I need help choosing between laptops!

[First grader]

I'm looking to buy a laptop, but I can't choose. I have two laptops that I've determined to be the best for what I want. One is the Dell Inspiron i7559 763 BLK which costs around 890€ due to europe being so damn expensive, has an intel i5 6300HQ(2,3ghz, turbo 3,2), GTX960m, 8gb of ram, a 74 watt hour battery and a 256gb SSD. My other choice, the Lenovo ideapad Y700 has all the same specs except it has an i7 6700HQ(2,6ghz, turbo up to 3,5), 16GB ram and a 60 watt hour battery. The things I want to do with this laptop are gaming (Just Cause 3, GTA V, Watch_Dogs2) and a little bit of music production with FL studio 12. If I were in the US, the choice would be easy, since the i7559 is only 740$ but the import fees are so heavy that if I were to order it from the US, it would cost ~950€ total. So I'm left with these two choices.

 

[JQB45]

I don't really like either of these choices for gaming. The 960m is a rather weak GPU.
Here is a comparison of the NVidia 950 desktop GPU, Intel Iris Pro 580 and the NVidia 960m.

For 1080p to play well you need at least the performance of the NVidia GTX 950 as you can see the NVidia 960m doesn't come close, in fact the Intel Iris Pro 580 is more powerful.


http/www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp%5B%5D=3295&cmp%5B%5D=3176&cmp%5B%5D=3436

 

[First grader]

I don't really like either of these choices for gaming. The 960m is a rather weak GPU.
Here is a comparison of the NVidia 950 desktop GPU, Intel Iris Pro 580 and the NVidia 960m.

For 1080p to play well you need at least the performance of the NVidia GTX 950 as you can see the NVidia 960m doesn't come close, in fact the Intel Iris Pro 580 is more powerful.


http/www.videocardbenchmark.net/compare.php?cmp%5B%5D=3295&cmp%5B%5D=3176&cmp%5B%5D=3436

I know for a fact that the 960m can run JC3 and GTA V fluidly, so I don't know what you're going on about. Plus, I'm only going to do a little bit of gaming when I'm away from my gaming desktop at home.

 

[jaguarskx]

How much is the Lenovo?

For games, a Core i7 CPU is generally no better than a Core i5 CPU because games do not take advantage of Hyper Threading (HT) in quad core CPUs. However, Core i7 CPUs generally have slightly higher clockspeeds compared to Core i5 CPUs. But for games it is typically the GPU that matters the most when the performance of the CPUs are generally pretty close to each other. Not sure if the music production programs you use would take advantage of HT though.

I recently purchase the Dell Inspiron 15 7559 and I have been pretty happy with although I have not had the time to really stress the laptop yet with games other than maybe 5 hours of playing Star Trek Online using max graphics. But that game is not very taxing so even with max settings and playing the for 5 hours straight the laptop stays cool enough where I do not hear the fans kick in. The CPU generally maxes out at around 68C.

Encoding video for about 2 hours does not seem to push the i5-6300HQ beyond 70c with low fan noise in a quiet room.

What I like about the laptop is the quick and easy access to the internal components. Only one screw secures the bottom panel; after it has been loosened it is just a simple matter of pulling the panel off gently. Install a 2nd 8GB stick of RAM and installing a 2.5" hard drive took less than 1 minute at that point. Then it is a matter of snapping the panel back in place and tightening the screw.

As with you I have a desktop gaming rig as well.

 

[First grader]

How much is the Lenovo?

For games, a Core i7 CPU is generally no better than a Core i5 CPU because games do not take advantage of Hyper Threading (HT) in quad core CPUs. However, Core i7 CPUs generally have slightly higher clockspeeds compared to Core i5 CPUs. But for games it is typically the GPU that matters the most when the performance of the CPUs are generally pretty close to each other. Not sure if the music production programs you use would take advantage of HT though.

I recently purchase the Dell Inspiron 15 7559 and I have been pretty happy with although I have not had the time to really stress the laptop yet with games other than maybe 5 hours of playing Star Trek Online using max graphics. But that game is not very taxing so even with max settings and playing the for 5 hours straight the laptop stays cool enough where I do not hear the fans kick in. The CPU generally maxes out at around 68C.

Encoding video for about 2 hours does not seem to push the i5-6300HQ beyond 70c with low fan noise in a quiet room.

What I like about the laptop is the quick and easy access to the internal components. Only one screw secures the bottom panel; after it has been loosened it is just a simple matter of pulling the panel off gently. Install a 2nd 8GB stick of RAM and installing a 2.5" hard drive took less than 1 minute at that point. Then it is a matter of snapping the panel back in place and tightening the screw.

As with you I have a desktop gaming rig as well.

The Lenovo costs around 1100-1200€ new depending on where I buy it, but I found a used good quality one for 930€

 

[jaguarskx]

I would do some research to determine if the Core i7-6700HQ is worth getting for music production since Hyper Threading does not offer much gaming performance increase other than 1 or 2 FPS depending on the game... and assuming it is not zero depending on the game.

Certainly the extra 300MHz the i7-6700HQ does offer a minor improvement, but if HT does not offer a significantly enough performance increase to justify purchasing a used laptop with no warranty, then I would stick with the Dell.

Here's two links to get you started.

https/www.reddit.com/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/comments/3drylm/performance_difference_between_i5_and_i7/

https/www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/1031916-do-daws-use-hyper-threading.html

 

[First grader]

I would do some research to determine if the Core i7-6700HQ is worth getting for music production since Hyper Threading does not offer much gaming performance increase other than 1 or 2 FPS depending on the game... and assuming it is not zero depending on the game.

Certainly the extra 300MHz the i7-6700HQ does offer a minor improvement, but if HT does not offer a significantly enough performance increase to justify purchasing a used laptop with no warranty, then I would stick with the Dell.

Here's two links to get you started.

https/www.reddit.com/r/WeAreTheMusicMakers/comments/3drylm/performance_difference_between_i5_and_i7/

https/www.gearslutz.com/board/music-computers/1031916-do-daws-use-hyper-threading.html

Thanks for the help, I'm going to buy the Dell because I don't feel HT is that important, and the Dell is quite a lot cheaper. I just can't get the inspiron with a nordic keyboard layout but that's completely fine. And later down the line, I might buy an HDD or SSHD to go along with the 256gb SSD. Thanks again, this really helped with my decision!