Gaming/College laptop

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oz73942

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1. What is your budget? $2800 max

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 15-16

3. What screen resolution do you want? 1080p

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

5. How much battery life do you need? im hoping for two hours, or at least through a class

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)? Yes, current games like BBC2, Just Cause 2, and future games similar to listed such as fps or sandbox games. Would like to max out at 1080p

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
Homework, extreme multitasking, and occasional harcore gaming

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
about 500gbs, will use ssd for os though

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
looking at eurocom and xoticpc

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
for about six years for normal everyday use, gaming aspect ill be happy with 2 years

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

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. sager or asus for sure for the quality, value and cooling[

13. What country do you live in? United States

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed
Hello everyone, you guys are the best to these kind of things, so heres the current problem: Since last year i have been wanting to invest in a laptop that will last me throughout college, I am currently a junior in high school, and have saved up enough to max out my budget at $2800.

With sandy in the mix im thinking now is the time to buy (one year has seemed like ten). I am looking at the asus g73sw(back lit keyboard is a +), but i am concerned the 460 wont suffice for my gaming needs. Next is the Sager NP8150-S1 which can be upgraded to the 485m, but I am concerned that even with downclocking the gpu during normal use the battery won't suffice for a class period. Last but not least is the eurocom p150hm which can have a 6970, although according to toms recent review power consumption is worse then gtx 480m. My last option is to wait for the gtx 500m series, or for the g73 to get the 6970m, both could be months away.

What would you guys advice given my options.

Thank you to all! (sorry for all the reading)
 
Solution
Well even on the config utilities, when i checked out the SLI graphics card set ups, they still warranted about 2 hours of on time, but thats with everything full load, and gaming. If you changed your power settings during class to conserve, and then just switched back to full when you felt like gaming, that would help. If not, it looks like either way you can get 2 hours at least out of it, and this was when i was looking at a gtx485m in SLI, so it looks like you can pretty much however much muscle you want, and be safe for that limited amount of time

WindowsTeam_Kevin

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I really like 2 laptops for you...

The first is the ASUS G51JX-A1, for $1441. With an Intel® Core™ i7-720QM processor, a high-performance NVIDIA® GeForce® GTS 360M graphics card, and NVIDIA PhysX technology, the ASUS G51JX-A1 offers.a completely new class of physical gaming interaction for a more realistic and dynamic experience. Here are more specs:

Screen
15.6" (1920x1080) HD
Processor
1.6 GHz Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 620M/720QM Processor
RAM
6 GB DDR3 1066 MHz
Storage
500 GB HDD 5400 RPM

The second is the Toshiba Qosmio X505-Q898 for a little more at $1819. Giving you the extreme performance you crave, the Qosmio®X505 laptop delivers advanced mobile performance for intense 3D gaming, high-definition entertainment, and multimedia content creation. It even has blu-ray, and a much bigger screen! Here are it's specs:
Screen
18.4" WUXGA (1920x1080) HD
Processor
1.73 GHz Intel® Core™ i7-740QM Processor
RAM
6 GB DDR3 1333 MHz
Storage
500 GB HDD 7200 RPM

What do you think?

Kevin
Windows Outreach Team
 

andyman30

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I would highly recommend one of the newer Asus models, or take a look at MSI as well. Even with your price budget and desired specs, you'll still need to do a little research into how you want to spread out your money mainly because there is so much give and take with the exact graphics card, as well as the kind of HD etc. The only reason i say this is because there are plenty of graphics cards that can play at and above that threshold, it just depends on how high you want to go in the Graphics Card hierarchy. But with the kind of budget you have, you have a lot of room to pick and choose. You should make sure to max out the processor and RAM configs for now, in order to ensure you can continue day to day performance for that long of a time. Once you decide on that, the rest is really for the graphics card, HD, etc. I'm quite aware that i'm not just pointing you in a direction and telling you to specifically buy one laptop over another, but you need to decide for yourself what aspects of the laptop are most important to you, and budget in those categories first. With that said, you should head over to www.xoticpc.com or somewhere like Asus, and play with their configuration utilities until you find youre satisfied.
 

oz73942

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I have the rest figured out, the gpu is the only thing from stopping my purchase. It will most likely decide what model i go for.
The specs i have put together for either lappy i pick are:
i7-2820
8gb ddr3
500gb momentus xt hybird for storage
128gb ssd for os and primary programs

Now i have been wanting to get the asus g73 since i saw the trailer for it, but i feel that the 460m wont suffice as my rig is barely giving me above the desired 60fps maxed out on my 900p monitor with a 470.


Given my case, would u risk the desired battery life(just want enough for a class period) on the gtx485, or wait for the 500m series which if its anything like the desktop a 560m should provide better thermals and pwer consumption then the 460m, but provide the performance level of the 470m?


Thank you, really helps to hear someone elses opinion.
 

oz73942

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Thank you for the info, although i have mostly everything else picked out. Should of put it in the op.
i7-2820
8gb ddr3
500gb momentus xt hybird for storage
128gb ssd for os and primary programs

My main deicision is based on the gpu choice.

Sorry about that. ;)
 

andyman30

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Well even on the config utilities, when i checked out the SLI graphics card set ups, they still warranted about 2 hours of on time, but thats with everything full load, and gaming. If you changed your power settings during class to conserve, and then just switched back to full when you felt like gaming, that would help. If not, it looks like either way you can get 2 hours at least out of it, and this was when i was looking at a gtx485m in SLI, so it looks like you can pretty much however much muscle you want, and be safe for that limited amount of time
 
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oz73942

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I looked up your claim of 2 hours, and I am shocked to find they are true. Pulling the trigger on the sager np8150.
Thank you and everybody else for your advice!
 
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