Need suggestions for gaming laptop

[Halberto]

I'm away from home 2 weeks at a time (back in Austin afterwards for a week) and will have a lot of time to kill. I'm thinking about buying a high end laptop like alienware but I've been out of the tech loop for a few years. I was hoping you guys could give me some suggestions about how to spend my money most efficiently (willing to go around $2500).

My friends are telling me to go SSD, but it's pretty damn pricey. I know it's much faster at transfering data than SATA, but does it actually affect the performance while gaming?

Also, I was wondering how I should prioritize my hardware. I was thinking RAM>vid card>processor>hdd.

[Cry Havoc]

$2500 should buy you an absolute blistering top of the line laptop.

I highly recommend Sager. They have a fantastic reputation in the biz and great prices.

[jman3000]

You're willing to spend 2500 and you're worried about the price of an SSD?

I built my own system for under 700 bucks and even I have an 80 gig SSD.

Vid card>processor>RAM>HDD ... in my humble opinion for gaming.

[Halberto]

So the SSD really doesn't really affect the performance, is that what you're saying jman? If I take off the 256 GB SSD that would save me $500.

Thanks cry havoc, Ill check them out. I've only really looked at Alienware.

[Kai]

I second Sager. Best gaming laptops, and upgradeable to boot.

[Halberto]

I checked out Sager, I like that they're upgradeable. Also, I'm going to avoid the SSD. I can put that money into the processor and/or vidcard and get a much better framerate.

[PM5K]

Yeah if I were you I'd build a top of the line gaming laptop and then use yesterdays hard drive technology.

[Cry Havoc]

Yeah if I were you I'd build a top of the line gaming laptop and then use yesterdays hard drive technology.

...

SSD is not going to make a noticeable difference in frame rates. The only thing that it will really impact is level loading times, but on a fast computer they aren't long anyway as long as you have a good HDD.

[Cane]

When it comes to SSD's it depends on what games you like to play. And with a premium laptop you'll probably be checking out behemoths like Skyrim which is where SSD's should kick some serious ass

[Cry Havoc]

When it comes to SSD's it depends on what games you like to play. And with a premium laptop you'll probably be checking out behemoths like Skyrim which is where SSD's should kick some serious ass

Regardless, an SSD is just going to improve load times, not frame rates.