Laptop recommendations $1000 or less (uses, and ideas included)

b-dub

Honorable
Oct 12, 2013
7
0
10,510
1. What is your budget? - No more than $1,000 even less if possible.

2. What screen resolution do you want? - I'm not picky. My eyes are bad so crystal clear isn't even that great to me

3 Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? - I wan't a halfway portable solution for school and travelling battery life isn't a major concern as I typically stay plugged in.

4 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)? - low settings are fine, performance is more important than looks. I'll just use it for light gaming of older games that it can handle

I'm going back to school and I also just want a decent quality computer for travelling.

I'm considering this. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-2-in-1-15-6-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i7-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-black-hairline/4201500.p?id=1219706547186&skuId=4201500

I like the idea of it being able to fold into a tablet

I'd also like to have touch screen and backlit keys which I know takes away from gaming performance but as you can see I'm not a graphics snob.

excuse my errors I'm a night worker and have had no sleep and can hardly focus. I'm just needing to buy something by tomorrow afternoon and need more input as I research. Thank you for any help.


After a couple hours of research today and thinking more and more about it. I really would like to stick with this list of must haves for sure.

1. Touch screen is a must

2. backlit keys prefered

3. Intel i5 or i7 cpu

4. full keypad with number pad

5. some sort of dedicated graphics for LIGHT gaming even if it's just older games like fallout 3/Nv for when I'm out of town and could use the extra entertainment.

The biggest thing is I'm loving the option of the 2-in-1 "convertible" laptops but i'm not seeing a single option with a nice GPU other than the asus I have linked above *which seems like it'd be able to play older games*

the main importance of this laptop will be all for school and travel (and I'm no snob to a HEAVY device I'm just not about to travel around with my desktop and tv monitor haha)

anyone have ANY other options? again this is NOT a pure gaming rig. More of an all around rig that I'd like some light gaming.
 

Lyniaer

Distinguished
Nov 2, 2010
4
0
18,510
Check out this one on NewEgg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232286&cm_re=N550JK-DS71T-_-34-232-286-_-Product

It's a Refurbished unit, which all but guarantees it won't be DOA on you and you get a massive discount against the full retail price and a 90-day warranty buffer. Personally I'd take a refurb over a brand new unit any day. Rule of thumb: %5 of all electronics fail out-of-the-box. Refurbs typically snub that rule because they've been QC tested whereas fresh off the assembly line machines are never booted until it gets to you.

It has the GTX850m instead of the GeForce940.

That being said, this one (as well as yours) come with a 1TB 5400 RPM drive. Ew.
Maximize the computer's potential by immediately swapping in an SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820226680
The Mushkin may look like the cheap option, but I use Mushkin thumb drives (and like everything from Germany) it's overengineered. I ran my thumb drive over with my truck (it's heavily modified for off-road, so it's not a dainty thing) and it still works a year later. Ha ha.

And you're still $50 under budget. Get yourself something to clone the pre-installed HDD with to the SSD (I recommend Lazesoft on a bootable thumb drive, or spend that last $50 at a local computer shop to have them do it for you) and you'll have yourself one mean machine with all of your requirements+ and right at or just under budget.

You can also opt to skip on the SSD upgrade, but that 5400RPM hard drive is going to hold it back.
 

b-dub

Honorable
Oct 12, 2013
7
0
10,510
After a couple hours of research today and thinking more and more about it. I really would like to stick with this list of must haves for sure.

1. Touch screen is a must

2. backlit keys prefered

3. Intel i5 or i7 cpu

4. full keypad with number pad

5. some sort of dedicated graphics for LIGHT gaming even if it's just older games like fallout 3/Nv for when I'm out of town and could use the extra entertainment.

The biggest thing is I'm loving the option of the 2-in-1 "convertible" laptops but i'm not seeing a single option with a nice GPU other than the asus I have linked above *which seems like it'd be able to play older games*

the main importance of this laptop will be all for school and travel (and I'm no snob to a HEAVY device I'm just not about to travel around with my desktop and tv monitor haha)

anyone have ANY other options? again this is NOT a pure gaming rig. More of an all around rig that I'd like some light gaming.

My main choice at the moment is still this. I was looking at the hp envy but I just like the layout of the keyboard and the bump in graphics and the added dvd drive for a little but more money. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-2-in-1-15-6-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i7-8gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-black-hairline/4201500.p?id=1219706547186&skuId=4201500
 

Lyniaer

Distinguished
Nov 2, 2010
4
0
18,510


Reason being for that is because the convertibles either house all of the components behind the screen and there isn't enough room or heat dissipation for dedicated graphics or it's using such a tiny, delicate cable running down through the very tiny or narrow hinge assemblies that they can't carry a strong enough signal to support it. Not at that price range, anyway.

You're going to have to choose between gaming and tableting. But if you're planning on just playing older games and are not worried about the performance of those games, give the Transformer a look:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232371&cm_re=Asus_Transformer-_-34-232-371-_-Product

If you decide against the tableting and want a little more graphics punch:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231684

Both of these meet all of your requirements, except the Transformer does not have a backlit keyboard.
 

b-dub

Honorable
Oct 12, 2013
7
0
10,510
Looking more into it the only 2 in 1 that even has the dedicated graphics (that I'm seeing) is the one on best buy and I've since decided against buying from them. Even though I really liked it's features It just doesn't seem to be worth it and I hate how best buy has their own damage protection vs the normal FREE asus ADP

The lack of graphics on the transformer is what kills it for me. I don't need an all out gaming rig but at least the 940m in the 2 in 1 would have done decent.

I am indeed looking at the one you showed me

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231684

vs

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0ZK-01E5-00059

so for a $175 difference it goes from a gtx 850m to a gtx 950m and from the i7 4700hq to the 4720hq

is there going to be that big of a difference? I'm still looking at other brands and options but the one constant is I'm pretty firm on wanting a touch screen and keeping it at $1000.
 

Lyniaer

Distinguished
Nov 2, 2010
4
0
18,510
That really depends on if you want to spend your full budget or pocket the difference for an only "slightly" lower powered machine. The specs between the 850 and the 950 are not that big. The 950 steps up by about 20mhz clock speed and is GDDR5 instead of 3. Maybe a couple other minor increases.
If you take the slightly lower powered machine, you have enough left over for options. A nice carry bag, maybe? Or a longer term warranty?

Or just screw it and sell a family member to pirates and buy an Origin.
 

b-dub

Honorable
Oct 12, 2013
7
0
10,510
hmm and then I notice the lenovo y50 touch isn't THAT far off my price ...

depending on which one I'm looking at.. I THINK this is the newer one with the better newer style screen. I notice it's the upgraded graphics... with no factory damage protection I don't have to worry about where it comes from but this is the cheapest one with the gtx 960 that I've seen and like I said I'm not sure if it's the newer screen or not.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/lenovo-y50-touch-15-6-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i7-8gb-memory-1tb-8gb-hybrid-hard-drive-black/6337026.p?id=1219665860106&skuId=6337026