$1300 Laptop suggestions?

[stalkerfang]

1. What is your budget? $1000 to $1300

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 13 inch to 15 inch

3. What screen resolution do you want? Don't really mind- 1900x 1080 would be nice, but not fussed.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Portable

5. How much battery life do you need? 3ish hour

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. Preferably Skyrim, BF3, Arkham City on medium to high settings. Maybe even Witcher 2 on Low? Wishful thinking...

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? Possibly some Video editing, mostly Gaming, Internet and Word Processing (for University)

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? At least 500gb, preferably 750- 1tb

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? 2-3 years

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? DVD is fine.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.

Originally I was going to buy a HP pavilion dv6t, but I read of several people saying they have massive problems with HP's, apart from that, I'm not really fussed at all.

13. What country do you live in? Australia (please include international postage in price if it is from a non Aussie website/ ebay)

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

I was going to buy a HP Pavilion dv6t, or a XPS 15z, but I am not sure whether these two are reliable. I will be using this Laptop for University, meaning I'll have to catch a Bus, so I dont want anything too bulky- a 13 inch would be ideal, although I dont mind a thinnish 15. I don't mind if a bit of graphical power has to be sacrificed for size, but would prefer both (small size, decent performance). Are there any 13 or 14 inch laptops with a 540m in them?

Anyway, any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[stalkerfang]

Can anyone give me their opinion on this laptop?
http/www.ebay.com.au/itm/ACER-AS3830TG-2414G12nbb-TimeLineX-i5-8GB-120GB-SSD-NVIDIA-GT540-13-1-8KG-LIGHT-/170703786572?pt=AU_comp_laptop&hash=item27bebd124c#ht_7761wt_1270

 

[Maziar]

Sager NP8130 is a great choice and is much better than dv6/xps 15 in terms of gaming.
http/www.malibal.com/boutique/pc/configurePrd.asp?idProduct=285

 

[stalkerfang]

Can you find somewhere to get that in Australia? Or do they ship to Aus?

 

[Maziar]

They ship internationally I think.
But another site that I'm 100% sure ships to Aus is www.xoticpc.com

 

[Pyree]

I think they do, but the shipping is going to be quite expensive (I expect nothing short of $100 and you have to pay GST).

http/www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8130-built-clevo-p151hm1-custom-sager-laptop-p-2973.html?wconfigure=yes

Get i7 2630QM, 4x2GB RAM and W7 OEM for $1039. Let say shipping is $100, that puts total at $1139. Exchange rate is 1 .000AUD to 1.008 USD, so it is $1129.95. 10% GST = $1242.95 AUD.

If you build in Australia, the same machine will be (Well not exactly the same. The one from affordable laptop has a faster CPU and more RAM):

http/www.affordablelaptops.com.au/contents/en-us/d43_gaming-laptop-notebook-standard-size.html

For Metabox P151HM1 laptop by Clevo, select free 12GB RAM upgrade and W7 OEM. Total price of $1398. Free shipping until tomorrow.

For now, it is cheaper to buy from USA. If the exchange is in favour of USD and the shipping is more expensive (over the $100 USD estimate), then getting them in Australia is a wiser choice, even if there is a shipping cost within Australia after the free delivery offer expire (shipping about $35 AUD).

Then again, you may want to wait after the holidays. The price is going to drop.

Edit: Played with UPS and USPS rate. Looks like the shipping will be close to $250. So buying in Australia is definitely better.

 

[stalkerfang]

Thanks for the responses guy's, I've found a retailer in Australia who sells the Sager Laptops custom made.

However, before I buy, do you guys know of any 13 inch laptops for a similar price and decent performance? The only problem with the Sager is its a fifteen inch, and looks fairly bulky- and I'm going to be lugging this laptop to and from Uni on the bus.

Specwise, are there any i7 based, 13 inches with a 540m graphics card in them in the $1300 pricerange (Picky I know )?

I saw an Acer one, the 3830 or something, but a lot of people were complaining about throttling on the CPU. Is there anyway to limit the throttling? A software fix?

Thanks once again for all the help

 

[Pyree]

You are sacrificing a lot of performance, trading about 100% performance for 2 inch shrink (and that is diagonally, not on each edge, making the 2 inch shrink even less noticeable).

If you are a guy over 165cm, you will be fine with a 15 inch laptop.

 

[Maziar]

+1^

 

[stalkerfang]

Best answer selected by stalkerfang.

 

[Maziar]

This topic has been closed by Maziar