Buying Gaming Laptop

[BulletReign]

So I'm finally about to pull the trigger on my dream laptop. Thing is a beast, pretty much went overkill on the specs but I want to run it by you guys first to make sure there aren't any glaring oversights on my part. Heres the build:

Sager NP9390-S (Clevo P375SM)

CPU: Intel i7 4800MQ (2.7Ghz-3.7Ghz) Haswell Core
GPU: 2x AMD Radeon 8970's Crossfired (8GB total RAM)
RAM: 24GB 1600Mhz DDR3
HDD1: 120GB mSATA for OS
HDD2: 120GB SSD for Games/Programs
HDD3: 1TB 7200rpm for Data/Media
Optical: 6X Blu-Ray R/W 8X DVD R/W Combo
OS: Windows 8.1 64-Bit

For those of you who might not know Sager/Clevo's newer lines have quite a few bells and whistles from backlit trackpads and built in subwoofers to integrated fingerprint scanners and audio-reactive LED arrays. Its a bit overkill but I figure if I'm gonna spend about $3,000 on it I might as well trick the thing out. I also intend to pay the extra money for copper cooling upgrades although that may be unnecessary since the stock machine maxed out its core temp at 86 degrees when running furMark and 3DMark. Ideally I'd like the system to last at least 5 years without significant performance issues and I'd really hope for 7. Ten seems a bit unreasonably but that'd be nice considering the investment. The other option I've just recently considered is buying both a desktop and a laptop for around $1000 each but I worry about lasting performance and I kind of have had my heart set on a laptop. So what do you guys think? Is this build a keeper? Anything I should change or know before dropping the cash? Let me know!

[Lovroman]

At 3k, it's waste of money to pay for a laptop, IMO.

This for example-a workstation + gaming beast, yea, Ik, it contains some weird choices, but w/e.

[[MPGH]Doc]

The laptop wont last 5 years. Gaming laptops degrade really quick, I see so many people bring in their gaming laptops after a couple of years only to find the GPU fried or some other component dead. These are $3K laptops too.

[adriandevera]

My first laptop was a sager a year ago. I forgot the model but it was a 17in i7 2.4ghz oc, 8GB RAM, Geforce 540m, blu-ray r/rw, 1tb secondary with a primary ssd and it was a great laptop. I purchased it on a great deal for $500 (craigslist by talking the seller into lowering it) and it was $1400 at the time but it degraded in value very quickly.

I noticed that after 4 months the resale value was not that great. Comparing my $1400 laptop to this newer $3000 sager model, I wouldnt buy it. Instead id put that $3000 into a desktop because you can swap parts out and upgrade different components like the graphics card. If anything buy a $500 laptop for medium settings gaming and put the rest on an awesome desktop.

You will regret paying 3k for a laptop, trust me. Also sager customer support is horrid. Even though i bought it off craigslist i was still able to use xoticpc services since the original owner bought it from there and even their services were mediocre..

My laptop value dropped and it was impossible to sell it so I was able to trade it on craigslist for a Macbook 13in 2011 model since the owner of the mac was so interested into the sager hype like i was before. Surely a week later he wanted the mac back but I had already left for college.

SAVE YOURSELF THE TROUBLE!!!

[ThaFatBuddha]

Mate it be better if you build a Mini-Itx build. Those things can be the size of a shoebox and smash any games.

Think about it.

[BulletReign]

Thanks for the advice guys. I still think I'm gonna go with a laptop purely for the portability factor but I've downgraded my specs considerably. New build is around $2000. I think this is significantly more realistic, still to much though?

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I'm going into game design and programming as a career. Already taken some prep courses and looking at DigiPen for my degree. Hence the overboard specs. I figure for development purposes I should be testing on the highest specs I can.

[adriandevera]

Thanks for the advice guys. I still think I'm gonna go with a laptop purely for the portability factor but I've downgraded my specs considerably. New build is around $2000. I think this is significantly more realistic, still to much though?

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I'm going into game design and programming as a career. Already taken some prep courses and looking at DigiPen for my degree. Hence the overboard specs. I figure for development purposes I should be testing on the highest specs I can.

I can guarantee that $2000 will be quite the investment youll be loosing even for your classes. I mean those are just prep classes that dont require heavy equipment or hardware. When you get into youre core major courses, thats where everything begins to sink in. If you buy your 2k laptop now for your prep, by the time you hit your major course (BA degree approx 2 years for upper division courses) youre laptop value would drop significantly, and or better hardware specs would come out that year. I program games on my spare time and I use my macbook pro for designing and coding and for heavy 3d testing I use my desktop whic his a $600 rig (i7 5k series oc, 8gb RAM, 1tb hdd, gtx 660ti Oc). If youre going to do animation rendering then get 8gb ram minimum 16gb recommended to speed up rendering times.

[BulletReign]

I should clarify, I have completed classes in preparation. I will begin classes for my degree shortly. I'm going for a masters in computer science specializing in interactive simulation design. I also do a fair amount of 3d modeling, rendering, video editing, etc so I'm looking for an all around workstation, high-end desktop replacement. My build at this point is a GTX 780, 16GB RAM, 120GB SSD, 1TB 7200RPM HDD. I've considered desktops but I really need the portability factor. Can anyone recommend a build under $2000 that will last a reasonable amount of time (4-5 years) and run today's games maxed, tomorrows mid?

EDIT: out of curiosity why did you go with the i7 @adriandevera? I've heard 90% of games can't utilize a quad core effectively so most people go with an i5 for gaming rigs.

[[MPGH]Doc]

Thanks for the advice guys. I still think I'm gonna go with a laptop purely for the portability factor but I've downgraded my specs considerably. New build is around $2000. I think this is significantly more realistic, still to much though?

EDIT: I forgot to mention that I'm going into game design and programming as a career. Already taken some prep courses and looking at DigiPen for my degree. Hence the overboard specs. I figure for development purposes I should be testing on the highest specs I can.

lol game design.

I should clarify, I have completed classes in preparation. I will begin classes for my degree shortly. I'm going for a masters in computer science specializing in interactive simulation design. I also do a fair amount of 3d modeling, rendering, video editing, etc so I'm looking for an all around workstation, high-end desktop replacement. My build at this point is a GTX 780, 16GB RAM, 120GB SSD, 1TB 7200RPM HDD. I've considered desktops but I really need the portability factor. Can anyone recommend a build under $2000 that will last a reasonable amount of time (4-5 years) and run today's games maxed, tomorrows mid?

EDIT: out of curiosity why did you go with the i7 @adriandevera ? I've heard 90% of games can't utilize a quad core effectively so most people go with an i5 for gaming rigs.

Just admit that you only want to play games on it, because that kind of laptop won't be able to render shit. No laptop can.

[adriandevera]

EDIT: out of curiosity why did you go with the i7 @adriandevera? I've heard 90% of games can't utilize a quad core effectively so most people go with an i5 for gaming rigs.

I like to game very lightly during school. Im gauged towards more graphics, programming and video editing over gaming. I utilize the i7 quadcore more so due to having multiple applications opened in the background.

But yes for gamers i5 is the way to go!

Edit: The reason games dont utilize the 4 cores is because taking advantage of multi-threading is a painstaking process. I just took a class on dual core multi-threading and that alone was just a plethora of conceptual application to both hardware and coding. I cant imagine quad core optimization for pc gaming

[BulletReign]

lol game design.



Just admit that you only want to play games on it, because that kind of laptop won't be able to render shit. No laptop can.

Well that was unnecessarily aggressive. And yes laptops, while not ideal, are becoming increasingly effective at rendering. With my current $350 PoS I can even do basic renders. Yeah it takes a while, and thats why I'm upgrading, but saying no laptop can do any amount of rendering is ridiculous. Yes I am going game on it, obviously, but I'm also trying to make sure it can handle a decent workload. Hence the i7 and reasonable amount of RAM. Especially for someone as notable in the community as yourself I'd expect you to give some decent advice instead of scoffing and moving on. How bout something constructive next time?

@adriandevera thanks for the feedback. I've been looking at some micro itx builds and while they're appealing the price point seems about the same, considering the specs I'm putting in it. I'm significantly less knowledgeable about desktop components so I may be overlooking something. What are some equivalent-ish specs for a desktop based on my latest laptop build? (780m, 16GB RAM, i7 4800MQ, 1TB HDD + 120GB SSD)

[BulletReign]

lol game design.



Just admit that you only want to play games on it, because that kind of laptop won't be able to render shit. No laptop can.

Well that was unnecessarily aggressive. And yes laptops, while not ideal, are becoming increasingly effective at rendering. With my current $350 PoS I can even do basic renders. Yeah it takes a while, and thats why I'm upgrading, but saying no laptop can do any amount of rendering is ridiculous. Yes I am going game on it, obviously, but I'm also trying to make sure it can handle a decent workload. Hence the i7 and reasonable amount of RAM. Especially for someone as notable in the community as yourself I'd expect you to give some decent advice instead of scoffing and moving on. How bout something constructive next time?

[adriandevera]

@BulletReign Well heres a solid build at $1300. That leaves you $700 to get a better graphics card, cpu, and ssd. BUT there are many many good builds out there too.


CPU: Haswell i5-4670K $240 (could get an overclocked i5 if you want. That or an i7 if youre using other apps like adobe packages)
Mobo: ASRock Extreme 6 1150 $150
GPU: SLI GTX 760's $490 (DC II) or go bit with two gtx 780ti in SLI.
PSU: $90 Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, or XFX. 650W is good enough (if youre going to be upgrading a lot get like a 600-800 range, thats more than enough for years)
RAM: $75 G. Skill 2133 CL10 8GB (2x4GB) https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Case: $100 Your Choice. Please check reviews for airflow and make sure it has fan filters.
SSD/HDD: $140 256GB SSD (1TB hdd for secondary)
Optical: Optional $21 DVD

TOTAL: approx $1306

If making your own build, id buy a cpu and motherboard combo package, then a a graphics card then the other components. Newegg has great deals weekly

[BulletReign]

@BulletReign Well heres a solid build at $1300. That leaves you $700 to get a better graphics card, cpu, and ssd. BUT there are many many good builds out there too.


CPU: Haswell i5-4670K $240 (could get an overclocked i5 if you want. That or an i7 if youre using other apps like adobe packages)
Mobo: ASRock Extreme 6 1150 $150
GPU: SLI GTX 760's $490 (DC II) or go bit with two gtx 780ti in SLI.
PSU: $90 Antec, Corsair, Seasonic, or XFX. 650W is good enough (if youre going to be upgrading a lot get like a 600-800 range, thats more than enough for years)
RAM: $75 G. Skill 2133 CL10 8GB (2x4GB) https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...
Case: $100 Your Choice. Please check reviews for airflow and make sure it has fan filters.
SSD/HDD: $140 256GB SSD (1TB hdd for secondary)
Optical: Optional $21 DVD

TOTAL: approx $1306

If making your own build, id buy a cpu and motherboard combo package, then a a graphics card then the other components. Newegg has great deals weekly

@adriandevera I've been liking the look of ASrock M8 line. I made a preliminary build with a Radeon 7970 Ghz Edition, 16GB Corsair Vengeance CL9 RAM, i7 4k Series (I use AfterEffects, C4D, etc etc quite a bit), and a 1TB SSD. Total cost is around $2300 which seems high to me, I'm not custom building as I don't trust myself with components this expensive. The PSU for the M8 is locked at 450W as far as I can tell which seems low but IDK. Like I said, desktop components are not my forte. Thoughts?

[[MPGH]Doc]

Well that was unnecessarily aggressive. And yes laptops, while not ideal, are becoming increasingly effective at rendering. With my current $350 PoS I can even do basic renders. Yeah it takes a while, and thats why I'm upgrading, but saying no laptop can do any amount of rendering is ridiculous. Yes I am going game on it, obviously, but I'm also trying to make sure it can handle a decent workload. Hence the i7 and reasonable amount of RAM. Especially for someone as notable in the community as yourself I'd expect you to give some decent advice instead of scoffing and moving on. How bout something constructive next time?

@adriandevera thanks for the feedback. I've been looking at some micro itx builds and while they're appealing the price point seems about the same, considering the specs I'm putting in it. I'm significantly less knowledgeable about desktop components so I may be overlooking something. What are some equivalent-ish specs for a desktop based on my latest laptop build? (780m, 16GB RAM, i7 4800MQ, 1TB HDD + 120GB SSD)

I already have given you advice. Don't invest in any $2K laptop. They just don't last. Especially if you're going to do any amount of hardcore rendering. You're looking and one and a half years max. They just aren't design for any amount of constant load like that.