Solved! Gaming Laptop Advice 700-900 budget

[Knuckle_50]

Hi everyone, I'm looking at getting my first laptop and selling my desktop. My budget is going to be 600-900 dollars.

I'd like to get one with a larger screen, 16-17", the resolution isn't important as long as it will at least support 1600x900.

I'm going to use this as my 'everything' computer, but mostly for browsing forums, downloading music, and most importantly, playing a few online games like League of Legends.

I'd like a good battery life but I understand that's not realistic with a gaming laptop, I can live with keeping it plugged in, which I'll be doing anyway when gaming.

While I have an emphasis on gaming, I don't need everything running bleeding edge, adequate moderate settings with little blurriness and smooth pixels is good enough.

Watching movies is fun but not something I'll do alot. I don't need blu ray.

250GB is adequate for my HD, I do want a fast hard drive, if that means sacrificing memory for speed I can go as low as a 128GB Hard drive.

I haven't honed in on any specific site to purchase from, I'm a bit partial to HP, they seem like they have good deals, but I don't know if a 'good deal' holds up to a few years of use, I expect to get at minimum 2 years of use out of my laptop.

As for the optical drive as long as it can read/write cd/dvd im fine with it.

For CPU I really like intel unless someone can make an argument for AMD at this price range. Seems like intels chipline is really crushing AMD even in the value section of CPUs at the moment.
For GPU I'm open to Nvidia or AMD/ATI.

I live in Florida, if anyone knows some local deals I'd be interested, but I definitely will pay up to 100.00 in shipping if I'm getting the best laptop for the price.

If anyone has some advice I'd really appreciate it, laptops make me nervous since I can't build em like my desktops part by part

 

[WR2]

Hello Knuckle_50;

A good deal right now is the 17" HP Pavilion dv7 Quad Edition 2nd Generation Core i7 Laptop
Take the video card upgrade to the HD 6770 graphics card and the HDD change to 640GB 7200rpm drive. This should take the price to right around $900.
For that price you're also getting the 17" 1600x900 resolution, 6GB RAM, a premium sound system and a Blu-Ray ROM/DVD burner tossed in the mix at no extra cost.
Free shipping and 2yr warranty.

 

[WR2]

I'd like a good battery life but I understand that's not realistic with a gaming laptop, I can live with keeping it plugged in, which I'll be doing anyway when gaming.

You'll be getting pretty good battery life. The Sandy Bridge CPU has an integrated HD 3000 Graphics GPU and the HD 6770 will shut off when it's not needed - like in web surfing, etc.

 

[WR2]

See if you can't use this coupon code as well. Works on most HP laptops & Desktops configured over $1,000
50LOGIC

It's supposed be stackable - but might not work in every case.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Clevo 170HN starts at $850ish

http/www.pro-star.com/index.cfm?mainpage=productdetail&model=W170HN

 

[dblur]

Hello Knuckle_50;

A good deal right now is the 17" HP Pavilion dv7 Quad Edition 2nd Generation Core i7 Laptop
Take the video card upgrade to the HD 6770 graphics card and the HDD change to 640GB 7200rpm drive. This should take the price to right around $900.
For that price you're also getting the 17" 1600x900 resolution, 6GB RAM, a premium sound system and a Blu-Ray ROM/DVD burner tossed in the mix at no extra cost.
Free shipping and 2yr warranty.

The issue I have with this laptop is its size(16.38" Wide). This pretty much eliminates couch surfing?
If I drop down from the dv7(17.3") to the dv6(15.6") I loose resolution(1600 x 900 => 1366x768), bluray and warranty(2yr => 1yr).

 

[WR2]

I think weight becomes an issue before an extra 1 1/2 inch in width does.
width: DV6=14.88" vs DV7=16.38"
weight: DV6=5.78 lbs vs DV7=6.72 lbs

It's true the DV7 has the extra value of the 1600x900 resolution, Blu-Ray and 2yr warranty.

 

[dblur]

I just got off the phone with Dell. They will almost price match the dv7 in their xps15. This reduces the size and weight and offers a 1080p screen but the price was $999.

 

[bbgink]

http/www.amazon.com/Acer-AS7741G-6426-17-3-Inch-Laptop-Black/dp/B004G5ZXH0/ : .66 GHz Intel Core i5-480M dual-core processor, 640 GB SATA hdd, 4 GB of installed DDR3 RAM, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6550M graphics

 

[dabspalalabs]

how about trying the MSI X370. This might not have a good screen but this will be more than sufficient for LoL plus this
machine is economical in terms of power consumption


http/minilaptopzone.com/2011/04/msi-x370-slim-finally-out/

 

[WR2]

Passmark CPU benchmark scores:
http/www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu_list.php

MSI X370: AMD E-350 @ 1.7Ghz = 741
HP dv7: Intel Core i7-2630QM @ 2.00GHz = 6316

 

[dabspalalabs]

core i7 is overkill for playing League of Legends. any dual-core procie would be sufficient for playing that game plus a good internet connection and a decent graphics card. the IGP on the E-350 is more than sufficient for that game.

the base price for dv7 is $1099 according to hpshopping.com


Its up to the thread starter which machine he will buy.

peace

 

[Knuckle_50]

I should of mentioned that sometimes I multitask while gaming: running the ventrillo microphone program, everquest(an old private pvp server =)), music, and FRAPS(recording software very intensive with a game running).

Looks like the DVT7 is the unit to go with, I've been eyeballing it for awhile now but WR2 voiced alot of things I didn't even think about that really make me feel good about it.