Best Gaming Computer

[TheWickerFan]

I'm planning on replacing my son's laptop before he heads off to college this year. He's had trouble playing World Of Warcraft and Skyrim on his current one, and there doesn't seem to be a way to fix it without taking the computer apart.

Does anyone know what features I should look for on a new laptop that would be able to play these games without stuttering and support his iTunes library as well?

[ManchestrMorgue]

If you are looking for a gaming laptop these would be my general rules:

The most important thing for gaming is the graphics card. So you would want to get a laptop with the best discrete graphics card that you can find.

After that, you will want a decent CPU (mobile i7 would be good) and enough RAM (4-8 gb will be sufficient).

Screen is a double edged sword. It is nice sometimes to have a really high resolution eg 1080P. However, the higher the screen resolution, the more pixels on the screen, and the more power the graphics card needs to render it in games.

Battery life is going to suffer on a gaming laptop - but that's the price of a higher powered system.

WRT your iTunes library, you will want a large hard drive (or external hard drive) to store the music, and some decent speakers. Probably worthwhile to get a set of external speakers for when this is set up in the dorm room.

For gaming, Windows is still better than Mac.

Hope this helps a bit.

[TheWickerFan]

This should be very helpful. Thank you sir.:)

[Straker]

Heres a decent website to compare graphics cards in terms of fps when gaming.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html

Only thing I would add is dont worry about running games on the highest settings unless you have alot of $ to spend on a laptop.... Also, and I dont wanna sound patronising, but when Manchester says "get a laptop with the best discrete graphics card you can find' what that means is that you need to avoid 'on board' or 'integrated' graphics cards. Even if they claim to be gaming graphics cards they probably wont run much.

[TheWickerFan]

Thanks Straker.:) I really don't know anything about this subject, so nothing is obvious for me.:o

[ManchestrMorgue]

Thanks Straker.:) I really don't know anything about this subject, so nothing is obvious for me.:o

What might be helpful is to find a few laptops that seem good to you and are within the budget that you want to spend, and post some links here.

We could then all have a look at those links and post what we feel are the pros and cons of those individual models.

[Sistinas666]

I would buy a PC and not a laptop for gaming.....

[ManchestrMorgue]

I would buy a PC and not a laptop for gaming.....

Yeah but it sounds like her son wants to take it along to college. So probably needs something a bit more portable.

But yeah, desktops are always a better option for gaming - much cheaper and able to be updated/expanded.

[ImmortalSlasher]

I vaguely recall seeing news that Alienware was making dedicated laptops for gaming. The computer had light up keys. I don't know much about the company. But as mentioned, desktops are far better for gaming since specs change quickly depending on the hottest videogame title for PC.

[Sistinas666]

Your best bet is to buy him a Kindle for portable and a pc for gaming. You can do it for less than a grand that way.

[TheWickerFan]

Yeah, my son thought a desktop would be better as well, but if his dorm room is anything like my daughter's, it would be a tight squeeze.

I wish they made World Of Warcraft for the Xbox or one of the other systems.

[ManchestrMorgue]

I vaguely recall seeing news that Alienware was making dedicated laptops for gaming. The computer had light up keys. I don't know much about the company. But as mentioned, desktops are far better for gaming since specs change quickly depending on the hottest videogame title for PC.

Dell bought Alienware, so now Alienware is Dell's gaming line of laptops.

They do have reasonable gaming hardware in them, but they are expensive.