[Double-A]

 Hey everyone, can someone tell me all the good custom gaming notebook brands? You can exclude Alienware from that list. I would go with someone like Asus or MSI etc. but to my knowledge you cannot customize their computers.
 
EDIT: Being an audio enthusiast (I don't think of myself as an audiophile) I would like a brand that puts parts (soundcard, amp etc.) that have high quality sound in their notebooks as I don't want to be plugging in any amps or other things of my own with good sound . . . it's just akward/impractical . . . I would only plug in external sound cards, DAC's, or amps etc. if it was a desktop computer (but that is not what I want currently), or if I was using my notebook on a desk. Also, NO "glossy" screens . . . that just means GLARE. If I have any other rules I will post them, thanks (in advance) for the help.

 

[ferret141]

I'm in the same dilema. I'm looking for lappy with a 3rd gen Intel & an nVidia GTX 670/675/680M gpu.
 
Xoticpc
Cyberpower
Alienware
MSI GT60/GT70 laptops are good.
 
As for audio. Gaming laptops come with better than average audio components but I think your best bet would be a USB soundcard. What's your budget and where are you, UK or US?
 

 

[Double-A]

 I would do that but I don't want any amps, DAC's, soundcards etc. plugged into my laptop . . . it's just awkward if you are carrying the thing around. I haven't figured out what my budget will be yet . . . and I live in the US. How is ibuypower? Danke.
 
EDIT: There are so many gaming laptop manufacturers out there it is crazy . . . I hate it though, there could be a really good gaming laptop manufacturer on the internet and I might never find them because other sites just add as many keywords as they can to their sites so that when you look something up they come up, even if they have nothing to do with what you looked up. Sites will do this so that they can get as close to the top when you google something as they can and I hate it . . . it makes it so that if you look something up it may be nowhere near the first page so you have to scour the internet which may take forever. I just find this VERY uncourteous of website owners to do this . . . I don't want what I'm looking for on the internet to be covered up with all your worthless crap that has nothing to do with what I looked up thank you very much! Hahaha I don't know why I went on this big rant

.

 

[El_Doug]

Sager or bust
 
http://www.sagernotebook.com/

 

[Double-A]

ferret141, I have ruled out Cyberpower PC because none of their computers have blu-ray drives . . . I clicked to customize and they didn't have an option for one either. However, I only checked one of the computers but it WAS the most expensive notebook.

 

[DougofTheAbaci]

Want to save a little money but end up with a rock-solid laptop? ASUS. Don't care about the money, just want the most powerful laptop you can buy but is actually worth the money (unlike Alienware)? Sager.
 
ASUS makes some of the best computer components around so it shouldn't surprise anyone that their laptops are equally well thought of. When talking about reliability of the major computer manufacturers it's always a toss-up between ASUS and Apple when it comes to longevity and stability. Apple did have a long run as king for a while there but ASUS has stepped up it's game across the board and has taken the top spot the last couple years (if only just). And unlike some brands (I'm looking at you Dell, HP, Toshiba) the quality doesn't vary across models and price-points.
 
As for Sager... yeah, they're just kind of a king. They cost a fortune but there's a reason. It's like saying, "Screw the money. Give me the best car ever." and someone shows you a top of the line Mercedes. Is it expensive? Yes. Will it crush your eyeballs to the back of your skull? Oh yeah.
 
I don't get why you care about bluray. Just go digital. It takes of drastically less space than bluray discs (you can fit several hundred in the space of one hard drive vs. an entire book case) and the quality is visually identical (you don't have a screen that can display the difference or eyes that can detect it. No, seriously, you don't). So why pay more for a feature you do not need? Screw bluray and max out your RAM or spring for a nice SSD.

 

[Double-A]

Thanks for the help . . . although why are you saying to screw blu-ray? I haven't had much experience with blu-ray before so I don't really know if I could notice a difference in visual quality between dvd and blu-ray but there are other benefits to blu-ray besides better picture quality. Two examples I can think of would be: better sound quality (again I haven't had experience with blu-ray so I don't know about this) and also: blu-ray discs are supposedly a lot harder to scratch then dvds.

 

[DougofTheAbaci]

That's true. There is definitely better sound quality on Bluray. If, again, you have the hardware to really use it. But we're talking about someone with a very expensive 7.1 surround-sound system. You don't have that on your laptop. Then there's the file storage factor. Bluray can hold quite a few GB of data on a single disc. That's cool, right? Well, you can fit a hell of a lot more and more cheaply on a USB thumb drive, which is also faster and reusable.
 
But for movies. That's where bluray is great, right? Well, ish. Many blurays are just 720p and not full 1080p. So for those you could just as easily stream from somewhere like iTunes, Netflix or Amazon and get the same quality (assuming you're on broadband). Heck, even YouTube is doing it now. If you want true 1080p then you can buy off iTunes (which is starting to do 1080p digital downloads that are still reasonably sized). Or many, many other ways anyone with basic technical know-how can figure out.
 
The point is bluray is for people who don't understand digital media or don't trust it. Something I don't understand because going digital is much more secure and stable. Discs rot. They degrade over time. They get scratched. They get lost. They get stolen. The server I have sitting in the room will never corrupt a single file (ZFS, baby!), it's protected against disk failures and takes up a fraction of the size of an equivalent bluray library. Oh, and if I want to take some of my movies with me all I have to do is drop them on a little external and off I go. Blurays take up much more space for that, too.
 
There's more than that, even, but I have to go to work. There's a reason I said and still maintain that bluray is a dead technology and was one even before it hit the market.

 

[Double-A]

Quote:

That's true. There is definitely better sound quality on Bluray. If, again, you have the hardware to really use it. But we're talking about someone with a very expensive 7.1 surround-sound system. You don't have that on your laptop. Then there's the file storage factor. Bluray can hold quite a few GB of data on a single disc. That's cool, right? Well, you can fit a hell of a lot more and more cheaply on a USB thumb drive, which is also faster and reusable.
 
But for movies. That's where bluray is great, right? Well, ish. Many blurays are just 720p and not full 1080p. So for those you could just as easily stream from somewhere like iTunes, Netflix or Amazon and get the same quality (assuming you're on broadband). Heck, even YouTube is doing it now. If you want true 1080p then you can buy off iTunes (which is starting to do 1080p digital downloads that are still reasonably sized). Or many, many other ways anyone with basic technical know-how can figure out.
 
The point is bluray is for people who don't understand digital media or don't trust it. Something I don't understand because going digital is much more secure and stable. Discs rot. They degrade over time. They get scratched. They get lost. They get stolen. The server I have sitting in the room will never corrupt a single file (ZFS, baby!), it's protected against disk failures and takes up a fraction of the size of an equivalent bluray library. Oh, and if I want to take some of my movies with me all I have to do is drop them on a little external and off I go. Blurays take up much more space for that, too.
 
There's more than that, even, but I have to go to work. There's a reason I said and still maintain that bluray is a dead technology and was one even before it hit the market.

 
 

Valid points, valid points . . . BUT I don't want to stream or download from someplace like iTunes BECAUSE they take up a hell of a lot of bandwith, they take FOREVER to download etc.
 
EDIT: If all my movies were on blu-ray (or dvd's) I could just simply pop the movie in the computer and instantly enjoy it . . . also it doesn't take up precious bandwith to watch. I am sure that this debate will go nowhere as both of us could probably keep on providing very valid points . . . to each his (or her

) own I guess. I will not deny that movies downloaded from the internet have their benefits . . . however PERSONALLY I prefer movies on physical discs.

 

[DougofTheAbaci]

I can understand that. For me a large part of it is data corruption paranoia and discs are horrible for that.
 
Either way, I think Sager does do bluray drives if nothing else. If they don't I'd say get an eternal one.

 

[Double-A]

 Alright, thanks for the help DougofTheAbaci.
 
EDIT: I don't like to have external things connected to my notebooks (except headphones of course) . . . which is one reason why "ultrabooks" won't do it for me . . . computers HAVE to have a disc drive to satisfy me . . . with no exceptions. I guess that it is a good thing that you can customize Sager computers and give them blu-ray drives then.
 

 

[compuryan]

I got my Sager NP8150 (Clevo P150HM) from Pro Star http://www.pro-star.com/
I was happy with their service and am blown away by the laptop. It kicks sooo much ass. They have newer versions now (P150EM) that have updated processors/graphics.
 
As a side note, I got a Razer Orochi mouse and not only does it match the finish of the Sager perfectly, it seems to be the perfect laptop gaming mouse as it can use batteries or a cord. Also highly recommended.

 

[cokeyed]

If money isnt an issue, Sager is the way to go!

 

[Scott_Tarlow]

SAGER is not the way to go. Sager isn't close to being the king. Malibal sells clevo computers for cheaper than sager, and they have better customer service. Also, Maingear (more expensive). Also Origin(more expensive). If money is no issue Falcon Northwest is the way to go, they build some of the best computers on the market. 
 
 
Sorry, Sager builds a good clevo, but they aren't the best. They are just the most well known. We all know what that's like with headphones.... and its the same with computers. 

 

[DougofTheAbaci]

I'd forgotten about Falcon Northwest. I have a buddy who bought one of their desktops a few months back. To hear him tell it, it's the greatest thing ever conceived by man. No idea about their laptops but if they're of a similar quality then you're going to end up with a good product.
 
To be honest, if you go with any of these high-end companies you're going to end up with a good machine.