Help with picking a new laptop, please.

[testudoAubreii]

Hello,

I am in the market for a new laptop. My late 2008 MacBook Pro is showing its age and, in fact, I am really in fear that it will give out on me soon. It just shuts down randomly and I don't know how long it has left. Anyhow, I was wondering if anyone has some suggestions on laptops.

Here are some of the things that I do, or that I will need a laptop to do for me:

Adobe Creative Cloud Applications (I am a web developer)
Act a media center when I am at home (XBMC, streaming all types of media files)
Very light gaming, if any at all (just in case 😛)
Budget: under $1000 - That is my limit, but if I can a way better deal, I am all for it.

I need it to be portable, that is why I am going with a laptop. I think that I want to give Windows 8.1 a go instead of OSX this time around.

Thank you in advance for any and all help, advice and suggestions.

Testudo

 

[TwistedFury]

Hmm.. http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314433 or http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834317106

 

[hackintosh777]

The HP seems to be in stock now.

 

[TwistedFury]

Cool, you should get it.

 

[testudoAubreii]

Still on the hunt lol...

So, I upped my budget a bit. I ran across this HP:

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA29P1ZC0731

I know that we have discussed HP, and there seems to be some gripes. All that I am looking at is the price/performance here. If I can find another deal like this with Lenovo or Asus, I would probably lean that way. Anyhow, what do you all think about this? Is this a good deal?

 

[TwistedFury]

The Price/Performance is okay on that one, but you're paying a lot for that touch screen

 

[testudoAubreii]

I am upping my budget yet again. What do you think about this one:

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231974

 

[TwistedFury]

That one is pretty good too.

 

[testudoAubreii]

That one is pretty good too.

Thanks. Do you think that the performance increase from an i5 to that i7 is worth the extra money. I think it is like $150 more for the same laptop, but with the i5.

 

[TwistedFury]

Depends on the CPU really, but generally for same gen, it's not drastic.

 

[testudoAubreii]

Depends on the CPU really, but generally for same gen, it's not drastic.

The i7 I am looking at is a quad core. Does that make a difference?

 

[TwistedFury]

All of the i7's are quads, what's the specs on the i5?

 

[testudoAubreii]

All of the i7's are quads, what's the specs on the i5?

I have noticed that not all of the i7's are quad cores. The "U" models are undervolted dual cores and the "QM" versions are the quad cores. There are various specs on the i5's. Most include a "M" model, which provides higher voltage, and thus higher clocks, and a dedicated GPU.

 

[testudoAubreii]

Do you think this is a good deal for $700:

ASUS G75
Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 3630QM Processor

RAM
DDR3 1600 MHz 8Gb

Display
Full HD 3D (1920x1080) LED Backlight

GPU
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 670MX with 3GB GDDR5 VRAM

Hard Drive
1TB 5400 RPM

Optical Drive
Super-Multi DVD

Operating System
Windows 8.1 Pro

 

[Bolin]

Do you think this is a good deal for $700:

ASUS G75
Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 3630QM Processor

RAM
DDR3 1600 MHz 8Gb

Display
Full HD 3D (1920x1080) LED Backlight

GPU
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 670MX with 3GB GDDR5 VRAM

Hard Drive
1TB 5400 RPM

Optical Drive
Super-Multi DVD

Operating System
Windows 8.1 Pro

That's definitely a good deal as long as it's new. It should compare to the perfomance of an 850m (slightly higher but should also consume more energy)

 

[testudoAubreii]

Do you think this is a good deal for $700:

ASUS G75
Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 3630QM Processor

RAM
DDR3 1600 MHz 8Gb

Display
Full HD 3D (1920x1080) LED Backlight

GPU
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 670MX with 3GB GDDR5 VRAM

Hard Drive
1TB 5400 RPM

Optical Drive
Super-Multi DVD

Operating System
Windows 8.1 Pro

That's definitely a good deal as long as it's new. It should compare to the perfomance of an 850m (slightly higher but should also consume more energy)

Thank you for your reply!

The guy was messing around and trying to up the price every time that he contacted me. Anyhow, I found a different one. It is a bit different. The GPU is different, as well as the RAM and HDD.

Here it is:

Asus ROG G75VW Gaming Laptop

i7 3610qm processor
16gb 1600MHz Ram
240gb SSD Crucial Hard Drive
Nvidia Geforce GTX 660M 2gb