Portable Fragtops - What You Need to Know When Buying a Gaming Laptop

Provided by THQ Insider via Flickr

As a gamer, its a great thing to be able to bring my games with me when I travel.  Either on a road trip or to a friends house to play some LAN games, having a great gaming laptop is essential to do this.

For the non-technical out there, it can be a bit daunting to go out there alone and try to buy a gaming laptop.  Fear no more!  With a little bit of knowledge and help, you will be able to go out there and buy your very own portable "fragtop".

Get the Right Hardware
The meat and potatoes of a gaming laptop is the hardware in the computer.  The three basic components are processor, video card, and memory.  Now what exactly do these things do?  The processor is what gives the computer its power to crunch down and process lots of things quickly.  The video card allows your computer to render the amazing graphics of your games.  And the memory allows your computer to be able to run more things at a time, without slowing you down.

Processor
At the time of this writing, Intel makes the best processors for gaming laptops.  The Core i series with turbo boost technology is their main gaming performance series of processor.  If you are looking for the best on the market, look for Core i7 quad core, but the lower i5 Series could be a great buy for people who still want decent performance but something a little cheaper.

Video Card
With video cards, you really only have two choices: NVidia and ATI.  Many gamers choose this based on their personal preference, and you will hear a lot of opinions on this topic.  As for the benchmarks, NVidia seems to be ahead of the pack at the moment in the gaming laptop area.  The GeForce GTX 460M with 1.5 Gigs of ram is at the top of the line right now.  This card will allow you to really tear up any game you can throw at it.  On the ATI side of things, the Mobility Radeon HD 5870 with 1 Gig of ram is the top end.  It is a very respectable card and will also be able to keep up with any games you throw at it.  If you don't have the money to spend for machines that have top of the line, you can settle for something still decent and a little lighter on the wallet.  The NVidia GeForce GT 420 and the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 are both great cards in their own right and can run many games at a perfectly acceptable quality and performance.

RAM
As for RAM, thats a little easier to pick.  If you have more money to spend, buy a gaming laptop that has more of it.  If you don't, buy a laptop with less.  I would recommend though, that you do not go with a gaming laptop with less than 4 Gigs.

All the Other Stuff
All the other stuff that comes with the computer will mostly be to whatever you want.  Things to think about in this category are:  display size and resolution; hard drive size giving you the ability to store more; connectors and adapters, things like memory card readers, USB connectors, etc; size and weight; and battery life.  Really all this stuff is to your preference.

And finally, here are some recommendations for gaming laptops based on performance and for the "bang for buck" ratio.  Hope to see you in game soon!

High End Gaming Laptops
ASUS G53JW-XA1 Republic of Gamers 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop (Amazon Exclusive)
ASUS Republic of Gamers G73JH-A1 17-Inch Gaming Laptop (Black)
Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q870 TruBrite 18.4-Inch Gaming Laptop

The Middle Ground
MSI GX640-260 15.4-Inch Gaming Laptop - Black/Red
Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q885 TruBrite 18.4-Inch Laptop (Black/Red)
ASUS N61JQ-X1 16-Inch Versatile Entertainment Laptop (Dark Brown)

Low End but Great
Toshiba Satellite L675-S7048 17.3-Inch LED Laptop - Fusion Finish in Helios Grey
ASUS K50AF-X1 15.6-Inch Versatile Performance Laptop (Black)

Why Apple?

If you are talking laptops, you must include Apple in the conversation.  Over the past decade Apple has become one of the top mobile device companies in the world.  Of course one line of devices that is included in this empire is the MacBook series of mobile computers.

So what is so special about them?  Why not buy any one of the Windows running laptops that are on the market?

What many say really separates Apple computers from its competitors is the amount of detail and engineering they put into the user experience.  For anyone outside of the "ubergeek" realm of computing, Apple has made a highly detailed product that really streamlines how people use their machines.  It really is a very easy experience for most people to just pick up the computer and use it.  Of course, since most of us probably come from the Windows world, it maybe hard to change your way of thinking, but you may find that it is worth it.

Because of the tight engineering, things just run well on MacBooks.  Many people breath a sigh of relief when they first use their Macs because they notice that they just do not crash as much (not that they ever crash, just noticeably less).  Even the software runs much better because of the strict controls they place on developers.  

Speaking of software, anything that can be done on a Windows Machine, you can do on a MacBook.  Although you may hear that many creative types are the people who use MacBooks (don't get me wrong there are great software packages available for this), there are plenty of applications available for personal use, business use and for developers.

Which MacBook is right for me?

There are currently 3 different types of MacBooks now:  MacBook, MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air.  For most general use (personal and business) the MacBook is a perfect choice.  If you want to do more multimedia use and design or development use, a MacBook Pro would probably be your best choice.  As for the MacBook Air, it is a great light weight portable device.  It lacks some of the features common on the other MacBooks (no DVD/CD drive) and the performance is similar to the MacBook.  What do you get in return?  It weighs less than a pound!  This is a great laptop for any traveler, business or otherwise.

If you have any other stories of your experiences with MacBooks, please leave a comment.

Apple MacBook MC516LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop

Apple MacBook Pro MC371LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop

Apple MacBook Air MC505LL/A 11.6-Inch Laptop

Battle of the Netbooks: Dell Inspiron iM1018 VS HP Mini 110

One of the more popular versions of a laptop over the past few years has been the netbook.  These light weight devices are great for casual use, and for people who do not need to carry a heavier laptop from place to place.  Email, web browsing, and light computing are perfect for this platform, but this is not a good choice if you want to do something more powerful (ie. gaming, multimedia, or development).

Today I will be comparing two different netbooks:  the Dell Inspiron iM1018 and the HP Mini 110.

Both PCs have similar technical specs:

1.66 GHz Intel Atom N455 Processor (Fast processor for the size machine you are getting)
1 GB of RAM (Gives your applications plenty of stretching room on a computer of this size)
250 GB Harddrives  (Excellent space to store photos, videos, work)
Plenty of USB ports (Allows you to connect other devices to you PC including cameras and external hard drives for extra space)
Wireless and Wired Networking (Allows you to be able to connect to the Internet where ever it is available to connect to)
Memory card reader (You can connect camera memory cards easily to transfer photos)
Built in Webcams and Microphones (For use with Skype or other webcam applications that allow you to talk over the internet)
Microsoft Windows 7 Starter (Windows 7 specifically for a netbook, runs great and is quite fast for what it does.)
Bother weight about 3 pounds!
Both companies have similar support structures that start you out with basic support and you can purchase to expand the amount of time of your contract.

They also have some differences:


Dell Inspiron iM1018



10.1 inch HD LCD screen with 1366 x 768 resolution
Stereo Speakers
Up to 6 Hours of battery life.
Microsoft Office Starter installed.  (Word and Excel, but does have ads displayed)

HP Mini 110



10.1 inch LCD anti-glare with 1024 x 600 resolution
Up to 9 Hours of battery life


Conclusion


Very similar laptops with only a couple differences, so which one to buy?  Well this depends on you.  Do you need more battery life, and do not care for HD content, then the HP Mini is what you may want to buy.  Does the battery life not concern you but you want HD content (videos, movies, etc) then buy the Dell Inspiron.