Gaming Laptop.

[Casimir]

I may be on the market for a new gaming laptop.  Budget is between £1000 - 2000.  Looking for any recommendations or warnings.

My current MSI GX660 would be a benchmark, would like to get something more powerful/reliable.

[Molly]

Dump the mobile tech and get a proper desktop...

...if that ain't an option, make sure you get something that is upgradable in the gfx-slot.

[Casimir]

Well as I'm moving around a lot desktop isn't really an option.

Alienware looks overpriced, razer seems underpowered. Asus have no retailers in the UK so I'm at a loss.

Might stick with MSI and go for a GT70, if anyone knows of a comparable machine please let me know.

[Kafein]

In that budget you can afford a gaming-oriented lenovo

[pingpong]

OR you can forget all this, and buy acer quadcore gaming laptop , its awsome, only a few minor issues like random  bsod's from overheating when gaming, especially c-rpg (=WSE2), keyboard buttons coming off/jamming  (lost 3 so far), audio input is broken so i hear only sound from left headphone, cpu throttling and causing system to freeze at power saving mode, noisy as hell, battery lasts 1h max intense use, but all in all its pretty nice laptop.

[Casimir]

In that budget you can raw a gaming-oriented lenovo

My mate has a mid range lenovo and I wasn't impressed with the quality. After less than a year I've had to replace his keyboard as half the buttons have stopped working and the battery has dropped from 3hr capacity to half hour. Is there gaming range of better quality?

OR you can forget all this, and buy acer quadcore gaming laptop , its awsome, only a few minor issues like random  bsod's from overheating when gaming, especially c-rpg (=WSE2), keyboard buttons coming off/jamming  (lost 3 so far), audio input is broken so i hear only sound from left headphone, cpu throttling and causing system to freeze at power saving mode, noisy as hell, battery lasts 1h max intense use, but all in all its pretty nice laptop.

How long have you had that because seems like quite a few problems on a machine.

[pingpong]

My mate has a mid range lenovo and I wasn't impressed with the quality. After less than a year I've had to replace his keyboard as half the buttons have stopped working and the battery has dropped from 3hr capacity to half hour. Is there gaming range of better quality?

How long have you had that because seems like quite a few problems on a machine.

3 years so its acceptable, funny thing is they all started to appear when the 1 year warranty was up, sneaky these chinese people.. 

[Jarold]

My friend just got an MSI Gaming Laptop, I forget the exact name but I think it was $1500. It's funny though, he has a button that turns on super fan mode and it's like portable heater.

[Hirlok]

My mate has a mid range lenovo and I wasn't impressed with the quality. After less than a year I've had to replace his keyboard as half the buttons have stopped working and the battery has dropped from 3hr capacity to half hour. Is there gaming range of better quality?

Lenovo was kinda crap for a long time but they have catched up a lot.

I bought a Y500 (i7, mSATA SSD slot, 2x 650M SLI, 2nd graphics can be swapped for additional fan or hd if not playing) and I am quite happy with it after a couple of months.

Rather quiet, hours of gaming (Skyrim, Metro LL and other demanding stuff) without additional cooling pad (just a stand) and performancewise quite ok.

Runs c-rpg at stable 120 FPS, with heavy sweatFX afterprocessing still around 90, totally overmodded Skyrim with heavy ENB at playable framerates (35 outdoors, around 50-60 indoors), etc.

650M allows easy overclocking around 10-20% via nVidia inspector batchfiles, no additional cooling required so far.

sound is better than average, overall quality good.

Weak touchpad, but these things all suck except those on the MacBooks.

Keyboard has some bad placements (small enter button crammed between the rest of the keyboard and the useless numpad), but is otherwise good and has sweet red backlight.

I think there is a  new version out with 2 750M now.

[Kafein]

Pay attention to silly keyboard details like is there a virtual numpad if you choose not to have a real one (I hate keyboards without numpad personally) and you need special characters to write in your own moonspeak. There are laptops out there without even a numlock key so you can't input any ascii codes.

[Casimir]

Okay might look into lenovo as they seem pretty well priced.

Also I don't need any special characters Kafein :p

[Sir_Hans]

Might check out www.Maingear.com if you are looking for a premade gaming laptop.

They focus on Gaming PC's, and it will be overpriced.
But in my experience they are leagues above companies like Alienware/Dell. They make better computers, give you more options, have better customer support, and give you more bang for your buck. When you talk to their customer support, you won't be speaking to someone in India.
That said, they definitely aren't perfect... But if I was forced to buy a gaming laptop from anyone, it would be them.
Although I haven't kept up with this company or its reputation in the past 5+ years... so might want to double check to make sure they haven't been bought out by a parent company or just read some customer feedback if you start thinking about purchasing from them.

As has been mentioned before, you should build a desktop PC if at all possible.
"gaming laptop" is kind of an oxymoron in my book.  Of course I never really had one, so what do I know.

[Zaren]

Alienware looks overpriced, razer seems underpowered. Asus have no retailers in the UK so I'm at a loss.

Alienware is Dell crap now. The original makers made a new company, Origin pc. If ur looking for a top of the line laptop then thats what I would get. That said, its very expensive and I mean VERY. Otherwise a new MSI would be nice.
Here Ill rate a few just my opinion.
scale=1-10
Alienware 6 (Dell takeover=worse quality)
Lenovo 5 or 6 (getting better but still quality problems, id look into this brand in 3 years)
MSI 7 (decent but still lacking in power/too big of a build for the heavier ones)
Asus 7.5 (Good but customer service is lacking and good luck with RMA)
Origin 7.5 or 8 (Very very good but VERY VERY expensive, ull pay a lot just for the quality)
Dell(non alienware), Hp, or similar 4
xotic pc 7 (good prices, decent computers, but I feel like they try to sell you every little thing)

[Gnjus]

Better spend those 2k pounds in a pub, we've had enough of you already and we don't wanna see you in any future online games. 

[Kafein]

I'm advertising lenovo because many people I know working in computer science get a lenovo laptop for work with whatever linux distro they like and say it's awesome.