Ask Engadget: Best gaming laptop for under $1,500?
By Darren Murph 
posted Jun 26th 2009 1:44AM
posted Jun 26th 2009 1:44AM
Believe it, vaquero -- you just happened upon this week's episode of Ask Engadget, the only time of the week where you get the opportunity to bestow your wealth of gadget knowledge onto a fellow reader in need. Given the open-mindedness of Niko here, we couldn't help but pass on his inquiry:"What's the best gaming laptop for under 1,500 bucks? I had my eye on the P7805u (Gateway), but it seems Best Buy has run out for the time being. Also, as a secondary question, I like the specs on brands such as iBUYPOWER and CyberPower and the like, but are they reliable? I'm a little worried about buying labels that aren't huge like Dell, Gateway, etc. Thanks!"So, make sure those of you who've avoided the big boys chime in here -- who knows, maybe it's actually better to snag a machine from a lesser-known label. After you've contributed, feel free to send in your own question to ask at engadget dawt com.
ASUS G50
i agree, asus g50vt x5
I'll second this one, I have the older model Asus G50vt x2, the only difference being the processor speed... absolutely fantastic laptop
MacBook Pro.
Oh... wait... no.
Well, yeah, when I got the ASUS G50VT-X6 for $1150, after $100 MIR, it was the absolute greatest deal ever, but its been jacked up to $1450, after $100 MIR, so now it doesn't make the $1500 for like 10 weeks after buying it if you get it this month.
But its a monster! Make sure you use the Dox 185.85 drivers, do the GTS flash on the video card BIOS, and run games in Turbo Extreme mode to see this baby really fly!!!
ASUS FTW =D g50 is amazing =D
Asus G71GX at Best Buy for $1150.
I have the G50VT (same thing with a tad slower processor and DDR-2 and not 3) and have been very happy with it, with my only qualm being how easily Windows Vista is able to cannibalize laptop performance if you aren't careful. Having a 1Ghz or so deficit in CPU speed versus what you would have on a desktop doesn't seem like a *huge* deal until you see Vista just destroy your resources without warning. Windows 7 can't come soon enough.
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9366615&type=product&id=1218092150740
Anything that has a decent dedicated card. And decent processor. If you are looking for gaming and great battery life good luck. Even ION is horribly underpowered. But I have my eye on a Lenovo S12 with ION this September. :D
Sager np8662
+1 for the NP8662, but might just borderline exceed your budget.
Although I really find the idea of gaming laptops to be silly, I'd have to second Sager.
I wonder how long it takes before the Apple trolls get in here :'(
1) under 1500
2) GAMEing laptop....
Mac fans feel threatened under these conditions...
Mac fan here, but I won't begin to claim they're the way to go for this particular question. We're not all brainwashed, you know (not that windows users aren't, often, also).
I had a sager NP9890 father in law has it now. It got up to and including 20 minutes of battery life, hot enough to cook an egg on and my left hand permanently imprinted on the plastic from it getting so hot all the time it slightly formed to my hand. Also it sounded like a helicopter taking off.
Partly my mistake though for buying one 1 month before the first core 2's came out, so it had a effing 3.8GHZ Pentium D 4gb of ram 7800GTX and 2 250gig HD's. You can imagine why it got so hot.
I do love my NP8662. Plays all of the games that I like (SupCom, DemiGod, L4D, etc) at max res.
@ All owners of the Sager:
I just checked the site and the lappy looks awesome, but is it true that it doesn't come standard with an operating system? I find that hard to believe.
The Sager NP8662 is a solid gaming laptop, and well within your price range (with a few possible upgrades even):
http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8662-built-clevo-m860tu-custom-gaming-laptop-p-2564.html
You may not have heard of them before, but they make solid laptops. If you want more opinions, I highly recommend checking out notebookreview.com's forums, they provide excellent advice.
see: http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1017 about Sager machines, for example.
MSI makes some pretty affordable 17" gaming laptops too, if that's you're thing.
Their the same brand Alienware uses as well which is originally Clevo. Both Sager and Alienware slap their name on them.
Wow I'm actually really impressed with their selection of pc's. Thanks for sharing.
Alienware stopped using them long ago, since Dell bought them, same with VoodooPC after HP. But yes in the past it was true, and it is still is true for Falcon NorthWest, but I don't think they just slap a label, some of them might be building their own, but basically with the same stuff, Sager I'm pretty sure does.
Anyway my vote goes to http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9173262&st=asus&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1218044029168
anything Sager or Asus.
dell xps m1530
Sure, if you like grainy screens, electric shocks, horrendous battery life, and a skittish keypad.
(Unhappy M1530 owner for almost 2 years.)
I've had no such problems with my m1530. It's a great lappy. Screen is gorgeous. Laptop is light, thin and sexy- something you won't find in most gaming capable laptops.
I agree, I've really liked my m1530, I've had it for around a year and found little not to like. Even with the problems that nvidea has had with their cards I haven't had any real issues. It's worked great and even looks decent... ;)
my m1530 has been a decent laptop. it looks nice and performs well. but the screen tends to wash out colors. It also gets hot right underneath the mousepad, making it lose sensitivity. Its not perfect but its decent enough.
I can't speak from experience, but from searching the web and pricing stuff out tonight, you can get an HP HDX16t with most of the hardware maxed out for that price with coupons from around the web. Definitely seems like the best deal and you will still get over 3 hours of gaming on the 12 cell battery.
I'm using a HP dv6700t (last year's 15 inch model) that I spec'd up to the max on everything (ok, I didn't get the Blu-Ray drive. It was expensive!) and it ended up being about $1450 after tax. It's great for gaming, and it's done great with everything I've thrown at it. It's an "entertainment" laptop, and that's what it does best.
Yea, I have an HP HDX 16t and I'm loving it. I have an Nvidia 9600M GT, and I know it's no GTX 280 or ATI Radeon HD 4870, but it's pretty good since I'm not looking to play games like Crysis Warhead anytime soon (though I can technically play it at low settings).
It was actually around $850 with a coupon and the 2.0 GHz T6400, but if you're looking for something more powerful, you can bump up the processor a bit for a bit heftier price. I have had no problems with it. At first, I didn't like the keyboard or the touchpad (you'd probably want a mouse anyway for gaming), but the keyboard isn't hard to get used to.
This was definitely the best deal a couple months ago for a decent gaming laptop. I was actually looking at an Asus N80VN-B1 since it had the 9650M GT along with the 2.4GHz P8600 CPU for only around $1200. Fortunately, that HP deal let me save about $400 for a basically similar computer. I'm definitely happy with my purchase though, and even though it's not the best laptop out there, it's definitely what I wanted.
I have the new hp DV6t 16 inch notebook, and it runs games better than my desktop. It's got all the standard specs for a decent laptop, and an ATI hd 4650 mobility, a high end laptop graphics card. but the best part? With online coupons I got it for a little over half the budget, 800 bucks. It was an amazing deal.
Asus G71. A lot of bestbuys down in socal have been selling it for a week or so. P8700/6gb DDR3/500gb 7200RPM/GTX 260.. all for 1149. They have also been selling the new 1005HA with n270/1gb/160/802.11N for $299.
can you buy me a G71 and send it to me, then I'll paypal you the money? haha
i don't see them for sale anywhere, not sure how your bestbuy has it, and for so cheap...
15.4" MacBook Pro Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53GHz, 4GB RAM, 320GB Hard Drive, NVIDIA Geforce 9600MGT, SuperDrive (MB471LL/A)
http://www.macmall.com:80/ttsvr/p/Apple-MacBook-Pro/product~dpno~7684021~pdp.fbdchaf
its at macmall right now.
It might not be the best rig, but I play a lot of games on high specs with no problems.
I'm only recommending it because its within your price range and is a great computer for the money.
Please tell me you're joking.
Mac fanboys joking?
I think you're the one who's messing around!
Sorriez. I am a Mac user myself. But the phrase "great computer for the money" does not apply in the gaming laptop section.
Please try again.
Macs are not for gaming.
Or anything remotely useful.
Maybe he wants to do other things with his laptop, I said there were probably better rigs out ther but I was just chiming in with what i know.
benchmarks with the 9600M GT
"
The gaming benchmarks below were conducted with a 9600M GT containing 512 MB GDDR3 graphics memory and a fast Core 2 Duo CPU. Using a slower CPU and / or slower memory, a slower performance has to be expected (e.g., 20% slower with GDDR3).
Crysis: 1024x768, med: 25 fps -> playable (only in low fully playable)
Unreal Tournament 3: 1280x800, Stufe 3/5 -> fully playable
Call of Duty 4: 1024x768, high Details: 50 fps -> fully playable
Supreme Commander (Gameplay, Multiplayer 2vs2): 1024x768, med -> playable
Race Driver Grid: 1024x768, med -> fully playable
Colin Mc Rae Dirt: 1024x768, med Details: 30 fps -> playable
Gothic 3: 1024x768, high Details: 35 fps -> fully playable
Lost Planet: 1024x768, med Details, DX10: 30 fps -> playable
Current games (08-2008) are all fully playable (but not at the hightest settings) with the 9600M GT. Older or less demanding games can be played with full settings enabled. Compared to the old 8600M GT, the 9600M GT shows a clearly better performance (also because of the faster CPUs).
"
and its only 1499. Again if you read my post i only said it because it was within his price range, and a great computer for the money (i didn't say great gaming computer)
Maybe he wants to play more than ten games
seriously man, for a gaming lappy, you could do sooo much more with the money it takes to buy a macbook pro. With 1700 dollars (plus tax!) you could buy a dual card alienware, not that i recomend it of course. For gaming laptops, Gateway holds the best bang for the buck, found my Gateway 17' in. full HD with a 9800 for about 1200 bucks new!
So please someone explain this to me
"Macs are not for gaming."
Everyone calls Macs toys, yet it's the Windows PCs that are for gaming? (BTW it might be quite hard to find aluminium toys...)
Don't bash this guy for mentioning a Macbook Pro. It is the best laptop there is, hands down, when you consider the life of the laptop and how well it will run. Macs tend to use better components and that is why they do well, plus you can always add Windows to a Mac if that is your thing, I've got the Windows 7 RC running right now from my 15" 2.4 macbook pro and I can play nearly any game that isn't Crysis.
The real problem is the question. Laptops under $1500 are not built for gaming even if they claim they are. So, you might as well get the best laptop available in your budget. That way you will be happy even when you are not playing games. It will perform at least equally well to any PC under his budget whether it costs $900, $1200 or $1500. And he'll still have this laptop long after all you guys throw your HP's, Asus's, Sager's, Gateway's, Dell's, Sony's, Toshiba's and the like in the garbage because frankly they just don't run like they used to... Meanwhile I'll be saving money (not buying another $1000 PC with a 14mo lifespan) playing Starcraft 2 on my old macbook pro for the next 5 yrs :)
You're right, it does make a good gaming laptop, and it's great of other things too. The much larger trackpad also means that gaming is possible, even when you don't have a mouse.
Don't let these fanboys bring you down.
Bashing Macs is kind of the gadget blog du jour right now. ;) It's not the cheapest machine out there, but the MacBook Pros (the ones with the dedicated cards, not the POS ones with only the 9400) are actually suprisingly good at gaming. As I mentioned in another reply, I'm getting about 6000 in 3DMark06, Windows 7 RC, which is respectable for a 5.5 lb machine that gets about 6 hours of battery life when I flip it to integrated. It wasn't cheap (about $1750 with employee purchase program discounts) but it's a nice machine. I like it.
As much as I want to flame you for being a cluless fanboy, I'm just going to point out simple logic:
-He wants a gaming laptop under $1500
-95%+ of all games are GPU-Dependent
-Find the best GPU on a laptop for under $1500
You can find 9800's in that price range. A 9600 won't cut it.
My vote is either for the Gateway or an Asus G-series. I have a slightly older Asus model (F3Sv), and my boss has a G50 series, and they have dramatically improved the build quality and overall feel of the laptop. And I'm still quite happy with mine as it is.
Honestly, I am pretty surprised with what my aluminum 13-inch MacBook can do on Boot Camp in regards to gaming. One of the main reasons I bought it because of the decent graphics card in it. The trackpad is wonky in Windows so I plug in a USB mouse whenever I switch and it really sucks that I have to restart every time I want to play something. But I've managed to play some pretty new games, like Fallout 3 and The Last Remnant, on the default graphic settings with rarely any problems (though occasionally some slowdown in LR).
Mac might be fine enough for gaming, but the fact that there are more games for Windows and that Macs don't run Windows by default, means this guy is going to have to shell extra cash to run Windows to play more games. That takes time, and money, and that's not be way to be gaming.
Seriously? Mac + gaming? Sorry NO!
I'm not bashing Apple, but they never offer the latest graphics accelerators in any of their products (yes even workstations). Gaming is 70% graphics IMHO and Macs suffer in that category.
Clevo dominates gaming notebooks. There is no argument. They make the most powerful notebooks in the world and their mid-range products are very competitively priced.
if you dont mind the volume of the laptop ,you can try with xps m1330 with a vidock2 plugged ;) just a rocket
actually dont buy the XPS 1330 - the nvidia graphics chip suffers the heating problem. Note that this is not the fault of Dell - but the graphics card's.
HP HDX 16t
I feel this is the best gamming laptop out there for under 1500$
I go for Sager and Asus...competitive price...more gaming power..
I only go for notebooks with Clevo chasis...
Alienware M17 6 months ago was still a top, with a starting price of $1,799. Now it is replaced by M17x with the same starting price. The M17 is now $1,299 (http://www.alienware.com/products/notebook-computers.aspx). It's a trusted gaming brand, so trust me the M17 is still one of the very best config today and its cheap.
that, my friend, is for the base configuration, which is a lot less than what you'll find in an Asus at the same price. When you buy from alienware your just paying for the name and logo while that money could be used to buy more ownage.
very cool article
I bought very new LenovoY450A;it is good for people who want play some games in "mobile"
situation.First - it is only 1000US$,second - 2.1kg,screen?-14inch,battery?max 4 hours
card? - 130,very good sound!They make Y550A with 15incg screen,weight - 2.8kg!
There is similar machine from BenQ called JoyBookS42,even cheaper,card - 9600,weight-2kg.
Niko here. Thanks everybody!
I'll second the Gateway if you can find it, gonna be a extremely good price for the hardware, and will save you $400 off that $1500 budget for you to buy games and accessories. I'm currently using the older Nvidia 8800 version which I have used for well over a year now and have had no problems whatsoever. It's never crashed oddly or had any hardware problems. So a big +1 on the Gateway.
I'm no mac fanboy.....
But it seems you can get pretty good battery life with a 17" Macbook Pro along with decent gaming performance due to the switching between the 9600gt and the 9400m.
Also look into Asus models. They're much cheaper than Dell and in my opinion has better coverage for a lower price, not to mention graphics performance that Dell can't touch in the same form factor. However, Asus isn't the best with battery life.
I went Asus and the battery's not bothering me since I'm always near a plug.
bleh! completely ignored the under 1500 thing. No macs for you XP.
Qosmio X305-Q715
http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/pdet.to?poid=432324
I would go for 3-4 netbooks lol. Why play one intensive game (when you prob have a desktop at home that can handle it) when you could run 4 games simultaneously!? Genesis emulator on one, SNES on another, Maple Story on one, and a wildcard on the 4th.
One would think, but my Gateway desktop with a 8500 GT card is surprisingly inadequate at gaming: it barely chugged Bioshock.
Also, Maplestory? Honestly?
Sager.
I'm a pretty big fan of my $1300 15.6" MSI GT627 w/ blu-ray. You can also hack the CPU and an aftermarket 1920x1080 LCD into it if you want... :)
I concur, currently loving my gt627
I a no gamer, I do renderings and development.
I have a current XPS13, without the hybrid SLI, I play Left 4 Dead at defaults no problem. This laptop comes with 4gb DDR3 and a 320gb 7200 SATA. I installed windows 7 on it and I get great experience ratings:
Processor: 6.0
RAM: 5.9
Graphics: 5.3
Gaming Graphics: 4.4
Hard Disk: 5.9
It also gets really good battery life in power saver mode, 3+ hours surfing and watching flash vids.
I believe that the experience rating goes up to 6.0 so, in most items its as good as it gets, just order it with the SLI, I am pretty sure it would be an excellent gaming lappy.
One caveat is that it has only 1 USB port... WTF right?
But honestly, I have had about 10 laptops through out the ages, this is by far the fastest and bestest laptop I have ever owned.
Oh ye, it also has a backlit keyboard.
If you care about screen quality, Thinkpad W700 with a quadro fx 3700.Will break your budget though
these msi notebooks seem to be pretty good for gaming
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152112 USD1600
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152103 USD1349
They got some good reviews to
go with the gateway. I paid 1150 for the previous model, and have seen the new model (which actually kicks my models ass) on sale at best buy for 1100. You just gotta shop smart and find a good deal.
Dell XPS M1730 for $1499:
http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/notebooks/xpsnb_m1730/pd.aspx?refid=xpsnb_m1730&s=dhs&cs=19
Thinking of buying a ATI HD4870 because I've seen it for £90 is it a worthwhile buy?
While I do prefer NVIDIA over ATI that is a good deal. I was quite tempted to crossfire some 4770s a while back but now I'm settled on getting a GTX 260. Take a look on overclockers.co.uk and you can find a 1792MB version for £150.
I don't own this, but judging by the specs, this quad-core beauty looks like a good buy: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834147985&Tpk=2040us. HP, who knew? I believe you can get it for about $1200 if you look around.
On a similar note, my wife needs a new laptop for CAD applications. Will a laptop with a good gaming card suffice--or will she need a laptop with a more specialized graphics card?
forget that crap. It's gotta be the asus M51sn-B (or C) these are under $1000 and these guys can play anything out right now. Plus you can change the gc if you know how to open the laptop ;)
MSI GT627-18
DONE
i'd say sager, but i can vouch for CyberPower. I use one of their desktops, and its great
I concur on the MacBook Pro mentioned earlier (the cheapest model they have with the dedicated card). I recently bought one and it gets a respectable 6000 in 3DMark on Windows 7. However, it's actually a laptop, not a 12 lb. cinderblock like some gaming laptops are. Plus, I've been impressed with the battery life when on the 9400 card (I'm getting about 6 hours internet + music). If you get past the whole "Macs are gay" thing and look at the specs, it's actually a nice machine. Buy it with an employee purchase program discount (Google it) and you can get it for around $1750.
@Dave: It depends on what type of works she is doing with CAD. If it is just normal 2D stuff without any rendering, then anything should be able to handle it. If she is going to be doing rendering, then go for a lappy with a Quadro FX card.
Otherwise, I cast my vote for Sager. They were the only ones that had the non-glossy screen the last time I upgraded. I got the NP5793 and couldn't be happier with it. Best bang for the buck I ever found.
Great info and perfect timing
The guide to Gaming Laptops:
1. Buy a netbook. Gaming laptops don't exist. Anything that pretends to be is an overpriced piece of crap.
2. With the money you saved, buy a desktop which would kick the crap out of any laptop you were considering.
That isn't such a bad idea! I'm heavily considering getting a netbook with the N270 proc for mobility and waiting for i7 prices to drop and building a new desktop gaming rig. That and building new custom desktops is always fun!
Sony VAIO FW, which happens to be the one I have (most of the current vaio laptops qualify as gaming laptops)
Anything in the Asus G Series Notebooks. Asus makes a hell of a gaming Notebook! G50 series line up should fall in the under 1500 dollar price range. I had bought an Asus G50 a few months back, got a hell of a deal and paid less than 1100 for the thing. Games like World of Warcraft run smoothe as hell on it. Asus FTW!
I researched this for forever before buying mine, and i went with the HP HDX16....its got an Nvidia 9600mgt and i have yet to come across I game i cant play on high settings (including crysis)...I bought it for around 1200 bucks at the end of last year...its also got a 1080p screen and the look of both the exterior and interior of the computer is just sick. Im really happy with this laptop, and if you want to go with a brand name rather than something more obscure, the HDX will definately do the trick
ibuypower is the way to go. i am typing on mine right now. super reliable.
Best gaming laptop for your $$ by far imo is the Acer Aspire AS8930-6386 only $1099 on Newegg (no I don't work for them but their prices are hard to beat in general and they have always had great customer support and fast shipping:
Here is the link on Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115541
Core2Duo 2.53 (T9300) ..supports Virtualization and has 6MB L2 Cache 1066 FSB
18.4" WXGA+ Screen
4GB DDR3
Nvidia 9600M GT with 1GB RAM
320GB HD @ 7200RPM ..instead of 5400 RPM like most laptops
802.11a/b/g/Draft N wireless LAN
Card Slot 1 x Express Card/54 slot
USB: 4 x USB (3 x USB, 1 x eSATA/USB combo port)
Video Ports: 1 x VGA, 1 x HDMI, 1 x Display Port
Audio Ports: Headphones/speaker/line-out with SPDIF support
Microphone-in
Line-in
Audio :Acer PureZone technology with two integrated stereo microphones featuring beam forming, echo cancellation and noise suppression technologies
Optimized second-generation Dolby Home Theater audio enhancement with True 5.1-channel surround-sound output
Speakers: Acer CineSurround with five integrated stereo speakers and one Acer Tuba CineBass booster supporting low-frequency effects.
Input Device: Touchpad, Keyboard 105-key keyboard, inverted T Cursor Layout, Standard Numeric Keypad, Hotkey Controls, 2.5mm Key Travel for a solid key touch.
Supplemental Drive
Card Reader: 6-in-1 card reader supports optional MultiMediaCard, MMCplus, Secure Digital card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO or xD-Picture Card
Webcam: Yes
Power Battery: 8-cell lithium ion
9 lbs.
That is a lot of bang for the $ imo....best wishes to you on your search, I hope this helps some.
Any thoughts on the following load out? I'm not a hardcore gamer and typically spend most my time playing something like the latest iteration of Civilization or C&C. I think the heaviest game I'd throw at it is the newest Wolfenstein title.
Dell XPS Studio 13
2.53 GHz Core2Duo (P8700)
4GB DDR3 RAM
500GB 5400RPM HDD
GeForce 9500M - 256mb
at what price? it sounds good but if it's over $1000 then there are much better options out there for your money.
That was the hitch... It clocks in at about $1,360 or so. The inflation in price is mainly because your paying for aesthetics and some extra bells and whistles. I've been keeping an eye on Dell Outlet where I can get the same load out for $890 or so (which would be perfect) as a refurb or purchased/cancelled sort of thing.
if you can get that dell for < $900 then it's a good deal, if not then the Gateway FX series or the Acer I posted are 2 other systems well worth looking into....good luck to you.
Also look into the Gateway FX series laptops, they offer a lot of computer for your $ and are very competitive against the other makers out there. As far as batter life is concerned I wouldn't put to much stock into it, your looking for a pure gaming machine from the sounds of it, not something that can stay unplugged for hours on end, not very many if any gaming machines are designed with this in mind. The Acer I posted a little bit ago get roughly 2.5 hours on a single charge.
I am surprised that only a couple if people have mentioned the Gateways. The 7000s are probably the best bang for the buck.
I totally agree about the Gateway systems if you are looking to be at the $1400+ price point, they make one hell of a gaming system. I was just presenting the Acer as an alternative for a really good laptop for the $ spent.
I'm still a fan on the gateway p-7805u I know 5 people including my self that game on this machine and are very happy with the performance especially with a $850 price tag and free shipping.
http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4610279&CatId=2511
I have the P-7805u as well and love it. I did pay about $300 more through Best Buy about four months ago which sucks, but the machine itself is a solid performer. Ive been running Fallout 3 with no trouble. Im betting that since supplies of this laptop are running low, that Gateway is getting ready to come out with a new version with updated hardware. A newer video card and maybe a low end Core i7 proc would be nice if they can keep it below $1500.
I recently ordered a dell studio xps 16 with 2.6 processor ddr3 ram and 512 ATI video card. Its not necissarily for gaming but how far exactly will that get me gaming wise?
I personally like MSI for powerful budget systems. I have the MSI GX620, it's a little bit outdated now, but I bought it for under $1000 in January.
Here's what I would do for $1500
1) buy a cheap netbook (sub 350). I'm assuming you're buying this laptop because you're heading off to college - a netbook is great for tugging around to classes and meetings. You definately wouldn't want to have to lug around a large gaming laptop.
2) build a real gaming desktop, for 1200 you could easily get core i7 and a GTX series videocard, a i7 + GTX260 + 6 GB DDR3 would rip apart any of the laptops mentioned above.