Shopping for a new gaming notebook can be tough. There are so many manufacturers, models, and features that it can sometimes be hard to tell which are the best. This article will examine five of the best notebooks for gamers.
Alienware Area-51 m17x
Alienware has long been known for making some of the best gaming computers out on the market. The Area-51 m17x 17-inch notebook has been one of their highest ranking models and has won countless awards for gaming performance. The base model starts out at $1,799, with many upgrades available. This model is fully DirectX 10 compatible to support the latest and greatest games out there.
Like most gaming keyboards, the m17x features backlighting for a sleek and elegant design. You can chooses from seven different colors for the system lighting. On the inside, this machine uses high quality parts that can be pushed to the max. Featuring Dual 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600GT SLI, this machine will handle the most graphically intensive games like a pro. Sporting the Intel Core 2 Duo processor, this notebook is a powerful beast. At the regular price, the standard amount of RAM is only 1GB. This should be upgraded to at least 2GB, if not 4G. The hard drive could also use an upgrade as well, but that is a matter of personal preference.
With a few upgrades, this model will run a little over $2000, which is about the right price for a powerful, fast gaming PC. Alienware uses some of the best parts in the industry and doesn’t load their computers up with shareware and other junk software like many of their competitors.
iBuyPower Battalion 101 CZ-9
iBuyPower offers some powerful gaming notebooks at very reasonable prices. The Battalion 101 CZ-9 base price is $974 and it comes with a load of great hardware for the gamer. It does only offer a 15.4” widescreen LCD display, which may be small for users used to the larger 17-inch models.
Aside from the monitor size, the CZ-9 is sporting a very fast processor - Intel Core 2 Duo (2.26GHz, 3MB Cache, 1066FSB) Mobile P8400. This machine comes with 2GB standard, which will play most games well. The upgrade to 4GB is only $139 and makes this a very worthwhile upgrade.
The CZ-9 also includes a powerful 512MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 9600GT, but it is not SLI and cannot be upgraded. Overall, this is a great machine for almost any gamer, and it will not break the bank like much of its competition.
HP HDX 18t Premium
If you’re looking for a more mainstream brand, look at HP’s new HDX series, which was designed for power and performance. The HP HDX 18t base configuration starts at $1,399 and features a fast Intel Core 2 Duo processor as well as the option for a 64-bit version of Windows. For now, I would hold off on the 64-bit version unless you’re planning on adding more than 4GB of RAM.
Like the Battalion CZ-9, it comes standard with 2GB of RAM and P8400 processor. The big difference in this model is the huge 18.4-inch High Definition (1920x1080p) LCD display. HP has always been a leader in brilliant displays, and certainly this is simply another great example. With regard to graphics, it had the 512MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 9600GT.
Overall, this is a great notebook for gaming. You will no doubt have to spend some time optimizing the computer when you get it and removing a lot of its shareware software, but that comes along with the territory. HP also consistently ranks as having some of the best tech support in the business.
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