May 12, 2010

Choose the decent gaming notebook

comparison of gaming laptops 



ASUS G73
Sager NP8690
Sager NP8760
Sager NP9280
Processori7-720QM (1.60GHz Quad-Core)
Core™ i5-520M 2.4 GHzCore™ i5-520M 2.4 GHz
Core™ i7-930 2.8 GHz
Video CardATI 5870 1G GDDR5 1024MB
ATI 5870 1G GDDR5 1024MB
ATI 5870 1G GDDR5 1024MB
nVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 280M 1GB DDR3
Screen17.3"/FHD (1920x1080)
15.6" (16:9) Full HD17.3" (16:9) Full HD
17" (16:10) WUXGA (1920x1200) 
Memory
8G DDR3
4GB DDR3, Expandable up to 8GB
4GB DDR3, Expandable up to 8GB
6GB DDR3
Storage1TB (500G 7200RPM x2)
---------
OSWindows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
---------
PriceS$2,551.89 (including 7 % tax) (from mucro)
S$2,214.51 (including 7 % tax) (from mucro)
S$2,447.15 (including 7 % tax) (from mucro)
S$3,490.75 (including 7 % tax) (from mucro)


MSI GT628MSI GT729Alienware M15xAlienware M17x
Processor
Intel Q9000 2.0Ghz
Intel Q9000 2.0G
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM 1.6GHz
Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo P8700 2.53GHz
Video Card
Geforce GTS 160M 1GB DDR3
ATI 4850 1GB DDR3
nVIDIA® GeForce™ GT 240M 512MB GDDR3
nVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 260M 1GB GDDR3
Screen
15.4" WSXGA, (1680*1050)
17" WSXGA+Glare
15.6 " Full HD (1080p) WLED (1920 x 1080) 
17.0" Beyond HD 900p WXGA + (1440x900) 
Memory
4GB DDR3
4GB DDR2 800
3GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
4GB Dual-channel 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
Storage
500GB SATA
500GB SATA
320GB 7200RPM SATA
500GB 7200RPM SATA
OS
Windows Vista® Home Premium
Vista Home Premium
Windows(R) 7 Home Premium 64bit
Windows(R) 7 Home Premium 64bit
Price
S$2,561.58 (including 7 % tax) (from mucro)
S$2,879.00 (including 7 % tax) (from mucro)
S$2,650.00 (including 7 % tax) (from mucro)
S$3,235.00 (including 7 % tax)  (from mucro)


considerations on choosing the suitable model

The above 8 models are the ones I chose according to reviews from forums and magazines.

In order for the SYOG game to run smoothly, I think we need to choose a fairly decent gaming notebook.

As we use the notebook to demonstrate our game, I think first we need to consider about the notebook's screen size. If the notebook is connected to projector to show the game, then the screen size will not be a problem. But If people will the game directly through the notebook's screen, the screen size should not be too small. I think 17" will be enough. But If you prefer a bigger size, I will do some more search.

For the video card, as stated in Appendix 1, though the nVIDIA GeForce GTX 280M has the best gaming performance (as in this January), the ATI 5870 has more pros. So I think the latter should be our choice.

The above 8 notebook models' processors and memory should not cause problem to our game. The Intel Core i7 is said to fit better for video or photo editing, while Q9000 better for gaming. As for SYOG, I think both processors will do a good job.

As our game will be running from web browser, the hard disk storage should not be a problem.

To summarize the above, I think ASUS G73 should be the first choice.

-----

According to comments from Hardware Zone, Alienware notebooks are expensive because they are selling the brand.

And people recommend Sager, which is publicly recognized for its high end gaming laptops. Sager assembles the laptop with parts chosen by the final customers. So the above three Sager models can be customized, i.e., the processor can be changed to i7, memory can be expanded. The storage and OS sections are marked as "---" because the price listed above don't contain these two parts. They should be manually chosen by the customer. Of course, the final prices will rise accordingly.

Sager NP8760 or MSI GT729 can be the second choice.


















Appendix 1. comparison of video cards

Pros of nVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 280M:

  1. Best gaming performance


Pros of ATI 5870:

  1. Similar gaming performance
  2. Uses MUCH less power so more battery life.
  3. Has DirectX 11, and since you cannot upgrade the GPU in a laptop the GPU will have to last you awhile so DX11 is important.
  4. Runs far cooler. This can ensure that no damage comes to your laptop with improper maintenance.
  5. No SLI drivers, which were pretty bad on the laptops not too long ago. Research this one yourself as it might have changed.
(from this link)

(Notes: SLI stands for Scalable Link Interface (SLI), is a brand name for a multi-GPU solution developed by Nvidia for linking two or more video cards together to produce a single output. SLI is an application of parallel processing for computer graphics, meant to increase the processing power available for graphics.)




Appendix 2. images of different notebooks


ASUS G73JH


Sager NP8690

Sager NP8760

MSI GT628

MSI GT729

Alienware M15x


Alienware M17x



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