Gaming laptop purchase

Hi all, I am relatively new to the whole gaming computer thing so please bear with me! I am looking to spend about $1500-$2000 on a gaming laptop that I can play using just the battery for an extended amount of time than normal ( I will have an access to a plug for most of the day). I have been looking at Sagers NP8170 / Clevo P170HM & Sager NP8180 / Clevo P180HM. A lad in my class has purchased an NP8150 recently and I liked what I saw B-). The 8170 has a 1.5gb 560m as standard, upgradeable to a 580m but the 8180 has dual 1.5gb SLI 560m's. I have researched a bit on SLI and they seem to be much better in fps terms. Here is my dillemma, I have heard that with such big power demand the cpu has to "downtune" the gpu's as the battery cannot deliver enough power to keep them going and in turn leads to jumps or a slight differentiation in the picture? (Correct me if I am wrong). I am not looking for the "best" gaming laptop with top specs, but I am looking for something for one that can play the most demanding games on high for at least the next 5 years without having to pay another cent! What would I be best off going with? the dual SLI's in the 8180 or the 560m in the 8170 or the 580m in the 8170?

I realise I'm asking alot for a newb but any help would be appreciated! Thanks

Is it worth upgrading to a 120Hz 3d screen w/ glasses for an extra 200$? or would i need the 580m for full potential or would the single 560m be adequate?

 

The screen upgrade I would certainly do and 560m sli should give the power needed to run 3d at reduced resolutions. On battery your performance will be affected however just lower the settings when running on battery power you should still be quite happy with the performance you see out of it
As for as future proof, either route really since the sli scales pretty well that it beats out the 580m so unlike a desktop where the single powerful card is recommended I'd go with the two 560m instead

 

Thanks man that helps! Would the single 580m use significantly less/more power than the dual 560's? Doubled with the fact the dual 560's CAN'T come with a 3d screen for the 18inch sager, but the single 560 or 580 CAN have the 3d option? I am trying to mix and match budget as i am getting screwed on VAT into Ireland (400 euro approx!) :-( thanks for the help, i'm in 2 minds over this!

P.S It will be at least 4-5 weeks before i will order as to check for xmas offers or any new innovating hardware! So any-ones thoughts or input is welcome for time to come!

Or would i be best to keep my 3d adventures (screen) for when i get my http://www.expansys.ie/samsung-ue-5...v-400hz-fhd-freeview-wifi-2d-3d-skype-218578/ 3dtv

 

In my honest opinion, the GTX580M just isn't worth it. A 6990M would be your best bet. I wouldn't recommend 560M SLI as it has higher power requirements and micro-stuttering may occur, and it's only slightly faster then a 580 or 6990M, while a good OC'd 6990M/GTX580 might even beat a 560 SLI.

3D just makes my eyes hurt.

 

When you say extended periods on battery how long are you thinking? With 2 GPUs I'd guess you are going to get 30min-1hour of gaming max. Considering the alienware M17Rx3 has a best in class battery and it gets about 6 hours idle but only an hour of gaming just something to consider. Just for some reading, reviewof the alienware skip to the battery test section towards the bottom, and here showing you a basic comparison of a few high laptops and their battery consumption. While I don't know if its current this shows the SLI model getting 45minutes of battery life. Also if you are considering the Sager NP7280 then just be advised that beast has two power bricks ( and they are more or less the size of a brick) to power it.

BTW Welcome to the forums, and don't be surprised if the mods move this to this forum since its a bit better of a fit.

 

Gaming laptops are not really designed for gaming on battery. They are not gameboys. The real point of a high end gaming laptop is to have a gaming computer that you can easily move around and use in a lot of places, but plugged in. They simply use too much power while gaming to run off of battery. I would think with a high end $2000 gaming laptop you would MAYBE get 30 minutes of battery life playing a game; a lot of these laptops are lucky to get 1.5 hours of battery life with all of their power saving settings enabled.

I would only suggest getting a high end gaming laptop if you need to be able to game in multiple locations (plugged in). That is really the only advantage they have, as a $2000 gaming desktop will completely slaughter a gaming laptop of the same price.

 

@Onasi, is a 6990m much better than a standard 560m? worth the extra 280 bucks? I'm leaning towards the 17 inch model with either a single 6990m or a single 580m! I'll leave the 3d for another time! I'm not really looking to pull everything out of the comp so to speak but rather be able to use it comfortably for the next couple of years! After reading up on dual-gpu's micro-stuttering with synchronous gpu's rather than a single one i am confident i am making the right choice, I'm leaning more towards the 6990m although nvidia's 3d seems to be more refined!

@Wildcat11, I was hoping for about an hour and a half or am i being too optimistic? Buying a 12 cell battery or so after a couple of months wouldn't be a problem for me! Also i reckoned the dual gpu's with an 18inch screen wouldn't be great for battery consumption! Alienware are very expensive the equivalent of what i am building would cost me about 2500 euro, 600 more than the 8170 delivered from xoticpc! quite a difference :-/

@Mjolner, I would get a desktop but I am in rural Ireland, broadband here is no more than 1.5mb max :-/ so i spend most of my time in arond college/the city and I'm usually on the move, need a computer that i can bring to college aswell so that rules out a desktop indefinitely!

Here is my final build spec if anyone is interested!

17.3" FHD 16:9 "Glare Type" Super Clear Ultra Bright LED Glossy Screen (1920x1080) (SKU - S1R506)
- Standard Dead Pixel Policy
- 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM, 2.2-3.1GHz, (32nm, 6MB L3 cache) (SKU - S2N224)
- - IC Diamond Thermal Compound - CPU + GPU
- ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD6990 2048MB PCI-Express GDDR5 DX11 (SKU - S3R151)
- No Video Adapter
- 8GB - DDR3 1600MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS) (SKU - S4R371)
- Remove All Branding
- Standard Finish
- 80GB Intel 320 Series Solid State Drive (SSD Serial-ATA II) (SKU - S5R060)
- 500GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache) (SKU - S6R210)
- HDD Raid Settings - OFF
- Combo Dual Layer SuperMulti DVDRW/CDRW Drive w/ Software (When selecting a Hard Drive in the Optical Bay, No Optical Drive is Included) (SKU - S7R455)
- Internal 7-in-1 Card Reader (MS/MS Pro/MS Duo/MS Pro Duo/SD/Mini-SD/MMC/RS)
- No Back Up Software
- None Standard--
- Bigfoot Networks Killer™ Wireless-N 1103 (3x3) (SKU - S8R056)
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- Sound Blaster Compatible 3D Audio - Included
- Basic Black Business Case - Included
- Smart Li-ion Battery (8-Cell)
- Integrated Fingerprint Reader
- No External Keyboard or Mouse
- Full Size Black Aluminum Notebook Cooler - Dual Fans - USB Powered (For up to 17" Laptops)
- No Thanks, Please do not Overclock my system (Overclocking will add 3-6 business days to build time)
- ~Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit Installed (64&32-Bit CD Included) w/ Drivers & Utilities CD's + Microsoft Office Starter 2010 - Included with OS Purchase

 

Sorry if you took that as a push for the alienware, while they are nice I personally am not a huge fan. They just happen to have a really remarkable battery life. Sadly yes I think an hour an a half off battery is probably out of reach currently, if you did get there you couldn't have used the laptop before that point at all, and you wouldn't be able to after, as in your battery would be 100% dead. I noticed you had a notebook cooler, which is a really smart idea but just figure every USB thing you plug in is also going to be a drain on the battery (not too much but if you are trying to squeeze out that on battery gaming time maybe something to consider?)

A 6990m is noticeably faster than a single 560m, a dual 560m however is a much closer battle.

This might be something to ask on the Sager forums but I have heard the 6990m runs hotter than the 580m (the equivalent nvidia card). If it does run hotter it may run your fan(s) more and at higher settings, which could affect battery life. Like you said you have some time to consider and do some research just trying to give you some things to think about.

 

I would go for the single 580 or, even better for price to performance, a 6990 like many have said.

Here's the deal, though: NO gaming laptop will play the latest and greatest games at high settings for 5 years. It's highly unlikely you could even put together a desktop to do that without mid-life upgrades. Now a very high-end gaming laptop from today should be able to run future games for quite a while, but in five years you'll be lucky if a 580m can manage anything better than low-medium on a flashy new game, and if it's a CPU-heavy game, you might even be bottlenecked there.

 

@ Wildcat, No no you're grand man no worries at all! The build quality of Alienware cases even are very strong! I have a near equivalent Alienware for 180 euro more, and I am considering it's not much in-case worst comes to worst and something breaks/gets damaged, Alienware is only a short shout away but having to post my laptop back to xotic would be soul destroying (from Ireland anyway). To keep up with the way games are changing i reckon i would be better off getting a 6990m with 4gb 1600mhz ram rather than a 560m with 8gb 1600mhz, (both equate to within 20 euro of each other).

@gcrussel, i do accept that 5 years is a bit of a stretch, even 3-3.5 i would settle for for under €2000. But would anyone know my gpu/cpu be upgrade-able in an alienware aswell as the sager? or am i doomed to be "stuck" with the same important hardware without getting a totally new machine? e.g if i hold back and just get a standard 560m now would i be able to just slot in a lets say 780m in a couple of years?

I am going to stick to one gpu for practicalities sake! I am aware that some gpu's say (user upgrade-able) alongside the description, would the same rule apply for the same card in an alienware or does construction differentiate with manufacturers?

Thanks for the help everyone! Nice bunch of folks ;-)

 

Upgradeable GPUs in laptops use something called MXM - I believe that it's the connector that plugs the GPU into the motherboard. As far as I know (which isn't very far), MXM standards seem to change pretty regularly, so you'll likely only have a limited (and expensive) range of upgrade options in the future.

I think that Alienware uses MXM GPU's in their 17 and 18 inch laptops, but I could easily be wrong there.

And good call on the 6990 with 4GB versus the 560 with 8GB - RAM is really easy (and typically pretty cheap) to upgrade, while GPU's are at the very least more expensive.

 

As far as I know MXM upgrades aren't really a viable option; its next to impossible to find anywhere selling MXM cards and there are variations even between cards that make it hard to install a new card. You also are likely to need a different heatsink.

Just keep in mind that a $500 laptop and a $1500 desktop will outperform a gaming laptop at both gaming and mobility, just not at the same time. If you can only play games in places where there is public internet, then a desktop would not work, but if you are going to college and have a dorm room then buying a $2000 laptop doesn't really make as much sense as a cheap laptop (which will get better battery life for non gaming tasks) and a desktop for gaming.

 

When I was in college, carting my desktop home for the summer (when I had more time to game even despite working full-time) wasn't an option, so I ditched it after a year and bought a laptop instead. The (potentially oversimplified) bottom line: if you want to game in one place, a desktop is a better investment. If you want to game in multiple locations, a laptop is your best option.

 

Completely agree...

Forget 3d in laptops. There isn't enough horsepower in mobile GPU's to run it right. In 3d, the frame has to be rendered twice which effectively cuts your fps in games in half. The only way 3d would work in a laptop in the more modern and graphically intensive games is to drop the game resolution below native 1080p and drop graphical IQ settings. Not good IMO

*note: I have played around with 3d on a desktop with Core i7 2600k OC'ed to 4.7ghz and SLI nvidia GTX 570's, and it created some cool effects