Need laptop recommendations (buying soon)

[g-unit1111]

My Toshiba Satellite is slowly biting the dust - it's well over four years old now. I will be buying shortly after I get my tax refund.

1. What is your budget? Between $800 - $1000

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? Would like 15.6" screen because I take it with me frequently

3. What screen resolution do you want? 1080p

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Portable with desktop replacement features (dedicated GPU, etc)

5. How much battery life do you need? 3+ hours

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)? Will not be really used for gaming (that's what desktop is for), maybe some Civilization 5 or Portal 2, games that aren't GPU intensive.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) Mainly entertainment, will be used also for school functions

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? 750GB minimum, if it can support dual HDs (1 HD, 1 SSD) that would be even better

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. Here are a couple I am heavily considering:
- Lenovo Y500: http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312438
- MSI: http/www.msimobile.com/level3_productpage.aspx?cid=6&id=388
- Sony VAIO: http/store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/SYCTOProcess?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&LBomId=8198552921666521968&categoryId=8198552921644784018

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? At least 2 - 3 years

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? Would like BD-R reader but not really necessary. I have an external USB optical drive (Plextor L611U) I can use if there aren't any.

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.
Brands I will consider: HP, Toshiba, Sony, Lenovo, MSI, Sager, Falcon Northwest (if I could afford one :lol: ), Asus, anything else that would be note worthy
Brands I don't like: Dell (have had many bad experiences with them in the past

13. What country do you live in? USA, Southern California

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. One feature I would really like to have is a backlit keyboard but if there's not one available in my budget I can live without it

 

[zxmpro29]

I have the MSi GE60, and I would recommend it (there is a GTX660M verison out on newegg)

 

[Pyree]

Y500. It has backbit keyboard.
1080p screen, GT 650m @ $850, DIY mSATA SSD upgrade for OS an programs installation push the price to around $970. But if you decide to get SLI GT 650m later, you'll need bigger power brick.
Getting the GT650m SLI model cost around $1000, but no ODD drive and no SSD.

 

[mattwd]

Check out the Samsung series 7 chronos, it meets most everything you're looking for except it has a 1600:900 screen. I have one and love it. It's able to run battlefield 3 on mid graphics which i would say is pretty good for such a slim laptop. I've seen them for as low as $800 on amazon so just look around.

Samsung Series 7 NP700Z5C-S01US:
Samsung's site

Amazon

 

[g-unit1111]

Check out the Samsung series 7 chronos, it meets most everything you're looking for except it has a 1600:900 screen. I have one and love it. It's able to run battlefield 3 on mid graphics which i would say is pretty good for such a slim laptop. I've seen them for as low as $800 on amazon so just look around.

Samsung Series 7 NP700Z5C-S01US:
Samsung's site

Amazon

Like this one? http/www.amazon.com/Samsung-NP700Z5C-S01US-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Silver/dp/B0083S3OWW/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1364626330&sr=1-1&keywords=samsung+7+laptop

I really like this one - it looks like my old Mac Pro.

I *REALLY* like this one: http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834131466

Y500. It has backbit keyboard.

Yeah I love the specs of the Y500 but I can't get past the fact that it has a slow HD and no optical drive. I have a USB DVD burner so I can always live without it.

 

[Pyree]

You don't get ODD if you get the SLI version. The one with single GT 650m will have ODD. You can put 128GB mSATA on the single GT 650m model and keep the price below $1000.

I wouldn't recommend:

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834131466

It's an i5 and GT 630m, which is a re-badge of GT 540m, not the new Kepler architecture.

 

[mattwd]

Yea that's it, and a the second one you posted is the 14 inch version. I can also vouch that upgrading the hard drive and ram are really easy. Just be careful with the snaps if you go for the hard drive.

 

[g-unit1111]

You don't get ODD if you get the SLI version. The one with single GT 650m will have ODD. You can put 128GB mSATA on the single GT 650m model and keep the price below $1000.

I wouldn't recommend:

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834131466

It's an i5 and GT 630m, which is a re-badge of GT 540m, not the new Kepler architecture.

Too bad I really like the slot loading DVD drive on that one. This isn't really going to be used for playing games though so I don't really need a really strong graphics card per se.

It looks more and more like I'm going to get the Lenovo Y500. Even though it doesn't have an optical drive I pretty much use iTunes for everything so I can live without one, plus I have my Plextor DVD burner so it's not really that big of a deal. I am also still heavily considering the MSI GE60 since it has an optical drive and a faster HD.

I have the MSi GE60, and I would recommend it (there is a GTX660M verison out on newegg)

The GTX 660M verison is quite a bit out of my price range. But I'm still heavily considering the GE60, I think that's the one I might go for.

 

[g-unit1111]

Ordered my new laptop!

Here's what I got:

- Lenovo Y500
- 15.6" 1920 x 1080P IPS Panel
- 3rd Generation 2.40GHz Intel Core i7-3630QM CPU
- 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz RAM
- 16GB SSD Cache
- 1TB Hard Drive
- DVD ROM Drive
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750

All for $869.

 

[jaguarskx]

Good for you. I'm waiting on Haswell before buying a new laptop. Just looking for a 1920x1080 resolution laptop without a discrete graphics card. Sadly, either most or all laptops with that resolution does have a discrete graphics card.

 

[Pyree]

I think there are business class laptop with 1080p display without dedicated GPU.

 

[jaguarskx]

Yeah, there are like the ThinkPad T530, but a 1920x1080 resolution version starts out at about $1,300 and goes up from there. Therefore, no real rush...

I'm interested in it's Haswell successor, presumably the T540. But unfortunately, Google yields no results for Lenovo's next gen ThinkPad T series.

 

[g-unit1111]

I think there are business class laptop with 1080p display without dedicated GPU.

I'm sure there are - maybe check out the Sager NP series: http/www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=category_browse&selected_cat=10

 

[olin9]

With the Y500 you have selected you can add a 2nd GPU later if needed. The DVD-RW is in the ultrabay and can be switched out for the 2nd GPU just by removing the battery and pushing one switch.