Laptop Reccomendations

[nickexists]

I'm planning on upgrading to a new laptop soon and I want to make sure to get something that will run DCS well. I have been using a Macbook Pro with 2.53 GHz core 2 duo and a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256mb vram, and obviously I have been getting awful performance. I'm hoping to spend around 1000$ and definitely wouldn't go above 2000$ Does anyone have any recommendations. One laptop that I had looked at was the Lenovo Y510p. Thanks..

[Rhinox]

I'm planning on upgrading to a new laptop soon and I want to make sure to get something that will run DCS well. I have been using a Macbook Pro with 2.53 GHz core 2 duo and a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256mb vram, and obviously I have been getting awful performance. I'm hoping to spend around 1000$ and definitely wouldn't go above 2000$ Does anyone have any recommendations. One laptop that I had looked at was the Lenovo Y510p. Thanks..

I'm not sure what you mean with "run DCS well", but generally laptops are not recommended for DCS at all. If despite of this you still want to use laptop for DCS, get the fastest you find (and even that will not be fast enough). The only true "gaming" laptops are Dell's Alienware series, but they are expensive as hell...

 

For under 2000$ you can get "17-R1", with i7, 16GB RAM and GTX770M. It is not overkill, as "mobile" i7 is not the same CPU, as desktop i7. The same for GPU: GTX770M (mobile) is from performance point of view something like GTX560 in desktop. But it could run DCS quite well, of course with some compromises.

 

A little cheaper (~1500$) are Asus G750JX or MSI GT70-H, which have similar configuration. Still quite good for DCS. BTW, mobility of these "gaming" laptops is rather theoretical, as they weight ~5kg. Similar, you can forget running DCS on battery, unless you want to play very short mission...

 

Lenovo Y510p is quite old. It has GT750M GPU which is very "consumer" (read: just good enough for some simple games, but not DCS). I do not recommend it, unless you are ready for dissapointment. Remember, with laptops it is so that you can add more RAM later, switch disk for bigger/faster/SSD, or switch CPU (yes, it is also possible), but you have to live with GPU all the time. So buy laptop with the fastest GPU you can afford...

[Rangi]

I agree, you would be better off buying a $1200 desktop and a cheap tablet if you want something mobile. It will be cheaper and a lot better for both dcs and mobility.

[nickexists]

Thanks for the feedback. I was hoping for a laptop just for the convenience of mobility. But if the price difference is that dramatic I guess I should probably start looking towards desktop.

[uboats]

I think Lenovo Y410P would be a good choice.

I'm using this one

i7 4700QM haswell

gt 750m 2gb

8gb

900p

[cichlidfan]

I agree, you would be better off buying a $1200 desktop and a cheap tablet if you want something mobile. It will be cheaper and a lot better for both dcs and mobility.

 

Agreed.

 

Using a laptop can be acceptable if you have no other choice but dollar for dollar, your money will go much further (in terms of performance) with a desktop machine.

[nickexists]

In that case does anyone have any recommendations for a desktop in the same price range, there are so many choices.

[Cali]

Do you have to get a laptop? I built my desktop a year ago and it cost me $1538....it runs DCS and other games great.

[cichlidfan]

In that case does anyone have any recommendations for a desktop in the same price range, there are so many choices.

 

The route to success here is to build it instead of buy it.

[HiJack]

Check my sig :D

[sslechta]

nickexists, if you're in the U.S., the Dell Outlet would be a good place to start for a PC, http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/22/campaigns/outlet.

 

These are refurb, & dent/scratch PCs that are offered at steep discounts to full price machines with all the same warranties of new. I actually go into Outlet Business on that site and browse engineering workstations.

 

Outlet Home will take you to standard & gaming PCs.

Edited October 6, 2013 by sslechta
Additions

[FUgaijin]

get your self a used alienware M17Xr2 or newer and get exactly what your looking for. my old R2 was an i5 with a 5870 and ran DCS, SC2, WoW, and a few other games with max settings and no problems. i sold mine for 800 and upgraded to my desktop and an ipad though.

 

and the dell outlet is a great place to find the occasional steal.

[TimeKilla]

I would just build one yourself nVidia graphics card seems to work best with DCS, I would go with an AMD CPU but thats just my personal preference nice big solid state drive corsair? Beefy PSU half decent motherboard 12 gigs of ram DDR3.

 

Then you'll still have some cash leftover for beer. :thumbup: Maybe even use some of the leftover cash on a decent heatsink for overclocking the CPU. You could go the Alienware route but you could just as easy build your own and likely for cheaper. :smartass:

[nickexists]

I've started looking at parts for a home built system. There are so many choices though that it's hard to decide. So far I'm thinking an i5 4670k with an nvidia 670, 8gb ram and a 7200 rpm hard drive. One thing that I can't figure out though is why there is nearly a 100 Dollar difference between the EVGA 670 and the ASUS 670, I'm kind of leaning towards the gigabyte gtx 670 just because it's in the midrange.

[Rhinox]

...One thing that I can't figure out though is why there is nearly a 100 Dollar difference between the EVGA 670 and the ASUS 670, I'm kind of leaning towards the gigabyte gtx 670 just because it's in the midrange.

Probably different cooling, or lightly overclocked, more memory, etc. BTW, Asus makes 5 different "GTX670" graphic cards, EVGA even 6. Price-range from 200 up to 500€ here. So pay attention to what you are comparing...

[Tumbleweed]

I'm planning on upgrading to a new laptop soon and I want to make sure to get something that will run DCS well. I have been using a Macbook Pro with 2.53 GHz core 2 duo and a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256mb vram, and obviously I have been getting awful performance. I'm hoping to spend around 1000$ and definitely wouldn't go above 2000$ Does anyone have any recommendations. One laptop that I had looked at was the Lenovo Y510p. Thanks..

 

 

As others have said, forget Laptops for gaming, especially for DCS.

Build your own Desktop, get a good sized monitor and flight controlls and immerse yourself :)

 

Any respectable shop that sells PC componants will help you match up the parts you need based on your requirements if you're not sure what you're doing and if not, there's plenty of people willing to help steer you right here.

 

You can also find some pretty decent bundles (barebones) on the internet these days too if you look round.

 

If in doubt, just ask here mate and someone will help you out.

 

I'm really out of touch with PC building so I won't make any recommendations personally but I'm sure there are plenty round here that are clued up one what to get, where from and the best prices.

 

Good luck and enjoy your new build!

 

:thumbup:

[EtherealN]

As others have said, forget Laptops for gaming, especially for DCS.

 

I disagree, though of course it depends on what level of performance one expects. If you go to more boutique vendors (I have a Thor laptop myself as my travel machine, runs most games just fine - recently played some Far Cry 3 on my latest trip to Russia with no issues except that loading times aren't the best due to lack of SSD; but it does have a spare disk slot, fullHD screen, and cost only some €800 including VAT. For reference, that's with an i3-3210, 8GB RAM, 650M with 1GB dedicated. Adding a few hundred gets things bumped up of course, but it was good enough for my purposes).

 

The real kicker really is that you tend to have to fork up a lot of extra cash for a given performance compared to a stationary build, and unless you find niche retailers you can't get anything with any sort of game-oriented GPU under around €1000.

 

But yes, as long as one doesn't travel a lot, meaning that the laptop would by necessity become the main computer, I definitely feel stationary computers are the better option. Can always get some cheap machine or tablet for those times when on the move and just accept the play of older games on that one.

Edited October 8, 2013 by EtherealN

[nickexists]

Well here are the components that I'm planning on using, I thought I'd better post it here just to make sure I'm not making any stupid mistake.

 

EVGA GTX760 Superclocked with 2GB

i5-4670

WD Blue 1TB HDD 7200RPM

Cooler Master Hyper N520

Corsair Vengeance 8GB RAM

Cooler Master HAF 912 Mid Tower

ASUS 24x DVD-RW drive

ASUS Z87pro motherboard

KingWin 750watt power supply