My gf is looking to try and get a laptop over the next few months and kind of wants to try and be able to play FFXIV and another upcoming mmo on it so we could possibly game together. Due to her currently living space a desktop pc may be difficult thus the reason she's looking to try for a laptop.
My area of expertise sadly doesnt pass building up desktop pcs, I'm not familiar in the least bit in hunting down good 'gaming' equipped laptops that arent Alienware(as I'm sure theres bound to be others out there just as good and also reliable that arent near some of Alienware's prices)
If possible i'd like to try and find her somethign that would handle FFXIV on higher settings, not necessarily maxed but at a nice visual setting to enjoy the games graphics w/o hindering gameplay.
I'm still checking into specs on the other mmo as its not out quite yet so finalized specs arent really available.
If anyone could offer some input it would be greatly appreciated
I can't go into which laptops are the best for gaming since I've never had an official "gaming laptop". I have had the best experiences with Lenovo brand when it comes to gaming, although they've always required a cooling pad (maybe I'm pushing them too hard, I don't know). Right now I'm on a Lenovo G505s that I got for birthday/Christmas and run FFXIV on "High (laptop)" with spell animations turned off for everyone outside my party. It makes large FATEs (Behemoth just to name one off the top of my head) hard with it turned on. I'm not sure what this upcoming MMO she's wanting to play is but I was running ESO beta on high settings (they were defaulted to that after installing) with no problems.
Before I got this laptop I was running another Lenovo that wasn't nearly as well graphics wise as this one. The difference is the G505s has dual graphics that crossfire. So if your girlfriend manages to find a laptop with that she shouldn't have a problem gaming decently. I am far from an expert on computer hardware or brands so I hope at least something I said helps you and your lady.
I could give a few suggestions if I had a budget she was working with. But personally, if I was aiming for just a pure gaming machine, I'd look at MSI's line of Gaming Series laptops. They vary overall in price and parts but come with MSI's well known high quality build and components. Steel Series keyboards and are just very, very well reviewed and overviewed laptops.
http://www.msimobile.com/default.aspx
A link to their tablets, ultrabooks, gaming notebooks and the like. I'll really let them speak for themselves and if you'd like, there are thousands of overviews and reviews on them.
As an MSI fanboy (Running MSI GFX cards and motherboard all day, e'ery day.) I will personally claim I've never had an issue with their products except once. Which was RMA'd and resent within two weeks.
Overall. My suggestion.
Edit: For their Gaming Series laptops. Even the cheapest one they have should run ARR on roughly high settings. Using the GTX 740M and i5-4200M processor.
Thanks to both of u for the input. I'll take a look at some Lenova models and I'll definitely check out the MSI gaming series of laptops.
I'm not entirely sure what the budget is that shes planning to work with, I know she'd like whatever she gets to be able to run FFXIV very well w/o issues and also ESO as thats the other title that she's interested in.
The MSI's look solid as far as the price ranges go so that may be a good spot to start with.
From your experiences have you ever had any overheating issues with them?