What do you guys think about gaming laptops for school?

I'm currently thinking about getting a gaming laptop for around 1,400 dollars. The one I was interested in was an MSI GT70 Dominator Dragon Edition. Anyone have any input on having a 17 inch one for college and what not? And yes I already know I can build a desktop for much less before anyone makes that generic statement. I just parted out my gaming rig though so I would be able to purchase something more portable.

well gaming laptops and especially 17" arent really that portable for one think let alone battery life when gaming is dreadful so you will probably end up playing games only when you are home . Imo find a decent $600-700 laptop with a decent GPU that will allow you to do some gaming on the go and build a desktop pc for around $700 that you can use mainly for gaming

I have an MSI GT70 and its not portable at all. It is heavy and a pain to carry around from one class to an other, also forget about gaming on the battery as it is not a very good idea. So my advice would be buy a cheap light laptop for school and just build a desktop. I am talking from experience here, I dread having to carry it around even if I just carry it from home to work and vice versa, and lets face it most gaming you will be doing will be plugged to an outlet at home.

@RaZoR500: How is the battery on its own like while you're at school? That's the thing. I'm going to school about 4 hours away and don't want to drag a desktop with me each time I go home and what not. I've saved up a lot, but another thing I was considering was building an msi z97 nightblade rig as well. The laptop would be for some classes and downtime in between them. I don't mind the power outlet issue as they're everywhere even in classrooms

17in is too big for anything. A 15in or 13in laptop would actually be usable.

Battery well give you 3 hours maybe 4 if you lower the brightness, so if outlets are not available you won't get a days worth of work on it. As for gaming laptops can be disappointing if you are expecting a desktop experience

@RaZoR500: I'm not expecting a desktop experience, but even then it looks like it's a bit more powerful than my rig I just sold. So if you had the chance, you wouldn't do it again? I'm just so on love with how this laptop looks and is lol :/

This is my own experience using my 14" ASUS RoG G46VW in campus:

The laptop weighs as much as the common 15.4" laptop, sometimes less (about 5.5 lbs). Weight is not really a concern especially since I use a backpack to lug the laptop around.

When I game, the laptop is usually plugged in to an outlet. The student lounge have plenty of outlets to plug the laptop into. I never game on batteries.

My laptop has dual GPUs: one Intel and the other a GTX 660m. When I game (plugged in, of course), the laptop defaults to the GTX 660m. When I'm not gaming, the laptop uses the Intel GPU. None of this crap about the batteries being drained by the GTX 660m during ordinary use. With non-gaming use, my laptop behaves just like other non-gaming laptops.

Since I game only while the laptop is plugged in, I'm actually charging the battery while gaming. When I use my laptop in class under battery power, I get between 6-7 hours battery life. That's plenty enough.

My G46VW has a dedicated fan each for the i5 CPU and GTX 660m along with the proper exhaust plumbing. It's very quiet and the heat signature is quite low.

Screen resolution is only 1366x768. That's not too bad considering equivalent size and larger widescreen monitors up to 17" have the same res.

It's about $400 outside your budget but the Razer Blade (2013) is a decently good mix between gaming performance and portability with good battery life. It's not going to win any awards for outstanding gaming performance but it will play most modern games. Plus you get more than 6 hours of battery life, a very thin frame, and a portable 14 in screen. Good gaming laptops with fantastic performance that are decently portable are almost impossible to find. Although the 2014 Blade which is way out of your budget is even better than the 2013 model. (the battery life however has suffered because of the higher resolution screen).

I have an 18.4 inch and a 17.3 inch gaming laptop. The 18.4 inch is just completely unacceptable for school. It's massive an heavy as hell. The 17.3 inch is really way too big as well. In other words, DO NOT get anything bigger than 15.6 inch for travel/school. I'd go for 15.6 inch for sure. Don't get an MSI, get an ASUS. They're more bang for your buck and have excellent build quality and free 2 years warranty. Their customer service is top notch and fast. I have one that's near 5 years old and I never had a single problem except for one hard drive failure which was able to be recovered easily.

Look into the ASUS ROG line of laptops. Most come with a free backpack and gaming mouse...

ASUS ROG laptops

This one might be a good choice and you still got plenty of money left over for games...

ASUS ROG G550JK-DS71 15.6-Inch Laptop, Nvidia GTX 850M Graphics

That MSI laptop is just really clunky/ugly looking compared to the sleekness of this. I'd imagine this would be a far far better choice for school...

I always recommend building a beastly gaming desktop, and then buying a much lighter notebook for school work. Gaming laptops can be heavy, and big, and you're sacrificing performance for the sake of portability at a pretty big premium even though I'm guessing you'd only game in private anyways.

Unless you don't live at a home with internet, or you intend on travelling constantly, I wouldn't get a gaming laptop.

There are other reason for gaming laptops. I bought one because I don't want a huge desk, monitor, tower, keyboard, wires, and speakers in my room. I can sit in bed and play it with a small laptop desk that goes over me. Yes it's twice as expensive but to some people it's worth it.

I think I sacrificed all of 9 square feet of space to have a desk, nice chair, big 27" monitor, awesome gaming mouse and mechanical keyboard, and a nice desktop that saves me tons of money.

That's worth it to me. I've tried gaming on a laptop in bed before, and on a couch, and I think I'd give up gaming if I only had that option. I've only got a couple gog games on my laptop for when I'm bored at school.

I don't have the room for all of that. I have a great lapdesk that has legs and it goes over me and I have a nice pillow thing that has arm rests. It's extremely comfortable and gaming in bed is nice. I can also easily hook it up to the 46 inch TV which is great for movies and gaming.

I don't see anything wrong with it if you're willing to spend that much money. I'm currently shopping around for a laptop for school that is capable of playing some games, but I'm not going to spend as much as you. As of right now, this is looking like my best option in my price range. I have a few weeks left until school starts and I may even go a week or so past when classes begin to make sure a better deal doesn't come along.

That's a fine choice for school and light gaming. Go for it. HDMI port will be nice too, download some movies and hook it up to the TV.

Opinions on this ... View Models

@mickleathy: It has good specs/price but the screen is pretty small. I'd try looking around for something 15.6 inch.

I game a little differently on the laptop. I still game on a desk. I also game with a mouse and (separate) keyboard). The laptop keyboard and mouse pad are for non-gaming use only.

@jun_aka_pekto: FOUR keyboards. Count um, FOUR.

He He. Do you really want to know how many keyboards I have in my den?

That's nine plus one in the trash. I keep the old beige PS/2 Gateway in case I have to work on a BIOS. ;)