Buying a new computer, whats the best one for gaming?

[hoofhearted4]

i gotta say, for a gaming laptop, battery life means squat. a laptop running games is going to die fast regardless, unless its plugged in, which if you were gaming, id imagine it would be...you wouldnt even wanna take a chance on the laptop dieing mid game.

[SubjectProphet]

I use an ACER and it runs more smoother than my old deasktop. However, when the screen begins to go crazy with effects, THAT's when the FPS goes nuts. You want something with great memory, long battery life, and lightweight. Alienware is good, but I wouldn't recomend it if you're going to get mods AND play games, along with surfing the web and downloading programs.

[RitualBlack]

well, A lap-top is Inferior, Like Really Inferior, to a desktop, in terms of gaming prowess.

 

since I really can't decide for you I'll be sharing a few tips.

 

• 
   
  
• Never Ever Ever Never Ever Believe articles that say :"The Human eye can't perceive more than 30fps.", that's utter BS. so if a laptop Hardly gives more than 30 fps on any game, it's not suited for playing that game e.g. Crysis.
  
• Battery Life IS important. because it's a lap-top. and being portable defines a good lap-top.
  
• Weight, is also important, Alienware products are usually brick weighted.
  
• Take a Look at this Chart. the GPUS listed in the chart with a Mobility/Mobile Prefix are for laptops. nothing can push up the frame rates like a good GPU.
  
• The Difference of 4GB, 8GB and 16GB of ram are marginal in performance, and even less so in Gaming.
   
  

 

I can play crysis with all setting max using 1920x1080 resolution without any lag on my laptop. To say that gaming laptops are way inferior is not entirely true. Gpu wise my laptop beats out both a desktop 560ti and a HD 6870. Battery life also doesn't matter with a gaming laptop. The point of one is to be able to bring it around and plug it in where you go. There is no way I am setting a 18.4'' laptop which weighs twelve and a half pounds on my lap while riding in a train :laugh: .

[SimpleGlitch]

Before you buy a laptop, make sure you really need a laptop. If all its going to be used for is gaming, buy a desktop. In most cases, a desktop designed for gaming is much more powerful than a gaming laptop and generally has a longer life span than a laptop. Desktops give you the option of upgrading down the road so you don't have to buy a brand new laptop, and parts usually last longer.

 

Other than that, your best source of information would be a local computer store. Often they can point you in the right direction in terms of getting performance for your money. Make sure to ask about warranty information before buying for a local shop though.

[Ihoe]

well, A lap-top is Inferior, Like Really Inferior, to a desktop, in terms of gaming prowess.

 

since I really can't decide for you I'll be sharing a few tips.

 

• 
   
  
• Never Ever Ever Never Ever Believe articles that say :"The Human eye can't perceive more than 30fps.", that's utter BS. so if a laptop Hardly gives more than 30 fps on any game, it's not suited for playing that game e.g. Crysis.
  
• Battery Life IS important. because it's a lap-top. and being portable defines a good lap-top.
  
• Weight, is also important, Alienware products are usually brick weighted.
  
• Take a Look at this Chart. the GPUS listed in the chart with a Mobility/Mobile Prefix are for laptops. nothing can push up the frame rates like a good GPU.
  
• The Difference of 4GB, 8GB and 16GB of ram are marginal in performance, and even less so in Gaming.
   
  

 

I can play crysis with all setting max using 1920x1080 resolution without any lag on my laptop. To say that gaming laptops are way inferior is not entirely true. Gpu wise my laptop beats out both a desktop 560ti and a HD 6870. Battery life also doesn't matter with a gaming laptop. The point of one is to be able to bring it around and plug it in where you go. There is no way I am setting a 18.4'' laptop which weighs twelve and a half pounds on my lap while riding in a train :laugh: .

That's Bad Advice, Laptops Are inferior, any Mobility GPU compared to the desktop version is inferior. one might buy a laptop just for gaming, but there may be times they will want to use them as portable LAP-TOP device. Crysis was one game mentioned in the OP's Linked Article Running at 30fps. that's Damn low. Crysis on my own desktop Runs faster than The Witcher 2. Let's not Base our benchmarks on games that came out 5 years ago. their Drivers have evolved a lot, and you want to play the latest games On your Rig smoothly.

 

But Alas, that's my Perception, Eh?

[RitualBlack]

I run Crysis well over 30fps. I have crossfire 6970m's and together they have a great deal of power over a higher class single gpu desktop card. If you want to look at actual numbers such as 3Dmark11 based on notebookcheck the 6970m crossfire is 28% better than a 560ti, which is a good desktop card. Laptop cards are obviously not as good as the desktop counterpart, but if you get crossfire high end cards it will be able to run games just fine. Its not all that convenient as a laptop, and a 12 cell battery will drain around 10% simply from start up if unplugged but it can be moved from place to place. The reason I use Crysis as a standard is that its still considered to be in the top 5 most demanding games and commonly used as a test for new cards card when they come out. The only games that are more demanding than it are (in order): Witcher 2 only if ubersampling is enabled, than Metro 2033 and Crysis 2. If a laptop is needed and he wants to play games on ultra than he needs to get crossfire/sli, and if he doesn't need a laptop than a desktop would be the obvious choice.

[hoofhearted4]

i use a laptop for my gaming. now, i dont do hardcore gaming, no graphics turned to ultra or anything, but i do game on my laptop. and i dont hardly ever bring my laptop anywhere. the only reason i have a laptop over a desktop is because at the time, i thought it was better, and i had no room for a desktop....now ill admit, im looking to change that, ive been looking to build a desktop for a while now, but sometime you get a laptop, not for mobility, but simply for accessibility. if you cant fit a desktop in your room/house or u want to be able to sit in your chair while you game (like i do) or whatever reason you have.

 

build a desktop if you can. but you can in fact get laptops to play some high end games on high settings, but they will cost as much or more as your desktop and still wont be quite as powerful (or upgradeable)

[Sarissi]

I build my own desktops. However, I chose the Acer Aspire AS8950G-9839 for my notebook. Hardware wise, you can do 2 things with it: replace the 8 GB DDR3 SODIMMs (4 x 2 GB), with 16 GB. This you can do yourself. The other, is that you have to send it in and have a Second HDD installed. Don't try to do this yourself. The bay and connector are there, BUT, you don't have the needed cable, and you need a new bay cover.

 

For my primary desktop, I chose the Asus P7P55D-E Pro motherboard and the Intel Core i7 860. The graphics card is an EVGA nVidia GTX 460 (2 GB memory), plus 4 x 2 TB hdds, a Lite-On retail package BD Combo drive, Corsair HX850 PSU, 16 GB G.Skill DDR3. All in a Lancool K7B case (made by Lian Li). Monitor is an LG Flatron E2770 27 inch. OS is Win7 Ultimate 64 bit.