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High power laptop for travel.

843 views 12 replies 5 participants last post by  VaiFanatic 
#1 ·
I travel frequently for work. Currently, I bring my mid-2011 MacBook Pro with with high-res matte display, and it does well. The windows partition is fast, and it's an all around great computer. It does okay with gaming when I'm on the go, but it leaves a little to be desired.

Assuming I have no budget limit, what would be a powerhouse laptop that I could take with me on the road that will handle photoshop tasks, gaming, picture stacking, etc.?

Not too concerned about battery life, but I will consider it.
 
#3 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by AznRage View Post

What kind of gaming will you be doing on this laptop? What kind of games do you want to play, what framerates do you expect, what resolution will you be playing at...
We need more information to help out
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SC2, Diablo III, maybe WoW again (I can't quit
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).

I'm hoping for at least high graphics settings, max settings would be desirable, but I understand that may not be possible. Hell, if I can get BF3 to run, I'd be happy.
 
#4 ·
Is weight a concern - do you need to carry it everywhere?

I just went over to notebookcheck to see whether the newer mobile graphics cards will handle those games - and wow the results are impressive
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the 650m will perform amazingly, allowing smooth gameplay in medium settings in BF3 (depending on processor that is)
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So then I went to xoticpc and check out some laptops.

Force QAL15-HD <- this has a GT650m and you can grab an IB i7 mobile processor if you have extra money to spend. This is one of the more lightweight laptops so that's a plus
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Sager NP9150 <- this is for if you really want a more balls-out laptop, it does weigh significantly more so watch out for that. I own the NP8130 which is the older version of this laptop and the chassis is really solid. You may want to get it powdercoated or do some sort of covering on the finish yourself as it is very scratchy.

MSi x460dx <- this is a lightweight laptop that still has the capability to run some games. The GT630M is not as powerful as the GT650M but it will still plow through SC2 and D3. BF3 not so much
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#5 ·
#6 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by AznRage View Post

Is weight a concern - do you need to carry it everywhere?
I'm a pretty strong guy, weight won't be that big of a deal.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Adrenaline View Post

Amd Trinity Laptop Bit Expencive But would Do All the Tasks You want to do - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158578
Or
Intel I5 Laptop Which is abit Cheaper - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246491
Both of these should easily be able to play games but no emenesely Graphical Games E.g Skyrim
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I'll check these out, good thing I'm not a Skyrim player, haha.
 
#9 ·
Haha, years ago I would have considered an Alienware, but seeing how it's all Dell now, I stay away. The prices are also a little astronomical for what you're getting, at least I think so. I'll take a look at the aforementioned links
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#11 ·
That definitely has some bells and whistles to it. Like the high res screen. But at that price, what's stopping me from just getting a retina-display MB Pro?

Some concerns I've read so far is that a lot of thinks don't look great on that high of a resolution unless they were designed for it. Is 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 the sweet spot?
 
#12 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by VaiFanatic View Post

That definitely has some bells and whistles to it. Like the high res screen. But at that price, what's stopping me from just getting a retina-display MB Pro?
Some concerns I've read so far is that a lot of thinks don't look great on that high of a resolution unless they were designed for it. Is 1920x1080 or 1920x1200 the sweet spot?
Most notebook screens now come as 1366x768, 1600x900, and 1920x1080. Then you have the retina display that's even higher, some games do look weird, and i cant imagine the 650m in it pushing games fast enough to handle that resolution.

I travel for work with a Sager NP8130, its Sagers lower end laptop, but still maintains a dedicated, and upgrade-able GPU. I find that its good enough with GTX 560m GPU for gaming on the go. They are a bit heavier than most other 15.6" notebooks, but i don't find mine to be unmanageable.

With the newer NP9130, you get options for the display, cpu options that start wth a dual core i5 ivy bridge and can be configured with several different quad core CPUs, a gtx 670m gpu ( only option for this model) 8gb ram, lots of options for HDDs, can even buy an optical bay adapter and throw in a 2nd HDD, or buy it with an mSata SSD, etc...

You can also bump up to the NP9150 or 17" 9170, which has several gpu options, in addition to everything the 9130 has for options.

Check them out at XoticPC.com Scroll to the bottom and check out the np9130, np9150, and np9170.

Also wanted to add, Alienwares prices on their website are high, but if you do a bit of homework, you can find some discounts, and configurations that are on sale too. Plus if you call them up with a specific config, have some of those promo codes, or options ready too, then haggle a bit, people have been successful in getting 25-30% off the price of the notebook.
 
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#13 ·
Yeah, the NP9150 looks very appealing to me. Interesting about the alienware thing though. Who would have thought you could still barter.
 
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