Great Laptop for a ?500 budget - Now Alienware!

[Wools]

I?m currently running a Toshiba laptop I brought back in late 2008 and want to upgrade to another laptop soon.

My Toshiba laptop was brought under duress in PC World, enduring the worst customer service I?ve ever experienced, and was my 3rd choice at the time. My laptop has served me well, but as I?m bumping up against the Hard Drive limit, I?ll be upgrading to a new iPhone in January and seeing my brother buy a new PC, I want a new one!

Now, what I?m working with and what I?m after:

• My budget is ?500 (Can stretch to ?700 but that is the complete upper limit)
• I want the Laptop to be very well made and look brilliant (My current one is made of flimsy plastic and slightly bows on an arm chair)
• I want it to be smaller and lighter than my current Toshiba (No Number pad necessary!)
• Large Hard Drive ? Around 500 Gigabyte
• I would love the Laptop to be able to play Age of Empires 3 & Counter Strike: Source very well

I was originally looking at Dell as they appear to have incredibly well made cases and look really nice in the flesh. However as I have a little bit more money to play with, I?m now considering Alienware.

The Dell I?m interested in:

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-l502x-proc-mod/pd?oc=n00x5m03&model_id=xps-l502x-proc-mod#RatingsAndReviews

The Alienware I?m considering. It looks magnificent with a price to match, but it looks to be worth it:

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/alienware-m11x-r3/pd

Are they good laptops for the specifications I?m after, or can anyone recommend one that meets my criteria?

[Baseley09]

You're going to need a dedicated gfx card to play Counter Strike, this one is over @ ?529

http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-15r-n5110/pd?oc=n00q1534&model_id=inspiron-15r-n5110

[Wools]

So there's no point trying to play games at all with intergrated graphics? ?29 past my budget already!

Thanks for the suggestion Baseley, is the 1 GB nVidia GeForce GT 525M a good card for a laptop?

Also, on 2 of the reviews, one reviewer says it has intergrated graphics and another says it comes with a number pad...

[Baseley09]

Oh yes it does seem to have a number pad, the reviews state all sorts of configuration for this model, seems the one they offer currently has the dedicated gfx card, for laptops its decent there are some benchmarks for the kind of frame rates you can expect from games, its would east Counter Strike alive

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-525M.43889.0.html

'tis true there is no chance of playing games on integrated graphics.

[koopatroopa90]

Think my laptop has integrated graphics and plays AOE3 fine on low/mid settings. Much prefer 2 though so doesn't really matter to me

[Daragon]

The 525m is REALLY good for most modern games, currently sitting in the middle of the road specs wise. Just bought myself a Dell XPS15 with it a few months back. Yes it has the integrated gfx as well, but it will still eat up something like Arkham Asylum on maximum settings and the Crysis games on mid to high

[Wools]

Any ideas on a laptop like the 15R Baseley recomends, but smaller and without the number pad?

If not, that looks very good and might be a contender!

[EvilBoris]

Go here for some good bargains.

http://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/InventorySearch.aspx?brandId=7&c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh

I've got the 1558 and it does the job it needs to. Can just about play crysis if it needs to.


Set the filters to windows 7, 512 and above graphics and 15inch screen and that will get you some gems for around about ?500

[abigsmurf]

I've had a look and it looks like there are Sony, Sansung and Lenevo ones that mostly meet your needs, mostly with the same specs. The mid range AMD fusion laptops (not their netbook ones) may possibly be enough for CS:S but the benchmarks for them are inconclusive. They're cheap and they get great battery life though, Lenevo do one for ?450.

You're going to have to compromise though. You're going to struggle to find a 13" game capable laptop for ?500 with the rest of those specs unless you get lucky with a promo.

[Daragon]

Personally, I'd just keep an eye on Dell's website for another offer on their Alienware M11X

An 11" gaming notebook, will play both counterstrike and AOE3 very nicely without even breaking a sweat. Was on clearance again recently for just over ?400.

[Wools]

Thanks for all the advice guys, please keep it comming!

abigsmurf, where were you taking a look at those laptops, ebuyer?

[abigsmurf]

Ebuyer is generally the cheapest although it's always worth doing a price comparisson (be careful, laptops with identical model numbers can be differently specced)

[FelixofMars]

My GF got a Alienware M11X and I am impressed by such power from a tiny laptop, I guess the screen is pretty small though.

[davek22]

I will throw this one in for consideration. ?400 off rrp, I3 processor and dedicated graphics plus built in Nvidia Vision 3D and 3D glasses included. If the 3D sounds appealing this is a good buy:

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_5745DG_3D_Screen__3D_Glasse_1005709.html

[FelixofMars]

Looks like my laptops taken another nose dive (Asus G1-S) had it repaired 3 months locally but same black screen issue (GPU fault) again today.

I had a look at the MX11 and they have discontinued the cheaper model, So I am joining the thread now for advice.

I have been told the Asus Eee 1215N is a pretty good netbook, and plays Left 4 Dead & Battlefield BC at an average FPS. Not that I would bother playing that much on it anyway but I need to be able to use UDK/Unity. So what do you guys think?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Asus-Netbook-1-8GHz-battery-Premium/dp/B003V4AS4A