Notebook Advice... Casual Gaming too

[zakdoc89]

OK so I've been in the market for a notebook for some time now, and need a little bit of advice from the fellow gamers here. I game mainly on PC and have a pretty decent rig at the moment, however I am looking for a notebook that can last on the road as well as manage some casual gaming. Things that are important:
1) Price: Budget around R6-7K
2) Battery Life: At least 6hrs
3) Performance: Must handle HD video, RTS games and Video conversions. Does not have to display full HD just be able to handle playing it on an external monitor.
4) Look good

[Slipperyduck]

very hard to come by and you're looking at R20K plus.
IE Gaming laptops = $$$
Acer seems to be the leader in this field for SA

[Wenzdayz]

very hard to come by and you're looking at R20K plus.
IE Gaming laptops = $$$
Acer seems to be the leader in this field for SA

yup Real Gaming lappies are expensive.

Nut i wouldn go with Acer as being the leader - just my personal opinion though. I'd go with Dell

[zakdoc89]

Does not have to be a serious gaming laptop..... ie its just for casual stuff, but I don't want to game with graphics at the lowest settings. Decent is all i want.... I really can't seem to find anywhere to try games on a lappie...

[Wenzdayz]

Go with Dell, their in your price range

[lilDeath]

OK so I've been in the market for a notebook for some time now, and need a little bit of advice from the fellow gamers here. I game mainly on PC and have a pretty decent rig at the moment, however I am looking for a notebook that can last on the road as well as manage some casual gaming. Things that are important:
1) Price: Budget around R6-7K
2) Battery Life: At least 6hrs
3) Performance: Must handle HD video, RTS games and Video conversions. Does not have to display full HD just be able to handle playing it on an external monitor.
4) Look good

1/ Your budget is not really for a gaming laptop... it is basically an entry-level laptop you are looking for, with that price-range.

2/ Gaming laptops are not known for their battery life, they suck power, especially the big gaming laptops. In fact there are very few laptops that can actually give you this battery life, other than the Macs and then I believe Dell also released a model and I think there is a Lenovo model too.

3/ WUXGA? 17", 15" or smaller... going to find very few machines that will support all this, in your price range AND be able to do HD and video conversions at a decent enough time and NOT sucking your battery dry.

4/ This is more based on personal choice imo. But ok.

I saw a Netbook / Mini laptop being released that can handle HD and have a long battery-life, but of course the screen is not very big, so won't handle high resolutions.

Ok, saying all this, there are a fair amount of laptops that you can look at since your price-range is in the low to basic price-range for laptops.
My personal favorite is Dell. Then perhaps check some Acer's / IBM's out and then HP's...
Ok, I guess I can mention Sony too, but they are generally expensive, although being loaded with goodies. A Mac will also be out of your price-range.
There is Eurocom too, but they are expensive.

I am not mentioning Alienware, since I don't think your budget will make it very far with them either... well maybe the 11" that they just announced last week. Not sure on the price for these yet.

Anyway, if I have some time today, I will check what I can find on the Dell's for you, but from your list, you should really decide what you want MOST in a laptop - mobility / battery life or performance / features.

[zakdoc89]

OK regarding the gaming part, its not that important. IE if I go with a netbook with ion processor, will games play on them? IE this one. http://www.nivo.co.za/#buy~asus.eee....n.black~p19270

[mcryan]

You will probably have to forget about gaming on a notebook with a budget like that. Getting a notebook that can handle gaming will cost far more... and a 6 hour battery life is also a steep target for anything that handles gaming or even mutlimedia.

I will have to see what options there are and post here if something comes close to the description.

[Dohc-WP]

juts make sure that the laptop does not have a crappy intel gma graphics processor, go for something either with an amd cpu then you are guaranteed that you will get a decent radeon or nvidia mobile gpu onboard or for an intel system with a mobile nvidia gpu.

[zakdoc89]

Okay then it seems I'll have to reassess my priorities, I need a laptop with a good battery life prefer something inline of the new macs @ 7-8 hours.