Looking at two Gaming Laptops

[joepunk]

I've been looking at some gaming laptops and a few have caught my eye.

ASUS15.6" ROG GL551JW Gaming Notebook : $749, GeForce GTX 960M 2GB, 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7-4720HQ, 1920 x 1080,

or

Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Series Touchscreen Laptop | Intel Core i7 | 4GB Graphics | 4K Ultra HD : Costco member price $250 OFF, GeForce GTX 960M,

I don't really care about 4K screens. I pay sales tax on the Dell but not on the Asus. I think that will be the bigger factor. I am thinking of settling on the Asus mostly because of the lack of sales tax.

 

[keysofanxiety]

If you're getting either of them, I'd throw an SSD in there, so it's worth considering how much that would be on top of the computer. Crazy how a lot of these gaming computers boast such big specs and then cripple it with a 5400RPM platter.

At least the DELL has a 120GB M.2 as well, so the performance on that one would immediately be better as it's not some pansy hybrid drive with the cache built-in, and should mean you don't need to shell out immediately for Flash storage. Plus the sharper screen would put my personal choice for the DELL, especially if you're not looking to immediately upgrade the HDD.

 

[joepunk]

Wish I could look at both computers in person side by side.

SSD always on my mind.

thnks.

 

[Essenar]

This one is a much better deal.
http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron...448639453&sr=1-1&keywords=Dell+Inspiron+i7559

It's $759, it has Skylake i5, 4GB 960M instead of 2GB (makes a huge difference) and 256GB SSD.

 

[joepunk]

This one is a much better deal.
http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron...448639453&sr=1-1&keywords=Dell+Inspiron+i7559

It's $759, it has Skylake i5, 4GB 960M instead of 2GB (makes a huge difference) and 256GB SSD.

Nice. Looking into it

 

[HotPopsicle]

You don't say what your budget is, but if you can swing it a GTX 970M or 980M is what you really want for a "gaming" laptop. The 960M is a really weak GPU.

 

[joepunk]

I don't mind going over $800 (with sales tax). And I don't mind playing with reduced settings. Been doing that for a year with my mbp. Deals have gone bye bye.

Thanks all

 

[oxfordguy]

You don't say what your budget is, but if you can swing it a GTX 970M or 980M is what you really want for a "gaming" laptop. The 960M is a really weak GPU.

^^^This

A 970M would probably be enough, though, 980M-equipped machines are more expensive, there's less choice, and they tend to be bigger and heavier to cope with the extra cooling.

The Clevo P650SE is a great value gaming laptop, also rebranded/rebadged under many different names e.g. Sager NP8651 or XMG P505 - I actually own one of the latter, after realising Apple are not going to release a laptop with a decent graphics card in it - see: http://www.xmg.gg/#PRODUCTS

This is the spec of my gaming laptop, though it's perhaps a little "overkill":

XMG P505 (re-branded Clevo P651SE) - 15.6"Full-HD (1920*1080) Matte IPS, Intel Core i7-4720HQ Quad Core@2.60MHz 6MB cache, Nvidia Geforce 970M 3GB GDDR5, Corsair Vengeance 16GB DDR3L@2133Mhz , Samsung Evo 850 1TB SSD, Intel Wifi 7265 ac+BT, 180W PSU

 

[joepunk]

Alrighty, 970M it is.
Looked at notebook.net for the quick comparison.

 

[oxfordguy]

Alrighty, 970M it is.
Looked at notebook.net for the quick comparison.

You won't regret it! I can play most games on ultra at 1920x1080 resolution on this GPU!

BTW I also don't think it's worth getting more than a FHD (1920x1080) screen for a gaming pc