Laptop for College/ some gaming

[Adam1792]

Hello, I'm looking to buy a new laptop soon, and would like some advice as to what to get.

1. Budget:
~$1300

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15" ideally, but would probably be fine with a 13"

3. What screen resolution do you want?
1080p would be nice, but I can settle for 720p in order to meet my budget

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Not really planning on getting a desktop, so this would be my sole computer

5. How much battery life do you need?
I would really like to be able to get 6+ hours while not gaming, and at least a couple hours while gaming

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)?
Probably just Diablo 3 for now, preferably on high

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Not much editing, mainly just browsing, taking notes/ writing papers, and gaming

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
Could probably get away with just a few hundred GBs, especially if it allows for an SSD

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
NewEgg.ca, TigerDirect.ca, or DirectCanada.com, though I'm not too picky as long as I can get it from Canada to avoid extra fees.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
~4 years

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Would probably be fine without one, though a DVD drive would be nice just in case

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.
Not too picky here, so long as they have a decent reputation

13. What country do you live in?
Canada

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I was curious as to whether it would be worth it to wait for the mobile Ivy Bridges come out. It seems to me as though they were specifically designed for mobile use, and I've heard they may be coming out as early as June 5th.

Thanks in advance

 

[WR2]

Here is one you'll want to keep an eye on: Lenovo Y580

To look at something available now: MSI GE60 15" Ivy Bridge Notebook
Core i7 3610QM 2.30GHz CPU, 6GB RAM, 750GB 7200rpm HDD, 15.6" 1920x1080 anti-glare LCD w/ GT 650M graphics.

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M review
http/www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-650M.71887.0.html

 

[Adam1792]

Here is one you'll want to keep an eye on: Lenovo Y580

To look at something available now: MSI GE60 15" Ivy Bridge Notebook
Core i7 3610QM 2.30GHz CPU, 6GB RAM, 750GB 7200rpm HDD, 15.6" 1920x1080 anti-glare LCD w/ GT 650M graphics.

NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M review
http/www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-650M.71887.0.html

Awesome, thank you very much for the reply. Sorry I didn't get to it sooner, finishing up my last week of college for the semester and getting ready to start a new job on Monday so I've been quite busy.

They either must have just released the third gen mobile CPUs or I'm just really bad at looking because I went looking about a week ago and couldn't find any, haha.

I'm not going to be buying it for another couple weeks, so I'll definitely keep an eye on both to see if the lenovo is released or they get new stock in for the MSI.

The lenovo looks pretty much perfect, however I'm a little unsure of whether it'll fit my budget when they come out with the pricing. Do you have any guesses as to how much they'll be selling it for?

And the only thing I saw missing from the MSI was that they didn't mention an estimate of how long the battery should last. They both have 6 cell batteries but I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to batteries so I'm unsure of whether that means they'll have similar battery life or whether other things are bigger factors in the actual battery life.

Thanks again for your help

 

[jaguarskx]

Don't forget that you can get a free XBox 360 with certain laptops.

http/www.pcworld.com/article/255896/microsoft_renews_free_xbox_360_with_purchase_of_windows_pc_deal.html

You can always sell the XBox 360 if you don't want it to offset the price of the laptop. That's what i would do if I had to buy a laptop for school.

 

[Adam1792]

Don't forget that you can get a free XBox 360 with certain laptops.

http/www.pcworld.com/article/255896/microsoft_renews_free_xbox_360_with_purchase_of_windows_pc_deal.html

You can always sell the XBox 360 if you don't want it to offset the price of the laptop. That's what i would do if I had to buy a laptop for school.

Hmmm...I already have a 360 but I hadn't really considered the use of just selling it if I got one for free to act similar to a "mail-in-rebate" type of deal. Thanks for the advice

If there's a laptop I find and like with that deal I'll definitely consider it more now, however I would rather pay a bit extra and not get the money back from selling an Xbox to make sure I get something I want. I'll be making a bit over $1300 a paycheck after taxes with my new job and my budget is just that I don't really want to be spending more than one paycheck on a new laptop, so I have a decent amount of money to work with.

 

[Adam1792]

Best answer selected by Adam1792.