Best Gaming/Multimedia Laptop Under $600

[sluchy523]

1. What is your budget?

$600 (aiming for around $500 to $560 though)

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?

Optimally around 15", but if the laptop is good enough, it doesnt matter

3. What screen resolution do you want?

Doesn't matter.

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

New Laptop

5. How much battery life do you need?

At least 4 Hours. More is better.

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)?

All Source Games on Maximum (CS:GO, Portal 2, TF2, etc.). Call of Duty: MW3 (Low but at least 30-40 fps).

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

Intensive editing with Adobe Lightroom (photos). Multitasking. Gaming. Watching videos, listening to music.

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

Doesn't matter, as long as it's not too small (250 gb is too small, for example)

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

Anywhere, anyplace.

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

Around 2-3 years. (It's for high school)

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

dvd

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.

Idc what brand, the laptop i have now is a toshiba and it has ran flawlessly for over 4 years...so i might be
partial towards toshiba but idc that much

13. What country do you live in?

USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

 

[Tibbs01]

This would be a good choice for the money: http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246328

 

[sluchy523]

Alot of people are recommending that, but the 1.5 ghz processor seems really miniscule, and I'm not sure id it would be good enough to run other applications well. Could you or someone else explain some reasons why the processor is or isnt good enough? Would the processor cause freezing? It just seems like such a bootleg considering the gfx card and ram. Please reply back, thanks.

 

[Tibbs01]

It is a quad core processor and has the dynamic ability to speed up the frequency as needed up to 2.4 ghz. While it is not as powerfull as the Intel's, the mobile gpu will bottleneck before that processor will. For everything you are listing it will be more than adequate.

 

[sluchy523]

Thanks for replying and helping guys, I really appreciate it. I'm going to look at these tonight!

 

[Aerohitman]

Im looking for a new laptop myself but a little stronger. I found this one at newegg

Acer Aspire AS5560-Sb613 AMD A-Series A8-3500M(1.5GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 500GB HDD AMD Radeon HD 6620G Notebook

 

[sluchy523]

It is a quad core processor and has the dynamic ability to speed up the frequency as needed up to 2.4 ghz. While it is not as powerfull as the Intel's, the mobile gpu will bottleneck before that processor will. For everything you are listing it will be more than adequate.

I was looking at the upgrade to this laptop, the z570, do you think it's worth the extra $130 considering the i5 processor and nvidia gtx 560 card?

 

[Tibbs01]

I think those are nice upgrades for $130, I don't remember seeing the gtx560 as an option on any lenovo models though, do you have a link to the upgrade path you are seeing?

 

[sluchy523]

Sorry, wrong laptop. It's a GeForce GT 630m. Do you still think it's worth it?

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246327

 

[Tibbs01]

You would be gaining in the processor in that case and loosing some gaming performance when you could take advantage of running in crossfire, but would be pretty much a break-even gaming wise I think. If you are doing heavy multi-tasking and compressing video's etc., it might be worth it.

Edit: If the lenovo 630m is the 96 shader version I would avoid it as it would only perform on par with a GT 540M.

 

[sluchy523]

Best answer selected by sluchy523.

 

[sluchy523]

Alright, I'm going with a slightly upgraded z575 (that places me at $560), thanks man, for all your help.