Recommendations for a Laptop

I am looking for a Gaming Rig Laptop (4GB Mem, Beefy Video Card, the works). Kinda of browsing around and was curious to see if anyone had any good suggestions. Dell HP Alienware etc. Anyone know a good brand to start with? I build all of my PC's from scrap, but that can't be done for a laptop(?). Any help is appreciated.

alienware are overrated pieces of shit, I speak from experience. Paid about 3x too much for a PC and piece by piece it shit the bed way too soon.

Alienware is extremely overpriced. I know a guy who got one because he had cash to burn but the thing ended up being a huge, hot, paperweight.

So no alienware. KNow any sites where you can custom build a laptop rig?

Not anymore. You can't really customize much anyway. You're going to get a DVD burner by default, and the CPU + GPU + Screen size will be the main chunk of your price, and those are pretty much set to spec.

The most you can usually do is change the memory, get built-in bluetooth, and maybe some apps.

You might want to give alienware a call. I hear they give discounts for prop 8 supporters. Its a rebate they never mention and only send in the mail 28 business days after your payment has cleared so you might want to keep that in mind.

I have done a lot of research into this as I am planning to replace my desktop with a gaming laptop sometime next year.

First off, abandon the idea of building your own from a bare-bones system or parts to save money. Three reasons:

1) abysmal industry standardization practices aimed at forcing you to purchase an entire system rather than upgrading
2) heat, power, and space issues that require actual design engineers and not fools like me poking around with a screwdriver
3) factory assembly methods that preclude do-it-yourself (card soldering and custom PCB packaging)

All of the boutique gaming laptop brands are built from a handful of stock laptop frames. You can often find very similar laptops at various sites. For example, I have been considering an SLI laptop rig from 4 different vendors. All of them use the Clevo D901C laptop as their base and then just slap their name brand on it after juicing it up with whatever config you specify. Understanding the underlying brands and models among these vendors will help you get a better price. I agree with PB that Alienware is a rip-off. Incidentally, Alienware is owned by Dell as their "elite" brand since about 1-2 years ago. XPS notebooks are nice and you will get better customer service if it dies, but they are probably not as powerful as some of Alienware's offerings...no sense competing with yourself I guess. Here are some others to try.

avadirect.com
cyberpowerpc.com (checkout coupon SMARTCOMPU, save 5%)
sagernotebook.com

For my personal choice of laptops, the lowest price on any particular base model tends to bounce around between avadirect and cyberpower for best price. The price of high end mobile video cards is jumping around a lot right now as new models keep coming out. Any desktop replacement laptop you buy with respectable performance is going to run very hot and have shit battery life. Resign yourself to this now if you're in it for performance. Personally, I want the freedom to play wow from any room in my house or in a hotel while I'm on business travel, so frying my balls trying to watch a DVD in the car or write a report on a plane is of secondary concern to me. That said, invest in a laptop cooling pad to reside at the computer's resting place. Better heat dissipation will always result in longer equipment life.

This is what I bought and I'm very satisfied, I found Amazon to be the cheapest at the time, (yes even cheaper than newegg), but you can search around. Keep in mind at 17" it's not really a notebook that you carry everywhere with you, more of a portable gaming rig you move around the house as needed.

http://www.amazon.com/Pavilion-DV7-1020US-Laptop-Processor-Premium/dp/B001BAWK4W/ref=pe_28490_10378070_as_img_5/

I found amazon very easy to see a wide selection of laptops, discard those that didn't meet my criteria and then take the names and go direct to the manufacturer website or even google them and check prices. Also, at the time I did next day shipping for like $12 and had it in hand 2-days later.

Bluray? Really?

screen res is a bit low, but for a laptop with blue-ray that is freaking cheap.

http://www.amazon.com/Pavilion-DV9922US-Laptop-Processor-Premium/dp/B001B0SO56/ref=br_lf_m_1000259631_1_3_ttl?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=pc&pf_rd_p=424687901&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_t=1401&pf_rd_i=1000259631&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=07AETQVV3R09X5WM86Y4

Same thing with an AMD and lower vid card for $200 cheaper.

What games have you been playing, Malaese?

Thanks for the info guys. You also answered some concerns that I had Grakk, no-name sites selling what seemed to be the same barebones systems tweaked up their own way with their labal attached to it.

Comotosis wrote:

What games have you been playing, Malaese?

I just started playing Atlantica Online. It's a free game that is holding my interest for a week and a half.
You have a main character and then you travel with mercenaries that level and gear up with you. Overland
travel is normal MMORPG style but when you encounter a monster it switches to turn based with formations,
very much like FF style. It has PvP arena, guilds which can control cities and set tax rate on services.
It does have micro payment items you can buy off the website, but I've not really seen then need for
them yet.

Doesn't make the no-name sites bad necessarily. They are after all going after the same platforms so there's something to be said for them.
I just wouldn't expect customer service worth a shit. Overhead for a support contract in India is clearly not their priority at those prices.