2x ~$1200 Gaming/College Ultrabook

chili dude96

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Budget changed to $1200.

Hello all,

I am in need of two laptops. One for me and one for my brother. We are both in university. We need lightweight laptops with good battery life to bring around campus and to classes. We also need these laptops to have gaming performance. We do not need to play all of our games on max settings, but we would like to be able to run them. Games like BF3, Borderlands, Dayz, Arma 2, CS:GO, ect. He wants a 15.6 inch and I want a 14 inch.

I have compiled a list of laptops I am currently looking at but I really need more suggestions because none of the laptops (except one), would ship in time before we go back to college. Also, I am not entirely thrilled by them. My budget is $1200 and these laptops are all below budget so I wonder if anyone knows anything better in the $1200 range.


Thanks so much!


14 inch
Lenovo y40 http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y40/
i7-4510U Processor 2.0ghz, dual core
14.0" FHD LED AntiGlare Backlight (1920x1080)
AMD Radeon R9 M275 4GB
8.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3L SDRAM 1600 MHz
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160
4.9lbs 5 hours battery

With a Hybrid 500GB 5400 RPM+8GB SSHD for $780
Or
with a 256GB SSD for $880

Acer Aspire V7
$780 http://www.amazon.com/Acer-V7-482PG-5842-14-Inch-Touchscreen-Ultrabook/dp/B00K2O4UMS

Intel Core i5-4200U 1.6 GHz (3 MB Cache)
8 GB DDR3L SDRAM
500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
16gb ssd
14-Inch Screen, NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 4gb
Windows 8.1, 8-hour battery life
4.41lbs

or $952 with a 4500U 1.8 GHz

15 inch
Acer Aspire V7
$858 http://www.amazon.com/Acer-V7-582PG-6479-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-Ultrabook/dp/B00H7WF21G

Intel Core i5-4200U 1.6 GHz Processor (3 MB Cache)
8 GB DDR3L SDRAM
500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
16gb ssd
15.6-Inch Touchscreen, NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 4gb
Windows 8.1, 6.5-hour battery life
4.85lbs

Acer Aspire V7
$1047 http://www.amazon.com/Acer-V7-582PG-7657-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-Ultrabook/dp/B00K2O4QPY/

Intel Core i7-4510U 2.0 GHz (4 MB Cache)
8 GB DDR3L SDRAM
500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
16gb ssd
15.6-Inch Screen, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M 4gb
Windows 8.1, 6.5-hour battery life
4.85lbs

Lenovo Y50http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y50/
$1089
i7-4710HQ Processor (2.50GHz quad
Windows 8.1 64
15.6" FHD LED AntiGlare Backlight (1920x1080)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 2GB
8.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3L SDRAM 1600 MHz
Hybrid 1TB 5400 RPM+8GB SSHD
Intel® Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160
5.3 lbs 5 hours battery

MSI GS Series GS60 Ghost-012 $1250 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA57X1U15221
Intel Core i7 4710HQ (2.50GHz) quad
8GB Memory
1TB HDD
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M 2GB GDDR3
1920 x 1080
Windows 8.1
Intel 7260 Wilkins Peak 2 (2x2 802.11 ac)
4.36lbs

The Lenovos win with the wireless AC but the Acers take battery life and weight. Also the Acers have IPS displays.

The y40's R9 M275 is about on par with the Acer's 750m right?
 
Solution
Hey,

The Acer Aspire V7 (i7-4500U) you listed above with the 850M was a laptop I was considering to purchase. Based on my research, the Acer has great battery life because of the i7-4500U, but the performance difference between the Lenovo Y50 and the Acer is noticeable.

The Lenovo Y50 has a decent display, but the GPU and processor perform at higher levels than the Acer's i7-U series processor and the 850M.

If you want performance, the Lenovo is the clear winner, but if battery life, decent performance (screen quality too) is your preference, the Acer makes the most sense.
For laptops, go to PC specialist and configure your own to your spec. They have many customisations allowing you to choose what you need and they have good maintainability but I don't know about how long they will take to ship their products. From the products you have mentioned I would go with the lenovo as they are known for business work and have a good reliability. IPS displays are only good if you are planning to share your screen with a lot of people. Good TN panels are generally good enough and are better for gaming, don't know why.
 

chili dude96

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TN panels are considering better because of the whole issue of refresh rates. The hertz rating (usually 60hz) at which the monitor refreshes. It is a long and complicated argument that says IPS panels have ghosting because of low refresh rates. I personally use an IPS monitor and I have no issues.
 
Hey,

The Acer Aspire V7 (i7-4500U) you listed above with the 850M was a laptop I was considering to purchase. Based on my research, the Acer has great battery life because of the i7-4500U, but the performance difference between the Lenovo Y50 and the Acer is noticeable.

The Lenovo Y50 has a decent display, but the GPU and processor perform at higher levels than the Acer's i7-U series processor and the 850M.

If you want performance, the Lenovo is the clear winner, but if battery life, decent performance (screen quality too) is your preference, the Acer makes the most sense.
 
Solution

chili dude96

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Thanks Jason!

From what I can tell the 850m acer will really get 6.5 hours of battery life. I'm still having trouble figuring out the y50s actual battery life. How much of a performance difference between the y50 and the acer has been hard for me to tell. The acer has ddr3 ram which really slows things down.

Alternatively do you know anything around $1200 that might be like the acer but with a bit more performance?

Also, what did you end up buying?
 
I'm still deciding actually! I'm sort of on the fence like you.

Do you have a big emphasis on battery life? The problem with high-end GPU's like the 860M and a full i7-HQ is the lack of battery life. I'm guessing Acer purposely added the i7-U and a 850M with DDR3 to reduce performance, but increase battery life.

I'm pretty sure the Lenovo Y50 will hit somewhere around 4-4.5 hours on casual usage.

What kind of battery life are you looking for (5 hours, 6 hours, etc?)?

I don't play as many games, but I do play CS:GO so I'm looking for a decent GPU. As for you, DayZ, BF3, and Arma 2 are fairly intensive games so I'd go for the Lenovo Y50. You won't be disappointed by it's performance, just maybe the battery life.
 

chili dude96

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I mean if the lenovo will do 4 to 4.5 that is good enough. One of my issues with the lenovo is the screen quality but also general quality control. The owners threads on other forums are a mixed bag.

I'm a bit on the fence of 15.6 versus 14 after reading a review dubbing the acer 15.6 as a "desktop replacement" that won't fit well on college desks....

Also in my first year of university I'm not sure how much I will game anyways.
 
Yeah, I cut down on gaming when I started college. Depends on how much you get involved in your university (probably really involved since it's your first year).

I have a 15.6 (older Acer) at home and when I bring to class it's pretty big, but my Acer is pretty fat to begin with. A 14" would be perfect, but gaming computers in those sizes are rare. However, this Acer is MUCH thinner than my laptop.

Yeah, I'm having a hard time finding better choices. :(

 

chili dude96

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The 14 inch acer 13.4 by 9.4 and the 15.6 inch is 15 by 10.1. Its not exactly a huge difference. Plus they are both .79 in the front and .9 in the rear.

What do you think of the y40 or the 14 inch acer in terms of gaming? Not enough graphics power I assume?

Y50 is 15.23" x 10.37" x 0.9" and the y40 is 13.7" x 9.8" x 0.9"
 
Yeah,

The GS60 is nearly perfect except for it's abysmal battery life. All thin laptops overheat so it's a common issue that can only be avoided by getting a laptop cooler or a larger/thicker laptop with fans to cool off the GPU.

As for the 14" laptop, there weren't many with great GPU's.

All I could find was this (http://www.amazon.com/Acer-V7-482PG-7845-14-Inch-Touchscreen-Ultrabook/dp/B00K2O4QM2/ref=sr_1_25?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1407879760&sr=1-25&keywords=laptop).

14" laptops don't have as much of a selection as 13", 15.6", and 17.3" laptops.

 

chili dude96

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The GS60 will get hot and from what I can tell you will get 3 hours of web browsing, video streaming, ect. The one I linked to has a 850m instead of the normal 860m so it might be a bit cooler.

Yeah if you see the 14 inch acer I have listed its just like that one but with a worse 1.6ghz processor. However its $790 instead of 952. http://www.amazon.com/Acer-V7-482PG-5842-14-Inch-Touchscreen-Ultrabook/dp/B00K2O4UMS

I guess I could look at 13.3 inch laptops.
 

chili dude96

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I live in the US so that laptop isn't a feasible option for me.
 
Hey,

I'm having a hard time finding any 14" gaming laptops, but I thought the best way to get exactly what you need is through a custom option. I'd look into XoticPC (http://www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-laptops-notebooks-laptops-ct-95_51_147.html).

They have a wider selection of 14" laptops compared to us (We're working on expanding our laptop line @ iBUYPOWER). For the time being, Xotic is a good place to search.
 

chili dude96

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The issue is compared to the Acer with the 750m none of them have better specs until the force 1942 which looks great but has horrid battery life and then after that the alienware is good but its 6 pounds. The only thing that qualifies is the gigabyte which costs $1400+.

The sager 2740 comes close but the 5200 is 15% worse than the 750m.

Sigh the acer and the lenovos are it.

Also the only acer 14 inch I can find in stock is the $952 with the 1.8ghz processor. The $780 with the 1.6ghz processor is sold out.

This is because acer will eventually release an updated 14 inch with an 850m just like the 15.6 inch but it hasn't come out yet so the supply of 14 inch acers is almost all gone until the new one comes out.

So what are you going to do Jason? Wait until the 14 inch acer with the 850m?