Best laptop for gaming

[smokedog]

I'm very short of space at home so a laptop will be very handy. But I also want to play the latest games ie; doom 3, half life 2.

Which laptop is the best for this at the moment? Also should I go for the Nvida or ATi? Cost is not a problem.

Thanks

[NiceButDim]

I gather Alienware laptops are very good for gaming, especially if price is no-object. To be honest though, I'd be more inclined to get a TFT and shuttle PC, as I've always found laptops to be rubbish for gaming.

[csuzw]

I have a laptop for gaming (from Multivision and unfortunately they've gone bust) and its pretty good for games (P4 2.6GHz,512mb RAM,60GB HD, DVD Rewriter,64mb Radeon 9600 mobility,1400x1050 display - ?1000 6 months ago) - as long as you have a desk and get a mouse for it its fine - I don't have a desk and playing it lying down on the floor can be uncomfortable and doesn't help fragging. Depending how much you use the keyboard - I assume not much if its FPSs then the keyboard will suffice. For general typing and prolonged use though I find laptop keyboards bad.

If price was no object I would have gone for an Alienware - they look so good and I would be surprised if they didn't go fast too.

As for NVidia/ATI - no idea - I would go ATI - not sure who will lead the next generation but this one seems to be ATi.

[MartyG]

Laptops are crap for gaming - they're expensive and poor value for money.

If you're short of space, get a shuttle type system and a LCD monitor - the same spec machine will cost far less and be just as portable.

Regards
Marty

[yashiro]

Got to agree with MartyG here for once.

ONLY get a laptop if you need the 'pack in a suitcase' style portability. They're great for typing word docs on the road, but **** all use for owt else.

A small gaming rig will be much better.

[Super Stu]

/nod

iirc, your mobile GPUs are around the ATI 9600 mark at the moment.

Oh dear.

[smokedog]

If you're short of space, get a shuttle type system and a LCD monitor

Got me looking at these shuttle systems? How do they work. Are they just a motherboard with a on-board graphics and sound card? Are they up-gradeable? Want to have a high end graphics card and Intel 3Ghz CPU.

Plus can anyone recommend me a TFT monitor? Would perfer a 19"

Thanks

[Valken]

Shuttle systems just use a really small form factor motherboard in a tiny case. They do come with video on board more often than not but they also let you plug AGP video cards into them.

You can build REALLY powerful shuttle systems

[MartyG]

Shuttle systems, because they are smaller, have less room for expansion in terms of PCI slots or space for HD drives, however, as Valken mentioned most have an AGP slot to allow you to chose the gfx card you want. Some even have an out the box MP3/CD playback ability (see the MSI systems).

If you want a gaming rig that doesn't take up much space, a shuttle system is definitely the way to go.

Regards
Marty

[Siri]

Shuttle systems are just like desktop systems in the way they work, it's just that it's a smaller system and saves room.
They typically have 1 PCI slot and 1 AGP port, as well as onboard sound and video. This gives some flexibility to upgrade, which makes it pretty much better than a laptop for future proofing, although you should take note that some of the more recent graphics cards might not be suitable for shuttle systems because of the strain on the PSU. Even with that limitation, you can easily pick up a card that stomps all over recent laptop technology, pretty much. That and there is a selection of Intel and AMD systems out there, Right up to the 64 bit processors out there.

As for TFT monitors, I'm pretty sure there was a thread somewhere that had some suggestions, a quick search through the forums should bring up something.

EDIT: ok, there's not a lot on it as I expected. But here's one link, anyway:

http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/showthread.php?t=24769&highlight=Monitors

[Daniel]

I don't know much about these shuttle systems. Anyone got any recent review links?

From what i've just read on tomshardware, they seem to be noisy beasts, and pc noise contributed to me leaving pc gaming for a laptop and console. Even with radial cooling and low rpm fans - noisy pcs just do my head in.

[DjSatansfury]

Noisy? dont know where you've got that from

Some of the shuttles are watercooled as well, meaning it would be quiet as a mouse....

[Friction]

I'd have to ask him for the specifics but my brother has one of the latest Shuttle machines and it's a beast!

He's running the same spec as myself in a tiny little box where I have a midi tower case (my choice - I have a bit more space and have more drives etc)

The spec is a p4 3gig HT, 1Gig Ram and a Radeon 9800pro. As far as noise goes it's a very quite machine and runs very cool. As far as I know he only has the one fan, replacing the northbridge cooler with a large zalman heatsink, and still the machine runs rock solid and cool.

Granted they have limited upgrading potential, but if you get a good one to start with they are indeed very very good, more powerful and probably way cheaper than your average laptop.

HTH

Dave

[Daniel]

Noisy? dont know where you've got that from

Some of the shuttles are watercooled as well, meaning it would be quiet as a mouse....

Reading reviews on tomshardware. Not seen any watercooled ones yet, but this review has info on the noise level of the earlier models. Keep in mind that i used to find the average pc way too noisy, and after using a laptop for years, that sensitivity has probably increased. They do look cool though.

http://www.silentpcreview.com/article139-page1.html

And that's 4 months old now.

[Freddo]

Modern laptops are far noisier than any shuttle will ever be.