Good gaming laptop ~$700?

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CTrap33

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I want to buy a new gaming laptop. I'm not a whiz with computers, but from what I understand asus, lenovo, toshiba, and samsung are all decent gaming machines. The $700 price point could go a little either way. I also would consider a used/refurbished rig. Minimum 15.6" screen size, don't really care about battery life as it will be plugged in most of the time. I understand I need a dedicated graphics card, and I would like to play most new games on high/maxed out graphics settings. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
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CTrap33

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CTrap33

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So, thanks to a refund from uncle sam, I've expanded my budget a bit...now around $900. I figure this should get me a machine with 1920x1080 resolution... I've narrowed it down to 2 slightly different acer models. Here are the links:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314005
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215672

I really like the big screen and full 1080 resolution, and both are under $900. However, the cheaper one has half the video memory, a slightly worse cpu, and a slightly better graphics card....at least from what I understand. I guess the real question is, should my priority be on the better cpu, graphics card, or video memory? I figure this purchase should give me a solid 3 years of gaming with mostly high settings. Again, this is just from information that I've been able to gather from the innerwebs. If anyone has a suggestion of a better laptop, I am all ears. Also, I assume this will be able to handle other non gaming tasks with ease....I'm not into photoshop or any other heavy, resource consuming program. My current laptop, an HP 625 model from about 2-3 years ago does just fine for things non-gaming related...so I assume these two acers should be just as good if not better for web browsing, non gaming, etc.
Thanks all!!


My sources: http://www.cpubenchmark.net/
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-650M.71887.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-730M.84681.0.html
 
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CTrap33

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Ok, I see that this is indeed a quite good machine....however that review is of a model w/ an i7 processor. I can only find that specific model for $999, while the model with the i5 processor and dual gpu is $899. Is it worth an extra $100 to get the better processor? I'm just looking for the best bang for my buck...

i7
http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Metal/dp/B00ATANUT4/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1366562341&sr=1-1&keywords=lenovo+y500

i5
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312438
 
ballerslife

ballerslife

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Yes, get the i7 100%. The dual-core i5 will not cut it for modern and future games, and more games utilize quad-core. Though you should wait for a sale, you just missed a sale where the i7 was $850. Probably 1-2 weeks, there will be another sale.

http://www.gaminglaptopsjunky.com/

Check out that site for constant updates on laptops.

http://slickdeals.net/

Check out this site for deals.

 
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CTrap33

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Thanks, baller. I will definitely check daily for deals. What do you think about refurbished rigs? Just checking ebay now there are some in the $650-$700 range, though I don't think these have the dual gpu's.
 
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Rragar

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If you want a really good product, I'd reccomend Sager. This one's 10 dollars above your updated budget, but still:

http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np6350-clevo-w350etq-eta-p-4897.html

There's other models as well, which you can configure to your liking. You can buy them directly from Sager, or pick a reseller of your choice and get a lower price (such as the reseller from the link I provided, which I do reccomend).

To be honest, though, I would wait a bit if it were possible, and go with a higher budget.

That model doesn't come with an i7 by default, but you can choose to upgrade to one of those for an extra $70, so you would be $80 beyond your budget, but it includes free shipping and you can get a 3% discount if you pay via wire transfer.
 
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Rragar

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Sounds like an optimal theoretical performance score to me. That would mean 650m SLI is roughly similar to a single GTX 680m (which is like a downclocked desktop GTX 670).

Something I learned from personal experience when it comes to laptop SLI systems, is not to pick something that isn't the very best available.

If it turns out a game doesn't feature particularly good SLI or Crossfire scaling, then most of the time you'll be better off with a single, more powerful card (which also turns out to be cheaper).
 
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CTrap33

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Another question, for the laptops that have the dual gpus:

Does this mean I have no disc drive, ie there is a second gpu in place of the dvd drive?

Also, do I need to install software/buy anything in order to use the dual gpus?
 
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Rragar

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You don't need to worry about that, SLI laptops just have a bigger frame to accomodate another MXM 3.0 slot. In other words, you won't be left without an optical drive.

As for the software, SLI/Crossfire support comes native with NVidia and AMD drivers, respectively. You do not have to purchase anything. The software will automatically detect if you have more than one graphics card and whether or not they are suitable to be used in SLI or Crossfire mode (they must be identical to be compatible, all high-end cards and several mid-range card models can be used this way)

Of course, just make sure the SLI/Crossfire function is enabled at the NVidia ForceWare/ATI Catalyst control panel, or you won't get the benefits. Note that SLI will be disabled every time you update your NVidia drivers, and you'll have to re-enable it.

UPDATE: it appears the Lenovo laptop uses a swappable drive bay for this. In this case, then yes, you would have to remove your optical drive in order to be able to use the second card. I had never seen this before. Also, the Lenovo Ultradrive accessories are all sold separately. I'm unable to verify current discount prices at the appropriate Lenovo site, because I'm automatically redirected to the portal intended for my country.
 
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Rragar

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Unfortunately, it appears the 3610QM is on back order.
 
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