gaming laptop lifespan

how long do gaming laptops usually last ???
(dedicated video card of course.. and decent CPU)

suppose you use it for gaming all the time

what is the average lifespan

if you can share ur exp, that would be helpful
i've heard they usually die within two years, since gaming is demanding....


any brand particular that last longer??? for example HP ?

 

I would say 3 years if it's a half decent system and is *not* overclocked, or not overclocked often. It wouldn't suprise me if overclocking takes of 12-18 months, but I have no actual data to suggest either way.

It's a really dynamic question you're asking; many factors are important such as quality, how u use it, and even the humidity in your area would possibly affect it (just an example to show how dynamic it is).

 

My dell gaming rig...listed in my sig, is now 2 years old. I played a lot of source games especially TF2. Some COD:MW. And now SCII Beta.

I don't overclock. I also don't write a lot to the hard-drive (like downloading).

But most importantly, my CPU and GPU are still kickin like new.

 

used as directed by the laptop's description
no overclocking..... nothing


just playing games regularly high settings

 

Not sure if a gaming laptop is really much different from "premium" in the terms of life span? Either way I found this insightful, and the fact that 1/5 aren't the best odds on a $1000+ investment

 

Try to remember the markets though.

Acer, Gateway, and HP offer very cheap computers along with their other product lines.. and of course you'll expect those to fail more often. It would probably be quite different if you looked at individual product lines.

Pretty much any computer you buy could end up being a lemon within a few years. This could be due to a faulty HD, for example.. which isn't the manufacturer's fault.


All I can say is: Warranty. Get one depending on how long you want to see your computer working.. it's that simple.

 

I'd like to see similar graph that has Nvidia chip faults taken out. Then it would more accurately show design defects (like bending frame causing motherboard failures), since pretty much 95% of all Nvidia chips will fail in all laptops and desktops they are a factor manufacturers could not count in when designing laptops in the first place.

End-user does not see difference between "used originally faulty parts" or "designed like crap and broke because of that".

 

I don't know if it helps, but my sager np5793 is 2 years old now. It was pretty high end when I got it, and it still plays most games high. C2d 2.53ghz, 9800m gt graphics. I would imagine your lifespan would be greatly improved if you research for a laptop with good cooling. I don't know how the new Sagers are, but my model runs loud and cool. Alienware is typically more expensive, but I hear the build and cooling is good on them, so they could last a while as well.

Since this is the hp forum you could check out the large screen pavilions or envy 17, but there are supposedly heating issues

 

I've still got an Alienware M5550, w/an Intel 2.33 GHz T7600 Core 2 Duo CPU and a GeForce Go 7600 GPU, which I bought new back in 2006. It still works fine, and is certainly still better than many general purpose laptops even today, especially those w/the Intel graphics chipsets.

I'll be giving it to my nephew when he goes off to college this Fall. I'm going to install Windows 7 Home Premium (x64) and Office 2010 on it.

In the mean time I've just ordered an Envy 15 G2 w/the i7 820QM CPU, to replace it.

I've also got a Gateway P-6831FX, w/an Intel T9300, but being a 17 inch, it's just too big, and heavy to carry around.


.

 

As pointed out by the chart above, you can expect about 3 years. But considering the rate of technology improvement, even high end gaming laptops become nearly obsolete in 3 years. They are demoted from premium gaming laptops to entry-level gaming machines. If you don't believe me, just think back one year. How many laptops had quad core processors? Now the i7 720QM gets thrown into all kinds of laptops.

 

yea same thing for me. I had an HP HDX 16t that i bought last year and by June, I already felt it was too slow and under performing. So i changed to the dv7t Select for about 1000 dollars(300 dollars if u count that i sold my HDX for 700).

 

Sighs...

The laptop will burn your pants as of know is history. Oh yes the envy had such high heat in the lower base plate! (notebookcheck: the temps never reached more than 40c they stayed in the middle 30c)

Aside that there is also the myth that laptop will essentially explode in a ball of fire when you're playing. Yes we do have pics in the net showing that eve a netbook can burn itself. This all bows down to manufacturers quality, there are some dell motherboards that simply caught fire, or failed drastically, and those were desktop boards, yes the multi million case, that even the law firm that is defending dell was affected.

So basically, you have to take a look on the manufacturers premium versions or high reviewed series. Those are the ones that will undoubtedly last, or at least have more support.

I have a msi EX 625. it is a middle budget notebook, the thing is that the chassis quality reflects that all the expenses were done in the hardware part. I have, for the people with the envy 15, high temps when playing my cpu comes to 80c+ and the gpu the same (that's a very demanding game Empire Total War) in common use it gets 50c for cpu and for the gpu 40c+

The question is will this pc last? I think so. I have it for now for a year and intend to replace it with another pc next year IF I have the money, if not another year with it.

 

Have a M1710 2.33 Core 2 and 7950 that is going strong into year 5. Played through Two Worlds, Witcher and Dragon Age on it, though at somewhat reduced settings. It may get retired soon (given to my other half) to live out the remainder of it's lifetime, but it has served well.

2 video cards have been replaced under warranty, no cost to me.
Hardrive had been upgraded by self
Orig CPU was 2.00 replaced with the 2.33.

It's done pretty well overall. Remember the pace at which chips have advanced in the past few years has outpaced software. So I'd expect that today's laptops might easily last several years without issue. 6 cores are the next wave and those aren't all that much more power in day to day use than the 4 cores of today. 32nm will give you an extra 15-20% but that's not going to break any software you run (for the most part). What's funny is that few games run as bad as Crysis (even years after Crysis was introduced) and thus a laptop that can run that is likely to be "ok" for game playing for several years.

Add that onto the fact that consoles are stuck in the same gear for the past several years (and they are the basis for many PC games) and you have a situation where the technology of today might very well last quite a while. Look at the improvements of DX9 to DX10 to DX11. I'd hazard a guess that DX12 will make even less of a splash. So if you are in DX11, you have at miniumum 2 years of zero technology change, and quite likely 4 years of games at least continuing backwards compatibility with DX11.

Gaming notebooks are more useful than in the past because of this slowdown. When notebook 6 cores show up, most won't notice the change. SSD's have taken away the desktop 10k drive advantages. Memory isn't needed past 8gb really and beyond 16 is pointless.

So if you take care of a machine and are willing to gradually run reduced settings as the years tick onward, you can get a long, long service life out of a gaming laptop of today's standards.

 

I would like to add that for me a gaming laptop is so wrong in many ways, and sincerely I like people that buy high end hardware, they push the evolution to us people who are more budget conscious.

My current 700 bucks is much more powerful than a high end m1710. For me the mainstream is always the way to go in PCs.

The problem is that people have a measurement contest on the things that they posses, and PCs are....

So for me if you pay more than 1500 in a pc there is something wrong with your priorities. And this is specially valid for desktops

 

I have a Vaio SX-230 that is 5+ yrs old. Works great for WoW, etc.

I have a HP 2600 that I replace the MB on that is 3+. Also works great for WoW, etc.

I have an HP HDX-16 that I currently use most of the time I game on a laptop.

I switch laptops around depending on if I am traveling or not. the HP 2600 is currently the "spare".

So, if you use a cooling pad, or keep good ventilation, they should last for 3+ years.

*grin* HOWEVER...
You will probably want to upgrade it every 18-24 months to keep closer to newer technology.

 

My 17" notebook is almost four years old, and I use it every day.
its got an overclocked processor, but I learned long ago to run it on a cooler pad. I have since day 1 used a pad. This is probably what has contributed to its extended lifespan, and Ill probably get a couple more years out of it before I need to start replacing components/or just replace it entirely.

if you got a gaming notebook....use a chiller pad. The best one I have found is the NZXT

 

I'm curious where these stats came from? If from support calls then I suspect failures after 3 years (or even after 2 years) are probably under-reported on the cheaper brands. Somebody mentioned obsolesence which factors in, but my own experience is that once a PC is out of warranty then the owner often doesn't call the manufacturer when it fails. And after 3 years they'll often just replace it when it fails, possibly without even calling a tech.

 

They come from a Squaretrade study based on reports to them from the extra warranties that they provide (for a fee). I don't question the numbers, but I question the sample selection, because in my experience, Squaretrade warranties are more often acquired on "gray-market" units, such as eBay, or manufacturer-refurbished (and thus often lower warrantied) units, and in any event, I feel that they're more likely to be consumers, as opposed to business users (which would hurt the companies that have separate, probably more reliable business lines, like HP, Dell, and Lenovo). In fact, Squaretrade states that they deliberately assume equal numbers of business, student, and home users for each manufacturer, which on the face of it seems to be an unrealistic asumption. The original survey is here. Our original thread on it is here. One thing that came up later, that I don't think was brought up initially in the thread was that the time period also covers the whole "faulty NVidia GPU" timeline, which would skew HP and Dell numbers poorly as well.

 

I'll grant you that technology always increases. But where you have "just had" your $700 laptop and are gaming the same way a 1710 would, the 1710 has been gaming for years with that quality.

It takes roughly 3-4 years for a laptop costing 1/4 the price to equal (not exceed) the performance. We don't have a lot of generations of these things yet to determine if this progress rate is going to slow, but intuition says it will. So a gaming laptop is a luxury, and isn't necessary in today's age when $1-1.5k will buy a fair amount of gaming power. But a gaming laptop should "hold it's own" for 4-5 years if cared for.

 

Thanks. It seems to me that this fact alone will bias the stats even without the other factors you mention. But I haven't found anything so far that contradicts them so maybe they're fairly accurate after all. Don't see how to tell for sure, though. Again, thanks.

 

The squaretrade warranty survey is practically useless. I have somewhat of a background in statistics . . . no statistically valid conclusions can be drawn from it. As noted, the sample is very biased. No randomness element is involved either.

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That said, this is an older topic but is quite valid.

Realistically, I would expect a mid/high-end gaming notebook (ASUS G73, HP ENVY 17, Alienware M15x/M17x) to last ~3 years or so for gaming. Most of the gaming notebooks I tested years ago would still be decent for today's games. Notebook technology has evolved greatly in the last couple of years, there is less of a gap between mobile parts and their desktop counterparts.

I wouldn't worry about longevity for a notebook purchase at this time. There has never been a better time in history to buy a notebook computer than right now.