$700 Laptop Required in Toronto

[psv]

Hi there,

I am looking to buy my wife a laptop. She doesn't require it for gaming but does need a cd/dvd drive. She will use it for normal everyday use, watching films on laptop and on tv through HDMI and making the odd short film on windows movie maker.

Screen size would preferably be 15", resolution isn't a biggie, hard drive space minimum 500gb.

I did find this at futureshop Asus K55VD i5

Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

 

[CaedenV]

Just about any $300 laptop can burn CD/DVDs and watch movies. Anything beyond an i3 processor is probably overkill for her needs. The real trick to having a laptop that will 'wow' your wife is to have the following:
1) a modern duel core processor at 3GHz or better
2) SSD for the system drive (this is typically something you will have to do yourself as only $1,000+ laptops come with SSDs)
3) get the highest quality screen possible. Minimum 1080p, and preferably a matte screen with some sort of anti-glare tech. Whatever looks best to you, and is not glossy (glossy screens suck in the real world, though they look phenomenal in a dark room)

 

[psv]

Just about any $300 laptop can burn CD/DVDs and watch movies. Anything beyond an i3 processor is probably overkill for her needs. The real trick to having a laptop that will 'wow' your wife is to have the following:
1) a modern duel core processor at 3GHz or better
2) SSD for the system drive (this is typically something you will have to do yourself as only $1,000+ laptops come with SSDs)
3) get the highest quality screen possible. Minimum 1080p, and preferably a matte screen with some sort of anti-glare tech. Whatever looks best to you, and is not glossy (glossy screens suck in the real world, though they look phenomenal in a dark room)

Hi thanks for your reply

another questions is, would this laptop suffice if I wanted to use it too for a bit of gaming and photo editing. I'd like the flexibility of being able to use it for myself as well if required?

thanks once again

 

[psv]

further to my last post, would this be a better choice? with vouchers it comes down to $579. has more memory, better display, backlight keyboard and a 2gb dedicated card?

Retail Software Retail Software - All WIN8
Labels Inspiron 15R Special Edition Palmrest Label
SYSTEM Inspiron 15R Notebook (Inspiron 7520)
PROCESSOR 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i5-3230M processor (3M Cache, up to 3.2 GHz)
OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 8, 64-bit, English
MEMORY 6GB Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz
HARD DRIVE 750GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
VIDEO CARD AMD Radeon™ HD 7730M 2GB
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8X Tray Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
SYSTEM COLOR Stealth Black Anodized Aluminum
DISPLAY 15.6" Full High Definition (1080p) LED Display
BATTERY OPTIONS 48 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Battery
WIRELESS CARDS Intel® Centrino® Wireless 2230, 2x2 bgn + Bluetooth
SOUND Waves MaxxAudio 4 + Skullcandy Speakers
NETWORK CARD Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet card
KEYBOARD English Backlit Keyboard with Multi-touch Touchpad
POWER CORD Power cord, 125V, 3.2 Feet, US
ADOBE & ENTERTAINMENT Digital Delivery Enablement
WIRELESS DRIVER SRV Software for 2230 WIFI Wireless Card
SHIPPING MATERIAL Shipping Material, Direct
ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE Additional Software
OPTICAL DRIVE SOFTWARE Cyberlink Media Suite Essentials DVD

thanks

 

[IInuyasha74]

I personally would avoid Dell and HP but it's up to you.

One of the few times me and you agree lol. I also would avoid Dell and HP. They seem to not always be the best quality, I've seen more of them fall apart than anything else, and they seem overpriced for what you get out of them because everyone knows them and blindly buys them a lot of times.

I like Acer really well. They are sometimes seen as a little lower end, but their stuff is usually put together well and fairly sturdy and they tend to have great deals.

 

[psv]

even with the cheaper price point and better "parts" you would still avoid the dell?

 

[IInuyasha74]

even with the cheaper price point and better "parts" you would still avoid the dell?

Dell uses the same parts as everyone else. People just use different combinations. In every Dell laptop I have seen, I have been able to find an equal or superior laptop to the Dell laptop at an equal or lower cost. Dell like HP and Apple charge more for the same thing you can get in another laptop because they are big name brands. People a lot of times don't think and just go ahead and buy them, so that lets them raise their price without it hurting their sells.

 

[psv]

even with the cheaper price point and better "parts" you would still avoid the dell?

Dell uses the same parts as everyone else. People just use different combinations. In every Dell laptop I have seen, I have been able to find an equal or superior laptop to the Dell laptop at an equal or lower cost. Dell like HP and Apple charge more for the same thing you can get in another laptop because they are big name brands. People a lot of times don't think and just go ahead and buy them, so that lets them raise their price without it hurting their sells.

hi thanks for the reply, but this dell is cheaper than both the Asus laptops in the thread?

I understand Dell charge more for everything, which is why I don't like Apple 😉

only reason I am considering the Dell is because it is cheaper than the two Asus laptops and has a better spec

 

[IInuyasha74]

OhI see, I think I am overlooking the link to it.

 

[psv]

So would the dell then be better? Seeing as it is cheaper than the two?

 

[IInuyasha74]

Well that is what I am saying, I do not see the link for the Dell computer so I don't know what its price or hardware is. Sorry, I may just be overlooking it but I can't say for sure till I see it.

 

[psv]

Retail Software Retail Software - All WIN8 Labels Inspiron 15R Special Edition Palmrest Label SYSTEM Inspiron 15R Notebook (Inspiron 7520) PROCESSOR 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i5-3230M processor (3M Cache, up to 3.2 GHz) OPERATING SYSTEM Windows 8, 64-bit, English MEMORY 6GB Dual Channel DDR3 1600MHz HARD DRIVE 750GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive VIDEO CARD AMD Radeon™ HD 7730M 2GB INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8X Tray Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive) SYSTEM COLOR Stealth Black Anodized Aluminum DISPLAY 15.6" Full High Definition (1080p) LED Display BATTERY OPTIONS 48 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Battery WIRELESS CARDS Intel® Centrino® Wireless 2230, 2x2 bgn + Bluetooth SOUND Waves MaxxAudio 4 + Skullcandy Speakers NETWORK CARD Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet card KEYBOARD English Backlit Keyboard with Multi-touch Touchpad POWER CORD Power cord, 125V, 3.2 Feet, US ADOBE & ENTERTAINMENT Digital Delivery Enablement WIRELESS DRIVER SRV Software for 2230 WIFI Wireless Card SHIPPING MATERIAL Shipping Material, Direct ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE Additional Software OPTICAL DRIVE SOFTWARE Cyberlink Media Suite Essentials DVD

 

[IInuyasha74]

Oh I see. ell its not a bad system. If its cheaper then yea its an excellent choice.

 

[psv]

Oh I see. ell its not a bad system. If its cheaper then yea its an excellent choice.

thanks for the reply. i'll be getting the Dell system then as it is cheaper and overall a better system.

 

[CaedenV]

Just about any $300 laptop can burn CD/DVDs and watch movies. Anything beyond an i3 processor is probably overkill for her needs. The real trick to having a laptop that will 'wow' your wife is to have the following:
1) a modern duel core processor at 3GHz or better
2) SSD for the system drive (this is typically something you will have to do yourself as only $1,000+ laptops come with SSDs)
3) get the highest quality screen possible. Minimum 1080p, and preferably a matte screen with some sort of anti-glare tech. Whatever looks best to you, and is not glossy (glossy screens suck in the real world, though they look phenomenal in a dark room)

Hi thanks for your reply

another questions is, would this laptop suffice if I wanted to use it too for a bit of gaming and photo editing. I'd like the flexibility of being able to use it for myself as well if required?

thanks once again

Photo editing is almost entirely on the CPU, so if doing a lot of editing or complex editing then an i5 or i7 may help speed things allong. If you are just removing redeye and doing a color balance then a 15 year old pentium 3 has enough power to do that, so an i3 would be plenty.

Gaming is a bit more complicated. 'Real' games (ie software that you install to play a game) run nearly entirely on the GPU, so an i3 would be fine, but you may have better graphics options with an AMD APU setup instead on an Intel one as they tend to have better GPU options. Web games (farmville and the like) have terrible GPU support, and so they mostly run on the CPU. An i3 can keep up with current gen flash and Java based games, but as more and more high end games use this format you may want an i5 setup to future-proof yourself a little bit.


Biggest advice I can give anyone is to buy 'cheap' laptops. Laptops are designed with ~3 years of use in mind. They get tossed around, dropped, stolen, misplaced, sat on, spilled on, etc. In short: life happens, and most of it is unintentional.
The most important thing about a laptop (or phone/tablet) is that it be easily replaceable. Be sure that you can get a replacement unit within a few days of your computer breaking, and that you have an easy way to back up files on your current system, and transfer those files to the new system.

 

[Neowarex]

psv, URGENT:

You mentioned watching things on TV, if you want to watch 3D Blu-Ray iso files you definitely need to make sure you have a dedicated video card that supports the 3D streaming through HDMI, otherwise you'll be disappointed like me 🙁.

Otherwise, enjoy that laptop !

 

[IInuyasha74]

psv, URGENT:

You mentioned watching things on TV, if you want to watch 3D Blu-Ray iso files you definitely need to make sure you have a dedicated video card that supports the 3D streaming through HDMI, otherwise you'll be disappointed like me 🙁.

Otherwise, enjoy that laptop !

It is a good thing to watch out for, but his should be fine as long as it has an HDMI port. Its a GCN architecture with plenty of cores