College bound laptop mid level gaming

dedmiston11

Honorable
Apr 16, 2013
38
0
10,590
Around/Under 1500

Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen
Desktop Replacement; 17"+ screen

Web surfing, engineering programs (3D programs), music, gaming

Games
Rust, Skyrim, Dayz, (good frames on high)

How many hours of battery life do you need?
Around 5-6

Windows (Windows 7 / 8),

Should be 1920x1080 and maybe matte screen (unless glossy is better)

Need it for College: classroom, dorm, library. Hopefully lasts 4 years maybe more

500GB and Up hdd (maybe an ssd if i can)

I might need dvd/cd optical drive but it isnt that important
 

Adam Schneider

Honorable
Oct 13, 2013
4
0
10,510
I honestly think if you get a dell 15r or 17r 7520 which has a 7730m 2gb Graphics Card. It's nothing that is special but its easy on the wallet comes with 8gb of 1600mhz ram and a 1tb HDD. It games decently if you really want great performance and I think you may be able to do it with 1500 you could get

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152406
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152407
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314220
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231495
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152404

All of those would be solid choice for the games you stated expecially SKYRIM
 

dedmiston11

Honorable
Apr 16, 2013
38
0
10,590


All these are ones that i have been interested in (except the acer). The only problem with, that i dont really care about, is with the msi gt, msi gx, and asus have a very thick back part which isnt that bad but would be annoying to carry around. However, I heard that msi is redoing the ge to make it aluminum and get the keyboard of the gt, so i might wait to see about that because i would hate the fingerprints.
 

Adam Schneider

Honorable
Oct 13, 2013
4
0
10,510


I have had nothing but headaches from Toshiba laptops

and Lenovos are solid laptops. but if you want a laptop that does everything you want it to do, it's gonna be a little on the bulky side and a little bit heavy. but it will get the job done and is smaller that a desktop

and with Toshibas I have had the following issues

Blown Capacitors...( easy fix if you know how to solder but a pain in the ass)
Power surges that fry the mother board
Over heating to the point the laptop shuts it self off (this was under normal operating conditions no gaming just word and web)
and a broken connection that caused the laptop to stop charging

all of these was over 2 Toshibas that was mine and one that was my moms.
 

dedmiston11

Honorable
Apr 16, 2013
38
0
10,590

I heard about the overheating problems with them. I know the msi laptops have the turbo boost fan which is a nice addition. (Plus i might have a cooling pad with me just in case)
 
Gaming laptops rarely gives you 5 - 6 hours of actual not gaming battery life. The only one I am aware of that can probably last 5 - 6 hours for a mix of things like listen to music, watching a video, schoolwork, etc (excluding games) is the 14" Razer Blade 14 which is out of your price range and smaller than what you are looking for.

Most gaming laptops can generally give between 2 - 4 hours (at best) battery life for "typical" usage. MSI laptops usually have small batteries to keep the weight down, but that also means lower battery life.
 

dedmiston11

Honorable
Apr 16, 2013
38
0
10,590

While looking at laptops I noticed that but realized there will be outlets everywhere in college so it isn't a big necessity at the moment but would have been nice