Dilemma with Gaming Laptop...

Oh damn, you're right. Cost is NO OBJECT! I'm buying the M14x RIGHT NOW!

 

let us know how the haggling goes with the m14x. if i could get one for 1k with a 2630qm i would.

 

I will be sure to report back. I'm just going to be straight with them. Tell them I basically want the laptop, but $1000 is all I'm going to spend (+ taxes) with i7-2630QM and 1600x900 screen (preferably with Intel 6250 but I won't push that point). If they can't help, then forget it. I can get a much better laptop for a couple hundred bucks more. I have the money in hand and ready to order tomorrow one way or the other.

 

Forget it, Dell couldn't budge with the pricing at all, offered same price as online, after speaking with two reps, they just kind of bumbled and said hmm, ahhh, buuuh, sorry. They kept trying to push the 3 year service plan even though I told them I usually only keep my laptops 12-18 months.

Even at the outlet the cheapest I can get a stealth black with 900p and i7 is over $1200 after tax.

Sager here I come!

 

Too bad with the AW they have some really nice products IMO, i guess you need to be lucky or know someone to get price drop from dell : / I know a guy who got me 20% off my AW purchase, which really did it for me. But anyways congratz with the sager : )

 

Do you have a contact? I haven't ordered my Sager yet. Of course with the M14x it's a hot seller right now so they may not budge.

 

If you haven't purchased a Sager yet, PM me for my AW rep info. The rep I deal with may be able to help, as he's helped 100~ AW buyers on these boards get a good rate.

It's a shame with the outlet. If only you had the money 2 days ago when I PM'd you

 

Unfortunately the guy whom i got the discount from is a high ranked director in a big firm that i know personally, so i wouldent see it fit to ask him again. But there is a thread in the AW forum on how to get you´re lappy cheaper. And as Voodooi posted he might be able to help!

 

Thanks to Voodooi, we'll see what they can do. And no disrespect to the OP of that thread, it's no more than haggling with the reps like haggling at a store which I *hate* to do. IMHO it's stupid to give some people a better price than others because someone is inept at their job, or someone can haggle better than others. Just give me your best price and if it doesn't meet my budget, no thanks.

 

I agree, it would be great to get the best prices right out of the bat. But that unfortunately not how it works : / If you have ever been to a place like Spain or such, and at a market you almost HAVE to haggle with them to get the correct price : /

 

Well that's why this is a capitalistic market with fair pricing laws which clearly aren't always obeyed. But I digress.

I'm considering the DV6t again. I am able to get it for about $950 shipped with 2630qm, 1080p, blu-ray, 9-cell battery, 6GB RAM, 1GB 6770m, but have to decide today before coupon expires!

 

you should go to your local bestbuy and see the dv6t in person before buying. and hp is always pumping out new coupons

 

Yeah, I've seen the DV6t. Not a bad looking machine, feels solid, keyboard was decent on the one I tried. Apparently the new DV6's come with the LG 60% gamut 1080p screens with high brightness, so that should be decent. Just debating whether a 560m and less battery life is worth $250 to me if I buy the Sager!

 

After you sell 2 machines, you could just save the cash for as long as you can (until BF3 beta/system req's are out), and then decide what you need/want to buy.

1) You'll be able to buy more tech (per $) since prices are continually falling
2) New tech may be released which could include all the features you're looking for all along...(and you'll kick yourself)
3) You've already got a desktop to play games
4) BF3 might scale very nicely on a low-to-mid ranged system
5) Sometimes summer is more enjoyable without a laptop infront of you

But that's just my 2 cents. Sometimes the solution to a problem isn't always the most obvious.

 

Thanks Waterwizard11. I will still have an Intel ULV netbook, and have considered just waiting a bit to see if anything else comes up with back to school sales coming soon. Although I'm somewhat up to date on what's out there and what might be coming, of course we never do know for certain.

And I may take that route, but I feel naked without a decently powerful notebook.

 

That's a good deal. No, great deal. I'd take it.

Also an fyi: the Clevo 555M is only testing about 10% slower than the 192-bit version.

 

I opted for the NP8130. Too many issues with DV6t like hot palmrest, high CPU & GPU temps (like 90C+), average to bad build quality, zero AMD OpenGL driver support, no GPU overclocking, mushy keyboard, occasional pauses in game. I've done my homework on the DV6t, M14x, and NP8130 thoroughly. The only thing going for the DV6t was longer battery life, which I really wanted, but not worth the other issues. Seems on paper it's a good machine but in reality it just wasn't engineered well. For $200 more I'd rather get a much better GPU and manage my battery life appropriately. I can adjust to using an outlet within 3 hours, it's just having more battery life was convenient.

 

You'll be very satisfied with it. The stock screen is gorgeous in my opinion so you don't really need to upgrade it to the 95% gamut.

Pros:
- Specs / Screen
- Weight / Shape (felt-25% smaller than the G53)
- Build Quality

Neutral:
- Design ...some like it, some don't
- Vents / Heating ...I came from a G73, so I was spoiled with tilted upward vents/cooling. Sager is good in this department, however the vents are not tilted, so you may feel a tad bit of heat, which isn't a big deal if you're wearing pants.

Cons:
- Battery

----

Not many cons at all

 

My last two laptops were Sagers and I've been pretty satisfied, and your neutrals are Pros in my opinion. And I will never use it on my lap. And if I do, I'll use a board or a tray.

And battery kind of a neutral because it's pretty impressive to have a 3 hours battery life with a gaming laptop.

 

Yeah, guess it all depends on the users perspective

"Neutral" is due to me gaming on my lap 100% of the time ...never used a desk ever.

Reason I placed battery life is "cons" is because I'm always forced to find outlets during my summer college studies, which really bothers me, hence my hunt for a second small laptop or netbook (prob. laptop since I hate netbooks lol) with double+ the battery life.

But yeah, it's all about what the user does with the laptop.


PS: You're way too fast @ replying, I was still editing and fixing spelling mistakes LOL

 

Happens to me all the time! I get ninja'd and can't refute that I didn't say that! For me now, battery is more about convenience. I'm not in college, and use my laptop whenever I travel somewhere, mainly my sister's or mom's house. Kinda nice to not have to plug in with kids running around and yanking cords off and such. At home it sits on a desk where I can tuck the cord out of the way, but not so convenient elsewhere. But I have my 12" netbook I can lug along with me too if needed. Gets about 6 hours on battery, so I'm good.

 

Kinda weird. I had no problem shipping off my Sager, but I can't even get myself to put my M11x up for sale! It's a nice small and good performer.

 

If I were you, I'd keep it. Its a great machine, and if you don't stop using it once you get the 8130, then your in good shape. I still have my M11x after I got my M15x, mainly because on battery, the M15x sucks.

 

Thanks for reading about my stupid indecision and plight.

Well, I decided to take advantage of the "no questions asked" return policies of both HP (21 days from receipt of laptop) and Sager (30 days from date of shipment from Sager). I may order a DV6t in addition to the NP8130 that I already ordered, so I can get hands on with them both. Not that anyone cares, but here's my logic (or illogic ): I have my M11x primarily for battery life. Heck I can get up to 7 hours on battery, but it doesn't game with newer games very well, small screen and resolution, no blu-ray, yadda yadda. If the DV6t can manage what I throw at it, I can get a laptop for ~ $300 less than the NP8130, plays games that I want, and get 6-7 hours battery life. Then I can sell my M11x and profit $450-$500 additional. That's $800 additional in my pocket.

Otherwise I'm back to managing two laptops, which is what I was trying to avoid.

I really wish I could just borrow a DV6t for a few hours to get a feel instead of going through the whole process of ordering one and returning a laptop, but that's not possible, so I gotta do what I gotta do.

 

Well you could go to best buy and buy a DV6 there and return it, though it won't have all the features.

 

True, then I could check performance at least. Guess I'd have to confirm that there is no restocking fee. According to their site there is none if returned in 14 days.

edit: seems they only have the i3 with IGP graphics and the AMD A8 GPU versions in store.

 

Where did you find that price for the 8130?

I'm in the exact same situation as you and can't decide between the dv6t and the 8130. I really want a battery life greater than 3 hours (which is great for school), but it's hard to pass up the 560M. And then there's the card switching problem... And HP vs Sager quality...

Blah, indecision.

 

I took a look at the AMD DV6 at Best Buy and was pleasantly surprised by its build quality. Keyboard was solid, screen was actually quite nice (although 1366x768), and overall pretty tight.

The OpenGL issue bothers me a bit but honestly, nothing I do except minecraft is affected, and the HD 3000 IGP should manage it reasonably well.

I just want to see its performance for gaming first hand. Would just like to throw Bad Company 2 on it and see how well it plays. Benchmark numbers don't mean much if there are frequently slowdowns or stuttering or pauses or stuff like that. The 6770m seems reasonably powerful though, but 560m has about 50% better performance in general.

 

I have seen the 6770M overclocked to stock 5850M levels, since the memory bandwith limits the 5850M anyways. I believe there was a guy that got 8.5k Vantage with it, which is like a 460M. Its not much slower. I think it would handle BC2 great at 1366x768, maxed maybe, and at 1080p, it shouldn't be much of a problem either.

 

Problem is you can't overclock the 6770 in the new DV6t with the switchable graphics.

 

Really? That sucks. There goes me wanting one out the window, unless I can find one of the manual switchers.

 

Yeah. The DV6t sounds like a really good machine on paper, but no OpenGL support and no overclocking makes it a real bummer.

I'm not going to bother with the DV6t now. If these problems were ironed out or close to ironed out I'd go that way, but sounds like there's other problems too.

 

I was really considering one too. I may be selling my M15x soon for around a grand, got an offer, but I don't know what I'd replace it with... DV6T really sounded great. Maybe I'll find a cheap M11x R3.

 

Although the DV6T may be an upgrade, the looks and feel of the unit will certainly feel like a downgrade if coming from Asus/AW/Sager/MSI IMO.

Better off paying a little more and not only getting better components, but an aesthetically pleasing feel and design/build.

 

Thats been my problem ever since I got an AW. I can't not get either that, an ASUS or a Sager, because those are the three brands I believe have the best quality. Not to say HP is bad, but it can be, and AW has been more consistent to me... Also, me likey pretty lights.

 

Yeah, I really like the Sager laptops. They are easy to disassemble, almost as easy as a desktop to replace components or repaste your CPU and GPU. You sacrifice a little bit in weight and size, but it also makes up for it in cooling and ease of access. If only Sager made a dockable battery to go in the optical drive bay, I'd be set. I like my Blu-ray, but would also be nice to have the option of six to seven hours battery life too.

 

I liked the old M15x/M17x conept of the SmartBay. You could hot swap a battery, HDD or ODD, and it was perfect. I'd love to have that with my M15x, get 5 hours of battery with a 9-cell standard battery and a 6-cell smart bay. Alas, like no laptops integrate that anymore.

 

Considering long battery life seems to be the goal with every laptop these days, you would think that would be a great selling feature. Plus you could always buy the battery later if you didn't think you needed it up front. Six hours or more with a laptop like the M15x or Sager NP8130/8150 would be phenomenal. I would probably pay $200 more if that feature was on another laptop with similar features as the M15x or Sager NP8130/8150.

 

Ditto. We may see those battery life figures in the future though, without that. I'm waiting out on a laptop with a 560M or better and Optimus. The M17x R3 already gets more than 5 hours through switchable graphics.

 

Well yeah, if some form of switchable graphics (preferably manual switching) was available, you could probably see a solid five hours of battery life, probably more, using IGP. That's the problem at the moment we're in transition to using switchable graphics for improved battery life with the higher end GPU's. But until that time, please give us other options!

 

Exactly! I'm imagining an 8130/G53 like machine with Optimus, 560M and a battery bay for 7 hours of battery. Its definitely do-able too, just, no manufacturer will!

 

I think the problem was with the MXM slot or something. If you want optimus it has to be soldered onto the mobo.

 

No, the IGP has to be wired to the display, and dedicated GPU to the IGP, so everything passes through the IGP.

 

Wow 10 pages...nice! That beat every other laptop thread

 

I just think that this is an untapped market, even if it is a bit niche, but I don't think so. A laptop that can hold it's own with modern games, carry a 6+ hour battery life, sport a Sandy Bridge quad core, 1080p screen and blu-ray and come in under 6 lbs and less than $1000. Perfect if it weren't for the haunting driver issues and hot palmrest.

A lot of it has to do with the pricing. Over $1200 you have the options of the Sager NP8130, Asus G53SW, and a few others with more powerful GPU's albeit less than stellar battery life. Even the m14x comes in over $1200, but only has a 14" 1600x900 screen, no blu-ray even, and only has a GT 555m in the chassis of more or less a 15" laptop. Heck the M11x R3 is over $1200.

 

No laptop is perfect, they all have their flaws, some less then other. Don't really understand how the MSI GT780R (coolest looking gaming notebook IMO) only has a 560m gpu...blow my mind.

 

They all have their flaws yes, but basically omitting or ignoring two API's in your drivers is pathetic (DirectX 9 and OpenGL).

I think that MSI looks atrocious moreso than the G73/G74.

 

I like the ASUS style, but do prefer the MSI. I think that, even though this is a bit if a niche market, it would be a huge seller.