Finding a ~700$ laptop

[ellis420]

1. What is your budget?

-up to 800 is what im looking to spend, so 699+tax is my aim. i would go higher if it meant significant improvment, but not more then 950$. i made a error in the title

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

-15.6

3. What screen resolution do you want?

-doesnt matter

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

-desktop replacment, if i need to carry it around alot i would buy a 12 cell battery

5. How much battery life do you need?

-it will be plugged in mostly

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)?

-i'd like to play medium settings on bf3/skyrim

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

-hdmi to tv

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

-not much

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
-any Canadian site, bestbuy,tigerdirect, staples would be nice but im open to a online canadian site like newegg.ca etc.

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 ?

-just cd

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.

-only had one hp, and its okay. it flickers and the hinge snapped, so i am replacing it.

13. What country do you live in?

Canada.

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

-would prefer dark colors.

ive done my own research, i'd like to get a i5 cpu and something around #100 on notebookreview for GPU.
If it has 4gb ram, i would upgrade it later on to 8.


Now basically looking for a 15.4, i5, 540m or comparable for less then 799$

 

[RealBeast]

The best laptop for that price range IMO is THIS one from Newegg. Much better graphics than the comparably priced Intel model.

 

[ellis420]

i was hoping for a better rated card then that

i am looking at this: http/www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215298CVF

but i see it got a bad cpu bottleneck?

what about http/www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230185

or http/www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834157945

 

[esrever]

the A8 with the 6620g is slightly faster than the 540m.

 

[ellis420]

the A8 with the 6620g is slightly faster than the 540m.

how exactly? im looking at notebookcheck's benchmark list, the 540m is a mile ahead? on another site it said the 6620g wouldn't play skyrim or bf3 on medium, and hardly on lowest, while the 540m would

due to the processor?

im not concerned with the cpu really, like i said aslong as it could handle bf2, skyrim, d3 etc. on a medium setting


Oh, being able to upgrade the gpu later on would be a bonus, im not sure if you can do that now on select laptops or not. I may also want to add a ssd in the future. that would be a big plus also

thanks for the replies so far

 

[esrever]

sorry for somereason when I read the benches on notebookcheck I happen to only check the ones that the 6620g was ahead in. Anyways they should be comparible, most of the benchmarks had i7s as cpu which would skew the results a little.

 

[ellis420]

looking at cpu's, the a8's seem to be beat by any i5. is that about right?

 

[esrever]

yes the i5 is probably better than the A8 but the A8 does beat the i5 in multitude applications I think due to having 4 cores. The A8 is better than the i3.

 

[ellis420]

In that case i would want an i5, i dont encode or anything.

still looking.. whats the best site in general on prices these days?

 

[sravencross]

http/www.logicbuy.com/deals/hp-pavilion-dv6z-select-edition-coupon/21931.aspx

upgraded with 1GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7690M GDDR5 Discrete Graphics(TM) [HDMI, VGA]

looks like a sick deal plays skyrim on high on benchmark tests and its only 600$

 

[daship]

You aint going to find a better deal then this right here.

http/shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-id=7794F9514CE80460C7C2782FB02A5EB6&action=init

 

[esrever]

In that case i would want an i5, i dont encode or anything.

still looking.. whats the best site in general on prices these days?

yes the i5 with the 540m is the best choice.

 

[electric6978]

Ellis420 if you are willing to do a smaller screen size, I found two laptops that would kill the I-5 with a 540m:

http/shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/builder.workflow:Enter?mtm-item=%3A000000F3%3A00004D2A%3A

http/shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/builder.workflow:Enter?mtm-item=%3A000000F3%3A00004D2A%3A

If you are stuck on 15.6" I'll start looking in that range. Goodluck!!!

 

[ellis420]

yes i need a 15.4, a must.

still looking at the asus i posted.

 

[electric6978]

The bottom laptop I posted is a 15.6" with a 2.4GHz i5 and a GT555m for 720. This is dramatically better gaming graphics, and its cheaper. You could spend the saved $80 and put 8GB of ram in it *more than your asus* and still have money left over. How much better of a deal could you want?

 

[sravencross]

http/dealnews.com/HP-dv6-tse-Core-i5-Dual-2.4-GHz-16-LED-Laptop-for-575-free-shipping/545300.html

HP Pavilion dv6t Select Edition customizable Notebook PC for $805 after tax
A2Z58AV

dark umber
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2430M Processor (2.4 GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) Turbo Boost to 3.0 GHz
2GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7690M GDDR5 Discrete Graphics(TM) [HDMI, VGA]
FREE UPGRADE to 8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
750GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
Microsoft(R) Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word/Excel(R) only, No PowerPoint(R)/Outlook(R)
No additional security software
30% OFF High Capacity 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
15.6" High Definition HP LED Brightview (1366x768)
SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone and HP SimplePass Fingerprint Reader
802.11b/g/n WLAN
Standard Keyboard with numeric keypad
HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

 

[electric6978]

7690 isn't going to play at as high of settings as the 555m though.........?

 

[sravencross]

Really? the benchmark tests show that it preforms better than the 555m

 

[electric6978]

That was framed more as a question b/c I am buying a laptop next week too so I would like the best laptop I can get for the money. Do you have a link to the benchmark between the two?

 

[sravencross]

I am in the same boat as you waiting on my tax return.

http/www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html