Originally posted by monarc333

Thats exactly it. I'll be using it in hotel rooms. I have another work laptop, which is just for work. For security reasons I cant load unapproved software on it. But, when Im done with the days work, and I wanna lay down on my bed and kill things with my sword, I def want a good gaming laptop for that. I have a feeling that what I'm looking for is going to cost me more than I thought. Having a reliable and fairly powerful rig, which is easy to travel with, is a tough find im sure.

hum...  actually you wont be using your "gaming" laptop on the bed cuz your comforter might catch on fire from the amount of heat put out by your laptop:D  

earlier i asked about your work computer and refered to "security", what i mean is are you able to use your own laptop for work and just not even bring the work laptop with you?   IF there are some specialized software/encryption for your work laptop, then thats one thing.  but if you are only using stuff like microsoft office or some "normal" software like putty or something that isnt proprietary to your company, you can easily use your own machine and just bring 1 laptop for your travels.  it's alot easier to bring 1 laptop then 2 when you travel alot. 

Llano laptops actually has enough battery power to be used as a work machine even tho it has enough power to play games as well.  that would be something to consider if you are able to use your own machine instead of bringing your work machine.

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Originally posted by Catamount

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Originally posted by psyclum

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Originally posted by bezado


Pretty soon you wont need to answer these questions on portable game laptops or best game laptops, because the future isn't about how powerful your laptop is. Currently Microsoft and other partners are gearing for the best thing since the internet arrived, with CLOUD. Cloud will be able to use any notebook, laptop, or ipad type of devices and allow you to play any game you want with any level of graphical detail. The system works by you playing the games through a server that does all the graphics and cpu processing. I think it will be the future of gaming. Currently they can play some pretty high end games with no lose in quality on these devices. So we might see this in a year or two with any luck.

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you are either seriously overestimating the capability of what cloud can deliver or seriously underestimating the bandwidth requirements of cloud gaming:)

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To say nothing for the latency inherent to cloud gaming.
I don't know about anyone else, but I frankly don't like having 100ms of latency tacked onto my control of a game.
 
It also takes a lot of bandwidth, as has been mentioned, Getting even a lousy 720P image takes 3mbps, so what does it take to get a decent one, or a decent 1080P image? I'd have to beef up my internet considerably to get decent image quality, and by that point, I'm paying the cost of a gaming machine every year. Further, I could forget using it at any place but home.
 
Of course, let's not forget game selection. 100 games (Onlive's selection) sounds nice, but what if I want to play more? That means more licensing from the cloud-based company which means more $$$ per customer/month. Even then, you'll never have access to all games. Netflix has a HUUUGE selection of streaming movies and shows, but does it even come close to being everything? I don't want all my friends getting into a game, only to say "sorry guys, Onlive doesn't have it". Right now, Onlive really has a pretty lousy selection. Want to play Battlefield BC2? CoD 6? Starcraft II? WoW? Rift? Left 4 Dead 1/2? Ruse? World of Tanks? Sorry, not luck for you.
If they do want to add all that in, again, that's more money for licensing, so the cost will hike rapidly, so they'd either have to start changing per game per month ($$$), hike the overall monthly fee ($$$), or just keep it to a small selection. I'm not sure which would be less objectionable.

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You guys are all trying to show why it would not work. All I am saying is what MS has said on an interview. I never said that everyone would have the capability of using it I said it's the future of gaming. MS has figured a way in it's testing stages to manipulate things to allow the user to pre cache or whatever certain things to speed the process up.

I don't claim to have the answers, I was merely stating what I seen and then commented on how it will be the future. Just like when HDTV was new, it was the future of TV even though not everyone has a HDTV and HD service. You guys think way to pessimistically, and what I said about technology, it is true it moves so fast so you can say what you want now about this but in the end they find ways, they build upon it till it works. Just like what happened with every other piece of technology, they stated the ideas, launched test beds, and started the process and tweak it out over years.

So think what you want.

Originally posted by bezado

You guys are all trying to show why it would not work. All I am saying is what MS has said on an interview. I never said that everyone would have the capability of using it I said it's the future of gaming. MS has figured a way in it's testing stages to manipulate things to allow the user to pre cache or whatever certain things to speed the process up. 

I don't claim to have the answers, I was merely stating what I seen and then commented on how it will be the future. Just like when HDTV was new, it was the future of TV even though not everyone has a HDTV and HD service. You guys think way to pessimistically, and what I said about technology, it is true it moves so fast so you can say what you want now about this but in the end they find ways, they build upon it till it works. Just like what happened with every other piece of technology, they stated the ideas, launched test beds, and started the process and tweak it out over years.

So think what you want.

Pre-caching streamed video for cloud gaming would require time travel.  I don't see that happening soon, in spite of the recent claims that certain neutrinos travel faster than the speed of light.

This isn't even remotely similar to HDTV.  It's entirely plausible that we'll see more bumps in monitor resolutions, frame rates, and things of that sort.  But simple physics dictates that there are some huge advantages to only having to send signals back and forth a few feet within a desktop computer as opposed to having to send them hundreds of miles over the Internet, especially if bandwidth and latency matter.  I don't see those advantages disappearing anytime soon.

Now, what you can do with services like OnLive will improve as time passes.  But what you can do locally with simple integrated graphics will likewise improve as time passes.  Right now, even integrated graphics in a budget gaming laptop are way, way ahead of what OnLive can do.  And there is good reason to believe that that gap will only widen in the foreseeable future.  Even if you could make cloud gaming more or less work, why would you, if you could get better results by rendering the game locally instead?

Originally posted by Quizzical

Now, what you can do with services like OnLive will improve as time passes.  But what you can do locally with simple integrated graphics will likewise improve as time passes.  Right now, even integrated graphics in a budget gaming laptop are way, way ahead of what OnLive can do.  And there is good reason to believe that that gap will only widen in the foreseeable future.  Even if you could make cloud gaming more or less work, why would you, if you could get better results by rendering the game locally instead?

I think that sums it up nicely.

No one is claiming that cloud gaming couldn't or wouldn't work, just that there's no reason to make it work, when rendering something locally gives you the same thing, only better. Taking a simple system and replacing it with something convoluted doesn't get one anything.

We COULD probably make cell phone calls that travel to the moon and back work, but that doesn't mean there's any reason to expect that something so utterly silly will replace cell towers anytime soon.

Get the Asus G74Sx, but not the one from BestBuy. It has a lower quality screen among other things. It has a 560M and runs pretty much every game I've played on the highest settings with great FPS.

Originally posted by psyclum

Originally posted by monarc333

Thats exactly it. I'll be using it in hotel rooms. I have another work laptop, which is just for work. For security reasons I cant load unapproved software on it. But, when Im done with the days work, and I wanna lay down on my bed and kill things with my sword, I def want a good gaming laptop for that. I have a feeling that what I'm looking for is going to cost me more than I thought. Having a reliable and fairly powerful rig, which is easy to travel with, is a tough find im sure.

hum...  actually you wont be using your "gaming" laptop on the bed cuz your comforter might catch on fire from the amount of heat put out by your laptop:D  

earlier i asked about your work computer and refered to "security", what i mean is are you able to use your own laptop for work and just not even bring the work laptop with you?   IF there are some specialized software/encryption for your work laptop, then thats one thing.  but if you are only using stuff like microsoft office or some "normal" software like putty or something that isnt proprietary to your company, you can easily use your own machine and just bring 1 laptop for your travels.  it's alot easier to bring 1 laptop then 2 when you travel alot. 

Llano laptops actually has enough battery power to be used as a work machine even tho it has enough power to play games as well.  that would be something to consider if you are able to use your own machine instead of bringing your work machine.

 

theres many many laptops to consider when you give as broad definition of what you want.

msi

clevo/sager

asus

acer

even cyberpower

Sony/lenovo

All of these brands have great laptops they sell in the mid range 15.6 inch category.  Although your thinking of using a 15 inch laptop on your bed when a 13-14 inch laptop would be more reasonable if your going to be carrying it around from hotel to hotel all the while using it on your bed, 15 inch laptops can get heavy and cumbersome to move around.

If you think at all going a bit smaller and ligher might be something to look into sonys vaio SA/SB series is lovely choice as well as Lenovos Y470/p460 and Edge e420s series laptops.  I have to admit one of my current favorites though is sonys vaio CA series.   Dont let the color fool you, these machines are brand new high  powered gaming rigs that are designed extraordinarily for use on beds and moving from places.   All of these laptops will score close to 10k in 3dmark06, some closer to 9k but with overclocking of processors most will go to 10k.  They all got sandy bridge processors with dx11 graphics support as well, they will last for years to come gaming all the newest games.

So that was the 13-14 inch market out there, my favorite.  you want 15 though you say, well the 15 inch market is diluted with low cost shooty machines but if you look hard enough you can find something worth getting, I my self would never get another 15 inch machine(I got 16.1 inch alienware from back in the day) well I might but Id have bought all the laptops I listed above before cause there all so amazing. 

One that stands out to me is one of the new MSI laptops that has some nice features like the alienware keyboard that switches colors and also its made by steelseries and put directly into the laptop as a gaming keyboard, so its very uniqie.  Here is the video for that, MSI GT780R.  Also the prodcut page, here. 

There is also the sager/clevo resellers that sell the 8150,  which I have admired before, very stylish.

Cyberpower has some ok machines too Iv noticed.  The only one I would get though would be the xplorer 8500 one with nvidia 570.

IF you feel like going hog wild the best you can get is an x7200 but they start at more then 1500, or close to it with only single graphcs solution.  The asus G series is nice one to, although im not really fan of the stealth figher design or the lambo designs for that matter.  Asus makes a nice older laptop the k42ja that has a 5650 card in it thats nice also. 

Originally posted by eycel

If you think at all going a bit smaller and ligher might be something to look into sonys vaio SA/SB series is lovely choice as well as Lenovos Y470/p460 and Edge e420s series laptops.  I have to admit one of my current favorites though is sonys vaio CA series.  

For the benefit of the original poster, you should note that all of those are fairly low performance as gaming laptops go.  The one with a Radeon HD 6470M is the only one that I'd say is not a gaming laptop at all, but at best, you're looking at about 1/4 of the graphical performance of a Radeon HD 6990M.  Games will still run, but for many games, it will mean moderate graphical settings and not high settings.

Also note that Sony completely disables video driver updates on some of their laptops.  That means that even if the hardware is plenty good enough to make a game run well, you might not be able to get the necessary video drivers, which could cause problems ranging from the game running poorly to refusing to run at all.  That's fine for some purposes, but I'd dismiss Sony out of hand if your intent is gaming.  Incidentally, Toshiba does the same thing.

Originally posted by eycel

Cyberpower has some ok machines too Iv noticed.  The only one I would get though would be the xplorer 8500 one with nvidia 570.

That's actually a pretty good find.  If you want to stay on a strict $1500 budget, then that's probably the highest performance you'll be able to get.  Do note that you need the memory upgrade, or else you're leaving a memory channel completely vacant, which will cripple the processor.  It's bandwidth that matters here, not capacity.  You can also buy your own module for $20 or so, rather than paying CyberPower PC $69 to add a $20 memory module.  You should also switch to a 7200 RPM hard drive.

That is a 17" laptop rather than 15", though.  That will be nicer for sitting and playing games on it in the hotel room.  It will be less nice for trying to travel with it.  That's a question of priorities.

For what it's worth, the GeForce GTX 570M is well above the GeForce GTX 460M/560M/Radeon HD 6870M level of performance, but far below the GeForce GTX 580M/Radeon HD 6990M level of performance.  There isn't any AMD card with comparable performance.  Judging from the total price of the machine, it might be aggressively priced, too, perhaps as a way to get rid of GF114 dies that can't meet the (desktop) GeForce GTX 560 bin requirements.  As always this generation, however, as an Nvidia card, it offers much worse performance per watt than an AMD card.

Was doing some checking today and it seems that cyberpower is the way to go atm. Best prices in comparson to the best available tech. Anyone have good or bad experiences with the company? Do they outsourse their customer support to parts unknown, like some other companies? I'm looking for the anti-Alienware experience, if your familiar with them.

Originally posted by monarc333

Was doing some checking today and it seems that cyberpower is the way to go atm. Best prices in comparson to the best available tech. Anyone have good or bad experiences with the company? Do they outsourse their customer support to parts unknown, like some other companies? I'm looking for the anti-Alienware experience, if your familiar with them.

About 2-3 years ago, I helped an old friend order a PC since I now live about 10 hours from them and couldn't build it myself (it had a Phenom II X3 and Radeon HD 4850), and we had some issues that Cyberpower worked out very competently. They didn't have our CPU in stock, and they were nice enough to call my friend as soon as they found out, only about 24 hours after the order was placed. They left a message on the phone, and when I called back, I immediately got an actual American on the phone (not surprising, I suppose, since it was the warehouse), and when asked for a re-stock date, he had it right on hand, and when asked for alternatives, he was able to rattle off about 5 other CPUs, including how much more or less they'd cost than our selected option, and he offered to change the order right then and there. There was no "well, uhhh, durrrr, I uhhhhh, well, you know... let me just put you on hold for 57 minutes so I can find out".

After only about a day's delay, the machine came in, and it was wired well, with everything securely connected and the remaining cables arranged/placed in fairly logical way so as not to get in the way.

We never had to deal with their RMA department or any other form of support, so I can't guarantee that all of their comany gives good service. I can only say that that particular section of their company treated us very well, with no BS, and that they built this paricular desktop nicely.

Cyberpower builds largely on Compal notebooks, and maybe a few Clevos and the occasional MSI. You can do well with either, but link the model you want first so we can look it up.

Note that the Xplorer 8500 seems to be a real oddball. It's claimed to be based on the "MSI MS17612", but neither Notebookcheck nor MSI's own website has any record of any such machine. MSI's computers are generally good though.

Just want to run this machine by you guys.

Xplorer X-7-8500 Cyber Power

MSI MS17612 Gaming Notebook 17.3" FHD LED-Backlit 1920x1080 16:9 Display w/ Built-in 720p HD Webcam, HDMI Port, Li-Ion Battery, & Universal AC Adapter.

Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM Mobile Processor 2.00 GHz 6M Intel Smart Cache, Max Turbo Freq. 2.90 GHz

8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-1333 SODIMM Memory

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570M 1.5GB GDDR5 VRAM PCIe Video  (only option available)

750GB 7200RPM SATA300 Hard Drive

No Data Hard Drive, External Hard Drive, or USB Flash Drive. Is that a big deal that I'm not including these?

Total price: 1,532.00

Fluff stuff:

Coolermaster Storm Spawn 3500 dpi Gaming Mouse (Black/Red)

Razer Sphex Gaming Grade Desktop Skins Mouse Pad

When gaming on a laptop, is it required to use a surge protector?

Thanks as always guys!

-M

If you later decide that you need an external hard drive or USB flash drive, you could buy it elsewhere--and likely for less than CyberPower PC charges.

For the data hard drive, the idea is that you could have two hard drives.  Probably the best reason to do this is if your main drive is going to be an SSD of small capacity, and then you want a larger capacity for a bunch of bulk stuff on the hard drive.  Some people would get a second hard drive so that they can have more capacity in total, but if you need more than 750 GB, you're probably using the laptop for something that a laptop shouldn't be used for.

If you need a mouse pad, then your problem is probably with the mouse, and a mouse pad wouldn't help much.  There are exceptions for if you want to use the mouse on a weird surface, such as glass.

If you want that particular mouse, then go ahead and get it, but do be aware that you can get just any USB mouse and it will work.

You never "have" to use a surge protector when using a computer.  But it's partially a question of what you want to happen if your electricity supply goes awry and sends too much power.  It's better to fry a $10 surge protector than a $1500 laptop.  The laptop's battery functions as a UPS, albeit without a surge protector as a dedicated UPS would have, so there isn't a need for the fancier stuff.

I tried configuring the laptop the way you said on CyberPower PC's site, and it came to $1478, not $1532.  So I'm not sure where you're getting the latter figure from.

Originally posted by Quizzical

If you later decide that you need an external hard drive or USB flash drive, you could buy it elsewhere--and likely for less than CyberPower PC charges.

For the data hard drive, the idea is that you could have two hard drives.  Probably the best reason to do this is if your main drive is going to be an SSD of small capacity, and then you want a larger capacity for a bunch of bulk stuff on the hard drive.  Some people would get a second hard drive so that they can have more capacity in total, but if you need more than 750 GB, you're probably using the laptop for something that a laptop shouldn't be used for.

If you need a mouse pad, then your problem is probably with the mouse, and a mouse pad wouldn't help much.  There are exceptions for if you want to use the mouse on a weird surface, such as glass.

If you want that particular mouse, then go ahead and get it, but do be aware that you can get just any USB mouse and it will work.

You never "have" to use a surge protector when using a computer.  But it's partially a question of what you want to happen if your electricity supply goes awry and sends too much power.  It's better to fry a $10 surge protector than a $1500 laptop.  The laptop's battery functions as a UPS, albeit without a surge protector as a dedicated UPS would have, so there isn't a need for the fancier stuff.

I tried configuring the laptop the way you said on CyberPower PC's site, and it came to $1478, not $1532.  So I'm not sure where you're getting the latter figure from.

Yea, your right. It came out to 1,478.00. I probably clicked something by accident. Anyways, I'll probably invest in a surge protector. Still thinking about that xtra hard drive. Its only a little more money, and at this point when I'm spending some bucks, whats a few more dollars. Thanks, Quizzical.

Originally posted by monarc333

Yea, your right. It came out to 1,478.00. I probably clicked something by accident. Anyways, I'll probably invest in a surge protector. Still thinking about that xtra hard drive. Its only a little more money, and at this point when I'm spending some bucks, whats a few more dollars. Thanks, Quizzical.

You could just use a portable E-SATA drive to have at home and possibly when you play at a friends place... It is cheap and don't leach battery power while you are travelling.

I have a adaptor that you can slide any sata (2,5" and 3,5") drive in, it is rather practical actually and I have some old 300GB drives lying around that I use for backup, I only need to change drive in it and reboot when I need to change between them.

I also have an Ice box with 2 raided 1,5TB drives in for my desktop...

It all really depends if you need the battery to last longer or not of course, but E-SATA is fast enough to run games on.

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Originally posted by monarc333
Yea, your right. It came out to 1,478.00. I probably clicked something by accident. Anyways, I'll probably invest in a surge protector. Still thinking about that xtra hard drive. Its only a little more money, and at this point when I'm spending some bucks, whats a few more dollars. Thanks, Quizzical.

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If you find the idea of an external to be too cumbersome it's very easy to add another internal hard drive to a laptop later, just pop off a panel on the back and plug it in, it's actually easier than adding a desktop hard drive.

Why do you think you need more than 750 GB of hard drive capacity?  While some people do have terabytes of random junk that they don't need, why would you need to copy all of that to your laptop?  You're not going to fill that much space with stuff that you actually use with any reasonable frequency.

If you want to upgrade your storage, then you could get a relatively cheap SSD (from the CyberPower PC options, 60 GB OCZ Agility 3) as your main drive and then the 750 GB hard drive for the data hard drive.  Put the OS and main programs on the SSD, and everything else on the hard drive.  That's the sort of setup that a second hard drive is really meant for.

Running stuff from an SSD will make it a lot faster and more responsive.  It usually won't boost your frame rates in games, but it will mean you don't have to wait for the computer to respond nearly as often.

Originally posted by monarc333

Still thinking about that xtra hard drive. Its only a little more money, and at this point when I'm spending some bucks, whats a few more dollars. Thanks, Quizzical.

some laptops requires an adapter kit to install the 2nd hard drive into the laptop.  the kits dont come cheap.  just to put that out there so you know.