Sager 5793--until the Sager 5796 comes out.

www.sagernotebook.com
www.xoticpc.com (good, reliable reseller)

I'm considering one with the T9300 (2.5GHz CD2), 4 gigs of ram, and the 8800M GTX myself. I may just wait until the 9800M GTX ships though, and see how it performs.

review: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=4...

Alienware, Dell, Voodoo, etc.. can't compare to Sager/Clevo in terms of price. They're fantastic machines, with a great build quality as well. In the past, Clevo notebooks have been rebranded by pretty much every major player in the notebook market.

If you really want the best laptop you can get for gaming, it's among the best. On the other hand, if price is a serious consideration, and you want lower end hardware that will still at least fulfill some of your gaming needs, AMD's Puma platform is somewhat interesting. When they start using 4800's in Puma, it may become a serious gaming platform, it's just a shame that it's tied to an AMD CPU.

Right now, if you're serious about gaming, it's 8800M GTX or bust--the 8700M sucks.

Well, duh.. but, laptops are cool. ;)

The NP5793 is awesome. I'd happily game on that thing for a year, and then upgrade to uber-future-desktop status in 12 months. Plus, then I'll still have an awesome laptop, which I can use while traveling for years to come.

Basically, as I said before.. it's 8800M or bust. The 8700M blows. Still better than the 7600GT I'm using right now, granted, but if you want the most out of your games in a mobile platform, it's got to be an 8800.

The Puma platform should be pretty compeditive at the lower end of this spectrum though, once the HD 4800 line fines its way into mobile form. Who knows, maybe they can compete on the high end as well.

Laptop gaming is perfectly sufficient, especially if you own an external monitor, mouse, and keyboard for when you're gaming at home. Desktop replacement notebooks are pretty close to desktop specifications, anyhow. The biggest difference: the price. Obviously, if you're spending 2000-2500 on a competent gaming lappy, you could spend the same amount of cash on a desktop and have a better machine.. but it won't be portable, which is the whole appeal of the notebook in the first place.

On the other hand, I don't think that it's particularly wise to upgrade a notebook. Even with the ability to install new CPU's and GPU's in modern notebooks, the cost of doing so is extraordinary. That's why my plan was to get a high end gaming notebook (possibly the 5793, possibly the next model w/ the 9800M), with the intention of upgrading my desktop to top of next years line in twelve months. That way it won't serve as my primary PC for more than 6-12 months, but in the time that it does, it will be kick ass anyway.

A fast notebook will last you for years. It will still be a good PC in a couple of years, seeing how an 8800M will kick the ass of any modern game, the only exception being Crysis (which it handles about as well as any other 8800, it's just.. ya know.. Crysis). Lower tier PC releases will still be plenty playable in three years on relatively high settings, the more intense games, still playable, perhaps on lower settings.

In the end, I don't think they're terrible, in fact.. I think desktop replacement laptops are quite good. You can get some awesome 17" (and 15.4" but yuck) gaming machines. I like the idea of having a gaming class PC I can bring with me to lans without the hassle of bringing along a heavy tower, bulky monitor, etc.. and even after I replace my desktop, it will still serve as a gaming machine on the go. I imagine stuff like D3 will play brilliantly on a 5793.. as will many FPS, new and old.