$900 & Under College Laptop 31 July 2012

flyfunner5

Honorable
Jul 31, 2012
13
0
10,560
1. What is your budget?
900$ USD & Under

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Don't care

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Don't care

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

5. How much battery life do you need?
Don't care

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. (Low,Medium or High)?
League of Legends
Guild Wars 2
Battlefield 3
-Any settings that make them playable

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Mundane Microsoft Office stuff

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
Doesn't matter

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

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
As long as possible

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

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.
Don't know

13. What country do you live in?
U S of A

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Windows 8 isn't out yet for a few months? I'd rather wait but I start school in less than a month and I need one now

 
Solution
The N56VS-ES71 is not a good option because it comes with a 15.6" 1366x768 display. 1366x768 resolution in a 15.6" display makes things onscreen large, and 15.6" displays that have 1366x768 resolution tend to have very poor image quality due to low contrast.

If you like the N56VZ, the version to buy would the the $999 N56VZ-RB71 from Microcenter. It comes with a 15.6" 1920x1080 matte display, and also a larger hard drive. http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0394503

But it's a bit over-budget, and its GDDR3 GT 650M is beaten by the GDDR5 GT 650M found in a few other laptops.

--------------------------

Couple of options worth considering (both already mentioned, but here they are in an organized format)...

flyfunner5

Honorable
Jul 31, 2012
13
0
10,560
Well, it sounds like you don't really want to spend all your money just to add a little bit to the gaming performance, so I recommend the HP dv6t-7000, GT 650M GDDR5, 6GB DDR3, 640G HDD + 32GB mSSD + I5-3210M + FullHD screen for 780$:
http://www.gaminglaptopsjunky.com/super-deal-hp-pavilion-dv6t-7000-15-6-gaming-laptop-intel-i5-3210qm-nvidia-gt-650m-2gb-gddr5-fullhd-display-6gb-ddr3-memory-640gb-hdd-780-coupon-code-nby8552/

Good for the next 20 hours, but I'm sure there will be more coupons in the following weeks.
Why this? because you get top performance for 800$ and you get very good FullHD screen for 800$ and you get 32GB mSSD which makes the laptop much more fast for typical use - you don't get this combination elsewhere

I don't know if you saw my edit, it's above your post, here's the link again
https://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/cart_detail.do?pageLink=true&bvLoadCart=1&action=add&disp_msg=0
The total would be 955 with 2 day shipping since i need to order now, If I don't with the 2 day shipping option, I won't receive the laptop in time

Looks like the link isn't working for others so,
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
3rd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3210M Processor (2.5 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.1 GHz)
NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GT 650M Graphics with 2GB GDDR 5 video memory
FREE Upgrade to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
$40 OFF Microsoft(R) Office Home and Student 2010
FREE Upgrade to 640GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
NO mSSD Hard Drive Acceleration Cache
No additional security software
6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery - Up to 6.0 hours of battery life +++
15.6-inch diagonal Full HD Anti-glare LED-backlit Display (1920 x 1080)
SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
HP TrueVision HD Webcam
802.11b/g/n WLAN
Standard Keyboard with numeric keypad
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope
918 With tax, 2 day shipping and coupon. Good or not?
 

flyfunner5

Honorable
Jul 31, 2012
13
0
10,560
Yup, if you look at the post above this is what I have, it's a total of 918 with tax, I added the ms office home/student
It does not have the backlit keyboard, it does have 1920x1080 screen and gt 560m

One question, if i bought this, would i still get the offer for a windows 8 upgrade from microsoft for 45$ like i see on sites such as newegg for windows 7 laptops?
 

flyfunner5

Honorable
Jul 31, 2012
13
0
10,560




See that text above yours, that's my configuration, currently 918. The link you sent me is the same site, but with an upgraded i7 cpu over my currently picked i5. With the same specs, your model will cost over my budget. The one that I have chosen now, is that a good deal for a laptop?
 

flyfunner5

Honorable
Jul 31, 2012
13
0
10,560


Well I leave for school on august 20th so I kind of need it before then. And yea, without microsoft it's more expensive, and for gaming purposes an i7 won't really make much of a diff over i5 right? mostly gpu intensive games are.

So what do you think of my i5 build? I could get it lower than 800 but that would be without the screen, if you notice i upgraded it to 1920x1080 over the default
 
Games like Battlefield 3 -especially played online- are making good use of the extra 2 cores.

I did notice the upgraded specs but missed the MS Office. Have you checked with your school to see what price you can get it through them? What about Windows 7? Any deal through the school with the OS?
 

flyfunner5

Honorable
Jul 31, 2012
13
0
10,560


Yea no deals with schoo/os that I can find. What do you mean about the win8 preview?
What i'm asking is that, on HP's site, and other sites such as newegg, and other manufacturers, they have a little notice saying that windows 7 pcs/laptops can be upgraded in the future to win8 for only 40$ or something. Do you know if this deal spills onto customized pc/laptops such as mine too?
 

flyfunner5

Honorable
Jul 31, 2012
13
0
10,560


Thanks so much for humoring me in this thread. I think i'm going to go with my option. Your options were pretty nice, but even this Asus one, has an inferior screen. I don't think my mundane tasks like Microsoft office will see much benefit from an upgraded CPU
 

flyfunner5

Honorable
Jul 31, 2012
13
0
10,560


What was the 150$ off from? Currently on my checkout they show me a -353.70 savings from the nby coupon
 

wheresperry

Honorable
Jul 13, 2012
24
0
10,560

Hypothetically, if you were to spill/drop/damage it without the Accidental Damage Protection warranty, would you be f'ed, or would they help you fix it at a cost (if so, is the cost high?)