Near superior gaming/cpu performance notebook?

[Diversion]

General Questions

1) What is your budget? $1500

2) What size notebook would you prefer?

a. Netbook; 10” screen or less
b. Ultraportable; 11" - 12” screen
c. Thin and Light; 13" - 14" screen
d. Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen
e. Desktop Replacement; 17"+ screen

3) Where will you buying this notebook? You can select the flag of your country as an indicator. USA

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?

a. Like: N/A
b. Dislike: N/A

5) Would you consider laptops that are refurbished/redistributed? Prefer not.

6) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook? Gaming, video encoding, everything really.

7) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both? Both.. Going to my office and home.

8) Will you be playing games on your notebook? If so, please state which games or types of games? Will be gaming, yes.. I want atleast 1.5 years worth of future proofing if possible.

9) How many hours of battery life do you need? Atleast 3 is nice.

10) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK? I don't have to see it first.

11) What OS do you prefer? Windows (XP or Vista or Windows 7), Mac OS, Linux, etc. Windows 7

Screen Specifics

12) From the choices below, what screen resolution(s) would you prefer?
1600x900 is fine. High color gamut/IPS would be nice.

13) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen? I like Glossy, semi-glossy.

Build Quality and Design

14) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you? Somewhat yes.. I don't like plain brick looking things.

15) When are you buying this laptop? Anytime im ready.

16) How long do you want this laptop to last? 2 years min.

Notebook Components

17) How much hard drive space do you need; 80GB to 640GB? Do you want a SSD drive? 750gb 7200rpm is fine.

18) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a CDRW/DVD-ROM, DVD Burner or Blu-Ray drive? Blu Ray readable/burning Blu Ray would be nice.



Here's the scoop.. I don't necessarily want a 17" or larger screen.. I want a super powerful 15-16" notebook (to keep the weight down some). Alienware machines are extremely heavy, even the 15" model.. So i'm probably not looking at getting one. I will be carrying this around from work and home every day. Also, a docking station is a major plus, as I want to use my existing 24" monitor at home.. Is there a dual-monitor docking station out there?

The GeForce 425M seems a bit too weak... so something stronger than this card is preferred.

Thanks!

Diversion

[tnad]

From what you're describing, I can't think of a better fit than the G53JW:

ASUS G53JW-A1 - XOTIC PC - Republic of Gamers Laptop

but more then 2 hrs of battery life in a top gaming laptop is near impossible. You can buy a 2nd battery if you really need the battery life.

[Diversion]

I don't exactly need the battery life.. it's just a nice fallback, I wouldn't be gaming on the battery anyways, thats a waste of time. Just for casual surfing and the such.

[Diversion]

From what you're describing, I can't think of a better fit than the G53JW:

ASUS G53JW-A1 - XOTIC PC - Republic of Gamers Laptop

but more then 2 hrs of battery life in a top gaming laptop is near impossible. You can buy a 2nd battery if you really need the battery life.

I wanted to add.. This notebook has amazing performance for being a 15.6", yes.. but I actually don't like the 1900x1080 native res because the GPU can't keep up with that res enough in my opinion. Heck, my desktop with a overclocked GTX280 (which is nearly double the perf of a 460M) has troubles keeping up with 1080p gaming content. I would probably pull the trigger on that Asus if they offered a 1600x900 native res... I don't like running anything besides native res.. Does that make sense?

[tnad]

I suppose it depends on how optimized the game is. I can't imagine you would have any trouble running any game at 1920x1080 with a GTX 280. I play most games at 1920x1080 on my G73JW (the 17 inch version of the G53JW). I just sometimes lower some graphic options (but never the resolution) depending on the game. Check this link: Asus G73JW Owners' Lounge if you wanna read about the games that people been running on the 460m.

[Diversion]

Why does a 15.6" have to weigh 8 lbs?

[tnad]

big fans?! It doesn't look like any of the 15.6 inch laptops with the latest video cards (nvidia 460m and ati 5870m) weigh less than 7.5 lb.

[Diversion]

Okay can you tell me what are the video cards that are "close" to the high end video cards that fit into slimmer, lighter notebooks? Maybe super high end graphics isn't going to work out for me.. I really don't want to lug an 8 lb laptop around.. I really liked the 16.4" F series by Sony.. but they are only offering a 425M.. decent GPU performance.. but im afraid it won't last me 1.5 years. :/

[tnad]

I can give you a few links to do your research:

This is a ranking of the latest mobile video cards by performance:
Mobile Graphics Cards - Benchmark List - Notebookcheck.net Tech

The 425m ranks 58. I look more at the 3dmark06 score (6682). Some of the cards above the 425m are not common, so use this list as a reference to see how close the performace is to the 460m or 5870m.

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edit: I believe the ati 5850 card might be a better more common card in laptops (like the MSI GX640-260US at Xoticpc).

[Diversion]

Thanks, Tnad..

Yeah the 5850 looks very strong.. and that MSI is only 5.9 lbs! Too bad there's no backlit keyboard on board :/