Getting to the down and dirty...(text wall)

[rainen]

...of buying a new laptop.

Hokay, so Earlier today I decided it was high time to replace my 4(5?) year old store bought Sony Vaio laptop with a sleek, shiny, online purchased, high powered gaming laptop. Now then, I've done a little bit of work into it already and I've gotten a handle on what I want. What I don't know is if what I'm getting is worth the cost, and if there's any better options available.
Sorry about the incoming text wall but spoiler tag didn't work

• *BASE_PRICE: [+1055]
• ADAPTER: Full Range AC adapter 180W, AC in 100~240V ~ 2.5A 50~60Hz, DC output 19.5V, 9.5A
• BATTERY: 6-Cells Lithium-Ion battery pack 11.1Vdc 4400mAh 49Wh
• BLUETOOTH: Built-in Bluetooth
• CD: 8X DVD±R/RW/4X + DL Super-Multi Drive (NB-FANG-DVDRW)
• CPU: Intel® Coreâ„¢ i7-4800MQ Mobile Processor 2.70 GHz 6M Smart Cache, Max Turbo Freq. 3.70 GHz [+90]
• FLASHMEDIA: Built-In 2in1 Media Reader
• HDD: 1 TB 7200RPM SATA300 Hard Drive [-4]
• HDMI: Built-in HDMI Port
• INVERTER: None
• MEMORY: 8GB (4GBx2) DDR3-1600 SODIMM Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)
• MOTHERBOARD: Mobile Intel HM87 Express Chipset Mainboard
• MOUSE: AZZA Optical 1600dpi Gaming Mouse with Weight Adjustable Cartridge
• MSSDx1: None
• NETWORK: Killer E2200 10/100/1000 Mbps Gaming Network Card
• NOTEBOOK: CyberPowerPC FANGBOOK EVO 15.6" FHD LED-Backlit 1920x1080 Display w/ Red backlit performance keyboard with programmable keys, Built-in 720p HD webcam, HDMI Port, Li-Ion Battery, & Universal AC Adapter
• NOTEBOOK_COVER: Fangbook EVO HX6 Cover
• NTBK_COOLING1: Thermaltake Massive23 LX Notebook Cooler w/ 230mm Blue LED Fan [+29]
• OS: Microsoft® Windows 8.1 (64-bit Edition) + Office 365 FREE 30 Days Trial
• RAID: Non-RAID Storage
• SOFT1: McAfee AntiVirus Plus 2014 [+0]
• SOUND: Supreme HD Audio w/ THX True Studio Pro Technology
• SPEAKERS: Premium Stereo Speaker System
• TVRC: None
• USB: Built-in 2x USB2.0 Ports + 3x USB3.0 Ports
• USBFLASH: None
• USBHD: None
• VIDEO: NVIDIA GTX 765M 2GB PCIe Video (NB-FANG-501)
• VIDEOCAMERA1: Built-in HD Webcam [+0]
• WNC: Standard AW (WLAN802.11a/b/g/n + Bluetooth4.0) Wireless Combo Card Module
• WTV: None
• _PRICE: (+1170)
  
  Anywho, that's currently what I'm looking to buy. I used cyberpowerpc to put this together but I'm hoping to get something that's about the same specs but for a few hundred less.

 

[carnageX]

What kind of games are you planning on playing?

The 765m should be able to play most games fairly decently - I have a GTX 570m in my gaming laptop, and the 765m is marginally better than it, so performance would be around the same.

I can play Skyrim on Ultra, BF3/4 on medium/high, and most other games on high (or customized medium/high settings).

 

[rainen]

League of Legends, Path of Exile, SC2, along with massive amounts of browser usage running in the background (total mem from firefox tends to hover around 600mb for me).

Do you know of anything I can use to start out with a cheaper chassis? I'm reluctant to just buy parts and assemble a laptop myself since I barely know what I'm doing.

 

[carnageX]

You won't be putting the laptop together - it will come assembled already. All you'll have to do is turn it on.

And, those chassis bases are what I would recommend sticking with. They're based off of MSI laptops (just re-branded, essentially), and IMO are the best. They're fairly light (for a gaming laptop), and the biggest thing is the CoolerBooster that they come with. It's a touch-button that you can turn on, that puts the GPU/CPU fan at 100% speed, useful while gaming. I have an MSI laptop, and I turn this on while I game to help keep temps down (one of the biggest challenges for gaming laptops).

You could look into iBuyPower as well. Or just look at MSI's gaming laptops, since that's essentially what they are already.

 

[rainen]

I checked out both sites and it seems like I'll be sticking with what I have, unless I go out on a limb and build my own. In your honest opinion though, is this the best deal I can hope for?

 

[carnageX]

You can't really build your own laptop, unless it comes as a "kit" like that (which I haven't really seen any like that). You can build a desktop, though. As for the best deal... Well the best deal would be a used one .

I got my MSI GT780DX for <$800 for a used one - works perfectly fine. Before that, I had an Asus G73 that I got refurbished from Newegg for also <$800.

But if you want new... then that's probably around the price you'll have to pay (at least $1200 for a decent gaming laptop). They pretty much only go up from there for new ones.

 

[rainen]

Hmm... I guess I'll look into used laptops then, though I don't know if I want to go that route since they only seem to last 3-4 years.

 

[PP Mguire]

A laptop will last as long as any other computing product. Just matters how well it was taken care of.

 

[rainen]

A laptop will last as long as any other computing product. Just matters how well it was taken care of.

Laptops are considerably harder to maintain when compared to desktops... and then of course you have HP laptops (apparently they were all but giving away one of their models because of how poorly built they were around 8ish years ago... guess who's father happened to "find a great deal!" around that time?) but I digress.

I'm hoping a higher ticket laptop will last considerably longer before having its power reduced by wear. The one I'm currently on is at about 75% or so and I'm all but positive it's hardware issues rather then software glitches.

 

[PP Mguire]

Most gaming laptops are easy to disassemble the fan/heatsink assembly for cleaning. Compared to desktops those are a breeze and when it comes to taking care of them that's all you gotta do is clean those 2 fans and make sure it has fresh paste. This decreases the chance of any throttling which would cause hardware slow downs. My Toshiba is from 2010 and still kicking without overheating.