What is the most money you'd spend on a laptop for gaming?

One of the other threads here talked about a $5000 notebook PC for gaming. I'm curious about what's the most anyone here would spend on a notebook PC for gaming. I would say if money is no object then of course everyone would pick the max. But more along the lines that if someone gave you a $5000 gift card that expired in a few months, and you really wanted a new laptop.

My vote is $1500. I understand that getting a 17" DTR with SLI and dual HDD options are nice. But my thought is after 12-18 months I can resell the laptop for 50-60% of new purchase price and put that towards a newer one. So I guess in essence I would probably be spending $2000-$2200 on a laptop within a three year time frame, but I'd at least have something recent.

 

I paid £1300 for mine under a year ago.
Not sure if I'd do it again, but I'm certainly happy with the purchase!

 

I'm looking to spend $1600 on one soon (Sager NP8662) but considering the (apparent) build quality that everyone raves about, I think it will be a good purchase. My Vostro 1500 has lasted me well over two years now and spent $1300 on that. It has served me well.

 

What currency are we talking about here?

Current laptop cost me just over 18k in RMB, work out the exchange rate for yourself but I paid for a few extras which could probably have been avoided in hindsight.

 

guess 2000, i spent 1700 on mine i think

 

I spent $1400 on mine a year and a half ago. I'm converting to desktop research/gaming since I'm not moving around for a while.

 

I would spend up to $2500 although I never have...

My Toshiba 315CDT from CompUSA in 1998 was $2000...my Toshiba 5205-S119 from CompUSA in 2003 was $2000...my XPS m1710 from eBay in 2008 was $2000 (just a few months prior, the machine was selling for around $3000 brand new from Dell)...

Currently, I have a m17x configured at $3100 (my 10% EPP discount will just offset state sales tax), but I'm not willing to pay that much for a laptop and I really want the SLI 280s vs the SLI 260s...

And I haven't resold any of my laptops...gave my beloved 315CDT to my father-in-law for his sales business...he doesn't use it now though, and I'm going to get it back from him...my wife used the S119 until she got her iPhone, and now it sits in the closet in its backpack...eventually I will make a shrine in the living room to my laptops...

 

I have spent £550, but did not keep long, as just brought a desktop.

 

I've got about $2250 in this notebook as it stands, but I'd like to say no more than $2500. I'll get an Intel SSD soon enough, whether it will be G2 or G3 I'm not sure. But fully loaded at least I'm getting my money's worth eh

 

I'd go about $2000 and $2500 at most if I can justify the upgrades. But really...if I wanted to immerse myself into a full gaming experience, I'd just hop over to my desktop. 2k is enough for on the go gaming for me.

 

my m860tu was £1,700 roughly $3,100 (rip off britain) but im so happy with my kobalt nexus id defo buy again.

 

With aftermarket upgrades like SSD, CPU and RAM upgrades I'd probably be in the $3K US range.

 

I spend 4500$ for my M1730. Now I am sad that the price went down so badly.

 

First lappy, an Inspiron 8200, cost me about 4k seven years ago. Laptop in sig cost me about $2500 last year. Nowadays that's probably my maximum but I will also expect the laptop to last me 3~4 years.

If I want to keep up to date with games I'll use and upgrade my desktop first.

 

if i had a full time job and no college to pay for, it would be 1500... my current laptop cost me 500 though

 

well...
if in my country the CHEAPEST Alienware costs 3500 bucks...
with those ty configs (for the price)

kinda don't care spending more than 2500 (outside of my country)

 

I only paid $700 for mine and it runs every game out there granted newer ones at min settings, and older ones (Call of duty 4, wow) at mid high-max settings. but hey it was only 700

 

I'd pay maybe a maximum of $1500 USD for a really decent laptop that I could run some intense games on. And of course it would be for everything... not just gaming. That would suit my purposes. If I want to be able to run whatever game on max settings, I'd just build a desktop for less money.

 

I pretty much agree with pixelot. The most I would spend on a gaming laptop is probably around $1500 USD because the most powerful gaming laptops don't offer much portability anyway, either they are too big or have poor battery life. I would rather spend ~$800 on a decent notebook and ~$1000 on a good desktop than $1500 on a gaming laptop, tbh.

 

I'd spend as much as I could afford. Some people don't mind transferring all thier data and programs every 8-16 months so they can stay a generation or 2 behind cutting edge at all times, but personally, I'd rather spend the extra cash once and have a computer last me for years. My 9262 was $3700 or so all told, and I am quite happy having spent that. Oh yeah, and even though it isn't that portable, it's still good enough for gaming on short commutes to friends' houses etc, and I definitely couldn't sit a desktop on the coffee table in front of the TV.

 

~$2000. I learned my lesson though. Never again will I spend a ridiculous amount for mobile gaming.

Powerhouse desktop, big 24" screen, full surround sound and a comfy chair in my castle. That's what I'll be sticking with now

 

I wouldn't call a £550 laptop a "gaming" laptop

 

Yup, I as well, spent the same amount and got probably 3 or four times the performance. So if there was a $0 option I would pick that .

 

sometimes, people don't have enough space

 

my laptop was 600 bucks and i game on it. if it can run all modern games and you use it to do so its a gaming laptop. it doesnt need to run every game at max.

 

USD, considering it is the de facto currency around here.

$2K sounds about right for myself. This is the final cost and pretty typical for a machine which a gamer would spend considerable time in front of. Entertainment knows no bounds.

 

When I bought my XPS1530 I paid about $1600. That would still be my budget if I shopped for a laptop today.

 

Its a catch 22 mate, if i had the money then id spend as much as i needed to get the machine i required, of course i dont have unlimited funds, so i couldnt buy my dream machine......yet

 

This is true. My previous laptop was a Dell Latitude D610 with a 1.86GHz Pentium-M and a ATI X300 with a whopping 64MB VRAM. That used to be my 'gaming machine', and did it's job for at least 2 years.

 

I spent $1200 on my Gateway and I think it was worth it. I think the most I would spend is about $3,000, above that it just doesn't seem like it's worth the money based on some of the laptops out now, you can get a very good lappy in the $2500 -$3000 range.

 

Obviously ~$3k, but it's worth it to me. Being deployed, constantly on the move, and having to go in the field, a notebook (even a "big" one) is much more convenient and useful than a desktop. In 3 years when I'm out of the Army and my notebook is obsolete, I probably won't buy another powerhouse, but until then, I'm glad with my decision.

Anyone that wants to comment:
1) coulda bought a desktop
2) could have bought more practical things
3) ZOMG, anything heavier than 8lbs is a desktop anyways, so why didn't you just go buy a real desktop?

Is epic fail in my book and loses all respect.

 

I myself made the jump from a Vostro 1500 -> M860TU, and it was well worth it. The V1500 was the best built notebook I'd owned, and the Clevo definitely did not disappoint.

As to the question, I'll spend around $1750 on my next 15.4" gaming notebook.

EDIT: I'd like to add that, with my lifestyle, the cheaper desktop just isn't an option.

 

3 years ago, my parents bought me a refurb 17" HP with Core Duo and Geforce Go 7600 for $750, which lasted over 2 years for gaming. Nowadays, I would probably spend $700-$1300 for a new 15.4"-15.6" gaming notebook, considering I have a gaming desktop already.

 

When I consider the enjoyment I have got from my new laptop, I can't really put a price on that. Some things are more important than money.

 

i sped 1300 $ on my acer aspire 8930g and it worth it.

 

Probably 2k since at any point above that, I'd be better off saving the money and the gains would be relatively minimal.