Gaming/media laptop

[franty99]

Hello everyone,
I am looking for a laptop this Christmas season. I want to use it for school and media, but am also looking to play games on it. Therefore I would like to find one that has a pretty strong graphics card. My other main guideline is the weight and size. I am looking for 13-17 inch screen under 7.5 or so lbs. Budget is $2000 and under.
P.S. The Razer Blade is in my price range because of cyber Monday, but the only problem I see with it is the lack of an optical drive. I know you can get external optical drives, but am not informed enough on those to take the plunge and get the Blade. What do I need to know about them first?
Thanks!

 

[Labrynthian]

That's a really good budget since you have a crazy number of awesome options available. Take a look at the MSI GT 70 0ND-202US. This is a 17.3 inch laptop with a 1920x1080 resolution. It has a core i7 3610QM processor, 12GB default RAM, upgradable to 32GB, and an insane NVIDIA GTX 675M card, which is a mid-high level class 1 graphics card that will run all games on high/ultra settings without a problem. You can also customize a little, in terms of your drives and so on, so take a look. This laptop is one of the best in the under $2,000 range because it offers amazing specifications for a really reasonable price.

Here's the link, take a look and let me know if it's what you're looking for. Otherwise, we'll find something else

http/www.xoticpc.com/msi-gt70-0nd202us-p-4500.html

 

[Labrynthian]

Oh, AND the Razer Blade laptops suck. Razer produces good mice and keyboards, but their laptops are just branded, overpriced junk.

 

[franty99]

I want to be able to use the laptop for school, too, so does this have a good keyboard?

 

[Labrynthian]

Yea. It has a great backlit keyboard.

 

[06yfz450ridr]

build a desktop will be way happier and for under 2000 it will be many many times faster.

also stay far away from a hp they over heat .

 

[06yfz450ridr]

any modern game like bf3 will lag on any laptop based gpu and will run super hot and eventually it will fry it, ive seen it many times before, i sold my laptop to build a desktop and ive never looked back

 

[cursedreject]

what

many laptops are highly capable of running games like bf3 at livable frame rates

plus this isnt a desktop forum
and while yes desktop performance is much higher for the price it doesnt have portability which i assume this guy wants

 

[franty99]

So thank you for understanding that portability is very important. I was interested in the razer blade because it was so thin, but now I understand their products are of low quality so I need to change my mind. The keyboard is definitely important, and so is the graphics card to play games like Skyrim and soon Far Cry 3 at medium or higher levels. And it does not have to be 17". 13-15" might be morels table, actually.
Any recommendations are nice to consider. My only problem with the MSI is that I know very little a about that company, and the laptop is almost nine pounds an over 2 inches thick.
But thank you guys for all feedback. I really appreciate it.

 

[Labrynthian]

So thank you for understanding that portability is very important. I was interested in the razer blade because it was so thin, but now I understand their products are of low quality so I need to change my mind. The keyboard is definitely important, and so is the graphics card to play games like Skyrim and soon Far Cry 3 at medium or higher levels. And it does not have to be 17". 13-15" might be morels table, actually.
Any recommendations are nice to consider. My only problem with the MSI is that I know very little a about that company, and the laptop is almost nine pounds an over 2 inches thick.
But thank you guys for all feedback. I really appreciate it.

Yup, a 17 inch definitely weighs more. MSI is a good company, although I'm not too sure about their international service. Companies like Asus, Dell and Lenovo have fairly good international service, in case you're traveling and encounter problems with your laptop. If you're not sure about MSI, take a look at these. They're both 15.6 inch laptops, with a 1920x1080 resolution. Both have a core i7 3610QM processor, 8GB RAM and a NVIDIAN GTX 660M graphics card.

http/www.lenovo.com/products/us/tech-specs/laptop/ideapad/y-series/y580/

http/www.amazon.com/G55VW-ES71-15-6-Inch-Gaming-Notebook-Black/dp/B007Z9WWDW

The first link, the Lenovo Ideapad Y580, is the cheapest laptop under $1,000, but it's packed with really good specifications, making it a quality buy. It has a default RAM of 2GB, but that can be upgraded to 8GB, which is more than enough.

The Asus G55VW is a really good laptop, full of power and runs really smoothly. It also has the added benefit of running its drives at 7,200 RPM, as opposed to the standard 5,400 RPM.

Both laptops are well within your budget, and are significantly lighter than the 17 inch ones. Take a look and keep me posted

 

[franty99]

I think I will go with the Lenovo, but I was just wondering, are there any HP laptops you would suggest?
(They are my favorite computer making company)
And also, do you know anything about the Dell Xps 15 2012?
Thanks a ton for you diligence and helpfulness!

 

[Labrynthian]

Glad I can help

All right, so the thing is, HP is the past. They used to be top of the laptop market like 10 years ago, but a lot has changed. They DO NOT make laptops made for gaming. Most of their laptops are for general use, therefore have specifications for general use, such as longer battery life, as opposed to having specifications for gaming, such as good graphics cards and processors. If you're looking for a work laptop (office oriented - email, documents, that sort of thing), AND were on a tight budget, then I'd recommend a HP. But there are a ton of laptops out there that are better suited for gaming and not from HP. Why are they you're favorite laptop making company? It's interesting you said that.

As for the Dell XPS 15, it's a good laptop with a good processor and lots of RAM, but its graphics card is not nearly as good as the Lenovo or the Asus G55VW. Look carefully at the specs, and you'll see the processor is a i7-3632QM, which is pretty much the same as the i7-3610QM, the difference is negligible. Then you'll see it's packed with a 2GB NVIDIA GeForce 640M, which is quite a step down from the 660M in the Lenovo and Asus. While it has large amounts of RAM, it WILL NOT be able to fulfill your gaming needs. The other thing is that it's ridiculously expensive for the specs it's offering, and you'd be MUCH better off spending at least $800 less and finding a better laptop.

Here's the link for the XPS. Even with the Dell reduced prices, it's expensive. Take a look

http/www.dell.com/us/p/laptops?~ck=mn#!facets=236387~0~15191881,226291~0~14720665,55846~0~5930680&p=1&sort=-price

 

[franty99]

Best answer selected by franty99.