Hello, friends.
I am in the market for a new gaming laptop, as my current one is getting rather old, beat-up, and borderline obsolete. The following are my criteria:
There are also some things I definitely don't care about:
Any advice you can give would be fantastic! If it's impossible to meet all of the above all at once, well...recommend what you can that gets the closest, and I'll make my decisions accordingly.
Thanks!
I am in the market for a new gaming laptop, as my current one is getting rather old, beat-up, and borderline obsolete. The following are my criteria:
- ■Excellent specs. My current machine sports a GeForce GTX 660M, a Core i7 3610QM, and 8GB of RAM. It noticeably underperforms in most new-ish games I run these days. At a minimum, I would like a better graphics card, and ideally a solid state drive.
■Sturdy construction. I travel frequently, bring my laptop between home/office/coffee shop, pack it into a carry-on for air travel, use it in my actual lap, etc. This has taken a toll on my current machine, which is a very modular all-plastic affair. The screen hinges are now rather loose and wobbly; the thin plastic grate covering the fan intake is mostly broken; several rubber feet are missing; etc. Ideally, I would love an aluminum chassis, as is found in thinner ultrabook situations; however, those don't seem to be common for gaming machines. Either way, I'd like something that will hold up to a bit more punishment than my last one.
■Low price. I would like to pay as little as possible for this laptop (subject to my other requirements, of course). I definitely don't want to spend $2000. If it could be more like $1300, that would be fabulous.
There are also some things I definitely don't care about:
- ■Size/weight. I don't need a particularly big or particularly small screen, and I don't particularly care how much the laptop weighs. Small screen, heavy for a notebook, all fine by me.
■Brand. Except insofar as it is an indicator of quality, I don't particularly care who makes the machine. Not interested in paying a premium for a brand I've heard of.
■Software. Don't care which Windows version, what it comes with, etc. Perfectly happy to reformat the thing and start from scratch if it doesn't have what I want on it.
Any advice you can give would be fantastic! If it's impossible to meet all of the above all at once, well...recommend what you can that gets the closest, and I'll make my decisions accordingly.
Thanks!