Hey all, I came here for help buying a desktop a couple years ago and got one I'm very pleased with thanks to the help of the people on TH. Now I'm looking to replace my 5-year-old HP dv7t which died a couple weeks ago. I know I'll eventually want to replace it, so I might as well replace it sooner rather than later unless waiting a few months is advantageous to me. My old laptop was:
HP dv7t 6100-CTO | 2nd gen. Intel i5-2410M (2.3 Ghz) | 17.3" FHD Anti-glare LED 1920x1080 display | 6GB DDR3 RAM | 500GB HDD (7200 rpm) | 1GB Radeon HD 6770M GDDR5 | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (upgraded to Windows 10 Pro)
I'm looking for a similar one. Here is the guide:
1. What is your budget? <$1000, bu would prefer around $800 or so.
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? I like 17.3", but would consider 15.6"
3. What screen resolution do you want? I'm a sucker for high resolution and wouldn't mind 4k if I could get it for a good price, but I realize budget limitations will likely make it impractical or bottlenecked by GPU. 1080p is fine.
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Portability is nice, but it would most likely not be moved a whole lot.
5. How much battery life do you need? I anticipate being near an outlet most of the time I use it, but good battery life is a plus (but not a deal breaker by any means).
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)? Yes, I tend to get nostalgic and play games like Red Alert 2/C&C Generals, Half-Life, etc. but do like to play newer games as well. Recent "flavors" were Civilization V and Starcraft II but I currently like to play Heroes of the Storm and Star Wars Battlefront. I don't usually get into the latest and greatest but I occasionally do get into a newer game. I generally prefer higher settings if possible.
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) Web browsing and watching and streaming videos. In other words, not anything demanding.
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? First of all, speed is important (no 5200 rpm, although if the best deal required it I could replace the HDD with a faster one or an SSD). My old laptop had 500GB (7200 rpm) and I didn't fill it up, however I fear with increased game sizes it would not be very future-proof. My desktop has a 1TB 7200rpm HDD (for files and most games) with a 128GB SSD (for Windows and a few select games that are played often enough and tend to have long load times; Starcraft II and Civ V are installed on it), and I am seriously considering a similar configuration for my laptop (I know 17.3" laptops are more likely to have a 2nd drive bay). So in short, a SSD is desirable, but not absolutely needed.
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. The one I'm looking at right now is this one, but I am open to suggestions.
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? I feel like my 5-year-old laptop lived a good life (it was becoming out-dated by the time the hardware finally gave in). I want it to last a while, longer is better, without becoming obsolete.
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? Blu-ray Reader is desirable but not necessary (will have higher stock if 4k resolution, but still not a deal breaker); a DVD Burner will suffice.
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. My last one was an HP and I had a good experience with it, but I'm ok with others. I'm not a fan of Apple products; too expensive and in my opinion it's not a great value for what specs you get.
13. What country do you live in? USA
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. I tend to be cheap but I do like value and quality. The computer I linked has coupons available (25% off, or 30% off if base price is $1199 or more) that expire tomorrow, and you can upgrade to i7, 4k resolution, and 16 GB RAM for only about $200 more. Is it worth it?
Thanks!
HP dv7t 6100-CTO | 2nd gen. Intel i5-2410M (2.3 Ghz) | 17.3" FHD Anti-glare LED 1920x1080 display | 6GB DDR3 RAM | 500GB HDD (7200 rpm) | 1GB Radeon HD 6770M GDDR5 | Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (upgraded to Windows 10 Pro)
I'm looking for a similar one. Here is the guide:
1. What is your budget? <$1000, bu would prefer around $800 or so.
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? I like 17.3", but would consider 15.6"
3. What screen resolution do you want? I'm a sucker for high resolution and wouldn't mind 4k if I could get it for a good price, but I realize budget limitations will likely make it impractical or bottlenecked by GPU. 1080p is fine.
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Portability is nice, but it would most likely not be moved a whole lot.
5. How much battery life do you need? I anticipate being near an outlet most of the time I use it, but good battery life is a plus (but not a deal breaker by any means).
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)? Yes, I tend to get nostalgic and play games like Red Alert 2/C&C Generals, Half-Life, etc. but do like to play newer games as well. Recent "flavors" were Civilization V and Starcraft II but I currently like to play Heroes of the Storm and Star Wars Battlefront. I don't usually get into the latest and greatest but I occasionally do get into a newer game. I generally prefer higher settings if possible.
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) Web browsing and watching and streaming videos. In other words, not anything demanding.
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? First of all, speed is important (no 5200 rpm, although if the best deal required it I could replace the HDD with a faster one or an SSD). My old laptop had 500GB (7200 rpm) and I didn't fill it up, however I fear with increased game sizes it would not be very future-proof. My desktop has a 1TB 7200rpm HDD (for files and most games) with a 128GB SSD (for Windows and a few select games that are played often enough and tend to have long load times; Starcraft II and Civ V are installed on it), and I am seriously considering a similar configuration for my laptop (I know 17.3" laptops are more likely to have a 2nd drive bay). So in short, a SSD is desirable, but not absolutely needed.
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. The one I'm looking at right now is this one, but I am open to suggestions.
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? I feel like my 5-year-old laptop lived a good life (it was becoming out-dated by the time the hardware finally gave in). I want it to last a while, longer is better, without becoming obsolete.
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? Blu-ray Reader is desirable but not necessary (will have higher stock if 4k resolution, but still not a deal breaker); a DVD Burner will suffice.
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. My last one was an HP and I had a good experience with it, but I'm ok with others. I'm not a fan of Apple products; too expensive and in my opinion it's not a great value for what specs you get.
13. What country do you live in? USA
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. I tend to be cheap but I do like value and quality. The computer I linked has coupons available (25% off, or 30% off if base price is $1199 or more) that expire tomorrow, and you can upgrade to i7, 4k resolution, and 16 GB RAM for only about $200 more. Is it worth it?
Thanks!
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