Guild Wars 2

Hi guys I am going to college and was looking for a gaming laptop that would be best for this game as well as portability. I would build my own gaming PC, but I have to have something portable. With gaming laptops, as far as I understand, the battery life is usually pretty bad.

Here was the laptops I was looking at. Price isn’t an issue, but I want a laptop under $1300 if possible.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152405
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152408
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312440
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314006

Another up for consideration is a MacBook Air. The 13 inch model with a i7 processor with 8GB of RAM is around $1249. It also comes with a 128GB SSD. The only downside is that it has Intel HD 5000 Graphics.

With gaming laptops is there a way to make the battery last? Is there any docks I can buy so I can game on the go more without having to charge up? Most of them come with a 6C battery.

Thanks everyone for the help!

Well…first of all, I wouldn’t buy a Laptop just for the gaming, I would look at what your School/College says is required/recommended for your Major/Path.
(Example, in CS at my School they require you to have Windows, while IT at the same schools asks that you have a Mac)

If you intend to do any computer programming, I don’t recommend getting a Mac just because its a pain in the kitten to do it on.

I also don’t like Macs so that’s my personal Bias :P

A few things to never do, never play GW2 without having your Laptop hooked into power. Gaming Laptops can handle “better” games like GW2, but if you don’t have the power plugged in then its going to eat your battery, since they all are like that, I wouldn’t worry about which has the “longest” battery life, just about which one you like the most.

I own this: http://www.dell.com/au/p/alienware-m17x/pd
I use it purely for gaming and it runs exceptionally well – plays everything that’s out right now on max settings. I’ve owned other laptops that are cheaper with similiar specs and they’re rubbish – don’t waste your money on them.

Like Tengu said, you should evaluate what you need it for outside of playing the game. A laptop for school should meet the needs of your school work first and gaming second. Personally I love MacBooks. I use mine for mostly work but do play some GW2 on it. GW2 runs well on it and the graphics are pretty good on the new MacBooks.

In line with the MacBook option check out the Mac support forum here and you will see many posts related to Macbook performance and bugs with the Beta client. Also, staff almost never acknowledges the Mac Tech Support Forum. The only time since I have been playing that I have seen them respond to a bug and actually fix it was a bug that would not let Mac customers buy gems. They fixed it in a few days and then disappeared from the support forum. Go figure.

Also with Mac you can still run GW2 using Bootcamp and installing it under Windows. Some users have reported much better performance by doing so.

tl;dr

Macbooks in my opinion are great for school/work depending on what you need them for. The 2012s run GW2 fairly well even at decent graphics settings. Anet seems to no longer support the Mac Beta Client and has not provided any news on the status of it aside from fixing a gem purchase bug. You can still run it under Bootcamp for better performance.

Also consider saving some money by not getting the SSD Macbook. Unless you are really worried about a bit less load time you can get one with a standard drive with much more storage space for less money. You can get a standard drive MBP with much more storage for about the same price as the Air you mentioned with the SSD.

Indeed, first off check whether the machine can handle your college requirements.

Secondly, anything with at least a modern i5 with intel hd4000 will run GW2 just fine. The advantage of a CPU optimized game being that having a good CPU is everything, while the videocard is far less important.

If it’s for college, I suggest buying a laptop with a sturdy case. Alienware and Asus are good brands in that regard, albeit a pricey.

I suggest you stay away from the ideapad and Acer. Their casing and cooling systems are often bad, which means that they can become more prone to overheating (when pushed to their limit with games like GW2) as they age.

Make sure to read reviews (published reviews if possible) before you make your purchase for any laptop.

I got mine for $1200 with:
Intel i7 3rd Gen 2.6GHz
nVidia GeForce 640m GT 2GB
12GB DDR3 RAM
And all the other amenities.

HP dv6, btw.

Tbh, the needs and requirements of gaming usually is more than the requirements for school, unless you’re a media or tech major, which means you’ll need a powerful laptop for image and video rendering, or for computer processes.

Also, buy a cooling pad or an extra thing to help with the cooling.

Man how times have changed. I brought a desktop to college and grad school and it served my purposes just fine.

Are you planning on a major where a laptop is required in the classroom?

Craptrain.7203:

Man how times have changed. I brought a desktop to college and grad school and it served my purposes just fine.

Are you planning on a major where a laptop is required in the classroom?

Or a major where GW2 is required in the class room.

JustTrogdor.7892:

Craptrain.7203:

Man how times have changed. I brought a desktop to college and grad school and it served my purposes just fine.

Are you planning on a major where a laptop is required in the classroom?

Or a major where GW2 is required in the class room.

Philosophy?

Viking Jorun.5413:

I got mine for $1200 with:
Intel i7 3rd Gen 2.6GHz
nVidia GeForce 640m GT 2GB
12GB DDR3 RAM
And all the other amenities.

HP dv6, btw.

You got ripped off. Best of luck with it though, I have/had one and it was pretty nice but it ran too hot, the CPU fan is in the way out, And the HDD is now dying.

If suggest looking at Xoticpc.com for a Sager/Clevo or a Lenovo Y500 off of the Lenovo site (which you can get with SLI 750Ms).

Heat dissipation is the most important consideration.

Killing Joke.4371:

Heat dissipation is the most important consideration.

This, this, this. I currently play GW2 on a laptop and I have to take breaks every now and then just to avoid overheating, and that’s with a fan in a moderately air-conditioned room. Although I’m getting a new desktop soon anyway, since my current laptop is 5 years old and has a garbage graphics card.

I had a laptop for college and play gw1 everyday. Let me show you something.

http://i.imgur.com/Dkittenr62.jpg

See the slightly darker scar on the left of my arm? It’s the burnt from my laptop when I played on bed and fell asleep. It gets THAT hot. and I have 2 of these marks.

After I get a job, of course I have a desktop now. It’s faster, cooler and more future-proof. But of course, I know you’ll also want to bring it to class and whatnot, so the decision is still yours. Just letting you know the heat isn’t something people exaggerating about.

Assassinator Ghent.8350:

Hi guys I am going to college and was looking for a gaming laptop that would be best for this game as well as portability. I would build my own gaming PC, but I have to have something portable. With gaming laptops, as far as I understand, the battery life is usually pretty bad.

Here was the laptops I was looking at. Price isn’t an issue, but I want a laptop under $1300 if possible.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152405
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152408
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312440
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314006

Another up for consideration is a MacBook Air. The 13 inch model with a i7 processor with 8GB of RAM is around $1249. It also comes with a 128GB SSD. The only downside is that it has Intel HD 5000 Graphics.

With gaming laptops is there a way to make the battery last? Is there any docks I can buy so I can game on the go more without having to charge up? Most of them come with a 6C battery.

Thanks everyone for the help!

The fourth one is the worse by a wide margin.

The first one, MSI GE70 has the fastest CPU and debatable fastest GPU plus a 7200RPM hard drive.

The second one, MSI GE40, has the slowest CPU and GPU of the remaining three but includes a 128GB SSD. To put into context, when I say slowest the CPU is only 5% slower than the GE70’s and graphics 90%. Also the lower screen resolution (1600×900 Vs 1920×1080 of the GE70) should help to negate that difference some. What it doesn’t have is any optical drive which might be a problem for some

The third one, Lenovo Y500 has a slightly slower CPU than the GE70 and SLI graphics but a slower spinning 5400RPM hard drive.

Of those four, I would go with the first one, GE70. But if I could live without an optical drive, or own an external one, and want a small laptop, the GE40 is nice as well.

I bought Lenovo s400u only for school. The big surprise was that I can run GW2 on it without any lags.

Behellagh.1468:

…plus a 7200RPM hard drive….

…but a slower spinning 5400RPM…

Slower spinning drives produce less heat and drain less power. Building a desktop is completely different than buying a laptop, they are different beasts.

Just things to consider.

A slower HDD will just mean slower loading times. Not too huge of a deal imo.

I was fine using a dying 5400 RPM drive out of my laptop for a quite a while, and the loading times were absolutely atrocious, but it was livable.

Assassinator Ghent.8350:

Hi guys I am going to college and was looking for a gaming laptop that would be best for this game as well as portability. I would build my own gaming PC, but I have to have something portable. With gaming laptops, as far as I understand, the battery life is usually pretty bad.

Here was the laptops I was looking at. Price isn’t an issue, but I want a laptop under $1300 if possible.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152405
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152408
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312440
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314006

Another up for consideration is a MacBook Air. The 13 inch model with a i7 processor with 8GB of RAM is around $1249. It also comes with a 128GB SSD. The only downside is that it has Intel HD 5000 Graphics.

With gaming laptops is there a way to make the battery last? Is there any docks I can buy so I can game on the go more without having to charge up? Most of them come with a 6C battery.

Thanks everyone for the help!

Hey there!

The only real gaming laptop that has really good battery life is the new Razer Blade that was just released not too long ago. Here’s a pretty in-depth review: http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/02/14-inch-razer-blade-gaming-laptop-review/

Only prob is that it’s going to be more expensive than your budget – BUT if you want really good battery life and all around solid build quality and gaming performance then that’s a very solid choice.

As for the Macbook Air 2013 – I have one. It’s fantastic BUT it really isn’t built for gaming. It can perform well on mid-ranged games but the truth is, the thing gets really hot. The upper left corner on the laptop, when under full gaming load can actually come close to burning you it gets that hot. Taking that into consideration AND the fact that GW2 pushes both the CPU and GPU very hard, I just wouldn’t consider it for anything on the serious gaming side.

If you aren’t so paranoid about battery life: Asus, MSI and Alienware (and a few others) put out excellent gaming laptops that perform very well – but, have battery lives that are very short (2-3 hours max)

Jand

Well the MSI GE40 is their take on the Razor Blade 14".

http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/msi-ge40-2oc-009us%20.aspx

Just not as slick or expensive.

Behellagh.1468:

Well the MSI GE40 is their take on the Razor Blade 14".

http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/msi-ge40-2oc-009us%20.aspx

Just not as slick or expensive.

Yeah, this would be a very good option for him. Only thing that worries me is the heat – the temperatures listed in the review on the keyboard are really high.

Jand

Assassinator Ghent.8350:

Hi guys I am going to college and was looking for a gaming laptop that would be best for this game as well as portability. I would build my own gaming PC, but I have to have something portable. With gaming laptops, as far as I understand, the battery life is usually pretty bad.

Here was the laptops I was looking at. Price isn’t an issue, but I want a laptop under $1300 if possible.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152405
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152408
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312440
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314006

Another up for consideration is a MacBook Air. The 13 inch model with a i7 processor with 8GB of RAM is around $1249. It also comes with a 128GB SSD. The only downside is that it has Intel HD 5000 Graphics.

With gaming laptops is there a way to make the battery last? Is there any docks I can buy so I can game on the go more without having to charge up? Most of them come with a 6C battery.

Thanks everyone for the help!

Asus G74sx-dh71 should be around your price range, doesn’t need a cooling pad, and I run WvW in massive battles on low graphics, medium/medium wvw models. Or look for the newer models of that laptop. The republic of gamers can help. My laptop has never gone over 70 degrees C during heavy gaming. Again, the cooling ability is key. Check out the newer ones for the ability to run at higher settings. Best of luck!

Ugh I reply hate when people ask for a budget laptop, and then consider buying the Macintosh pro or air. Its like a complete contradiction.

If you even had the thought of buying a Macintosh, just go ahead an do it. No one is going to convince you otherwise if you’re already willing to pay that much for one.

Lenovo Y500 is doing me just fine in large WvW fights and can do anything I need school wise.

Starting price is 850 USD.

I would not suggest getting a 17" or something thats too heavy; it can get very annoying to carry around.

Only thing bad about gaming laptops is when it comes time to upgrade that graphics card.