Advice on desktop replacement please

[raffsf]

Hi I am looking to buy a new desktop replacement and would like a bit of advice please.

1. What is your budget? £550 - £600 max

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 17.3" that is a MUST HAVE

3. What screen resolution do you want? Not sure - want to watch movies in HD

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

5. How much battery life do you need? Not important

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)? Some light gaming the settings can be low

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? Some photo & Video editing watching movies and documents.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? 500+ GB

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

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 ?minimum DVD writer

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. I have no preference to brands nor colours or styles other than a windows laptop.

13. What country do you live in? UK

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. Would like a backlit keyboard and to perform well in outdoors.

Thanks for all replies.

 

[raffsf]

To add to this I think resolution should be 1920 x 1080.

Also can anyone tell me, if I buy a laptop from the US what power considerations are there? DO I need to use a big clunky adapter type thing or can I just get a UK variant of the power adapter?

 

[raffsf]

Really hoping to get a little input here!! I've narrowed it down to these if anyone has any opinions:

Toshiba Satellite

Acer Aspire

HP Pavilion


AS far as I can see the Acer has reasonable specs but I have read they are poorly built, BUT with a difference of £100 to the Toshiba and £150 to the HP it is out in front in my calculations at the minute. They all seem to have good screens and the processors and graphics are all up there with the Toshiba having the best graphics (Nvidia 930m v Intel 520 on the other two) and the HP and Acer edging out with the processor they have the i5-6200U and the Toshiba has the i5-5200U).

Would be very grateful for a bit of input from anyone that owns any of these machines please.

 

[raffsf]

As there has been no interest I'll finish this thread by saying thanks to rqt for his/her help and state that I have decided to go for the Toshiba:

The i5-5200U Processor isn't much worse than the i5-6200U Processor in the other two and in fact out performs on some tests. There is a reasonable step up on the graphics card with its dedicated memory so that help sway my opinion.

The Toshiba has a backlit keyboard and has had decent reviews on the sound with the SkullCandy influenced speakers, (although the Pavilion had B&O speakers which should be good), and since movies will be important good sound would be too, (well good sound being a relative term for a laptop). Just waiting to find out if the Toshiba is 1920 x 1080 or 1600 x 900 as there appears to be conflicting reports!

 

[velo3100]

I personally will get the toshiba as it has a dicrete gpu which is the most important thing in gaming.

 

[raffsf]

I personally will get the toshiba as it has a dicrete gpu which is the most important thing in gaming.

Yeah I double checked on a the resolution and its 1920 x 1080 and along with it having the backlit keyboard I am going that direction.

Have you any idea how they perform in sunlight?

Thanks for replying velo3100

 

[velo3100]

Sorry no.

I personally will get the toshiba as it has a dicrete gpu which is the most important thing in gaming.

Yeah I double checked on a the resolution and its 1920 x 1080 and along with it having the backlit keyboard I am going that direction.

Have you any idea how they perform in sunlight?

Thanks for replying velo3100