Laptop for College

[sickness335]

I'm entering college in a month, and I've been considering buying a laptop. My friends are getting theirs, which makes me want to get one as well. They've recommended a few models but their... lack of knowledge of how computers work makes me cringe.

Anyway. I've never had, or bought a laptop before in my life. I've been a PC - Gaming based person for as long as I can remember, so this area is a bit foreign to me. I do know that I don't want to buy an extreme-gaming laptop like the Razer Blade. I want to keep the cost down, and keep the laptop preferably for school work only, but of course with the occasional enjoyment of games, like Star Trek Online when I'm half asleep in class I'm going to be using the laptop in-class to take notes and follow along with the professor's powerpoint (I have Microsoft Office 2010 so having Word on there isn't an issue). I would, if possible, would like to have a really nice display with 1920x1080 1080p if the cost is affordable, as well as a 500GB hard drive. (I've only used half of my TB on my desktop and that's including all of my games)

In regards to price range, I'm not really sure at all where a good location is on the spectrum, so I'll ask you guys what a good laptop-price is. If I've missed something out in my choice of a laptop, please don't hesitate to ask. Thank you

 

[kirilmatthew]

Check this out, its a wicked deal: http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314119
It doesn't have a 1080p screen, but unless you want to pay way more I wouldn't go for it. It can game at around medium settings too. Its quite cheap at $530. Hope you like it.

 

[menetlaus]

If you can handle the glare and want something with some gaming ability look at Lenovo's Y410p and Y510p (main difference is a 14" 900p or 15" 1080p screen).

With a 750M graphics card it can handle games at midrange settings - which kinda sucks till you realize the system can be yours in hand for under $1k.

For more serious gaming look at MSI laptops for $1200-1400 with a 760M/770M GPU (and intel CPU) and they will handle 1080p (bonus is matte screen).

PS. for notes in class - use a pen and paper - I've yet to see an electronic method that works anywhere near as good for a technical subject (formulas/charts/diagrams are SLOW with ms office). Plus there is some memory effects that occur when writing something out, you don't get the same benefits if touch typing on a keyboard.

 

[IInuyasha74]

I would recommend one of these.

This one if you want more gaming power,
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314119&RandomID=730312411219615120130819151013

This one if you want more general performance.
http/www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-E1-572-6870-15-6-Inch-Clarinet/dp/B00DDFESKC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376951621&sr=8-1&keywords=E1-572-6870

I personally am buying the first one probably as it will perform pretty amazing all around. However the 2nd one is still an excellent system, it has better general processing power but the graphics are low end and while they can play games its only able to play rather low end games. For basic online games you will be fine though. I played Fallout New Vegas on weaker graphics than this so you will be alright but its up to you which you want it to be better in.

As for the 1080p screen, thats a bit pricey so yea.

 

[sickness335]

Thank you all for your responses. I love the MSI GE60, but it seems a bit high in the price range. This Acer Aspire looks pretty darn nice, especially for the price. It definitely is a college-suited laptop, with good solid gaming abilities

 

[IInuyasha74]

Yea the acer is a really nice well rounded one. If you want something better than the Acer, but not as expensive as the MSI, try one of these Lenovo's.
http/shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y510p/

They are all fairly similar, and have a lot of good features. More you pay, more good features but eve the cheapest one at around $800 is a really great system.

 

[sickness335]

I hate to be picky, but the Aspire or Lenovo don't have touch screen ability do they? I think after looking at more and more reviews, I've come to the conclusion that I want that touch screen in my laptop! Gah, if only that Acer had it. I'm looking right now into this Lenovo though, perhaps theirs a model a little higher up with touch screen added.

Edit: I found a laptop that includes touch screen, and thankfully doesn't go over that 1 grand cap. What do you guys think of it?

Acer V5-552PG-X809
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314182

 

[IInuyasha74]

No they don't. To have a touch screen is quite expensive.

 

[sickness335]

Alright I narrowed it down to three laptops:

The Lenovo IdeaPad 14" ( http/www.bestbuy.com/site/Lenovo+-+IdeaPad+14%26%2334%3B+Touch-Screen+Laptop+-+8GB+Memory+-+1TB+Hard+Drive+-+Graphite+Gray/7729124.p?id=1218858761531&skuId=7729124#tab=specifications ) Price: $779.99

Acer V5-552PG-X809 ( http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314182 ) Price: $769.99

VAIO Pro 13 Custom Touch Ultrabook ( http/store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SYCTOProcess?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&LBomId=8198552921666580655&categoryId=8198552921644859012 ) Price $1719.99

The VAIO is of course the most expensive laptop on the list. It would originally be in the low 1000 range, but if I were to get this one I'd need the 512 GB hard drive version (unless I buy my own separate hard drive and install it manually)

The most probable laptops I'd buy would be the other two, the Acer or Lenovo. The Lenovo is the one my friends suggested. I compared both the Acer and Lenovo, and there's some small differences:

Acer Screen: 15.6" (1366x 768)
Lenovo Screen: 14" (1600 x 900)

Acer CPU: AMD
Lenovo CPU: Intel

Acer Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 8750M
Lenovo Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000

The Acer is cheaper by about $10, but which one is better?

I'm an AMD person, I always have been. I've never used Intel, and because of this I'm a little skeptical of its CPU and its GPU. Most especially the GPU, that name sounds really generic. But that's just me being skeptical. Also, the Acer has a bigger screen, but is that resolution really different from Lenovo's?. Are those two resolutions really different?

 

[IInuyasha74]

Hello, the Acer is by far the best choice you have listed.

The Lenovo and Sony PC's have graphics at less than half the performance of the Acer laptop. They are really way way down in performance in comparison. If you are a desktop person, it would be like the difference between the AMD Radeon 5450 and an AMD Radeon 7770. If you are an Nvidia desktop person, its the difference between a Nvidia 610 and an Nvidia 650. Its pretty extreme.

On the Processor side, the CPU in the Sony is the best by I would say at least 10-15%. The Lenovo has the middle range CPU, but its an older design. The AMD has the slowest CPU but it is only 10% slower tops in some applications. In some it will perform better, but in the majority it will be around 10% worse. Its not really noticeable though, it won't seem slow and you won't use that much performance very often.

A laptop with the exact same specs as that Sony, except with a regular HDD instead of an SSD, and without a touch screen is currently selling for $450 on Newegg. It has the exact same CPU and GPU, so you are literally paying $700 more for a touch screen, and a solid state drive which you just said you would remove anyways for a larger hard drive. Considering this, it seems a huge rip off. I would advise you to buy two different laptops before this, or a laptop and a really amazing tablet. It seems so horrible to spend that much extra for little gain in my opinion.

Anyways the Acer is still your best choice. It is like the one we listed earlier with a touch screen and faster CPU and it should be an excellent system.

 

[sickness335]

Woops sorry for the late response. Thank you very much for your input. I've placed the order for it and it should be coming within the week And thanks again to everyone else that helped me chose this money-well-invested laptop

 

[IInuyasha74]

No problem, hope you enjoy your new system

If you don't have any more questions, I would appreciate it if you selected best solution on someones post so that this thread is closed.

 

[IInuyasha74]

No problem, hope you enjoy your new system

If you don't have any more questions, I would appreciate it if you selected best solution on someones post so that this thread is closed.

 

[footblfrk97]

Hey sickness335 super glad to hear that you put an order in for the x809, I'm actually really interested in ordering this laptop as well. Would you mind posting a few pictures when you get the system in (or shoot me a PM). I've heard that this laptop comes with a backlit keyboard, but i'd like to verify that before ordering.

Thanks and enjoy the your new laptop!

 

[IInuyasha74]

Companies usually advertise that if they do have one. This makes no mention of it so I kind of doubt that it does, but pictures and first hand evidence never hurts.

 

[footblfrk97]

right the reason i'm interested is because of the review from amazon mentions there being an unlisted backlit keyboard

 

[sickness335]

Hi everyone! Sorry for the late response. I actually had to return mine to Amazon because the seal for the box was broken, there were finger prints all over the screen, and it was apparently owned by someone else. The login screen even had a password, so I couldn't get in. Amazon has sent another one out to me and reduced the price by $50. When I get it I'll for sure post some screenies