Is anyone here knowledgeable on gaming laptops, by which I mean could they tell me if it's possible to get one for ~£1000 that isn't terrible?

I'm not that au fait with gaming though I do know it's been said that laptops in general are not great for gaming. You're stuck with a small monitor (unless you can hook up to a TV or summat) the processors are not terribly powerful and the keys, mouse and so forth all quite fiddly and upgrading is at best a bitch and at worst impossible. So if you're serious about getting a gaming machine I would think, unless there's a good reason why not, you should go for a desktop PC, and you'll definitely get a good asskicker for under a grand.

Things to look out for: decent graphics card with good memory, also good memory on the computer, good monitor (nothing under 17 inch and really you're looking at starting at 24) and of course the most powerful processor you can get.

I'm not much for gaming on laptops but the top two seem to be the alienware 17 and the MSI which are generally in all top ten reviews listed.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...H22yncK4_iirfQ

The Alienware is generally about 1500.00. I'd say if you're willing to pay a grand i'd save a bit more and splurge.

That's going to cost more than a grand, guaranteed. Unless they give computers away in the UK :laughing:

:basketbal

Actually come to think of it in pounds that converts to 1500.00 dollars so only the best is the way to go.

Alienware are the Cadillacs of laptops, only for those with more money than sense. Or rich parents. Very rich parents. Who love their children.
I lose on all counts. :(

Its still in the price range of a 1000. The other two in the top three sound more reasonable. I'm sorry to hear about your childhood. :laughing:

The one I'm currently considering is this one. By all accounts the graphics card is absolutely solid and a 2.5-3.5GHz processor alongside it is a very good deal for the price, at least from what I can tell. Have I hit some kind of computer blind spot and overlooked a terrible part of the specs here or does it look good enough to go for?

PC MAG gives it 4/5 stars. Rather glowing reviews also. I'd say it sounds like a perfectly good option for what you need it for.

No they're not. Alienware is the the "just drove back from Pimp my ride in a Honda Civic" of laptops.

Really depends on what you're trying to play. Those specs will cover a lot, but if you're planning on playing modern FPS or graphically intense games like Skyrim, you're going to be doing it with some settings turned down lower than you might want.
Also, heat is a factor with games that tax your system, and laptops are notorious for not being good at adequate cooling, so there's that to consider, unless you're planning on playing in an igloo, in which case you should be fine.

I freely admit I am not a gamer, but I always thought Alienware were the PCs you would, as a gamer, buy if you came into a shedload of money? Who is better then, just as a matter of interest? Though I stand by my comment that a desktop is better for the reasons I outlined, especially ease of upgrade.

No I agree, a desktop is far better. Simply because you can plan your setup, choose your individual parts, and build it yourself, or have someone else do it. You can't do that in the same scope when you're choosing a pre-built laptop, and even less when you're just picking an "Alienware setup A, Alienware setup B", etc.
I'm not much more than a casuaul gamer myself, however I've built many PCs and I know that the entire process of paying more for a brand that does it for you is largely an industry based on ignorance and susceptibility to marketing.

I can, quite literally, build you an "Alienware gaming PC" with the exact same parts, except with a different shell. And for significantly less money. That's what I mean. And enthusiasts know this, which is why Alienware gets most of their profits from the same kind of people you mentioned, but never the enthusiasts that have a bit of knowledge about the fact that Alienware is doing the exact same thing, with the exact same parts, but just putting it all together, mounting it in a custom case, and selling the product for more than it's actually worth. Alienware is not creating CPUs. They aren't creating graphics cards. They are not creating RAM. And to my knowledge, they aren't creating motherboards, nor are they creating chipsets, pertinent drivers, nor any of the things that make a computer perform. They are a brand that creates their own look, and their own perception. That's irrelevant to someone who puts down the kind of money it takes to have a good gaming PC for the right reasons.

There is nothing inherently better about Alienware, nor is there anything inherently better about a pre-built PC, save for the possibility that someone that doesn't know how to Google the relatively simple process might screw something up. Although, I think that the only scenario where people should be paying more than the worth of the parts is if they're getting a custom built laptop, which is largely out of the scope of enthusiasts to do on their own (as opposed to desktops). But even then, Alienware is not the only game in town, and you can still pay significantly less for the same hardware, because you're simultaneously not paying for brand recognition that has absolutely nothing to do with performance.

That's all I'm saying.

Heh, I just want a computer that gets Internet, does word processing, and that I can take with me everywhere I go. I'm obviously not a huge computer gamer :laughing:

Yeah Alienware is totally a rip.

You are basically paying for the brand name.

I got burned buying a pre-built Gateway and from that day I said never again.

I build my own rigs.

I'm not denying that you can build your own setup at a discount, but to call Alienware a rip when its clearly considered the best gaming laptop out there is kind of ridiculous. PC MAG and Consumer Electronics both consider it the best thing on the market.

Then they're clearly not basing their scores on the actual computer parts involved, which Alienware does not manufactor nor own, but something more irrelevant like the design of their cases. Although, I do concede that this generation of young gamers are HIGHLY likely to see value in blue LEDs and alien-eye shapes on the front of their tower or behind the laptop screen, eager to shell out their parent's money for the very "best" computer... but the fact remains that since you can have all the same parts put into a custom gaming laptop that isn't Alienware, the only difference would be the look.

"Prettier" is not going to get you better frame rates. And to be honest, if there are "reviews" in a magazine about it being objectively better, then I am very dubious about that being good information, and more likely to believe it's a promotion.

So in a nutshell then, Alienware = Dell. In other words, people who are attracted by someone who will take all the hassle out of actually choosing their setup and will charge them a premium for the honour will choose Alienware? You know, that's really opened my eyes. Not that I would ever buy an Alienware: I'm not a gamer and alien slanty eyes and flashing lights do nothing for me, I'd rather have a powerful CPU and enough memory. But it is interesting.

I wouldn't say Alienware = Dell in terms of what they focus on. But Alienware will charge a hell of a lot more to do what plenty of gaming pre-builders will do with the same components, because of the brand recognition. What I'm saying is that I don't think brand recognition is worth as much as they charge for it. Actually, I don't think it's worth anything at all, but I'm biased because I build my own.

A casual computer person would still have options outside of Alienware. It's just that they're less likely to know about those options.

I need a way to watch videos that aren't available to the US. I like this program on Al Jazeera English called Empire which until very recently I was able to watch on youtube or on AJE's website. A few days ago I started getting a message on both sites that the content wasn't available in my country/location. I tried using a proxy from outside the country (with the FoxyProxy add on for FireFox) which works on and off but is pretty slow when it does work. Are there any better solutions?

Have you tried Anonymox (think thats what its called)? I have the Firefox add on and it lets you use UK.or Dutch IP addresses.

Wonder why Al Jazeera is not available in the States. I can view their videos here in Canada, so if you find a way to get a Canadian IP that should work too.

It seems to be because they are launching Al Jazeera America tomorrow, which will be available on TV. I just tried visiting their live stream to see if that's still available, and got this message:

That would be good news if they didn't decide to restrict access to AJE because of it. I liked the commentary they had on that Empire show.

edit - Forgot to say: I'll try your recommendation tomorrow. Thanks.

Ok, I'm usually pretty good with computers but this problem is stumping me. The keyboard on my laptop seems to be completely messed up. I haven't spilled anything on it nor is there any dirt under the keys (just cleaned it last week). But when I type on it, I will press a key and get a completely different character. When I pressed A, I got N. Shit like that. It's now like a weird cryptogram puzzle that gets printed in the newspapers. The numeric keypad does not work at all, even with NumLock on. Caps key and shift keys do not work. The only key that seems to work properly is the damn space bar.

I tried doing a system restore on it, back to a few days ago before the drivers were updated, to see if that would reset things. Nothing. Absolute failure. There is also a problem with the typing cursor - if I click to type something in the middle of a sentence, it just scrolls all the way back to the end. WHAT. THE. FUCK.

What can I do? The Internet is not turning up any reasonable options. Or maybe I'm searching with the wrong keywords. Or maybe Google just sucks.

inb4 "d'oh how did you type this up then?" - I'm using my boyfriend's computer.

Maybe you accidentally set it to an international keyboard layout?

Nope, there's only 2 language options - US English and Canadian Multilingual Standard. CMS is not any different really except that you can type in French and use the accents without having to use the Unicode shortcuts. It was, and still is, set to US English.

Borrow a usb keyboard, plug it in and let the generic driver install by itself. Type. Same or not?

did somethin dumb


im in chrome. i was tryin to install a new flash player or somethin and now flash works but i have to click on videos to get the pic to even show up. like in plug, the songs dont play automatically. the screen is dark with a flash symbol and i have to click on it for the song and video to play. same with every type of media. prob very simple to fix but i dunno how. please help me nerdz

Re-install Windows.

I did that and that keyboard worked. And then when I unplugged it, the laptop keyboard seemed to have sorted out the letters and numbers, but when I press the keys, I get 3 of each character. What. The. Hell. I'm really at a loss here. The computer is still under warranty (glad I got the three year one!), but I'm hesitant to take it to those hacks because they'll say I have to pay for some crap or something.

It's not on some Unicode setting is it?

I don't know because the external keyboard that I plugged into it worked fine.

I'm assuming you checked for viruses? What about reinstalling the motherboard drivers?

Lately my laptop has been randomly saying the battery is discharging even when it's plugged in, and when it does that the light starts flashing red. It started yesterday, If I unplugged the charger and plugged it back in it'd be normal, but today it's gotten much more persistent.

I left it on for weeks at a time, not a good idea I know, and turned it off last night and while I was at school today. It performs the same, it's not hot (at least not right now), I dunno.

Well now it's doing it every time I plug it back in

Try a new charger first, but my guess would be that the battery is going. Take it to a place that sells them and pop a new one in to see.

Sounds like the battery is dying. Like on it's way out. How old is the computer and is the battery original to it?

I had the exact same problem last month and I ordered a new battery online. No issues now.

Yeah, probably a dead battery. What kind of computer is it?

It's a Dell inspiron mini. The battery has been in it the whole time. It's like three years old at most.

Not sure if this is relevant to your situation but worth a shot I guess. Found this in a Google search.

Dell Inspiron Mini 9 - Battery Not Working

that sounds about right. It's around the time that you need to start replacing the battery depending on how you used your laptop.