This topic has been done to death, I would imagine, but I'll ask anyway. I'm looking to get a new laptop, as my current one (which is ~4 years old now) is beginning to die. At the moment, I mainly use it for school, internet, coding, and StarCraft. With the new laptop, I'd probably be doing more gaming-wise; Portal and StarCraft II come to mind, as well as DX10 and shader programming (which I've never done, as my current computer's graphics card doesn't seem to support shaders particularly well). My price range is under $1k CAD. Does anyone have any suggestions for specs/models/brands?

Do you have any size/weight requirements? I recently purchased a Thinkpad SL300 for my wife and was quite impressed by it's price/performance and construction.

I have an Asus G1 myself, it runs heavy 3D games with ease. So, you can't go wrong by getting an Asus. Dell's gaming laptops are also good I've heard. The graphics card is really what you should look for in a laptop though, as it has a tendency of being underpowered. The average laptop is advertised with a 20GHz CPU, 8GB of RAM, while leaving the old vacuum tube-transistor graphics card unmentioned.

I shopped a while for laptop, and it's not easy. If you want a gamer laptop, you want a processor with 6mb cache and 1066mhz FSB, high screen resolution (or HDMI with separate monitor) and a GeForce/ATI video card (no Intel GMA). Now if you check most websites for laptops like ncix, dell, futureshop, bestbuy, etc who sells Acer/Sony/Asus/Toshiba under $1k CAD, you will find many at $600-$700, but who saves money by not including the expensive parts I said earlier (cpu, gfx card). If you look on these sites for laptop who does have DX10 gaming capability, it reach over $2K really fast.

Solution I found is Sager. Theses are high quality gamer laptop, with tons of accessories included, big resolution, and allow custom-build. There are many online resellers, but http://www.pctorque.com/ seems to best for Canada. They have some deals like free shipping or instant-rebate, just check the site. I checked for a Sager 2096 with a good parts selection and it was about $1200 CAD with shipping and everything. Their prices are in USD, but once converted and adding shipping/custom, it still get below the price of other places. You can also contact them directly and ask for ways to pay less custom, they have a good service and are used to this question, you just have to ask.

[Edited by - Dunge on March 16, 2009 1:02:57 PM]

Quote: Original post by polymorphed
I have an Asus G1 myself, it runs heavy 3D games with ease. So, you can't go wrong by getting an Asus. Dell's gaming laptops are also good I've heard. The graphics card is really what you should look for in a laptop though, as it has a tendency of being underpowered. The average laptop is advertised with a 20GHz CPU, 8GB of RAM, while leaving the old vacuum tube-transistor graphics card unmentioned.

My first laptop was an Asus G1, it was very heavy, ran quite hot and had terrible battery life. The screen was excellent though. Still, the SL300 that I got my wife is faster in every way (I had a 1st gen G1, 2.0Ghz, GF 7700GS) and a lot quieter and cooler.

Quote: Original post by Dunge
Solution I found is Sager. Theses are high quality gamer laptop, with tons of accessories included, big resolution, and allow custom-build. There are many online resellers, but http://www.pctorque.com/ seems to best for Canada. They have some deals like free shipping or instant-rebate, just check the site. I checked for a Sager 2096 with a good parts selection and it was about $1200 CAD with shipping and everything. Their prices are in USD, but once converted and adding shipping/custom, it still get below the price of other places. You can also contact them directly and ask for ways to pay less custom, they have a good service and are used to this question, you just have to ask.

Sager has good notebooks, they are often whitebooks that you can buy and install the components yourself. Most of their laptops are Clevo or Compal that you can get from many other laptop shops, like xoticpc.com, powernotebooks.com etc.

Quote: I shopped a while for laptop, and it's not easy. If you want a gamer laptop, you want a processor with 6mb cache and 1066mhz FSB, high screen resolution (or HDMI with separate monitor) and a GeForce/ATI video card (no Intel GMA).

I know from experience that Intel laptop graphics cards aren't very good for gaming at all... The one I have on this laptop can't even do hardware T&L...

Quote: Do you have any size/weight requirements? I recently purchased a Thinkpad SL300 for my wife and was quite impressed by it's price/performance and construction.

Just to clarify: since this laptop will be used at/for school, it should be light and have a couple of hours of battery time. There's lots of plugs everywhere, though, so battery isn't too much of an issue for me. Weight might be, especially since it spends about 4-5 hours on my back every day...

Quote: Original post by tstrimp
My first laptop was an Asus G1, it was very heavy

Indeed, its weight can be a problem if you're a catholic schoolgirl. [grin]

Quote: Original post by tstrimp
ran quite hot

It does get pretty hot, true. But remember that this is a gaming laptop, gaming laptops almost always run warm. If you put something under it to elevate it and increase airflow, then that does wonders for the temperatures.

Quote: Original post by tstrimp
terrible battery life.

Well, I'll sort of have to agree with you on this one. You can buy additional batteries with better capacity, though.

Quote: Original post by tstrimp
The screen was excellent though.

It's very comfortable on the eyes.

Either way, the Asus G1 is outdated and you won't be able to buy it any more, so I have no idea why I made this post. [grin]

Quote: Original post by Oberon_Command
Just to clarify: since this laptop will be used at/for school, it should be light and have a couple of hours of battery time. There's lots of plugs everywhere, though, so battery isn't too much of an issue for me. Weight might be, especially since it spends about 4-5 hours on my back every day...

I would try to stay under 15.4" for a screen size then. You'd be surprised how much heavier a couple extra pounds feels after carrying around all day. After owning 4 laptops in the last three years, I've found my ideal size is 13.3". It's the smallest size you can reliably get a dedicated video card.

At this point the only laptop I'd feel comfortable recommending is the SL300. Asus does make some great laptops, but they are very hit or miss, and it's been a while since I've really looked through them to find out what is good at this point.

SL300 review
SL300 Customize & Buy

I nearly got the HP equivalent. It was slightly cheaper, but ran about 20 degrees hotter according to the reviews I read.

Alright, thanks for your input, guys.