I need help buying a new laptop

[phatsnake]

Hey people!
please help me find a decent laptop!

1. What is your budget? ~$1000 or less 😛

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 14"-17" preferably 15"

3. What screen resolution do you want? 1366 x 768 or better

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? whichever is more powerful and possibly cheaper.

5. How much battery life do you need? same as above

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)?

BIG YES! WoW, D3, SC2, Oblivion Skyrim, Dragon Age, MW3. Hopefully on Max :3 at least on very high. Not expecting games like Metro 2033 or Crysis to work on max

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) browsing, movies, office

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? 500 gb+

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

http/www.bestbuy.com/site/ASUS+-+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i7+Processor+/+17.3%22+Display+/+8GB+Memory+/+1TB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/2712579.p?id=1218346639131&skuId=2712579

http/www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i7+Processor+/+17.3%26%2334%3B+Display+/+6GB+Memory+-+Silver+Aluminum/2319346.p?id=1218320483383&skuId=2319346

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? 2 years+ 😀

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? DVD writer, bluray reader optional

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.

I like Dell, Alienware, I haven't tried Asus but I hear its good. I also heard MSI is good. There isn't a brand that I really hate but I heard HP are very sensitive

13. What country do you live in? US

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

The laptop doesn't have to fit the criteria 100% just the closest possible thing will do lol
is it a good idea if I hook up the laptop to a mouse, keyboard and a monitor for the sake of preserving it and extending its life?

tyyyyyy

 

[Maziar]

That ASUS G74 you linked is probably your best choice;however,I've heard the BB models are using a downclocked GTX 560M but still,you won't find a more powerful laptop within your price range

 

[Kamab]

I just bought this. I skipped on a lot of similar laptops because of iffy feedback about optimus.

 

[Kamab]

Although, this sager notebook might be more in your pricerange, and you could still add a thing or 2 and be under 1000$.

http/www.xoticpc.com/sager-np5165-clevo-w150hr-p-3063.html

 

[phatsnake]

@kamab In terms of specs I like the sager you got but I never heard of the brand is it good? I'm willing to pay the price difference if it's worth it. What's the battery life like? Are there problems with the optimus technology used in the Asus?

@maziar about the downclocked graphics card does it mean that it's slower? Is it still faster than the 460 on the sager? what do you think of the sager kamab got?

 

[Kamab]

Sager is a laptop customization company that sells rebranded Clevo laptops. Like most companies, I've heard good and bad things about them , but they get the kind of battery life that you would expect with a pretty decent discrete GPU, namely 2-3 hours.

Optimus does not work with linux and has issues with some games / laptop models. I've heard of BSOD's happening when you alt tab out of games, or the laptop trying to use integrated graphics for a graphic intensive game (even when you have it configured not to). These are probably mostly outlier cases though.

As for the sager, it actually ships with a 560M, not a 460M. That is a typo on the tech specs page.

 

[Maziar]

@kamab In terms of specs I like the sager you got but I never heard of the brand is it good? I'm willing to pay the price difference if it's worth it. What's the battery life like? Are there problems with the optimus technology used in the Asus?

@maziar about the downclocked graphics card does it mean that it's slower? Is it still faster than the 460 on the sager? what do you think of the sager kamab got?

It's slightly slower than 460M but its not anything notable

 

[phatsnake]

thanks for all the information guys..so now its down to the sager kamab suggested, the Asus G74, and this:

http/www.ebay.com/itm/160616401506?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_8402wt_932

I got the impression that its more of a multimedia laptop not gaming but still if it runs the games just as good as sager or the asus then I'll go for it I prefer Dell but if its inferior than nevermind

Edit: just realized the xps 17 is refurbished : / I need to confirm what kind of warranty it comes with

 

[phatsnake]

Ok guys I promise this is the last time. Now its down to the Toshiba Qosmio X775-Q7270 vs the Asus G74SX-BBK7. Based on my research I found out the following:

Toshiba: Sleeker looks, lighter weight, better graphics card and longer battery life.

Asus: Better Processor.

Apparently the Asus shines in processing heavy games like SC2, whereas the Toshiba excels at graphically intensive games. If the difference in terms of performance for gaming isn't that big then I'm going for the Toshiba. Any suggestions?

 

[Maziar]

Don't get X775.It's reviews aren't great.(Mainly due to display/build quality)
BTW.the GPUs are identical in terms of performance

 

[phatsnake]

Okay guys its the final showdown between:

Asus G74SX-BBK7 $1199 or Alienware M14X $1399

Alienware M14X--------------Asus G74SX-BBK7
i7 2.0 GHz 6mb cache--------------i7 2.0 GHz 6mb cache
6 gb ddr3 ram @1600mhz--------------8 gb ddr3 ram @1333 mhz
geforce 555 gt 3gb ddr3--------------560gtx 128 bit NOT 192 2gb
720p resolution--------------900p resolution

not sure if the asus' vram is ddr3 or ddr5.

is the gimped version of the asus graphics card from 192 to 128 that bad?

The alienware also comes with an orion messenger bag!
regardless of the bag, the looks, the size, the price, etc I want the system that runs games better. That's it.

the bestbuy employee claims that the asus has better cooling but is very comparable to the aw and its cheaper cuz I'm not paying for the aw brand

I'm buying the computer this week any final thoughts? Thanks again for your help everyone!

 

[gamer25]

MSI GT683DXR

Intel Core i7 2630QM

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570M (DDR5 1.5GB)

1TB hard drive

12GB DDR3 memory

USB 3.0

HDMI Port

Click Here

 

[Kamab]

I'd get the ASUS, but that's probably because I dislike Dell.

 

[phatsnake]

Best answer selected by phatsnake.