Five gaming laptops for under $1,500
By Jonathan Schlaffer
Gaming laptops can run upwards of $3,000 but most people don’t want to spend that much on a dedicated gaming laptop. Desktops will always be best for gaming but when you need to go on the road and get some work done, here are five laptops that should fit the bill without breaking the bank.
Let’s start with some things to avoid. Any laptop with integrated graphics should be crossed off your list immediately, they will NOT play games, period. Even if it has a nice processor and the other features are well rounded, the integrated graphics will kill it as a gaming machine.
The display should be 15.4" or a 17" widescreen, some will prefer the smaller size and weight of 15" models but if you’re going to be tethered to an outlet or desk for most of the time then consider a 17" model.
After that the display should be of a higher resolution than your garden variety 15.4" and 17" displays which are usually 1280 x 800 and 1440 x 900, respectively. You don’t necessarily to eliminate them right off but for me, 1280 x 800 is useless and 1440 x 900 is the bare minimum that I find acceptable. The higher the better.
Then consider your graphics card and processor, you may have to compromise to get the best of both worlds in prebuilt models but custom made models may be an option if you cannot make any.
A weak processor plus a nice graphics card is not one I’m willing to make but some might. A weak graphics card plus a nice processor is a definite "no-no." Those will make up 90% of what is advertised at Circuit City or Best Buy, they’re all mostly crap, there were only two at a local Best Buy I would even consider, Circuit City had none in the store.
How I stacked up the various laptops may be different than what you do but there are just some things I will not compromise on.
A lot of the prebuilt models had weakling processors paired with decent graphics cards. Unacceptable. Some others had weakling graphics cards paired to nice processors. Unacceptable.
And that there rules out a majority. By weakling processor I mean any current crop of AMD Turion or any Intel 5000 series processor, avoid them, avoid them like your life depended on it. Nevertheless some of those laptops are in the round up but only consider them if you are not or will ever do CPU intensive tasks otherwise you will regret the purchase.
Before getting to the list there is one more thing, consider these "weekend gamer" or media laptops, there is no way they can come close to competing with high end models offered by Velocity Micro, Dell or Alienware but do provide excellent "bang for the buck" performance.
In no particular order,
The Gateway P6860FX is available at Best Buy for fluctuating prices but will come in under $1500 (after applicable taxes). It has one of the best video cards you can get being a nvidia 8800GTS with 512MB of memory but it only has a 5400RPM hard drive and the 1.83GHz Intel T5550 processor it is equipped with is just awful.
But, as long as you don’t plan on doing processor intensive tasks, this is the one to get. Though, I would prefer a better display since the 17" it has is offers only 1440 x 900 resolution and it could be brighter and have better viewing angles.
You must be sitting directly in front of the laptop to get the clearest image and people sitting next to you will get an acceptable view but forget any off-angle viewing.
I had the chance to try out this laptop, it’s graphics performance is almost second to none for this price range but I could not tolerate the slow(ish) processor.
It comes with Windows Vista x64 and 4GB of memory. The display and processor are serious shortcomings with this laptop.
It’s also hit or miss as to whether or not you will get a good one. The first one I had came with a faulty keyboard, the next one had dead pixels on the display and by then, I gave up. It is possible to upgrade the processor by opening the bottom panel of the laptop but I don’t recommend it because the screws are very difficult to get out. You’ll be stuck with it as is, though, the hard drives are easy to replace should you want to add a second one or replace the primary drive with a faster one.
Beware of the weight at almost 10lbs.
HP has a offering though, it isn’t so much a gaming laptop as it is a fully featured multimedia laptop. The DV9700t/z series offers a lot in the way of features and general overall functionality but will excel in no one area. The t series offers Intel processors and the z series offers AMD processors but the AMD version has fewer choices in terms of graphics.
There is a retail version of this laptop as the DV9830US but I would avoid it as it has the Intel T5550 processor, as is the case with quite a few of the laptops I searched out. Why retail versions seem to lean towards the weakling processors is beyond me. I realize it’s a cost saving measure but come on, the T5550 falls behind on every benchmark and hurts overall performance.
So, if you go with this laptop, order a custom version from HP and the minimum processor should be the Intel T8100, nothing less. Other options include a high resolution 1680 x 1050 display, up to 4GB of memory, nvidia 8600M GS with 512MB of memory and dual hard drives (go with the 7200RPM option).
The configuration as I recommend it,
Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit (though, the upgrade to 64-bit is free)
Intel T8100 processor
17" 1680 x 1050 display
3GB DDR2 memory
512MB 8600M GS graphic card
Fingerprint reader
WiFi+BlueTooth
2×120GB 7200RPM hard drives
DVDRW drive (upgrade to Blu-Ray ROM is $250)
Standard battery
All this comes to $1249.99 before tax and applicable shipping charges though with that the price was a bit over $1,300. It seemed a bit much to me, though keep an eye out for HP coupons if you aren’t in a hurry to get it.
It’s not the best gaming machine, it just happens to be a multi-media centric laptop that will be able to do gaming on the side and the weight is about right at under 8lbs making it one of the lightest 17" laptops on the market.
The Asus G2S-X3 is a 17" laptop that has a lot going for it. It consists of an Intel T7500 processor (which is faster than the T8100 and simply crushes the almost useless T5550), 2GB of memory (realistic upgrade to 3GB), a 250GB hard drive and features a nvidia 8600M GT graphics card with 256MB of GDDR3 memory.
It’s important to note that the 8600M GT has a few variants, a 256MB version with GDDR2 memory, a 256MB version with GDDR3 memory and a 512MB version with GDDR2 memory. Obliviously the one with GDDR3 memory is superior. I’m not aware of any 512MB version with GDDR3 memory.
The memory can be taken to 3GB easily but the second memory slot is under the keyboard, I hear it’s relatively easy to take off but I wouldn’t bother. Gamers will be purchasing a new laptop within a couple years anyway.
Where the hard drive is concerned, it only has a speed of 4200RPM so consider replacing it with a faster 5400RPM or 7200RPM model, there is only space for one hard drive.
It would be hard to say this laptop would excel at gaming but should be able to handle most games at lower resolutions. There is an HDMI output and a 1080p display (1920 x 1200) so you can push high-def content to your HDTV. Though, you may need a Blu-Ray drive to take full advantage of the display; at the very least you have a lot of screen real estate to play with.
Another nicety is that it comes with 4 speakers plus a sub-woofer built in so it should sound better than your average laptop.
It does come with an 8-cell battery and should be a well rounded performer. Note, we will have a full review of this very laptop in a few days.
The last two come from a manufacturer you may not expect, MSI has some decent offerings that are relatively light both in weight and on your wallet.
First up is the MSI GX700-100 laptop which features a 17" display with 1680 x 1050 resolution, an Intel T8300 processor, 4GB of memory and a 320GB hard drive for only $1249 +tax and/or shipping. Graphics are provided by a nvidia 8600M GT card with 512MB of GDDR2 memory.
It also has a 4.1 speaker set up built-in (meaning 4 speakers and a sub-woofer) so it’s sound should be above and beyond the usual tiny speakers of most laptops. It’s relatively thin (it’s thickest point is only 1.2-inches) and it weighs a scant 7.6lbs.
Last but not least here is the MSI GX600 Enhanced laptop for $1299 which may not appeal to everyone because of it’s design.
It features a 15.4" 1440 x 900 display, an Intel T8300 processor, 3GB of memory and a 320GB hard drive. It uses the same 8600M GT card as the GX700 but only has two speakers and no sub-woofer because of its smaller size.
I mentioned it’s design, the glossy black case is adorned with flames which I can understand because of its gaming nature. This will appeal to some and won’t to others. It may not be a laptop you want to take into a business meeting (but to be honest, it’s a great value and I’d just tell everyone this laptop would frag their poor excuse for a laptop).
It’s relatively thin and weighs just over 6lbs so you won’t be breaking your back carrying it around.
An honorable mention goes to the Lenovo Ideapad Y710 so you have the option of looking it up as well. While Lenovo does list the mid-range Y710 as costing $1549, it can be found online for as little as $1299 with rebates.
If none of these laptops appeal to you, just look around for ones that have similar specs, I’m sure you’ll find something that is appealing to you.
Related:
August 3rd, 2008
The HP laptop recommended would be a terrible purchase, it, like the 9500 series, has serious including the wifi adapter turning it self (very bad for gaming), the sound has issues, some older games and programs (3 years or older) cause the system to need to be restarted. Also, nvidia 8600 are terrible buy as recently nvidia have said that all 8600s have a high fail rate.