Gaming Laptop Choices?

Even for laptops I wouldn't recommend alienware. For gaming I'd honestly stick with a desktop but laptops can be usefull. I don't have much knowledge about gaming laptops but right off the bat I can recommend you either this or this. Both by asus, but both gpus are pretty damn close in either case, though the latter has .5 gigs more vram and a higher resolution (full 1080p) which might make games run a bit slower unless you lower the resolutions in comparison to the former. The latter's cpu also has a slightly higher clock rate as well however. really all comes down to if you're willing to pay the extra considering the former laptop is also a decent one.

Dont get alienware bro, youll end up wasting your money. If you want, id suggest taking down notes of the specs of the laptop and build your own. Itll cose way cheaper and it would work much faster since you chose parts yo want.

Keep in mind however that as rewarding as building a laptop from scratch may be, parts availability is a bit of a roadblock in comparison to a desktop.

If you're not currently buying a gaming laptop then any advice you receive at this point in time will be outdated by the time you actually purchase one.

As far as I can tell, best bang for the buck comes from Sager, Asus or MSI. There are others but those 3 were the ones I looked at when I got my laptop. Online retailers are also cheaper so try a place like xoticpc.com or similar sites.

Yes, you're right but still I wanted to know what might be a good laptop at this point.

...get a pc?

Uhm, I specifically asked for a laptop so no.

Most high-end laptops these days boast similar specs that can run most games just fine. It really depends on other variables like battery-life, screen quality, portability and aesthetics.

Personally i'd go the high-end dell laptops or MSI.

Here's a warning from me:
Don't buy Alienware they only eat your money. It was once a good company but since dell bought them they are just expensive. I would go with a desktop pc if you want some for gaming (I bought myself a laptop 2 years ago and I regret it). My biggest problem, which some ppl I know have too, is the cooler. I invested money into a bigger cpu and graphic card, but when I play stuff like crysis and even minecraft it gets hot after half an our and shuts down. This sucks. Be warned.

Yeah, I'm eyeing MSI too since that was my choice back then... Hmm. Technology sure is amazing, laptops are quite good right now. If I get lucky then maybe in a few weeks or months I'll be getting a replacement. About Alienware, well yeah they are quite expensive. If I can't find any laptop that has a good battery life, then that would be my last option. My laptop's battery life is only a measly 1 hour ._.

If you're looking for a gaming laptop, I suggest either the MSI GT780 or ASUS G74SX. These notebooks are one of the best on the market and although they're $500 - $600 more than your $1200, at least you get them far cheaper as compared to alienware's products when you compare their specs.

If you can't afford the two former, there is always the year-old ASUS G73 and it's other variants. It may not be as powerful as the new ones, but it can still play modern games in a heartbeat. You can find these babies for as low as $900 nowadays.

Never fret on battery life, they weren't meant to last for more than an hour on mobile anyway. There is a reason why they're called desktop replacements.

In in end, it's up to you to choose whatever you want. I just hope this would help you on your purchase.

Okay looking onto that. Hmm I don't really need a desktop replacement that's why the battery life matters for me. It is because whenever I wanted to bring my laptop elsewhere and I can't plug it for whatever reason, I find the 1 hour battery life lacking as one would expect.

Set up a system to swap between the onboard graphics over the discrete when not gaming then? Balancing gaming power and battery life is pretty difficult.

The simplest advice I can give about gaming laptops: DON'T.
"Gaming" laptops overheat and as a consequence have a reduced life-span, cost an arm & leg and can't really be upgraded (or it takes another set of arm & leg to do so).

You're much better off buying a desktop *and* a laptop for work. If what you're aiming for is LAN parties, then you're better off building/buying a mini PC, especially since TFT monitors are lightweight.

(Back in the day, we had to haul CRTs heavier than your anorexic girlfriend. Those days a LAN party was a workout).

Granted I'm a broke Eastern European who'd spend at most 500-600$ on a new PC (whether laptop or desktop), but it *is* possible to make a good buy for that money and later upgrade for 100-200$ as time goes by.

I've heard this lately, and I'm not sure it's the one I'm thinking. Are you talking about the laptops that can switch graphics when needed, or the one where you can use an external video card to use?

@Flaser Thanks for the suggestion but I need a laptop.

Something along the lines of the nvidia's hybrid sli/nvidia optimus technology, in which the laptops have both a standard onboard graphics on the motherboard, and another discrete gpu inside it as well that the computer can switch between depending on how heavy the video task becomes.

Oh so it was that one. Hmm, I think I need to take a second look on that.