can't vouch for the model that Lobster suggested, but I can say that Lenovo is an excellent company based on my previous experiences.

+1. Theyre a very reliable brand. I repair computers professionally, and the only things Ive ever seen lenovos in for are hard drive replacements (on ancient models, like t60s and such which are going on a decade old), or massive physical damage like someone stepped on them. Ive been using a t61 up until a couple months ago when I bought a second hand W510 and its awesome. Only problem is the apostrophe key doesnt work, so thats why theres no apostrophes in this post. Super easy to replace the keyboard on these bitches though, so Ill be doing that next week probably.

Not sure on its gaming performance, but you could buy a better one Im sure since this is intended as a workstation pc, not gaming. It plays Spelunky fine though!

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

What do you do for work, out of curiosity?

 

[ShinRa]

What do you do for work, out of curiosity?

I work for a luxury retail company called Saks 5th Avenue. I'm an internal controller so I travel around the east coast/midwest alot.

 

[Higlac]

*Lenovo*

*more lenovo*

Can verify, Lenovo make solid stuff for cheap. Never see them in the shop for repairs, and this "black friday" deal has been going for months.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/

 

[Ikagara]

have you considered a small form factor desktop? I haven't been keeping up with things much, but I'm seeing a lot of small ITX size computers in portable cases. though unless you mod it and attach the monitor to the case you'll still be lugging around a screen. But you do still get the power and upgrade ability of a desktop. convenient for LAN parties i hear.

As for gaming laptops, you can also look in to Asus. I got an Asus G60 jx back when it was relevant for under 1000 and it played all my games without a problem. it has an i5, geforce 360m and 8gb of ram (upgraded from 4). It can play BF3 and Metro 2033 fine on low settings, but not BF4.

 

[ShinRa]

Right now I'm looking into Lenovos just based on everyones recommendations. If I don't find the right fit I'll be researching Asus next. The portable ITX desktop definitely isn't a bad idea since 99.9% of the hotels I stay in have an HDTV. I would just need an HDMI cable and I could be gaming in full glory! I have to definitely look into that! Thanks Ikagara (and everyone else!)

 

[Ikagara]

The portable ITX desktop definitely isn't a bad idea since 99.9% of the hotels I stay in have an HDTV. I would just need an HDMI cable and I could be gaming in full glory!

If you want to get creative, i have seen some people mod their case attaching a screen on it. Some people hooked up and embedded iPad retina displays in to the case or on an arm that extends out.

 

[ShinRa]

If you want to get creative, i have seen some people mod their case attaching a screen on it. Some people hooked up and embedded iPad retina displays in to the case or on an arm that extends out.

That's way too tech savvy for me. I'm a bare bones kinda guy. Once you start talking about embedding iPad displays into a case I'm gone lol