On my wish list

RivaCom

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Very nice. Let me tell you a tale. Long , long ago, when my son was born. I told my wife that I wanted to get a gaming laptop so I could spend more time around them and not in my office/basement. I said I might as well go big so I didn't have to throw it out in a few years. So I searched(Son was born in Feb. 14th, 2010). At the time other than alienware, there was no big name players who didn't sell boats as laptops. And then one day in march, I noticed a laptop scheduled for release. The Asus G73-JH, this was the top of the line laptop without spending double on a alienware. I wanted a big screen, fast CPU(i7 Quadcore), fast GPU(5870m) and everything else(dual 500GB Harddrives, blu-ray drive, bluetooth, HD screen, 8GB of memory). When I got it, I was so happy it was a beast for all my games, I could install just about half of my steam library with no space issues and I had plenty of room to spare. Fast forward a couple of years, the GPU started to overheat beyond the normal temp, had to send it in, took them about a week to fix and a week to ship. Got it back, good as new and I continued. Fast foward few more years(now 2014 and my second boy was born). Although I love my Asus G73JH, I hate the size of it now, hate that the outdated graphics make newer games harder to play, etc. However some of that is custom to owning a gaming laptop. But I figured i'd give you my cons and pros for it.

+Pros
  • Portable Graphics beast
  • Plenty of Multitasking
  • Cool Designs(Mine was suppose to look like a Stealth Bomber)
  • Nice Full Keyboard
  • Nice HD Screens
-Negatives
  • Heavy
  • The size if your moving it around or carrying it is a pain. Especially if you ever travel, it's a pain to take out and put back into a backpack. Plus most cases/backpacks are made for 15" or smaller laptop, so finding a backpack can sometimes be tricky. Asus had to send one with the Asus G73JH because they knew not many would fit it at the time.
  • Graphics card isn't as powerful as it's desktop counterpart. (this was a big issue as my 5870m was equal to a desktop version of 5770).
That being said, if you can get past the negatives, i'd say go for it. The 970m is similar to the 750 TI desktop card. So compare that to the type of performance you'll be getting out of it. If I were to do it again, I would definately consider what the biggest laptop for the lowest possible price. For not too much more you can buy better/lighter laptops for about $1700 plus any additional options you'd like. http://www.sagernotebook.com/Holiday-Kick-Off-Special/

Or even get the one you want with more power http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00NWE9RPA/?tag=revengamin-20

The 980m is a lot stronger then the 970m. So my decision making would be, since I can't upgrade parts, what should I do? Spend a little more now? or just get a new laptop down the road. Also google other brands like MSI Ghost and Clevo, they have so many combinations that might turn out to be better.

So all and all, not trying to scare you away from a gaming laptop, If I had the cash i'd go for it again for sure.
 
D

Dude

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I have a similar laptop with an 880m, mine is heavier as it is bogged down by all the heatsinks. The 900 series runs much cooler, so they don't need that many heatsinks. I would say this is a pretty good buy, but it's still on the heavy side.
 

Bootscrapper

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Yea i've been rolling that one around for a while now. i wanted one back when it was still the G750 with the 880. and now they are upgraded and are supposed to have better HD screens. The weight of it isn't that big of an issue to me and i found this bag on amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IR79QWQ/?tag=revengamin-20
Supposed to be pretty good. i was planning on getting the 970m version and buying a samsung ssd and migrating the os over to spend less money. but that 980m is very tempting, but in reality i just want it to be able to run the current and very close upcoming games like the witcher 3 on high. I don't know if it is my eyesight but i never use anti aliasing because i can't tell a difference and it just dumps my FPS even on my desktop.

But thank you both for your input it was very helpful.
 

RivaCom

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Like i said, with the 970m , see how the 750 Ti performs on current games on high, if they run ok, you should be good to go.
 

Bootscrapper

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well,, I finally got one today I went with the MSI GT70 Dominator 2293. with the GTX 970m. i just got done setting it up and going through the hassle of adding an SSD and cloning the OS over to it. which wasn't quite as bad as i thought. pretty happy with it so far
 
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poispois

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Congrats.
That feeling of having a new machine it's always so very nice and only the owner knows it. Have fun with it ;-)
 

Famous

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I must say it does look amazing! If I could afford such a gaming PC I'd have it right away, I've heard that desktop PCs are a lot better than gaming laptops but I'm not sure what I think about this? could anyone shine some light on this for me?
 

DubbedNav

Regular
Must admit laptop gaming has never inspired me. If you are on the toilet, tracking around with a keyboard an mouse is like trying to take a pee with gardening gloves on. If you are using it on a desk, why not just have a PC?
 
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