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The Best Gaming Laptop Money Can Buy

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the money-to-burn dept.

Parz writes "Gameplayer has gone live with their winners for the best gaming laptops money can buy as of Q3 2008. The analysis is broken into three sections to cater for three different budget requirements. There is a detailed explanation of why each laptop was selected, going into each hardware component individually. Regular Slashdot users will remember the site's article from a few weeks ago, which analysed the Best Gaming PCs that Money can Buy. Prices may vary depending on where you live."

17 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Results will be valid for four days... by Joce640k · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...until the next one comes out.

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  2. Never use a laptop for gaming. by telchine · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I always think that using Laptops for gaming is a bit of a silly idea. Every couple of months a new game comes out that requires more powerful graphics, and you can't upgrade the graphics cards in a laptop. So your top of the range laptop bought today will be a pale shadow of its former self when playing the latest game in a year's time. With a desktop PC, you can simply replace the old graphics card with a new one.

    1. Re:Never use a laptop for gaming. by mcsqueak · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You are right. Using a laptop for a primary gaming device, unless you have a lot of money to burn is a rather silly idea since you cannot upgrade it. I found when I was in college and doing a lot of gaming that having a desktop I could upgrade every two years for about $500-800 was the way to go, and it would give me another two years of being able to play the latest titles.

      I recently purchased a fully-loaded Dell XPS 1530 laptop for Photoshop on-the-go functionality, and it has been fun being able to to play some older titles like Half-Life 2 again, but I don't expect it to be able to keep up with what is coming out.

    2. Re:Never use a laptop for gaming. by Hatta · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I just got a laptop for gaming. It's a 1.13 GHZ P3 with 256MB of ram. I spent all weekend playing apple II and TG16 games on it. I had a blast.

      It's not playing games on laptops that's silly. It's the obsession with playing the latest resource hogging games that's silly.

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    3. Re:Never use a laptop for gaming. by tepples · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I always think that using Laptops for gaming is a bit of a silly idea.

      And a lot of other people would think using a DS or a PSP for gaming is also a bit of a silly idea, for much the same reasons. If developers choose not to to make games whose graphics scale down to the capabilities of two-year-old laptops, then they choose to let someone else sell products to owners of two-year-old laptops.

    4. Re:Never use a laptop for gaming. by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Until you need one that requires DirectX 10. Then your Go 6800 won't be able to keep up.

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    5. Re:Never use a laptop for gaming. by TheThiefMaster · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Let me know when a DX10-only game comes out...

    6. Re:Never use a laptop for gaming. by WDot · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you're playing only the latest, most graphics-intensive games, than a laptop isn't the way to go. But if you find yourself spending a lot of time playing older games (not just classics, can include 2004 on if they aren't too power hungry or you can handle lower settings), it's a great idea. Especially if you go to a lot of LANs and the idea of unhooking your PC setup AGAIN starts to get annoying. Plus it's easier on your host's electricity bill. ;)

  3. From the article... by Lumpy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "Your hardware wonâ(TM)t function without an OS, so what better choice than Microsoftâ(TM)s latest offering. Despite the constant criticism, Vista is a very stable, secure and enjoyable platform to work with. In collaboration with the latest gear, games will play at high speed and detail to whet your gaming appetite!"

    Nice to see they are still paid by Microsoft marketing arm. That entire statement goes against everything every reputable gaming site and expert says..

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    1. Re:From the article... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Nice to see they are still paid by Microsoft marketing arm. That entire statement goes against everything every reputable gaming site and expert says..

      Nice to see random claims from fan boys who post bologna with nothing at all to back up the claim.

      I use Vista Ultimate and can say without a doubt it sucks at a lot of things. Gaming is not one of them ... not even close

    2. Re:From the article... by ivan256 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Vista gaming is now on par with XP.

      Good. Still no need to "upgrade" then...

  4. Except it's not PC games by Moraelin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I can see your point, but the question and the context was about laptops that run PC games.

    Portables like the original gameboy or the newer DS, are a bit of a fixed target: a game either runs on that one configuration, or it doesn't. There are no games written for a DS with an upgraded graphics card, or with more RAM.

    PC gaming doesn't really have such fixed targets. All games try to surpass last year's in terms of graphics, if nothing else because screenshots sell, and the hardware requirements are occasionally outright silly. I can think of some games (e.g., EQ2) which were launched to match hardware specs that didn't even yet exist. E.g., seriously, to run EQ2 with full graphics details you needed a 512 MB graphics card, and that just didn't exist yet. (Well, ok, maybe except as a high-end, professional OpenGL card for CAD.)

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  5. Again? by YourExperiment · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Regular slashdot users will remember the site's article from a few weeks ago, which analysed the Best Gaming PCs that Money can Buy.

    Whereas regular Slashdot editors might remember how the last article was panned by readers, and might have ceased spamming us with articles from this site.

    They might also remember to capitalise the name of their own site, but I guess all this is too much to hope for.

  6. Reputable FUD spewer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Nice to see they are still paid by Microsoft marketing arm. That entire statement goes against everything every reputable gaming site and expert says..

    If a gaming site rails against Vista... they aren't reputable.

    Brainlessly spewing Slashdot's MS-hating FUD doesn't make one reputable. Adhering to the truth makes one reputable... and every REAL reputable gaming site acknowledges Vista is the best platform for gaming.

    Oh... but perhaps you would prefer to get in on the Windows Mojave beta test? Let me know, I can hook you up for really cheap.

  7. Re:Why bother with a notebook? by Sancho · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I question the sanity of sticking SLI/RAID0 configurations with enormous screens in a notebook formfactor. You're essentially giving up on the idea of portability, particularly given that the battery in one of those things can't even keep the machine running for an hour.

    You still get portability. You just don't get to be unplugged. A notebook like this means that you can sit on your couch and play games, or move into your bedroom, or take your computer with you on vacation and play some, etc. Lugging around your desktop is probably not an option in many cases.

  8. Re:Should have done best servers for the money by morcego · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Don't waste your time.
    There are no tests performed, no benchmarks, no comparisons.

    The guy only went to 3 websites (Dell, Alienware and some other), read the specs, and said what he though of it.

    Completely useless. Glad I use AdBlock. That site doesn't deserve a cent of advertisement money.

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    morcego
  9. No Driver updates by mrsaggy · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The biggest problem I have with laptops it the lack of driver updates.
    My laptop has a nVidia graphics card, but is unsupported by nVidia.
    The drivers need to be updated by the manufacturer and I cannot use the universal
    driver. My old laptop with Geforce 2, hasnt had a driver update since 2002.

    S