Thin "gaming laptops"?

[Alladaskill17]

Please do not say it, I know. "Laptops aren't for gaming".

I am currently on a MacBook Pro from 2008, and really looking into a new Windows computer. I do still need a laptop, however. I cannot get over how much thicker the Windows laptops are (so far that I've looked at) by a large margin. My MBP is ~1inch on the dot. The greatly priced Lenovo gaming laptops I just looked at were ~1.4 inches, Alienware - similar. Help?

The Lenovo had an i7 3rd Gen, 8GB RAM, 1TB+32GB SSD, Nvidia 660M, 15" 1080p screen etc. for $1100. I'm not paying Apple double that for a thinner machine haha. If it were as thin as my 'Pro it would already be purchased.

[grayscale]

Razer Blade. It's freakin' expensive.

[Alladaskill17]

Razer Blade. It's freakin' expensive.

Going for the opposite in the price department :)

[MAkhdar]

I would suggest looking at the HP Envy 15. For around $1200 you can get similar specifications to that Lenovo. If you are going to purchase it use coupon code "NB911" for $150 off.

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/A6U26AV?HP-ENVY-15t-3200-Notebook-PC

[Alladaskill17]

I would suggest looking at the HP Envy 15. For around $1200 you can get similar specifications to that Lenovo. If you are going to purchase it use coupon code "NB911" for $150 off.

http://www.shopping....200-Notebook-PC

Alright, thanks looking at it right now. Any idea (before I google it after looking at HP.com) on their build quality? The only HP laptop I've had was actually the reason 5 years ago I bought this MacBook Pro. That HP did nothing but overheat and crash - constantly.

[instaGeorge]

Whatever you do, don't fall for one of those "desktop replacement" laptops that market themselves as a gaming rig. Dell XPS M1730 comes to mind.

Big, heavy, puts off enough heat to warm a small room, battery life expectancy is less than a year, power adapter that's heavier than most small laptops.

[MAkhdar]

HP has definitely increased their quality. They used to be on the same level as Dell but lately their products are much much better. I even recommend their Tablet PC's to the physicians I work with.

[Alladaskill17]

Whatever you do, don't fall for one of those "desktop replacement" laptops that market themselves as a gaming rig. Dell XPS M1730 comes to mind.

Big, heavy, puts off enough heat to warm a small room, battery life expectancy is less than a year, power adapter that's heavier than most small laptops.

Definitely won't make that mistake, but I am in full agreement with ya :)

HP has definitely increased their quality. They used to be on the same level as Dell but lately their products are much much better. I even recommend their Tablet PC's to the physicians I work with.

The Envy's look REALLY nice, actually close to my MBP (omg sue!), but the only thing putting me off is the lack of graphics options for the Envy's. It is either a 77xx / 78xx from AMD, and there aren't any benchmarks for the 77xx on notebookcheck.com which is where I normally look.

Main complaint, if its 15" (preferred) you get zero room for GFX adjustment and I'd have to downgrade to a Pavilion for GFX options with much old tech (Sandy Bridge as opposed to Ivy etc).

[Ambroos]

I have a 13" Ultraportable with hybrid switchable graphics (nVidia 330M overclocked - which runs most games surprisingly well), 2 SSD's in RAID0 and an i5 ^^ Backlit keyboard, extremely light, 6+ hours of battery life in Intel Graphics mode, 1600x900 full-sRGB anti-glare display!

The Vaio Z might be interesting. It's a little above your price range, but it's basically a 13" ultrabook in size but with a full-blown quadcore, hyperfast SSD, probably the best laptop display you can get (easily beats MacBooks) and a powerful external GPU :D

More interesting might be the Sony Vaio S-series. Available in 13" and 15", they have a very sleek body, excellent battery life and can be configured with a dedicated nVidia GPU!

http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644768015 = Vaio S

[Alladaskill17]

I have a 13" Ultraportable with hybrid switchable graphics (nVidia 330M overclocked - which runs most games surprisingly well), 2 SSD's in RAID0 and an i5 ^^ Backlit keyboard, extremely light, 6+ hours of battery life in Intel Graphics mode, 1600x900 full-sRGB anti-glare display!

The Vaio Z might be interesting. It's a little above your price range, but it's basically a 13" ultrabook in size but with a full-blown quadcore, hyperfast SSD, probably the best laptop display you can get (easily beats MacBooks) and a powerful external GPU :D

More interesting might be the Sony Vaio S-series. Available in 13" and 15", they have a very sleek body, excellent battery life and can be configured with a dedicated nVidia GPU!

http://store.sony.co...552921644768015 = Vaio S

Checking out the Sony's now, I should clarify for all, though I mentioned $1100, I can definitely do more, just not wanting to pay $2000 for something I can get for ~$1200, so I can definitely go to $17/1800 - just want the specs to be worth it haha

[MAkhdar]

Maybe the Envy 17 has more options? Sony has nice hardware as well but they are definitely expensive compared to others and don't have much customization. I used to have one but man was it expensive.. $2500 for a mid-range one the year Vista came out.

[Alladaskill17]

Maybe the Envy 17 has more options? Sony has nice hardware as well but they are definitely expensive compared to others and don't have much customization. I used to have one but man was it expensive.. $2500 for a mid-range one the year Vista came out.

Yeah the Sony's were pretty limited I'm just being very particular haha, and yes 17" is just too big for me. I'll keep looking.

[MAkhdar]

I forgot all about Samsung! Check their site: http://www.samsung.com/us/computer/series-7-notebooks

[neoadorable]

go for an ASUS N Series or S Series, they all have 3rd gen Core mobile processors now, and come with discrete NVIDIA, depending on the SKU. you can get like a GT 650M, which will be ok for gaming. And the S Series is very thin, like 21mm.

[Astra.Xtreme]

I don't have exact recommendations for you, but I'll throw this bit of advise out there. Don't worry too much about how thin or thick the laptop is. The thinner it is, the worse the cooling will likely be. I'd rather have something a bit bigger and not have the cooling fans screaming all day. Just my 2 cents.

I would recommend Lenovo and HP since they both make top notch PCs. Asus also has good stuff and they used to (not sure if they still do) make their gaming laptops with a cooling system that vented out the back instead of the bottom, which was a really really good idea. I'd stay away from Dell. Their stuff is fairly cheap, but they use subpar components and you can guarantee you'll at least need a new battery every year.

[WAQT]

I will recommend a HP DV6/DV7 series laptop with i7 and a Nvidia 6600 2GB, they are by far the best. no heating problems, with battery times of over 3.5hours (in the heat of my city, thats pretty good). Have had the laptop fell from my bed to the floor a few times (while I sleep) working flawlessly. Before this I had an HP ProBook, that machine was a tank!