Best gaming school laptop for about 570 pounds

SquiDi7

Honorable
Apr 21, 2013
6
0
10,510
Hey guys.

im looking for a gaming school Laptop for about 570 pounds. i want to take it to lan partys, friends and school, i want a good-looking Laptop, with a lot power. that can be send to Denmark.

Thanks :)
 

John Bauer

Honorable
Jul 16, 2013
53
0
10,590


Well, what do you want? A laptop or PC?
 

Quackamo

Honorable
Sep 17, 2013
6
0
10,510


I'm in pretty much the same situation as the OP, do you have any idea how this would compare? http://www.medion.com/gb/prod/MEDION%C2%AE+AKOYA%C2%AE+P7817+%28MD98307%29/30015413A1?recommendationId=88964645-f450-4241-ab57-df3feed46f58&wt_mc=gb.intern.recomm.productDetail.on-ma&wt_cc1=4&wt_cc2=30015413A1&wt_cc3=30015431A1

It's cheaper than the Lenovo, and apparently has a better graphics card, so what's the downside?
 

IBsheepy

Honorable
Sep 6, 2013
6
0
10,510
I would suggest what I've just bought. It's a Sony Vaio Fit 15 E, and if you go onto the Sony website you can get an i5-3337u and a GT740m contained in a really nicely built plastic (but solid) chassis.

Mine cost me £550, and I'm completely smitten with it so far.

You probably can get them sent to denmark, but I haven't checked. I would also check the Lenovo prices in your country, because in the USoA their value cannot be beaten, but in the UK there are some hysterically ridiculous mark-up; maybe you'll be lucky.
 

Quackamo

Honorable
Sep 17, 2013
6
0
10,510


Hi, I was also looking at that on ebay, what's the performance like on semi-modern games (Just Cause 2, GTA IV, Saint's Row III etc.)?
It looks like a good deal but I was worried that the i5-3337u would bottleneck the GT740m, what do you think?
 

IBsheepy

Honorable
Sep 6, 2013
6
0
10,510


yeah I was concerned about the i5, and after spending about 2 hours setting the laptop up with windows 8.1, I was really scared because the laptop was running really slowly. After a couple of reboots and making sure the laptop is up to date with all the windows update crap, it's been running like a dream. In general every day use, the i5 has never done anything to make me think it's incapable, and I haven't ever felt the need to turn on the turbo clock. I haven't played any especially demanding games, but I was playing borderlands 2 a 1280*720 on low and getting 60-90FPS constantly which is higher than the stated FPS on Notebookcheck.net, so if you look at this you will probably get a good grasp on what you can play. I'm downloading BF3 right now, so will let you know how it goes.

I haven't really got into games like just cause and GTA but I hope that we can regard borderlands 2 as a mildly demanding game (since the directx is just a load of garbage), Call of Duty as a very undemanding game and BF3 as an intensive game so I can get a decent idea of the performance of the card.

As for the CPU performance in games, I have been playing BF3 on desktop with a Phenom II x4 955 and an HD 7950, so I know all about CPU bottlenecks. I should be able to tell you what limits the performance in a few hours or maybe tomorrow.


BY THE WAY, I kinda rambled because I really enjoy using this VAIO's keyboard, it's insanely comfortable and completely different from my cherry (with MX BLUE switches) desktop keyboard. I can tell you right now, you won't be disappointed by the keyboard or the trackpad. But if you do decide to install windows 8.1, you will find it's really hard to disable the trackpad because the function key will stop working (quite annoying with the stupid habit of offsetting the trackpad to right where your left wrist is while holding WASD.

excuse the ramble, I swear I wouldn't normally be this annoying.

I think I'll be using the keyboard as an excuse to write a review once I play a couple games so I'll tell you if i get round to it (should be soon, before I go to uni on saturday).


UPDATE 1!:

OK, just started the bf3 campaign on the tehran highway mission (the first one with a fairly intensive graphics and my game didn't dip below 40FPS (playing on the lowest settings at 1366*768)... Obviously that's not ideal but it definitely is playable. It tends not to go above 60FPS except when you're staring at the floor, so you're definitely looking at 40-60FPS in your normal gaming. There's nothing to say that this is bad, since my desktop even drops below 60FPS every now and then (then again I do play in 1080p on med-high). You do notice you don't have the fluidity of 60+FPS gaming but it's the best you're gonna get if you aren't gonna spend a grand.

Putting the res down to 720p will give you a couple more FPS, giving you about 55FPS average. I'll try multiplayer and see how it goes.


UPDATE 2!:

One game on Damavand Peak 64p Rush (defending), got between 50 and 80 FPS, WHICH IS IMPRESSIVE! great news.

UPDATE 3!:

2nd game on D Peak 64p Rush (Attacking) gave me between 40 and 70FPS, with a couple serious drops to around 30 FPS when explosions go off right infront of me. It's not ideal, but it's playable, as said before. I have to say I am impressed with the performance, for a low level (only an GTx40) laptop GPU on the cheap, it's certainly doing well.

One thing i notice is the tendency to let go of the shift key while sprinting (since you're not actually pressing it very far)


EVEN IF you're not actually going to buy this laptop, I hope you can get an idea of the performance of the GT740m (this is essentially me reviewing the laptop, I now realise. Oh well.)