Buying new laptop soon, need last minute advice

g-unit1111

Distinguished
Moderator
1. What is your budget? Minimum $800, max $1300

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 15.6", max 17.3"

3. What screen resolution do you want? 1080P, but willing to go higher if affordable

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

5. How much battery life do you need? At least 4 - 5 hours minimum

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)? No need to play games on laptop, have desktop for that use, but would like at least a GTX 960 for connection to external displays

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) Movie watching, Office / web browsing, possible audio production, and overall general use

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? Minimum 1TB HD and 128GB SSD are a must

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. Any USA based site that is typical - Newegg, Amazon, etc

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? 4 years at least, current one is 3.5 years old

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? Would prefer not to have one if possible, I have external optical drives

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. Preferred brands - MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, HP, Sager / Clevo, etc, Brands not preferred - Alienware, Gateway

13. What country do you live in? USA, California

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. Lenovo is dying and I am looking at getting a much thinner, light weight model to replace a bulky, heavy laptop. Having a touch screen and tablet mode would be nice but that's not something I have to have.
 

dudeman509

Estimable
Jan 23, 2015
416
1
5,210
I would give the Lenovo Y700 or Dell Inspiron 7000, or Asus FZ50 a serious look. They can all be specced out with what you want.

i5-6300HQ or an i7 would be fine for your needs.
 

dudeman509

Estimable
Jan 23, 2015
416
1
5,210


The MSI GS are really quite nice computers, but my last experience with a 17" (HP Elitebook) made me say "never again" to a 17" form factor. Too much of a PITA to carry around, and the battery life is usually quite poor to light the big panel. If you don't use it as a portable or travel with it much, by all means, go for the extra screen space.