How long has your gaming notebook lasted?

I'm just curious what the average gaming notebook's lifespan is under moderate to heavy use (3-5 hours a day)

 

2.5 years and still going strong.

I actually am adamant about taking care of my investment...
- regular cleaning of vents and fans from dust (once a month)
- always using it on my notebook cooler
- NEVER using it on a soft surface (lap, couch, bed, etc..)
- always giving full charge cycles for my batter (which keeps it healthy)

"If you take care of your [gaming] notebook, it will take care of you."

 

my last one made it six years (still works actually) my aw is still very new

 

depends on your brand. with sager I expect 3 years without any failure, although I buy new laptops every year.

 

Mine is almost a year now, still no performance breakdowns, or even scratches.

 

Sager keeps sounding better and better to me every time I hear feedback on Sager users.

I do have a question though. Sager makes the notebooks that manufacters like Alienware/VoodooPC etc etc use to resell themselves.

What does this mean to me if I buy a Sager notebook given the problems some have had with the Alienware M15x?

edit: when I say problems, I should have been more specific. BUILD problems (hinges breaking and the screen pops out at the lower corners)

 

My last one, an Inspiron 8200, lasted 5 years and it's still going strong. Mind you it won't play the latest & greatest titles but is pretty good for games like AoE3, Civ3, RtCW, etc.

My current notebook can handle *almost* anything thrown at it (figuratively speaking!) and I expect it'll last me 3+ years. I spend more time & money upgrading my desktop and learn to live with my notebooks for a while.

 

It's true that once you purchase a notebook, you're in it for the long haul unlike with a desktop where everything is easily upgradeable (for the most part if your base build plans for future upgradeability). I'll have that in mind when I purchase a notebook, I'd like for it to at least be viable for 3 years (meaning it should be able to play most of today and tommorrow's games for the next 3 years without it being bottlenecked too severely by the games made over the 3 years after purchased)

 

General rule of thumb is too purchase as much CPU and video card performance as you can at time of purchase for notebooks. RAM and hard drives can always be upgraded later.

 

Alienware don't use Clevo/Sager models anymore since m9700.

 

that might explain why the M15x is so crappy in build.

 

I think you mean since:
- Area-51 m7700
- Aurora m7700
- mALX

 

isn't m7700 one of the clevo models?

 

I got my G1S off eBay ($850) three months ago, it's worked great with few problems. Since I've given it some upgrades, it probably has a few years to go.

I'll get rid of it by the fall.

 

>.> not to burst the happy bubble, but doesn't the g1s have one of the defective nvidia gpu's?

 

Bought my Sager (specs below) in 2006. I don't plan on replacing it till 2009 or later.

 

It might have one, it might not; I don't know if all of the G1S's received the defective 8600m GT's.

It won't matter to me in about a month anyway.

 

Well that's reassuring, one of the things I think about the most with a laptop isn't so much the performance of them, but the heating issues associated with said performance. However I'm glad to see that this forum is on top of things with a cooling guide designed to help your laptop last longer and lower the operating temperatures of the components.

I do want a gaming laptop that I'm able to take to college with me, I'm not going to play it in class, won't even feel tempted to, it's OUTSIDE of class in the dead time between class and work that I'll want to play. Nothing can be sweeter than firing up Oblivion to play while you're waiting to work.

 

I thought you were including Clevo models...

I meant the last models of Clevo that Alienware re-branded.

 

If you look at it that way, almost every computer is defective in some way. Take processors for example. Intel has found 119 affecting the Core 2 processors (starting on page 30 of the PDF). Some can be fixed, or at least avoided, through BIOS updates or other measures, but some cannot. The numbers are probably similar for most other CPU's. In other words, chances are very good you have a defective CPU. But it shouldn't be too shocking. Almost all large software has some errors in it, and hardware is no less complex than software.

So while there appears to be a compartively serious (to other errata) bug in the G84 and G86 nVIDIA chips, it's not something I'm going to worry about unless it is shown later that it is a much larger problem than what can be shown now. There are a lot more people running G84 and G86 without problems than with problems. Thus I don't plan to alter my usage of my 8600M GT - I'll still play games on it just as often, and apply a mild overclock to it for some games.

Oh, and on the main topic: If you consider an Inspiron 1520 with 8600M GT a gaming laptop (7950 and 8700 were the best back then), then it's almost a year and still going strong. No signs that it won't last a long time yet. And I do use it and its power pretty often.

 

I have my Macbook Pro for a year now (July) and I play games almost every night, and work audio stuff during the day. Worked like a charm, not one glitch in one year

 

ASUS G1P, had it over a year now. No problems of any significance to complain about. Hoping to get 3+ out of her (but I would settle for 3 years even)

 

Zepto, 6324W. I've had it since last October, It still runs as well as the day I bought it (better actualy as the drivers are getting better). It's a bit more of a pain than a lot of notebooks as you have to remove the keyboard to clean the heatsinks. I do this every 3-4 Weeks just to make sure it stays cool (being a 14.1" model with an 8600m GT, it gets a bit hot) I expect it will last a while longer providing I keep it that way. I'm expecting a good year or so more of 3-4hrs per day of gaming.

 

the awesome laptop in my sig is being used for about 10-14 hours a day for about 3 months and still rocks

 

My Inspiron 9300 has lasted me over 3.5 years without any failures and still going strong.

 

I've had my Alienware Area-51 7700, with a desktop Pentium 4 3.6Ghz and ATI x800m for almost 3 years now. I had to have the GPU and Motherboard replaced, but that was all free of charge. I believe the motherboard issue is also inherent in this Clevo model of laptop, which was rectified with later models (I think mine is a 700T or something).

Otherwise, by just vacuuming the vents every month or so, it has worked splendidly for three years.

 

Almost exactly one year...

My video card m8600gt appears to have died today. Good news is, I've got a 3-year warranty from powernotebooks.com, and they already said they'd email me an RMA code by Monday. Bad news is: no decent computer here, until it gets back.

 

my dell inspiron 8200 with geforce 4 is 5 years old now. going on 6! i dont use it for games anymore, its my desktop replacement, and downloader hehe, its on 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, im so proud of dell with how tough this super old laptop is!

my vostro 8600gt is doing awesome also, its my other desktop and gaming laptop, i use my gateway for school projects and stuff since its much lighter and thinner.

 

hmm i guess my Old trusty HP laptop with P3 Processor should enter this thread its still running, and can play Delta Force 3 Flawlessly ! its been a ling time now.. maybe since 1998 dunno

 

Samsung R50....
Lasted around 2 years (maybe a bit more). Recharger caught fire and melted into the AC socket....oh and the motherboard got fried as an added bonus....

Due to get an Asus F8 .

Just realised this is my first post, hello everyone

 

I use mine 14 hours a day, 3-10 hours of gaming depending on which day it is (right now, it's about 7-10 consistently everyday).

Still going strong, and it's nearing the 2 year mark. Batteries are terrible though, and a few parts are getting looser.

 

Me 2.
2006: HP nx9420
2007: sager 5791
2008 : dell xps 1730.

 

my toshiba P105-S921 which was one of the first true gaming laptops (equiped with go 7900gs) lasted me more than 2 years and still works perfectly although I'm not using it as much since dell replaced my malfunctioning m1730 a few month ago.

 

I wonder who's Alienware ODM now?

 

Uniwill i believe.

 

Quanta for their M15x and M17x.

 

My younger brother's Inspiron 8200 is 6 years old, has been underwater 2 times and is still going... with a limp.

 

I actually have an 8 year old inspiron that is still running as well. I did have to manually resolder a replacement CCFL though...which took about 4 hours because all the parts were so damn small and I had to solder the wiring together while the screen was sandwiching my fingers. Don't use it for gaming anymore though.

Thank God for LEDs.

 

9 years now.

Compaq Presario
256mb RAM
10gb drive space
Windows 98 SE
8mb ati card

Runs Diablo 2 like a champ

 

such a big different in just 1 year. my 8 years old samsung p-10: p-4 1.6ghz, ati 7500 64MB, 768MB ram, 30GB HDD, 14" 1024x768

 

Well, to be honest that is when I bought it. It was probably on the market for another 1-2 years as I got it second hand.

 

My Sager is almost three years old and has never had any problems. It was on for the majority of its first two years - sometimes it was kept on for months at a time. Great quality, reliable machine, it's the best notebook I ever had.

Its X700 256MB (dedicated) is no longer that great, but can still play some newer games like UT3.

 

Mine is not exactly a Gaming notebook but i game on it a lot... less than a year and going fine...gets overheated sometimes.

 

Well not sure if you consider the nx9420 a gaming laptop with the x1600 (not bad 2 years ago). But during the previous months I've had it on for maybe a bit over a month with a few restarts here and there. It's holding up well, get a bit hot but I try to clean it out once in awhile. hopefully I get at least another 2 years out of it. (I'm undervolting to counter heat problems, been decent so far now)

 

My Hypersonic laptop (based on a Clevo M37EW) has lasted since 2004. It's actual birthday is coming up next month but I didn't receive or start using it until December of that year.

Pentium M755 2.0GHz, ATi Mobility Radeon 9700 128mb, 1gb ram... It runs COD4 at all low but I think I'm due in for a new one. In it's lifetime I've replaced the harddrive and added 512mb and that's really all. Gets hot sometimes, the PCMCIA doesn't eject anymore and the screen hinge is now loose to the extent that if I tilt my laptop backwards with enough force the screen will fall open flat.

Inside mechanically sound though. Gave it a reformat a few weeks ago and now it's humming along like it did when I first got it, sans the ugly palmrest. I also kicked it off my bed last night by mistake, granted it was on to carpet but still. People are right, Clevo build these things like rock

 

I've had my Vostro 1500 since March, with no issues.

I'm replacing it next summer.

 

Hello

1.
I have a Toshiba Satellite A65-S1762, I bought it new, for gaming in the beginning of 2004.
Desktop P4 3.2Gh HT
512 RAM, 1512 since 2006
Sh*t*y Ati IGP.

It was constantly on for 4 years.
Motherboard replaced summer 2007.

2. Alienware M7700 bought it overpriced and not working a month ago.

 

Offficially 1 year old next week...still going strong and was overclocked since March of '08.

 

Lol and less than a month later I spend almost $2k on an M860TU. Good stuff.

 

Oh. A revived thread!

I've had my Vostro for one year and one month already. Still going strong. Although I only started to OC the GPU when I bought a cooling fan for it around a month ago.