Looking to purchase a laptop for the first time.

[Phosphonothioic]

I'm looking to down-size from my PC to a laptop because, as much as I like to kid myself, I am not a real gaming enthusiast. I occasionally play D3. Currently I'm hooked on Torchlight II, but I spend most of my time surfing the internet and working on my budget/ect. in Excel. I love building systems, but I spend unnecessarily and mostly want to simplify things at this point. I don't need a screaming system. I do need one that is durable, thin, attractive, and not a Mac.

I don't really have a budget on this...but let's try to keep this as cheap as possible. Though I am willing to spend more on aesthetics, as silly as that may sound.

* I'll never use more than 500GB, if even that.
* I'd prefer Windows 7.
* It'll typically always be plugged in, so battery life is not a high priority.
* 1080p and as large a screen as possible w/o breaking the bank (13-14"???)
* I'll be hooking up desktop speakers and mouse if this makes a difference...



If I can think of more I'll add them.

Thanks in advance!

 

[jaguarskx]

Not sure if you can buy a 13" - 14" laptop with a 1920x1080 resolution screen if you are trying to avoid Macs. The ones I've seen mostly max out at 1600x900.

I suppose it boils down to how much you want to spend. Also you may want to wait a little bit longer for more Haswell based laptops to hit the market. The Intel HD 4600 offers a pretty decent increase in performance from the Intel HD 4000. It should be good enough to play Diablo and Torchlight at 1920x1080 on medium settings. Thus, by not having a discrete graphics chip you can save some money.

The 14" MSI GE Series GE40 2OC-008US is not especially thin at around 1.15" thick, but it's pretty light and packs a powerful GTX 760m and is currently priced at $1,100 after a rebate card. The resolution is only 1600x900 and the GTX 760m seems to be a bit overkill based on what you have stated.

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152409