Looking to buy a gaming laptop

F

Fjork

Member
I'm sorry if this is in the wrong area but it seemed best suited.

I am looking to buy a laptop for games. My budget is around $1400. I was thinking about getting an alienware m14x that is essentially the middle one on their website and thought I should get a more expert opinion before making such a large purchase. If anyone has any suggestions about what laptop to get or how to build the m14x the best I can on my budget it'd be very much appreciated.

Fjork
 

My Computer

System One

Hello Fjork and welcome to the forums :party:

I'm not familiar with the m14x, but I'll have a look at the specs and reviews now.

Have you considered a gaming desktop at all? Just to confirm, so I can look at prices etc., are you from the states?

The m14x is highly customisable so it would help us if you told us the specs you were thinking about getting :)

Tom
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Build #1
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 3770K @4.4GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77-V PRO
    Memory
    Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB DDR3 1600MHz Low Profile (White)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte Radeon HD 7850 (2GB GDDR5)
    Sound Card
    Integrated on motherboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    23" LG LCD/LED IPS
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung EVO 128GB SSD
    Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200rpm
    2x500GB Seagate FreeAgent 5400rpm
    PSU
    Corsair TX650W V2 (80+ Bronze)
    Case
    NZXT Phantom 410
    Cooling
    Corsair H100 Water Cooler, 1x140mm and 1x120mm stock fans
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Desktop 2000 Wireless Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Desktop 2000 Wireless Mouse
    Internet Speed
    95 Mb/s Download 70 Mb/s Upload
I've thought about a desktop but with my plans for the next year a laptop seems like it'd be better.

As far as specs go, if you go to their site and look at the m14x they have 3 starter options. (like Pokemon lol) The middle one fits best under my budget so I can't really afford to customize it too much at this time. Do you know if you able to buy additional hardware for them later and install it yourself later?
 

My Computer

System One

Fjork said:
I've thought about a desktop but with my plans for the next year a laptop seems like it'd be better.

As far as specs go, if you go to their site and look at the m14x they have 3 starter options. (like Pokemon lol) The middle one fits best under my budget so I can't really afford to customize it too much at this time. Do you know if you able to buy additional hardware for them later and install it yourself later?
Click to expand...

Hello Fjork,

Okay, not to worry, I understand the portability of laptops is very useful.

Lol, in that case, Professor Oak would like you to tell me the specs of the laptop you're after please :p It might be because I'm looking at the UK site, but I can't see these three options that you've mentioned. If I click on View All Options, I'm presented with the Dell customisation walkthrough where you select the various components for your laptop.

I would have to double check that, but I very much doubt it. You can replace/upgrade RAM easily enough in laptops. Due to the compact nature of laptops, the sizes of each components have to be perfect. The only thing you could upgrade afterwards would be:

-RAM
-Speakers (external)
-HDD (internal or external)
-Monitor (external)

A m14x is a pretty good spec laptop and I doubt you'd need to upgrade it to be honest :) It's getting late here, so I'll have a good look at the reviews tomorrow, but I can't really comment without the system specs so it would be great if you could post them.

Tom
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Build #1
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 3770K @4.4GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77-V PRO
    Memory
    Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB DDR3 1600MHz Low Profile (White)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte Radeon HD 7850 (2GB GDDR5)
    Sound Card
    Integrated on motherboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    23" LG LCD/LED IPS
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung EVO 128GB SSD
    Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200rpm
    2x500GB Seagate FreeAgent 5400rpm
    PSU
    Corsair TX650W V2 (80+ Bronze)
    Case
    NZXT Phantom 410
    Cooling
    Corsair H100 Water Cooler, 1x140mm and 1x120mm stock fans
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Desktop 2000 Wireless Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Desktop 2000 Wireless Mouse
    Internet Speed
    95 Mb/s Download 70 Mb/s Upload
Fjork said:
Will do when I get home. I am on my cell phone and the mobile site is similar to what you described.
Click to expand...

Thanks :) Look forward to hearing from you.

Tom
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Build #1
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 3770K @4.4GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77-V PRO
    Memory
    Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB DDR3 1600MHz Low Profile (White)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte Radeon HD 7850 (2GB GDDR5)
    Sound Card
    Integrated on motherboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    23" LG LCD/LED IPS
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung EVO 128GB SSD
    Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200rpm
    2x500GB Seagate FreeAgent 5400rpm
    PSU
    Corsair TX650W V2 (80+ Bronze)
    Case
    NZXT Phantom 410
    Cooling
    Corsair H100 Water Cooler, 1x140mm and 1x120mm stock fans
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Desktop 2000 Wireless Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Desktop 2000 Wireless Mouse
    Internet Speed
    95 Mb/s Download 70 Mb/s Upload
So I went ahead and bought the laptop. I googled around a little and most of specs I could actually get on my budget seemed decent enough. I went with 8gb of ram rather than 12 though and I'm not sure if this was a mistake. Should I upgrade at some point?
 

My Computer

System One

Fjork said:
So I went ahead and bought the laptop. I googled around a little and most of specs I could actually get on my budget seemed decent enough. I went with 8gb of ram rather than 12 though and I'm not sure if this was a mistake. Should I upgrade at some point?
Click to expand...

8GB should be more than enough. What games will you be running on this machine? See what sort of FPS you are getting with these and let me know the results. If your gaming performance is being impacted by the lack of RAM, which is unlikely, then you always have the option to upgrade :) It might not be necessary to upgrade though, so let's see how you get on with 8GB first.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    Build #1
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 3770K @4.4GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS P8Z77-V PRO
    Memory
    Corsair Vengeance 2x4GB DDR3 1600MHz Low Profile (White)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte Radeon HD 7850 (2GB GDDR5)
    Sound Card
    Integrated on motherboard
    Monitor(s) Displays
    23" LG LCD/LED IPS
    Screen Resolution
    1920*1080
    Hard Drives
    Samsung EVO 128GB SSD
    Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200rpm
    2x500GB Seagate FreeAgent 5400rpm
    PSU
    Corsair TX650W V2 (80+ Bronze)
    Case
    NZXT Phantom 410
    Cooling
    Corsair H100 Water Cooler, 1x140mm and 1x120mm stock fans
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Desktop 2000 Wireless Keyboard
    Mouse
    Microsoft Desktop 2000 Wireless Mouse
    Internet Speed
    95 Mb/s Download 70 Mb/s Upload
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