Soo

Maruden · May 23, 2011, 07:05:44 PM

after about 8 years of bugging my pops for a computer of my own he is finally getting me one (for graduation)! And I'm trying to find a good one ( I play games I know nothing about the systems tho

). So i was hoping to snag on some of your expert advice

(Not a 100 percent sure on my price range he just said I dont wanna buy crap but im not spending a fortune.. vague

) I'm looking at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152255 but then again no clue if its any good.

Oilslick · May 23, 2011, 07:28:42 PM

I can't speak to that particular machine, but I can state that I have had nothing but very good experiences with every piece of MSI equipment I've ever purchased...whether it was a quad P3 xeon mobo about a decade ago, or my current gaming laptop for when i can actually play from the rigsite.

For the price, i really think their laptops can't be beat right now.

I don't really see anything in the specs that looks as though it wouldn't rock wow easily. It should handle it perfectly well. About the only thing missing as far as I can see is a dedicated number keypad - which is typically absent with the smaller screen sizes anyway. With the four usb ports on that thing, it shouldn't be an issue to pop on a usb number keypad while gaming if you require one.

If you get it, i'm sure you'll be pleased. Another good thing about most MSI laptops is that they tend to be easily upgraded for a few years before rendered obsolete by new technology. Getting at everything is pretty easy, ram, drives, cpu, etc. Even the video cards *tend* to be replaceable if you can find someone to source the laptop sized parts from.

Just as a sidenote, maybe to help you convince pops if he's afraid of the pricetag. I bet the equivalent in specs from dell or dellianware would easily run you 3 to 4 times as much.

Maruden · May 23, 2011, 07:31:20 PM

Thanks Oil ya think I'm a go for this one just need to toss a mouse in there and beg him

Shadowwolf · May 23, 2011, 10:05:26 PM

I cant speak to MSI computers but individual components are good. I use an MSI video card atm and have had boards from them in the past. If they use their own parts, id assume they'd be decent machines.

Lord Entropy · May 23, 2011, 10:09:02 PM

I have good luck buying "new" refurbished laptops. I bought four over the past few years from the Dell outlet and the discount is usually about 40%. Generally these are machines with small cosmetic defects, laptops that were returned but work just fine, or were returned for some issue and refurbished to correct the issue. I think some of the other major manufacturers have similar arrangements.

The downside is that selection and configuration is limited, so you may need to troll the site looking for what you want. Generally, it's taken me about two weeks to find what I'm looking for. I looked at the MSI website and unfortunately it looks like they only make outlet sales available to resellers.

Anyway, it's something to consider!

Maruden · May 24, 2011, 05:03:27 PM

Tossed a mouse/headset/mousepad in there and its about a 1,000 he was kind of taken a back by the price but i will use my almighty powers of love to try and get him to go for it! He said he was willing to spend about 500-600 on it so i offered to pay the rest ( only about 800 before tax/shipping/warranty) And honestly anything is better then paying my sis 50 bucks a month to use hers or this old piece of junk (The comp I'm on currently is like 8 years old

) And did a little research seems to be a pretty decent computer

thanks everyone! Just wish the screen was a tad bigger

Shadowwolf · May 24, 2011, 07:11:33 PM

Is there a reason you are going with a laptop? Because you'd definitely be better off with a desktop for upgrade and longevity honestly. About the only upgradeable items (easily) on laptops is memory and hard drive space which means going cheap on a laptop tends to make it obsolete within a year or less.

You could likely throw together the parts or even a whole system assembled of a desktop thats a good powerhouse for gaming for the same cost.

dharq · May 25, 2011, 04:36:51 PM

Maru, if I can make a suggestion, check out ibuypower.com

Bought my last 2 comps from them. Customer service has been excellent, and the price for a custom build was actually less than what I would've paid for the same parts through newegg (and it came with a 2 yr warranty to boot).

***And just to clarify, I haven't had to contact customer service about any issues with the actual systems--one mouse and one set of speakers were damaged during shipping. They replaced both within 2 business days at no charge and no hassle.

Cottonbaler · May 25, 2011, 05:05:18 PM

ibuypower +1

I couldn't touch the build they did for me if I had bought the components myself and I have local access to tigerdirect, fry's, microcenter, etc.

They often offer multiple deals, especially around holidays.

My rig is awesome - its the user who needs serious upgrades.

Maruden · May 25, 2011, 06:56:13 PM

Well I'm going for a laptop cause I'm about to be going to college and we tend to be at my aunts a lot and well it's boring! Love being able to hook up onto WoW when I'm here

also going to Ibuypower.com right now thanks for the suggestion!!

Maruden · May 26, 2011, 08:05:49 PM

ibuypower was a great find thanks so much! Got http://www.ibuypower.com/Store/Battalion_101_W150HNQ_Gaming_Laptop tossed in a couple upgrades and payed my dad some money and it is now on its way!

Thanks everyone

Maruden · June 08, 2011, 04:35:06 PM

Well as some of you may have seen I was on last night, the new comp was great! But unforutantley had some grave technical errors and crashed about twenty times. Called tech support and now waiting till tomorrow so I can drop it off to fedex! Hopefully I shall be back soon!!

dharq · June 09, 2011, 06:31:07 AM

Describe grave technical errors? Short of hardware failure, you should be able to resolve any other errors just asking for help on this forum.

Apolla · June 09, 2011, 05:15:44 PM

If you settled down with a gaming laptop, do yourself a HUGE favor, get a powerful quality laptop cooler. I spent 30-40 bucks on mine and it is freezing when I'm on low/idle but when I game for a while, it saves the heat stress a ton. Laptops get hotter than most and burning out a graphics card in a laptop is ultra crappy.

Maruden · June 09, 2011, 10:38:00 PM

Apo what is a powerful quality cooler? Well lets see It worked completely fine the day before with long hours on SC2. The next day i finally was able to log onto wow (was having problems with my authen) played for maybe thirty mins when i started to hear weird sounds (guessing it was from wow) next thing the screen kinda of started swirling and then well you know when you turn the tv to a channel you dont have and its all fuzzy? I had that for around a sec, then it hopped to a blue screen saying it found some technical fault and was powering down for safety. Started wow back up crashed in like 2 mins started wow again crashed before i logged on then it crashed when i was logging on to the computer. then it crashed when the computer started up. So i ran a test on it said that it found a problem with the hardware and I needed to contact the manufacturer. Oh I also tried to log onto SC2 and it crashed. Later it crashed as i was streaming netflix.