Ok so turns out several people I know fundraisered money to get me a Christmas present, spesificly a high brand laptop. However they didn't known what to look for so never used to $ on said present.
It's fallen to me to figure out which to buy... problem is I don't know what I'm looking for, all the speed, ram, processor ect gargon is gibberish to me most of the time.

They where going to buy me a razorblade pro, I told them to hold on because of the fact its an ultra portable, not a desktop replacement so it has no optical drive.

I'm not sure building my own is a good idea, I have absolutely no idea what to buy ect ect.
I need a new laptop because my old g51 asus republic of gamers killed itself.
it doesn't need a long battery life.
(Don't recommend alienware, its overpriced junk if you ask me, paying mostly for decoration and trickedout lighting/functions than anything.)
Has to last a couple of years, my asus had to go into the shop at least 18 times in 2 years, because it kept failing or burning out

I need
-speed
-raw power
-good graphics
-space
-has to last awhile, cant keep shilling out massive amounts of dough
-cant overheat like my asus did, (seeker to overheat in minutes)
-backlit keyboard

They gave me enough to buy the razorblade pro, and I have enough in rainyday funds to buy an external optic drive, just wondering if that's not a good idea. Ive seen some really nasty reviews about it on amazon...

Esme_Belles said:
Ok so turns out several people I know fundraisered money to get me a Christmas present, spesificly a high brand laptop. However they didn't known what to look for so never used to $ on said present.
It's fallen to me to figure out which to buy... problem is I don't know what I'm looking for, all the speed, ram, processor ect gargon is gibberish to me most of the time.

They where going to buy me a razorblade pro, I told them to hold on because of the fact its an ultra portable, not a desktop replacement so it has no optical drive.

I'm not sure building my own is a good idea, I have absolutely no idea what to buy ect ect.
I need a new laptop because my old g51 asus republic of gamers killed itself.
it doesn't need a long battery life.
(Don't recommend alienware, its overpriced junk if you ask me, paying mostly for decoration and trickedout lighting/functions than anything.)
Has to last a couple of years, my asus had to go into the shop at least 18 times in 2 years, because it kept failing or burning out

I need
-speed
-raw power
-good graphics
-space
-has to last awhile, cant keep shilling out massive amounts of dough
-cant overheat like my asus did, (seeker to overheat in minutes)
-backlit keyboard

just build your own laptop and have it delivered, for about $1200 you can get a good enough laptop to last at least a few years for gaming, I recommend getting a ~3.0 Ghz processor, 8gigs of ram, maybe 12 if you want to be safe for the near future, 17-19 inch display if you're going to be heavily gaming. I'm not familiar with the names of graphics and sound cards though :(
I recommend having a relatively small internal hard drive (~200 gigs) and buy an external hard drive.
and dont forget to look up internal cooling systems, but if all else fails buy a lap fan lol.

If you have them what are your resolution, size and weight requirements?

http://www.xoticpc.com/

All my laptops from them have been superb. I highly recommend.

@sollux I was mostly asking advice on prebuilt ones.
Thendanger for making my own is if I screw up, I have a worthless laptop and no money to fix the parts.
The razor has everything I'd want, its just those reviews I'm worried about, see I'm the type of person who usually needs a second or even third oppinion sometimes.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2020688,00.asp
those are what ive been looking at, even peeked at the alienware, but ive been told before by my old tech support its basicly the same as one of the other with more baling thus more price.

Other problems for build your owns are
can you upgrade them down the road
how long will they last
what parts ect, ect there are so many to choose from and not all games will take some of them
ive always been one to buy a prebuilt rather then built it myself :( even thought of repairing and upgrading my laptop Nd desktop but the issue there is, it would cost MORE than buying a brand new power horse.

Der_Traubenfuchs said:
If you have them what are your resolution, size and weight requirements?

Hmm not really, the weight isn't much of a problem as I have a strong back and carry it in a backpack (my asus was a desktop replacement so it was damn heavy, didn't bother me.)
sized screen would be nice to be able to see what I'm doing so maybe little bit larger than a normal lappy. I mean like idno I have about 2k to spend on it.

Clicks on link* lets see what we got here...

DasaDevil said:
http://www.xoticpc.com/

All my laptops from them have been superb. I highly recommend.

Hmm, see those are 'republic of gamers' laptops. I am slightly wary of those and ASUS because of what I whent though with their brand. I was told it was best out there and it was a total burn out.

I'll bookmarks it anyway.

Esme_Belles said:
Hmm, see those are 'republic of gamers' laptops. I am slightly wary of those and ASUS because of what I whent though with their brand. I was told it was best out there and it was a total burn out.

Xotic is an ODM. If you have any issues with products the support goes through that company, not ASUS or what have you, and they have really good support. My recommendation? Get something that they build on the Sager or the MSI chassis. I've had incredibly good performance and reliability with those.

You should get a Macbook Air

Wait, so ASUS isn't any good for gaming? I just got myself one for Christmas because everyone kept telling me not to get an HP. Also can't you just add more ram to make the game run faster? I know visual limitations of the graphic card can be affected, but like, higher end games will still run right?
My laptop is an asus with nvidia 745m, an i7 processor, and 2 gb of ram (i'll add more later). Can this run most higher-end games at least on a medium/med-high graphics setting without crashing or is this a new paperweight?

Moon_Moon said:
Wait, so ASUS isn't any good for gaming? I just got myself one for Christmas because everyone kept telling me not to get an HP. Also can't you just add more ram to make the game run faster? I know visual limitations of the graphic card can be affected, but like, higher end games will still run right?
My laptop is an asus with nvidia 745m, an i7 processor, and 2 gb of ram (i'll add more later). Can this run most higher-end games at least on a medium/med-high graphics setting without crashing or is this a new paperweight?

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-745M.90244.0.html

Moonmoon, the asus I got was a G51vx or something. Its casing and design was flawed, its LOADED with bloatware, and has trouble with updates. Ontop of that their customer service is a joke.
Most asus is packed full of more bloatware then an Hp. But Hp is a mistake for many reasons including they comply with the NSA hacker program so its got parts and programs designed to spy on you.
(Which brings up, if you buy it online, expect it to be hugged or tampered with, they intercept, tamper, repack and send it on Its merry way without you being the wiser.
The intake air vent was so fine meshed that it clogged after two weeks of gaming. Air whent in through the bottom (where. There was a disk like intake vent) a d exited through a slatted vent on the left side, directly under the wsad keys and where most people rest their hand during use. Needless to say I was burned a few times. The turbo/over clock function burned it faster.
One thing I DID like was the facial recognition lock and the quickstart button which allowed you to use music player, photo viewed, movie player, and Internet explorer without having to actually start the main harddrive/computer.
at first it was awesome, I will agrees it has raw unstoppable power but give it a few months of hard gaming use and you may regret it.
Like I said I had to take it in for repairs 18 times in 2 years, 4 of those where compleate replacements.
One thing that really drove my roommate nuts was the back and side lid lighting was unable to be turned off or dimmed. So you had these glarring white lights shinning in the dark.

Dust in the system is a problem for all computers. Fortunately, there is an easy solution that is widely available. The exhaust vent being on the left side is a preference thing, not a design issue (I prefer it to exhausts mounted in the back, since I never have my laptop directly to the right of something that blocks the airflow but often have it up to a wall). It shouldn't be hot enough to burn you. If it is, you have serious thermal issues, probably related to not regularly dusting your computer (might be a design flaw, but if you let the vents *clog* that's on you).

I don't really have any advice for what computer to buy--I've been happy with my Acers, but I don't do serious gaming on my laptop. I have a desktop for that. Actually, that's my advice for a gaming computer: get a desktop if at all feasible. You get more bang for your buck, they're easier to upgrade (even if you don't build your own), and they tend to have much better thermal management. But whether you go with a desktop or a laptop, I do have the following advice:
Dust your computer. Dust your computer. Dust your computer. It will live longer.

Also, if you are using a laptop as a gaming machine, invest in a cooling pad with a fan (or multiple fans). You don't need to use the fan all the time, but do use it when gaming. Get one with a mesh surface over the whole thing, so it works well passively as well as when the fan is on. I've been using this model and it works well so far.

@snowy yeah I was cleaning it every Friday, seemed to clog faster than I could clean... and I mean the vent was litterly positioned badly it heated up the area around wsad esc and such that you could touch it for several minutes it was pretty bad.
also I have a grand FX6ooo super gaming rig with 8 processors (I think that's what it was). Its 4 years old and on its last legs. I would upgrade it but for a few issues. Costs more to do so than replacement as I'll need a replacement cooling, motherboard, harddrive, Cpu, the works. It still works...but bairly. Second. I need "portability" my old asus rig might have been a lead weight, but I could carry it around. In my situation my (idiot) young adult services team move me out of my 'home' at less than fair warning. I have no room to place a desktop so its in storage.

Anyway guess I need to keep doing research, the razorblade pro is still at the top of my list as its got most of what I'm looking for, just wary of those reviews about it sucking... my asus btw has a modular internal rack meaning I "might" be able to just stick new stuff in...least that's what the guy who sold it to me told me whenni bought it.

Esme_Belles said:
@snowy yeah I was cleaning it every Friday, seemed to clog faster than I could clean... and I mean the vent was litterly positioned badly it heated up the area around wsad esc and such that you could touch it for several minutes it was pretty bad.
also I have a grand FX6ooo super gaming rig with 8 processors (I think that's what it was). Its 4 years old and on its last legs. I would upgrade it but for a few issues. Costs more to do so than replacement as I'll need a replacement cooling, motherboard, harddrive, Cpu, the works. It still works...but bairly. Second. I need "portability" my old asus rig might have been a lead weight, but I could carry it around. In my situation my (idiot) young adult services team move me out of my 'home' at less than fair warning. I have no room to place a desktop so its in storage.

Anyway guess I need to keep doing research, the razorblade pro is still at the top of my list as its got most of what I'm looking for, just wary of those reviews about it sucking... my asus btw has a modular internal rack meaning I "might" be able to just stick new stuff in...least that's what the guy who sold it to me told me whenni bought it.

Actually, you probably only need to replace the gpu, unless some components burnt out; most desktops throttle their capability by their gpu, so while your mobo and cpu cores might be up to snuff, if the gpu isn't it'll bottleneck everything. This is actually why many people can play newer games but at reduced graphics capability; their GPU simply can't handle it, even though the rest of the computer can. Parts of my computer is about 5-6 years old now, and once I get around to upgrading the GPU and installing a new fan (the older one I had installed has crapped out) it'll be, not good as new but significantly better.

The main reason behind that is that most laptops are about 2-4 years behind comparative desktops, and that's not including any issues like heat dispersal or fragility of the system, but just raw processing capability.

This all said, if you NEED mobile, I'd recommend Lenovo, as I've never had any issues when using one myself (though, I'll admit I don't OWN one. I'm very much a desktop user and very non-mobile in general). Some of their setups actually meet military specifications, and I was able to get http://shop.lenovo.com/ca/en/laptops/thinkpad/w-series/w530/ to a reasonable gamer setup for about the cost of a Razorblade Pro ($2,405.92). Here's the setup that I gave it to get that price:
Intel Core i7-3840QM Processor (8M Cache, up to 3.80 GHz Windows 7 or 8 (your preference)
15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready with color calibration sensor
NVIDIA Quadro K2000M Graphics with 2GB DDR3 Memory (You can see the benchmarks here )
16 GB DDR3 - 1600MHz (2 DIMM) (could be dropped to 4 DIMM for $120 savings)
1TB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm (could RAID it if you dropped the RAM to 4 DIMM for a cost of 80)
Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 AGN for integrated Wi-Fi
No other secondary items (Get your own better AV program, and Adobe and Office aren't worth buying. Get OpenOffice or pirate, IMO).

Most of the reason it's about the same cost is because of the New Year's discount, which comes to a total of 328.08 with the package I described above (Code: NEWYEAR, available until the 8th, so if you do go for this, do it soon). Hope this helps.

EDIT: Oh, and as Wolfy said, DEFINITELY invest in a mesh-topped laptop cooling pad any time you're using it for more than a few minutes. Preferably one that has multiple cooling fans either dispersed throughout the entirety of the pad, or that is designed so the cooling is fed through to the entire surface of the pad, or that has its cooling fan output where the laptop's fan intake is.

The Lenovo Y series still seems to offer the best price to performance, or it would if Lenovo would reactivate their regular discounts for my region. Normally, you can buy Lenovo laptops directly from their website for less than other outlets because they will be on "sale" for $100-300 off their normal prices. I recommend periodically checking Lenovo's online store for sales on the Y510 (1080p versions, dual/SLI graphics card for greatest performance). Right now, though, the price on the preferred version is significantly bloated at $1599 when $950-1200 has been historically consistent for that model's targeted market segment.

The Lenovo is 15". The Acer Aspire V3-772G is a 17" equivalent. You would be trading off the second video card for an SSD and touchscreen, in addition to the extra screen size of course. This is a much better deal than the Lenovo Y510 right now. Really, the SSD is the significant factor here. If you can't get this model with an SSD from where you live, then knock $100-200 off the selling price or consider alternatives. Also, you might just want to avoid dual video cards altogether for their compatibility and performance issues with many games.

For other candidates, check here. Don't let the website's name fool you, for whatever reason, its maintainer is dedicated to finding good value deals on laptops.

Lastly, I suggest looking for laptops with warranties longer than one year given your inferred technical capabilities (no offense). I am a bit leery about hardware with single year warranties due to comments that I've read about HDDs and power supplies with one year warranties failing close to or slightly after their warranties expire. For reference, an (old) study revealed that Asus laptops had the best failure rate, HP had the worst, and Lenovo and Acer were in the bottom half.

Well last night will whatching everyones fav douchbag I peeked at the g750 asus. They claim its the most powerfully laptop in the world....what do you guys think, they blowin' smoke?

From what I'm seeing, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M naturally runs rather hot and has innate overclocking, so it'll exacerbate any heating issues you have there (EDIT: Heat profile of the laptop seems to understand this issue and handle it very well). That said, it has significantly increased benchmarks across the board, which, given that it was just announced at the start of December, isn't surprising.

Loking at the specs, it seems to be as it says, but as with abadbird I'm leery of one year only warranties. This said, if you feel like you can trust asus, then it looks like it has the trifecta of power cooling and gpu you were wanting.

EDIT: http://www.digitalversus.com/laptop/asus-republic-of-gamers-g750-p16529/test.html#full-review has a professional review, that basically agrees to go with it.