Your Guide To Popular Gaming Laptops

We kick you off on the path for the best gaming laptops fit for your unique lifestyle and budget.

Let The Games Begin! 

Gaming laptops are supreme mobile computing machines offering the latest in high tech gear. 

We’re talking super fast Intel and AMD processors, dual hard drives with RAID capability, high-end sound systems, HD LCD screens, dual NVIDIA SLI graphics capability, and the list goes on.

While gaming notebooks are among the most powerful laptops available, like many great things there can be a catch. That catch is often their price premium, but honestly don't let this scare you away for we are going to help you find the gaming laptop of your dreams.

Trust us, there are plenty entry level gaming systems out there that will also satisfy all but the most extreme gamers, and we're going to show you where to find them too.

We are going to help you throughout this guide pinpoint what portable gaming machine can fit into your budget and lifestyle.

It’s pretty amazing that power like this exists in a portable package, so lets check out what there is out there, shall we? 

Alienware Gaming Laptops

They make pretty sweet gaming notebooks to be honest and we’ve had the privilege to test various Alienware Area-51 and Aurora systems and were very impressed with the performance, and features.

We personally like the Alienware laptop case designs for they are definitely more custom looking than your typical laptop. While not technically out of this world, they will stand out if you pull it out in the public eye for sure.

Our Area-51 test system had an NVIDIA SLI dual-graphics card and we ran it through some rounds of Call of Duty Modern Warfare and had a blast playing. Zero in game lag and it all looked stunning on the HD LCD.

Battery life wasn't great like a typical gaming notebook so be sure you are near a wall outlet, but other than that every other feature worked well as intended.

We give Alienware laptops the thumbs up, and they are definitely worth checking out if you have money to burn on a portable gaming rig.

VoodooPC Gaming Laptops

Voodoo gaming laptops are among other things powerful like other gaming contenders offering best of breed top technology components.

Be prepared to spend your own savings, or if you have children their college fund for new Voodoo laptops are priced in our opinion a wee bit too high.

Unfortunately we we could not get our hands on a recent Voodoo laptop for testing, so we've gathered much of our information from actual owners who we’ve interviewed and some exhaustive research. About six months back we also tested and played around with one exhaustively however.

When we can finally test a more recent Voodoo laptop in more detail it may help us to lighten up a bit to price, but as of now we definitely feel there are other manufactures offering similar if not better laptops for less.

So in conclusion Voodoo PC markets some extreme gamer laptops but we'd honestly like to see Voodoo PC offer something more for entry level for gamers who don't harvest money trees.

Falcon Northwest Gaming Laptops

They aren’t widely known with typical laptop consumers but their name is definitely stamped in the laptop gaming community.

We’ve finally had the chance to run a Falcon Northwest through the paces more recently thanks to a buddy of ours. At first glance we all felt the laptops custom paint job was out of this world compared to anything offered by standard laptop manufactures such as HP, Sony, Gateway, etc. Automobile class paint job for sure.

The laptop we tested also impressed us in the performance arena and tore through our Call of Duty game with horsepower to spare.

Battery life of course in this class of notebook is pretty much non existent, and the laptop gets pretty hot like most if not all extreme gaming notebooks so you definitely want to game on a desk.

Overall we are impressed with what Falcon Northwest has to offer when it comes to performance and features. Once again their custom paint jobs are awesome.

Falcon Northwest is a major gaming laptop contender, but honestly we can only recommend them if you have a lot of money to burn on a gaming rig for the Falcon Northwest attitude does come with a price.

Velocity Micro Gaming Laptops

In fact, you may have even seen Velocity Micro computer systems at your local Best Buy or Circuit City retail outlet. 

As of this writing Circuit City carries two affordable Falcon Northwest entry level gaming class notebooks. You may want to go see if they do carry them at your nearest store.

While the retail offerings in our opinion aren’t extreme looking visually, their appearance is elegant and Velocity Micro does make quality built laptops and in fact pride themselves on this.

If you really have money to burn their high-end models offer extreme features such as the latest graphics cards and processors like other gamer laptop manufacturers.

Of course Velocity micro does offer gaming laptops under the $2000 range. As of this writing there NoteMagix C90 Ultra laptops start at $1499. Not bad at all!

While we haven’t tested a Velocity Micro laptop more recently, we know from past experience, interviews with existing owners and our own exhaustive research that Velocity Micro is a major contender in gaming laptop arena.

We give Velocity Micro the thumbs up.

Dell Gaming Notebooks

Personally we are big fans of Dell XPS gaming laptops. Their high-end models are sweet, offering some cool exterior accents on top of extreme performance among other things.

As of this writing they even have an entry level gaming notebook. The XPS M1530 Gaming Edition laptop is reasonably priced, and offers pretty good gaming performance but in a portable package.

While the M1530 is lacking the beastly power of its more expensive brothers and some other laptops in a similar price range, it is a decent gaming notebook for fewer than two thousand dollars. Even so, mobility over sheer performance is the selling factor for this model.

Overall we do recommend you check out Dell if looking for a gaming machine. There high-end models once again are gaming beasts, and they offer an entry-level gaming model for all you without extreme cash flow.

Dell is worth checking out.

See also:

• Dell Laptop Reviews

HP Gaming Laptops

If you are looking for extreme performance however and don't mind spending your fortune, you may want to check out HP's Voodoo PC line. 

HP's Voodoo PC's compete with Dell’s high-end gaming notebooks and other enthusiast focused laptops such as Alienware, Falcon Northwest, or Velocity Micro.

The HP consumer line of laptops as of this writing are focused more on the multimedia crowd over hard-core gamers, but if you are a casual gamer the higher-end HP laptops may be more than enough.

The exterior style on their laptops is basic and nothing extreme, but overall the design is clean.

Price wise the HP Inspiron DV series is reasonably priced and you will of course get HP’s solid brand recognition and quality.

If you are more of the casual gamer or someone without loads of money, we do recommend you check out HP during your gaming laptop quest.

See also:

• HP Laptop Reviews

Gateway Gaming Notebooks

Unfortunately we haven’t been able to get our hands on one for testing just yet so we are basing this on tons of research that we’ve performed, and from what we’ve gathered reviewers are in a nutshell impressed with the performance and price options available.

Gateway gaming laptops offer solid NVIDIA graphics cards and high definition screens like other gaming notebook makers.

There is also great news for all you gamers without money growing out of your ears, for as of this writing the Gateway P-171S FX Edition gaming laptop is well under two grand with strong NVIDIA Graphics horsepower.

So as it is looking now Gateway looks to be a strong contender in the laptop gaming arena. Time will tell but from what we've read things are looking pretty good so far.

• HP Laptop Reviews

• Dell Laptop Reviews

• Laptop Comparisons Guide