Gaming laptop around the $1,000 mark.

[brandon3000]

Hey guys. Looking to purchase a gaming laptop for myself as a little Christmas gift.

I'm not looking to do any heavy duty gaming, as I have my desktop for that. I'm looking for something that can pretty much be my on the go laptop, that I also have the option to game on. Since it will be my on the go laptop, I'm not really looking for anything crazy bulky, or anything that looks like it crawled out of a spaceship. Needs to be sleek, sort of on the slim side, and powerful.

Looking to stay around the $1000 mark. Cheaper would be better. I am not opposed to refurbs. I was considering the Lenovo Y50, but was put off when reading about the atrocious screen... and I'm not savvy enough to swap out the screen myself... plus I would like the option of not voiding the warranty on a laptop haha. I was also considering the Y510P but heard it gets hot. I know there is a 4k version of the Y50, but I've also read mixed reviews on that as well...

Any help at all would be much appreciated.

 

[darkbreeze]

There aren't any "perfect" gaming laptops. Especially not at that price range. You don't mention resolution preference. 1080 or 768? Either?

 

[darkbreeze]

At that price range, you're pretty much looking at the Y50, the Y510b, the ASUS X550LB-NH52 or the Lenovo Z710. I like the Y50 and the Z710.

For the money I like the 17" Z710 with an i7, GT 840M graphics and 8GB of RAM. For another 100 bucks you get an additional 8GB of RAM but since the GPU has dedicated memory it probably isn't worth it when used as a gaming rig.

Z710 - http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/z-series/z710/

 

[darkbreeze]

I'm not honestly a big fan of MSI in general, except a few of the GPU models, but this might be worth considering too:

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152668

 

[brandon3000]

There aren't any "perfect" gaming laptops. Especially not at that price range. You don't mention resolution preference. 1080 or 768? Either?

I'm not too familiar with the difference between the resolutions, unfortunately :S

 

[darkbreeze]

1920 has become more the "standard" on PC displays of all kinds, which will of course probably change again as higher resolution displays become more common. For gaming the big difference is that a 1080 display requires a more powerful GPU to display the same number of FPS at the same game settings and quality, as a 768 display does. So the gaming experience in THAT regard, gets a nod toward the 768 display.

The 1080 display however, has a better overall appearance and allows for a bit more real estate on the screen. Some standard sized text may be more difficult to read with a 1080 display but will also be more refined and sharper.

I've got an HP Envy that's about two years old and honestly, it does everything it needs to do and the 768 display is perfectly fine for most games that you probably aren't going to be playing at ultra settings anyhow. With a 768 display however you probably CAN play any given title at higher settings than you could with the same GPU at 1080. At least in some cases. It's probably fine either way. With a 1080 display you always have the option of turning DOWN the resolution for smoother game play though, while with a 768, you can't turn it UP to 1080 for watching video or browsing.

Again, either is fine, but I prefer 1080 if the price difference isn't too extreme.

 

[brandon3000]

In that case, I would probably want the 1080 display for sure.

 

[darkbreeze]

Both the Z710 and the MSI unit above are 1080p models. Are you in the US or another country?

 

[krackinwise]

This is the New Fangbook from cyberpower which from what I read is just MSI made laptops.
http/www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Holiday_Fangbook_III_HX6/

From what I understand their new fangbook III Hx6 covered a lot of the vent issues the previous model had.

current price 1050 and you get NVIDIA GTX 860M 4GB and Intel® Core™ i7-4710MQ Mobile Processor 2.50 GHz 6M Smart Cache, Max Turbo Freq. 3.50 GHz

also if you look around the web I believe there is a 5% discount code that should work on it bringing it down to 1k.

 

[darkbreeze]

Don't ever buy a product from Cyberpower PC or iBuypower. If you ever have an issue, which more often than not you will when you buy from those idiots, you'll have a great time trying to get anything resolved through their customer service. There are thread after thread after thread about these two business models.

There is nothing they offer, especially in a laptop, that you can't get through an OEM or OEM vendor which in most cases provides you with a much better option for customer service in the event you encounter a problem.

 

[i7Baby]

Try -

MSI $1000 - http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152625

Lenovo $1000 - http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834317541

Refurbished Asus $1020 - http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232019

 

[krackinwise]

Don't ever buy a product from Cyberpower PC or iBuypower. If you ever have an issue, which more often than not you will when you buy from those idiots, you'll have a great time trying to get anything resolved through their customer service. There are thread after thread after thread about these two business models.

There is nothing they offer, especially in a laptop, that you can't get through an OEM or OEM vendor which in most cases provides you with a much better option for customer service in the event you encounter a problem.

Well I cant speak for everybody and maybe a lot of people have had prob with cyberpowerPC, but from my experience they been fine. Though I only had minor issue they responded to my email in 1-2 days. Also when you say there's nothing they offer especially in laptop you cant find anywhere else may not be 100% true.

Its going to be hard to fin a $1k laptop with a GTX 860m plus a i7-4710MQ . 1Tb 7200RPM hard drive to boot.

Not counting any other deals they have or had since BF and only counting a 5% code you can find any at of the coupon sites you can get it for 1000 bucks.

With all that said the new fangbook III are relatively new and most reviews are just first impressions so hey time will only tell how they hold up.

 

[darkbreeze]

This is the same conversation we hear every time they release a new series of products, and every time, the forums flood with negative threads pertaining to the product quality and poor customer support. I'm glad your experience was positive but that doesn't mean everybody's, or even the majority, were.

As with anything, it can go either way, but I see a lot of complaints and just want the OP to be aware of the potential for a problem.