General Discussions

I need a new laptop. My current one is beat to **** and can hardly load Winterbells, much less any current system games, even on their lowest graphical settings. Need some advice on where to buy (preferably online), where to avoid, what to get (price preferably under $1000). I'd be happy with a refurb, and have spent some time looking into Link, but it's out of stock. Opinions?

I am so anti-laptop just because once they are dated there is little to nothing one can do to upgrade aside from buy a new laptop. At least with my PC I can upgrade the graphics card when needed. That being said, most of the people I know are happy with either a Dell XPS or an Alienware (of course now owned by Dell) laptop. The major downside is that their baseline product is $899. It also falls far short of the stats your ASUS example had. Perhaps you should shop around Craigslist. Sometimes you can find a screamin' deal from someone that bought something they really could not afford (or did not need) and they are trying to recoup some funds. You could check out this one Link. It is at the top of your price range, but looks comparable to the ASUS system you were looking at previously. Not to mention the fact that it carries a higher performance graphics processor.

Link

You can also Google the model number and you'll probably find the same thing elsewhere where it is in stock. That's the one I plan on buying next when my current laptop goes out.

I would strongly recommend against buying a laptop solely for gaming. You can either have portability in taking it wherever you need it or a desktop replacement but it is extremely rare to have both at the same time. If you want both, then you will have to shell out for the Razer Blade laptop

[Edited by Neo7, 4/16/2012 1:59:13 PM]

I'm not getting a laptop solely for gaming. I'm getting a laptop because I don't currently have one, and I need one for college. A desktop would be extremely inconvenient and not necessary. I just figured it'd be nice to have one that could at least load a game, not necessarily on its highest settings. A better example of how awful my old one was, minecraft ran at around 10 fps. On a good day.
Neo, thanks for the link - that one seems to fit everything I'm asking for. I'm sure I'll let you guys know what happens. I need to get through these last few weeks of college first.

Link
I am not well versed in buying computers or laptops. Why is this laptop cheaper than the one Neo posted, but it has a bigger screen, more HDD space, and a fairly similar level of graphics card?

Bigger screen but worse maximum resolution (resolution is most important factor, not the screen. Note the one I posted is 1080). That's a major sign of a weak GPU. You can just buy a replacement HDD even bigger than what comes with a laptop (they are the easiest thing to replace). Acer is known for shoddy quality with their products as well.

If you want gaming, you have to be looking at ASUS or Sager. They are the ones dominating the market.

[Edited by Neo7, 4/20/2012 4:11:36 AM]