The days when showing up to an all-night LAN party with your dependable laptop and expecting to hang with the enormous computer towers that were at everyone’s feet would have gotten you mocked at are long gone. Modern gaming laptop computers feature full-size keyboards, enormous, sharp LCD screens, and cutting-edge video cards. These gaming laptop computers can compete with the typical bulky computer tower, and they can be fully customized to every gamer’s unique requirements.
In order to develop the ideal gaming laptop computer for your requirements and your budget, it has become normal practice to establish what some refer to as a “system builder.” This is the page where you can add and remove components through drop-down choices. This kind of page can be intimidating for someone who is just beginning their search for a gaming laptop, but it is fairly manageable if you focus on one component at a time.
The Gaming Laptop GPU
This is where a gaming laptop computer’s heart is. Your gaming experience will be made or broken by the GPU, or graphics processing unit. Your games won’t run properly if your GPU isn’t up to par.
The important thing is that the graphics card not share resources with the computer, although we won’t dive into specific models because they vary frequently. A video card for a gaming laptop must have its own onboard memory. In general, this feature won’t be found on typical off-the-shelf computers. nVIDIA and ATI are the two manufacturers of laptop video cards at the moment.
Without the Screen, You Don’t Have Much
Without a screen that can properly render your games, what use is a gaming laptop? A gaming laptop may, of course, be connected to an external monitor, but if you can’t use it to play games without it, your laptop isn’t really that portable.
While an entire page could be dedicated to the science and lingo of LCDs (liquid crystal displays), there are a few important considerations to make when selecting an LCD for your new gaming laptop: native resolution, aspect ratio, rise and fall time, contrast, viewing angle, and size.
Native Resolution Simply put, the native resolution is the setting that will provide the cleanest visuals on your screen. Most gamers may not mind somewhat rounded edges because games are always in motion, but bear in mind that even while this is your gaming laptop, you’ll probably also use it for other things like web browsing. You won’t appreciate using the resolution if it is uncomfortable.
Ratio of aspects. As you are surely aware, a TV screen and a movie theater screen have various sizes. Similar to televisions, there are gaming laptops with widescreen formats and others with normal aspect ratios. Both benefits and drawbacks exist for gaming laptops with widescreen displays. Today’s games frequently lack a widescreen option. This means that the game may run with black bars that fill up the edges or it may stretch across the screen and become deformed. There are workarounds for this, but if you expect a flawless experience right out of the box, the widescreen format might not be for you.
However, a widescreen LCD does provide a generous amount of screen space for web browsing and other computer-related activities, and a game played in a wide format environment offers a wide field of view. There are many devoted widescreen gamers out there as a result.
Try your best to strike a balance between the technology of today and tomorrow and your non-gaming computer usage. The widescreen display is present on the majority of the finest gaming laptop computers, despite its drawbacks.
Rise and Decline. The LCD’s ability to react quickly to changes is referred to as “rise and fall time.” In the past, LCDs have struggled to render visuals as quickly as computer games can produce them. For laptop gamers, this is a significant challenge since if they can’t see the images clearly, they can’t play the game clearly. The gap between playing to win and barely playing can be caused by this lag.
Fortunately, gaming laptop LCDs have advanced significantly and will continue to do so. Today’s gaming laptop LCDs offer a rise and fall time of 25 milliseconds or less, compared to the 40 milliseconds or less of most off-the-shelf laptops, which once made playing video games on a laptop screen difficult.
Contrast. If a gaming laptop LCD has poor contrast, that means that the black areas aren’t quite as black as they should be and the white areas aren’t quite as white. This is important to a laptop gamer because you have to see the game properly – as it was intended to be seen – in order to compete effectively. Look for a contrast ratio of 400:1 or higher in a custom gaming laptop computer.
Viewing Position. This is a frequently disregarded LCD characteristic, but if you’re constructing a gaming laptop computer, you should take it into account. It might be challenging to see many high-quality LCDs on the market clearly from any angle other than straight on and at the proper height. This can be a significant disadvantage when playing games on an LCD screen because a screen with poor viewing angles makes it difficult for spectators to watch you play and obstructs your view even when you merely move your seat, necessitating additional screen positioning adjustments on your laptop.
However, using a laptop for gaming does not guarantee bad viewing angles. There are LCDs available on the market with incredible viewing angles that go up to 120 degrees. These screens not only let spectators see the gaming, but they also let you use that enormous, clear screen for things like watching movies and even giving presentations.
Size. Size is crucial with a laptop computer for gaming. The majority of gaming laptops are substantial, huge technological devices. A huge screen is a benefit of owning a machine of this size. The best LCD panels for gaming laptops are at least 15 inches wide. A 17-inch widescreen is popular with the crowd (even with the challenges that widescreens present). Huge 19-inch laptop screens are only now becoming a topic of discussion, with buyers anticipating the arrival of 19-inch or even large versions on the market soon.
The best way to really get a feel for what laptop LCDs are all about is to take a trip to a local box store and play with the LCDs on the display laptops while keeping in mind what you have read here. While these laptops are not custom gaming laptops, you can see what the sizes really look like, what different resolutions look like, and what the viewing angles truly are so you can start to develop your own preferences.
The RAM – What Type and How Much?
SODIMM is the name of the RAM (random access memory) used in laptops (small outline dual inline memory module). Your computer’s processing power is determined by the RAM. If you are looking for a custom gaming laptop, you will typically be given the option of choosing how much DDR2 RAM you want in your machine. For the best, lag-free gaming experience, the majority of high-end games published today require 1GB of RAM. Some folks choose 2GB so they can run other applications in addition to the game without experiencing any response time lag. You want to be able to use this gaming laptop for a while in the future because it is a significant investment. Most custom laptops are user upgradeable, but this should be left up to professionals.
The CPU – Not Just Mobile Technology
Many specialized gaming laptops contain CPUs that are exact replicas of those found in desktop computers. These chips need a lot of cooling capacity, which might make your laptop noisier than ultralight, lower power models when the fans turn on and cause it to get a little warm to the touch. This is normal; do not be alarmed. These desktop processors also have incredible power! Avoid spending money on the most recent CPU release, which probably has an inflated price tag (and that price will likely come down before long). You really can’t go wrong if you go with a current CPU speed that is provided by a trustworthy custom gaming laptop reseller.
The Gaming Laptop Hard Drive
This is the last element to take into account while constructing a gaming laptop. Laptop hard drives are available in a range of rotational speeds (4200 to 7200 RPMs) and storage sizes (40 to over 100 GBs). This is largely a matter of personal preference. Choose a 7200 RPM hard disk whenever possible, but if the capacity you require is not available at this speed, you may choose a 5400 RPM drive instead. Examine your current computer, then base your purchase of capacity on that. Also keep in mind that you have the option to upgrade or add another hard drive down the road with several makers of custom gaming laptops.
Gaming laptop laptops are ultimately all about power. A twelve-pound laptop with a desktop processor, multiple fans, a massive heat sink, and an independent video card won’t last very long on battery power. But be sure to savor the gasps you’ll get when you enter your usual LAN party venue with your brand-new, blazingly fast gaming laptop computer. Open that dog up, turn it on, and keep your distance from the drool as you battle it out in your preferred game with other players gathering nearby to watch. Gaming is no longer limited to desktop computers!
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