Help me choose, please.

[xco]

1_What is your budget?
aiming for $1000-$2000 range

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
mid size, i dont want a big bulky thing cause i will be taking it to school so like 15.6" is good?

3_What screen resolution do you want?
does not matter that much to me
4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
i want something portable but could function as a desktop replacement if that makes sense

5_How much battery life do you need?
ample battery life, i dont want to have to be stuck to a wall outlet. So maybe like a 6-8 hour batter life

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)?
Sure, Tf2 - med-high, Starcraft 2 - med, diablo 3 - med

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
watching movies, burning movies, blogging, general internet use

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
i have external harddrives tottalling 1.5 TB in space so maybe like a 500gb HDD or a decent size solid state drive

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
im live in canada so any credible Canadian store is ok with me (I like tigerdirect.ca and canadacomputers)

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
5 years

11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
dvd-rw and bluray? if i cant have both then dvd-rw

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.
Asus, Toshiba, Sony, Lenovo, HP and i want to stay away from MAC

13_What country do you live in?
Canada

14_Please tell us any additional information if needed.
HDMI port, gigabit lan, usb 2.0, wireless N, 64 bit OS Win 7, DDR3 memory (question is DDR3 much faster than DDR2?)


Here are the links to each laptops specs, in order:
1. http/www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6304487&CatId=4938

2. http/www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6304487

3. http/www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6304504

4. http/www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6433532

5. http/www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6447985

6. http/www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6515303


Thanks in advance to everyone!

 

[sidewinderx2]

You seem to have a pretty wide range of choices, so lets try to narrow that down a bit more.

You said you want battery life: how important is that when compared with CPU performance? Core i7 models will definitely have worse battery life when compared with Core i5 models, and even then there's actually only one laptop that's 15" that i know of that will have anywhere near the battery life you need. Good battery life is easier to come by on smaller laptops.

How important is the mobility of the laptop to you? If you need to take it to work/school and back home every day, then you'll probably want to stay away from the 17" laptops for sure, and maybe even some 15"s, because they'll just be too heavy.

Good news tho: While i don't know about the system requirements for Diablo 3, SC2 can be run on High with only a mediocre graphics card (HD 5650)... so whatever you pick will probably be good for that game

 

[xco]

well if i had to choose between cpu performance and battery, i think i will lean more towards CPU performance. since im thinking i want my laptop to be a desktop replacement.

Should I be staying away from dual core cpu's and get a multi-core like an i3,i5,i7?

mobility is important and i think 15" is a the mid-size ranged so ill stick with that

any suggestions ?

 

[sidewinderx2]

well if i had to choose between cpu performance and battery, i think i will lean more towards CPU performance. since im thinking i want my laptop to be a desktop replacement.

Should I be staying away from dual core cpu's and get a multi-core like an i3,i5,i7?

mobility is important and i think 15" is a the mid-size ranged so ill stick with that

any suggestions ?

I would suggest you go and customize yourself a HP ENVY 15, upgrade it with a i7 processor, and the $125 Slice battery.
http/www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=notebooks&series_name=ENVY15_series

It should perform very well on the games on your list (no idea what D3 specs are, but i think it'll be good for that too). I'm pretty sure it can handle TF2 on High, and SC2 on Ultra.

The slice battery will help out in the battery department, but since it weighs something like 1.5 lbs, you can opt to not get it if you don't need the battery life/don't want back pain... tho with it, i think it might be able to get you something like 4 hours of battery life, as people have reported 2 hours using the i7 processor without the slice battery.

And yes, the Core i3/5/7 processors are generally better than the other Intel (in performance) and AMD (in battery life and/or performance) offerings. (also, dual core is multi core as well )

 

[xco]

ok cool i am making it now but do i neeed 6GB of DDR3 memory? or is 4GB enough to last me? lol cause i want 6GB because its more

 

[sidewinderx2]

ok cool i am making it now but do i neeed 6GB of DDR3 memory? or is 4GB enough to last me? lol cause i want 6GB because its more

If you want to upgrade RAM, sure, but don't do it on the customization page... the ENVY 15 appearantly have like 4 RAM slots (!!!!) so you can just buy a stick off newegg/amazon/whatever and stick it in yourself. Much cheaper.