The Best Small/Mid-Size Gaming Laptop for less than $1500
After tons of research I finally purchased what I consider the best Small/Mid-Size laptop for gaming.
Asus A8JS:
http://usa.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=5&l2=132&l3=449&l4=0&model=1373&mod...
I play games on my laptop but do not want to lug around one of those 17" laptops. Unfortunately its tough to find either a 14" or 15" with a decent video card. I came across one of the very few Geforce 7700 laptops available. I have had it for about a month now and despite its pretty plain appearance it completely burns and was very inexpensive.
It came with Vista but I put XP on it for obvious reasons. Here are the benchmarks...
Asus A8JS (my XP laptop)
3D Mark 2003: 10016 CPU: 1207
3D Mark 2005: 4269 CPU: 7394
3D Mark 2006: 2664 CPU: 1694
SM2.0 Score: 1049
HDR/SM3.0 Score: 951
I paid about $1419 and had the company add another Gig of RAM for only an extra $59.
http://1toppc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=A8JS
Just thought I would share this with those of you entertaining the idea of moving to a laptop for your gaming needs.
BTW: Here are a list of games that play beautifully. I don't have FPS yet.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. (like butter)
Oblivion (also like butter)
Vanguard (like sandpaper but still very playable and looks good)
LOTRO (One setting down from Highest quality and plays great)
Half-Life 2: (like butter)
--Ender
How is the screen on the A8? I've read reports of major light bleeding problems with that series. Everything else seems to be pretty nice, inline with the G1 I bought but with less emphasis on "omg HXC gam31ng!!1"
I'm more of a sausage smoker myself. - Yoyoson
XBox Live - PSN: SneakinAround - Last.fm - Flickr
I think the screen is pretty good actually. It does have a slightly smaller viewing angle than other laptops I have used. Mostly the vertical viewing angle. This means you have to sometimes tilt the screen towards you or away from you to get the best view, but it is by no means horrible imho. Coming from a Macbook Pro with the non-relfective screen it is actually amazing how much better the colors look on this laptop. I also like that it is the same resolution but with a smaller sized screen, make it look much crisper if that makes sense.
In my opinion all laptops have a degree of light bleeding, but this one is no worse than others I have owned... Acer Ferrari 4005, Macbook Pro. I have heard the first edition of this laptop used a different screen than the current ones. Regardless this does not seem to be a problem for me.
Thats good to know then. The G1 has some verticle viewing angle problems as well, but the screen does indeed look amazing. If I remember correctly, the G1 also uses LED backlighting. Good to know that Asus offers a pretty good priced alternative to their gaming series that has nearly the exact same specs. My friend also owns an Asus laptop and loves it, they make some pretty solid machines.
I'm more of a sausage smoker myself. - Yoyoson
XBox Live - PSN: SneakinAround - Last.fm - Flickr