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[greatorder]

Not for me, I have a desktop I'm more than content with, but my brother is looking for a gaming laptop. He knows all the issues that can be caused by them (shorter lifespan than a desktop, prone to overheating, more expensive etc.), but is insistent on getting a laptop, so don't tell me to convince him otherwise.

We live in the UK so things like Newegg aren't an option. The games he tends to play are grand strategy, so Total War, Civ, Europa Universalis, that kind of thing. Given how compact and irritating laptops are to open without damaging it, I'd rather not have to get a laptop and have to insert any new components for him.

[PyroDesu]

Not for me, I have a desktop I'm more than content with, but my brother is looking for a gaming laptop. He knows all the issues that can be caused by them (shorter lifespan than a desktop, prone to overheating, more expensive etc.), but is insistent on getting a laptop, so don't tell me to convince him otherwise.

We live in the UK so things like Newegg aren't an option. The games he tends to play are grand strategy, so Total War, Civ, Europa Universalis, that kind of thing. Given how compact and irritating laptops are to open without damaging it, I'd rather not have to get a laptop and have to insert any new components for him.

I play the same kind of things. I use a desktop primarily, but when I was getting a laptop for college, I picked out one that should be suitable for that type of gaming (also, laptops that are made for gaming have discreet graphics processors, which is good for the 3D modeling work I have to do).

If he's willing to spend ~$900, the Asus V551L is a decent laptop. At the very least, I know it can run Crusader Kings II without any issues (you mention Europa Universalis, which takes about the same stuff to run). A lot of people say it's overpriced, and they might be right - I don't know, since this was a gift I had a hand in choosing (though I was limited to what was in a couple of store's inventory).

[alexandertnt]

Any size requirements? Price range?

Do you have any Clevo resellers in the UK? They are an OEM provider that are fairly well known here in Aus for producing good-specced and good-priced gaming laptops. They are also usually easy to open and modify/repair.

[Thief^]

We live in the UK so things like Newegg aren't an option.

Really?
Newegg UK launched a few months back. That said, I think they were pricier than ebuyer.com when I first looked.

What's the price range?

[Zrk2]

Not Alienware. Get a desktop. Sorry, I've got nothing.

[miauw62]

For laptops, look into XMG laptops.
You can choose options yourself and such, so the price range is very broad. I have one of these myself, and it's pretty good.

[alexandertnt]

For laptops, look into XMG laptops.
You can choose options yourself and such, so the price range is very broad. I have one of these myself, and it's pretty good.

*checks* XMG looks to be rebadged Clevo's. For example the p304 is the Clevo W230SS. This is good, they are a good performing and fair priced laptop. Definitely worth a look.

[miauw62]

The main advantage is that they're in Europe, since buying a normal Clevo in Europe involves very expensive shipping.

[Flying Dice]

Be damned careful and do as much research as possible beforehand. Be especially distrustful of lappys with automated graphics switching between your shit integrated card and the good video card they come with; I got tagged by that with my Lenovo Y580 (the automated switching is unreliable and can't be worked around, it took more than a year before I set things up so that it would work some of the time, and even now there are games that just flat-out won't recognize the 2GB card I paid out the nose for, chugging along on the Intel chipset).

Not Alienware. Get a desktop. Sorry, I've got nothing.

Also this. If it's at all practical, you can get a desktop that's better and less expensive. Don't buy overhyped shit. Don't buy a Mac (duh). Be careful about the CPU, make sure you get one that's got a relatively good clockspeed (2.7GHz is eeeh, passable, if it's something like a quad-core i7, but as I recall higher clockspeed is the most important factor for gaming, generally).

It can help to search around the new games you're looking at getting, finding the one with the highest requirements, and then looking for a computer which can match their recommended specs. If that's too expensive, try finding one that can match their minimum specs. Not going to recommend any models specifically because IDK what's available to you or what your exact needs are.

[Squeegy]

Not Alienware. Can't recommend ASUS, bad experience with them. I recommend MSI, but they're a wholesaler so you'd have to buy their laptop from a third party. I buy from Xotic but I don't think you can in the UK. But in my research MSI is cheaper than ASUS with higher quality components.

[Sensei]

Be damned careful and do as much research as possible beforehand. Be especially distrustful of lappys with automated graphics switching between your shit integrated card and the good video card they come with; I got tagged by that with my Lenovo Y580 (the automated switching is unreliable and can't be worked around, it took more than a year before I set things up so that it would work some of the time, and even now there are games that just flat-out won't recognize the 2GB card I paid out the nose for, chugging along on the Intel chipset).

I also have a Y580, I've found that if I manually set the GPU for games' executables, I can always get it to work, although sometimes it requires a reboot before the settings take place- for irregular use, there's also right click > run with GPU. Just do it for any game Nvidia might not have heard of.

But yeah, much more hassle than it's worth. I think Lenovo's gaming laptops still use the same technique of switching to integrated graphics outside of designated programs, I dunno if they're made the software less clunky though (it's slow and a pain to navigate on my laptop, I think because it tries to get a list of every executable on the computer).

[Tellemurius]

Be damned careful and do as much research as possible beforehand. Be especially distrustful of lappys with automated graphics switching between your shit integrated card and the good video card they come with; I got tagged by that with my Lenovo Y580 (the automated switching is unreliable and can't be worked around, it took more than a year before I set things up so that it would work some of the time, and even now there are games that just flat-out won't recognize the 2GB card I paid out the nose for, chugging along on the Intel chipset).

I also have a Y580, I've found that if I manually set the GPU for games' executables, I can always get it to work, although sometimes it requires a reboot before the settings take place- for irregular use, there's also right click > run with GPU. Just do it for any game Nvidia might not have heard of.

But yeah, much more hassle than it's worth. I think Lenovo's gaming laptops still use the same technique of switching to integrated graphics outside of designated programs, I dunno if they're made the software less clunky though (it's slow and a pain to navigate on my laptop, I think because it tries to get a list of every executable on the computer).

OEMs don't have a choice anymore as its something mandated by Forceware and Catalyst now. My MSI GP60 does the same thing with its 840m but as long as you designate .exes within forceware it will initialize the dedicated graphics.

[alexandertnt]

You can also set it up to always use the dedicated graphics chip, at least with NVidia.

I like the switchable graphics stuff. My Dell laptop I got back in 2011 would last ~9 hours when not gaming thanks to the oversized battery designed to power it when gaming. Take that Mac owners (of 2011)!

[ArKFallen]

Can't really recommend any laptops (as I've only really paid attention when going to purchase them myself) but my family and I have frequently run into overheat problems caused by busted or infrequently working fan in our laptops.

My advice is that if the laptop does start to have overheat problems balance it between 2 flat surfaces at a consistent elevation (I use 2 books) so that a section of it is on air. The laptop will reheat surfaces too fast to rely on cooling the surface manually and will probably keep a part of it permanently warm (even with low grade perma-chilled ones) so having it on air means a much slower + less punishing heat up. A small fan pointed to send air through the gap is extra useful.

[Zrk2]

My advice is that if the laptop does start to have overheat problems balance it between 2 flat surfaces at a consistent elevation (I use 2 books) so that a section of it is on air. The laptop will reheat surfaces too fast to rely on cooling the surface manually and will probably keep a part of it permanently warm (even with low grade perma-chilled ones) so having it on air means a much slower + less punishing heat up. A small fan pointed to send air through the gap is extra useful.

I personally prop my laptop up on hockey pucks, with a fan wedged between my desk and my bookcase.