Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Gaming Laptop Guide

By Matthew Kerridge

Lugging around that gaming rig, with your keyboard, mouse and screen in tow can get a bit tiring, especially if you do it on a constant basis. But how else are you going to be able to play your favourite games, since they require graphics and processing power that most mainstream laptops just don't have? There's a solution to nearly every question in life, and for this one, the solution just happens to be a gaming laptop.

This is where gaming laptops come in. With gaming laptops, you can have the processing and graphics power that is necessary to run the latest games at their peak settings in a small, portable package that you can take nearly anywhere. This means that you won't find yourself having to lug that not-so-portable gaming desktop to the next LAN party.

Gaming laptops come primarily in sizes ranging from 15" to 18". Most of the gaming laptops worth their salt are found in the 16"-17" range, but there are 15" laptops out there that can keep up with their larger counterparts. Keep in mind that the size of the screen usually dictates the overall dimensions of the computer, so when a 15.6" laptop is mentioned, it is usually the screen size that is being referred to. Also keep in mind what size is comfortable for you to carry around. Many laptops in these sizes are often used as "desktop replacements", since these laptops are used in lieu of desktop systems and aren't expected to be moved around on a constant basis.

Processing power is a big concern when it comes to gaming laptops. In order to play the latest games at the fastest settings available, there has to be enough processing power to handle such strong demands. Processors such as Intel's Core 2 Extreme and Mobile Core i7 are designed to address the needs of gamers and other power users, with multiple processing cores and the ability to overclock for added processing power.

Dedicated graphics cards are nearly mandatory when it comes to gaming laptops. Companies such as nVidia and ATI offer powerful graphics solutions that deliver superior performance over "integrated" graphics solutions. In fact, dedicated graphics cards are much different than their integrated counterparts. Instead of being graphics chips directly mounted on the main motherboard, dedicated cards are on their own board that is connected to the motherboard by a slot. With their own specialized memory and graphics chips, these cards perform much faster, giving gamers a better playing experience.

2GB of RAM is the bare minimum of what most companies will supply their gaming laptops with. Of course, custom ordered laptops are available with upgrades for system RAM, as well as hard drives and other features. Keep in mind that the maximum amount of RAM for most gaming laptops is 8GB, with some laptops only allowing 6.8GB of that RAM to be used thanks to certain hardware limitations.

These systems don't come cheap, though. The least amount of money you can expect to spend on a system will come to at least $1500, with some systems such as Alienware's laptop line surpassing the $2500 mark and beyond. Fortunately, there are plenty of systems that can deliver a decent punch for an affordable price, depending on how it is all configured. - 22787

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