New Gaming-Capable Laptop with ~2K Budget

You should probably avoid the OCZ SSD. I believe Anandtech did a breakdown on why they suck (OCZ SSDs, not SSDs in general)

I've now ordered this. So now I'm just rocking with indecision over whether or not to get an SSD for it.

With some research, it looks like SSD prices stopped dropping a few months ago, so it shouldn't be a bad time to buy one. I've been managing on my current laptop with 110GB, so I should be fine with the space limitations of a 256GB SSD. The Samsung 840 Pro looks like a good choice of brand/model, seemingly being faster and longer lasting than many others. And I think I've found a place to get a Windows 8 iso so I can install on to it with the laptop's license.

But... £190. I know that it would be a great upgrade, but 40% of the cost of the laptop?

I think I'm going to get it, but I might just wait until I've got the process of getting Windows onto it fully worked out before I do.

I've said it before in the other PC building thread but my experience with OCZ SSDs has had a 40% fail rate within the first 3 months. I'm past the point of buying them unless I hear some amazing reports about how they've addressed these issues.

I should be in the market for a replacement SSD any day, then. Here's hoping I'm part of the 60%.

knock on wood (IKEA desks are sorta real wood, right?), but i haven't had any problems with my OCZ Vertex 4. i say that because i haven't really had a lot of luck with them (OCZ ssd's in general) where i work, but haven't had anything bad happen with them at home. so far. go figure.

I've had my new laptop for a couple of days now. It is lovely and fast, but there are some bad points.

I had heard that the screen was cheap, but I'm a bit surprised how bad it is. The viewing angle seems tiny. I suspect this is going to be terrible for demoing games to multiple people. I can also seem to actually see the pixel grid. There were a few times I saw an image and thought someone had added a fake "old screen" effect to it, and then realised: Nope, that's just my screen.
It has this squished keyboard layout with right ctrl and shift shunted over to the left to make room for the arrow keys, and I really don't like it. I have to really contort my fingers to hit rshift+] to type a }. Which as you can imagine, I am doing a lot. Maybe I can train myself to use left shift instead, but at the moment, it's just painful.

And these are problems I am probably now going to be stuck with for the next five years :/

Crucial M4 SSDs are pretty cheap and very reliable, I have one in each of my computers.

On the bright side, it's really easy nowadays to just HDMI your laptop into a better screen, or better yet get a docking station. If you're happy with the performance you could next look into that option and shore up the weak points.

Honestly I would take very seriously any complaints about a screen looking "cheap" or that is has visible pixels. Laptop screens vary hugely and the screen quality is probably going to be one of the blatantly noticeable factors. I've found that generally if there's some sort of "upgraded screen" option for any model of laptop it's worth the extra price to get, because if there's a version where they're admitting the screen looks noticeably better, that means the base version screen looks noticeably worse. A good screen is one where you honestly don't notice anything about it at all.

Unfortunately, that's not really an option. This laptop really is intended to be mobile - it's for use on other people's sofas and in internet cafes, and will probably never meet a desk.

Aye. Lesson learned. Every time I buy a computer I discover a new thing to watch out for.

I've had my new MSI for a week now and am loving it. As expected it is huge, power hungry, and once in a while the fan powers up to "hair dryer".

But it is fast and capable. It's no longer an aggravation when some update requires a reboot because that only takes about 15 to 20 seconds for a full recycle. CivV which is a bit of a performance dog now loads up about as fast as any normal game used to.

The big screen is working great for gaming and as I suspected, I'm glad I went larger. The increased size also means more space for the chiclet keyboard.

I purchased a Logitech M125 retractable corded mouse and put a mouse pad on a clipboard. There is a button just below the keyboard to disable the touch pad so I can easily set myself up for some comfortable gaming away from a desk. I also bought an X-box controller for the PC and have been playing Dark Souls from a recliner this past week.

Everything has worked great so far. The only issue I've had is when trying to use the built-in microphone with Google Talk it picks up the speaker sound so whoever I'm connected to hears their own echo, forcing me to use headphones. A very minor issue.

I've been on a stay-cation so I've put in a couple all-nighters and haven't found anything to dislike so far. It seems like this laptop will do what I want which is to age relatively well as a gaming desktop replacement.

So my old Dell inspiron just died, and I'm looking for a not-very-pricey laptop that I can reasonably play the same library of games I'm used to, and still use for work and grad school for the next few years. I'm leaning towards the Y580, but can you tell me how happy you are with yours a few weeks down the road?

So far, happy, just took it on a biz trip, and wasn't too unwieldy. The trackpad has issues apparently, but I never use trackpad so not an issue I care about. Couple of nice bits of bling over the Y580 are backlit keyboard (surprisingly useful) and having cache SSD. Having said that, the deals on Y580 are such (and, apart from the hard disc, performance is going to be pretty much equal) that I would say go for that.

I ended up deciding on the Y500, as it is slightly cheaper and god help me that keyboard is attractive. Is this the deal you used? I'm not missing out on something hidden, am I?

heh, yes, the aesthetics swung it for me too... I bought mine in HK, so not comparable with US deals (US is normally cheaper for laptops, go figure)

I decided to soon get a ThinkPad W520, there is a mountain of cheap ones in Canada for some reasons, which are pretty loaded with options. I think Lenovo has a load of them and wants to be rid of them. I found one for $778, not a bad price. Still a very powerful machine to this day. It has a still pretty good dedicated GPU, it would be enough to play the upcoming Kickstarter games, which is all I ask.

But most of all it's the last line of Lenovo laptops that still come with traditional keyboards. To me chiclets/island based keyboards are completely unacceptable, even those from the 2012 ThinkPad line which I've tried. I plan to hang onto this machine for dear life.

I'm interested in why you don't like the chiclet keyboards. Personally I like them, but I wouldn't put much thought into the keyboard to begin with as long as it wasn't too cramped. Why are they completely unacceptable?

Too little key travel, I feel uncomfortable with chiclet keys. I don't like the tactile feedback as much, it is like pressing microwave buttons.

Most of all I an angry that even that option is being completely taken away from me. I think only Fujitsu makes classic keyboards with some of their Lifebooks (if they don't pull a Lenovo this year), and some high-end Dell Precisions laptops too, but apart from that it's basically vanished altogether. Even the most expensive business HP laptops come with chiclets.

I got it! And after a frustrating half hour, I managed to get rid of the worst of 8's excesses. Thanks!

I dislike the chiclet designs where there are spaces between the keys. I find those horrible.

The Purolator guy delivered the laptop at work today, and it's a splendor. The GPU is pretty good, and it looks like something a real professional would use. ThinkPad laptops always had the best keyboards in the industry, and I consider myself to be privileged to have this. Down with all chiclets.

I will be in the US at the end of May. I will be looking to replace my Asus G73. Ideally with something also 17inch and with an SSD and great gaming performance. Any suggestions?

The MSI gaming laptops are still phenomenal. check the best buy or new egg sites for examples.

Had a look, definitely at the more expensive end of what I am looking for.

I think I need to go to best buy when I hit the US, or order one to a friend's house in DC since I might want a model with SSD and whatnot (shops might not stock in that configuration).

This also looks good, although I have never heard of Sager before.

http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=product_info&model_name=NP9170

From my recent searching, Sager seems to be pretty well regarded. They use the Clevo laptop build and customize it for as much gaming as your willing to spend $$ on. Just like MSI, a gaming capable 17" Sager is probably going to be heavy and noisy but with great performance. More of a desktop replacement than a mobile computer, but then us gamers are willing to put up with a bit of heft for a good experience. :)

I've been loving my MSI since I got it in late January. ~10 seconds to go from cold boot to clicking on the Steam icon means all my precious computer time at home is game time!

Edit: BTW, that Sager you linked looks great. i7 quad core and a GeForce 675M are what I have. Pair those with SSD storage and you're going to have an exceptional gaming platform.

I'm almost tempted to get a small gaming laptop for my wife. She hasn't in the past played a whole lot of games but recently she's been playing some Tropico 4 and will probably want to play Eador:MotBW, both of which involve her snagging my current Alienware since they're too graphics intensive for my work laptop to run. In terms of having something that's convenient for travel a 17" gaming laptop is functional but not ideal, so I've been mulling over getting something smaller for a while now but I've never been able to get over the hump of rationalizing owning two different gaming laptops.

Thanks for the info, guys. The sager does look nice. I am a but concerned by the noise as I game in the living room next to her indoors. Hmm.

My Alienware m17x has an i7 and 560M and I've never had any issues with it being noisy while running. Heavy yeah, but I'm not sure why it would be unusually noisy unless there's just something with the design of the body.

I sometimes sit in a recliner which is a few feet from our couch. The noise is not so much that it would impede anyone's TV or computer experience in that arrangement. If I sit on the couch right next to my wife while playing something that is forcing the fan to run at full power it might indeed be a minor annoyance to her. If I'm just web surfing or something it is not an issue.

Edited to reply to Reldan : When I say noisy I'm only referring to the fan noise when it powers up to full speed. This only happens when I'm playing something graphic intensive and even then it will usually only come on in short bursts then quiet down again, but it is definitely noticable when it powers up.

Oh yeah, I have that same experience then. It's maybe a few short bursts when it happens and it's noticeable but not particularly loud. It's nothing like the kind of fan noise you get out of a desktop and I can't imagine it would actively bother anybody.

Awesome, ta guys.

Welp, took the plunge and ordered a Sager 11.6" gaming laptop from www.xoticpc.com. Got the Matte Screen upgrade and a 750GB hybrid SATA3 drive, but otherwise it's the stock config. Should get it in a couple weeks and I'll let you know how it turns out!

11.6 inches! It's practically a cell phone!

Yeah, but a cell phone with a 750GB HDD, 8 GB of RAM, and an i5 and GTX 650 inside :)

You planning on hooking it up to an external monitor or you cool with the small screen? Personally the 17" on my LT is about as small as I can handle.

I have a 17" gaming laptop already - this is mostly out of a desire for something easily portable to take on trips and to give my wife something to play games on so she stops stealing my laptop.

Gotcha. I've seen a lot of these smaller gaming units lately and they didn't really resonate with me but it's cool to see why people like them.

I've been tempted with that little Sager. Thought it would be good for plugging into the 60" HDTV and going steam full screen.

Would probably plug it into a large monitor otherwise.

I've spec'd this up as I'm off to the US soon and I can get a mate to receive the order. Is there anything better out there for the price range? Note, I've added an SSD primary and another drive as secondary and upgrade the vid card and ram. over the default model.

That looks pretty sweet.

We've been very happy with the Sager-made 11" - it's a pretty solid little beast of a laptop.