I need suggestions on Lenovo gaming notebook for $1600

As said in the title, please help me.
thank you in advance!

 

The Alienware M17x R3 looks nice..

I would suggest you look elsewhere for a 'gaming' notebook, Lenovo does not specialize in those. The best one for it would be the ThinkPad W520 if you decide it has to be Lenovo.

 

If you appreciate traditional thinkpad attributes, such as a matte screen, good keyboard and roll-cage design, some Thinkpads do game quite well.

The W520 with Quadro 2000M should be able to run all games on the market currently. More demanding ones (Crysis 2, etc.) will not be able to run at native resoluton and AA maximized. You would be able to game on the 15 inch screen or output to a much larger screen with or without a dock.

If you do not cherish the traditional thinkpad attributes, the other line of Lenovo notebooks, Ideapads, do have some stronger graphic cards. However, in this case, you would be much better off getting laptops designed specifically for gaming. Examples include the Alienware, Clevo (e.g. Sager) and Asus.

Hope this helps.

 

You'd be better off expanding your options for a gaming notebook, the Lenovo IdeaPad lineup does not have a standout gaming notebook, the Y570 and Y470 are probably the closest thing but both are outclassed by other offerings from Dell, HP, Alienware, Asus etc.

Post in the What Notebook Should I buy Forum for better help.

 

Only the W520 seems decent for gaming and even then, it isn't really a gaming laptop. The other Lenovo brand laptops designed for gaming (Y series) have 1366x768 resolution LCDs, even the 15" models.

I'd honestly look to another brand, even though I'm a die hard ThinkPad user.

 

If you're looking for durable gaming laptop (which is why you're looking at Thinkpads), I recommend Alienware. I've tried their M11x and M14x, and the build quality is solid, much like a Thinkpad. The only problem is glossy display, which I'm not sure you're able to live with or not.

If you truly want a Thinkpad for gaming, I would recommend a W520, just like with Bogatyr said. A quad-core Sandy Bridge CPU and Quadro 2000M should be able to do the job. I've heard from somebody on this forum that they are able to play BF3 on it, although the temp rises to 100 deg C quickly, which means you should use a cooling pad with the laptop.

 

The W520 with Quadro 2000M does indeed handle BF3. As far as I can tell with the design of the W520, a cooling pad will probably work against the internal cooling system. Maybe a repaste will help.

 

I suppose I wonder about using the word "gaming" to modify the word "laptop."

Why? Gaming by definition needs a great video card. By definition you can't fit a great video card in an laptop.

I have a W520, but I would never try and "game" on it. I would walk into my built desktop that has speed, power, great graphics and a HUGE computer cooler.

Seems like that is putting a built motor in a pick up rather than in a sports car.

 

I think the best compromise is to get a good notebook computer, and a game console.

 

Well, that isn't quite true, but that would all depend on his gaming needs. There are many notebooks designed for gaming that are quite capable with modern games. Your W520 is a pretty powerful system too with it's nvidia quadro graphics, though designed with autocad and other professional software in mind. But to say that gaming by definition needs a great video card, and that you can't find one in a notebook is not true at all. Tell that to my SL410 with intel integrated graphics playing my 80 or so older PC games.

 

A W520 at $1600 would get you less gaming performance than another vendor's gaming laptop at $1600. If you have to get a Thinkpad, sure get the W520 and you'll probably be satisfied, but it would make more sense to look elsewere and get better performance/$$

 

Where are you seeing the W520 for $1600 delivered? If you can get a pretty decked out W520 for $1600 then you might want to jump on that. I see one on ebay.com for that (used) but it's loaded to the hilt.

 

FYI,

There is a W520 on auction at Lenovo ThinkPad W520 Notebook Computer Core I7/8GB/500GB/DVDRW/Gigabit Net/WLAN | eBay and the price is currently $810. I'm sure it will go for more but you might get lucky. The seller doesn't appear to have a reserve which is crazy because the machine is worth at least $1400-1500.

Good luck

 

A similar new quad-core W520, upgraded to Q2000 (+$200), with webcam and everything is $1200 CAD with coupons at the moment. Usually it's possible to find the same in the US cheaper, so $800-900 for a used W520 / Q1000 is actually a fair price.

Btw., not sure if an option for the original author, an interesting option may be to grab the cheapest config of W520 (~$1000), and for the remaining $600 to get a ViDock 4 + some decent video card. Great video performance when 'docked', and reasonable while on the move.

 

I'd suggest you go with the alienware. Although I've never seen or used a thinkpad, it has very nice build quality, really spongy deep clicking keyboard, and has a jet black chassis finish. Lenovo doesn't really specialize in gaming laptops, alienware on the other hand does. Can get an m14x for around 1300 nicely customized. There are other gaming laptops, but I can't think of any others that resembles lenovo in design.

 

Alienware is definitely a go for gaming needs. Actually i am quite fond of this machine myself. But i don't game and as such having two GPU in SLI or Crossfire doesn't really do much. I got a W701ds instead.

 

$1200 CAD is $1178 USD right now. I've never seen a loaded W520 for that.