Solved! Slightly different specs - gaming mid-range $1,700

dinatius

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I have kind of a lot of random things that I'm looking for. My only preference that I feel really strongly about is nVidia, as I've had a lot of trouble with ATI drivers. This is not required, but very much preferred.

1_What is your budget? Prefer ~$1,500, up to $2,000 max.

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 15" or 17"

3_What screen resolution do you want? 1080p

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? More towards desktop replacement.

5_How much battery life do you need? 3-4 would be fine - 2 while watching a movie, is the big thing.

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. Lord of the Rings Online, Mass Effect 2, UT2k4... Highest settings possible in my price range. Probably moderately graphics intensive, with 1.5gb RAM to dedicate just to a game. It should be able to hang in there for the next couple years without upgrading... Star Wars: The Old Republic, Mass Effect 3, nothing super-high-end.

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop?
Programming - java and web/php, photo editing, watching movies, etc...

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need? 100+, not an issue if it has USB3/eSATA. Having 2 eSata or 1 plus USB3 would be ideal (ability to have 2+ externals), along with a faster (7,200) small internal drive.

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
<3 Newegg for their customer service. I'm flexible though.

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop? Probably ~2 years.

11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc? DVD-ROM, writer optional.

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.
I do not have a major preference. A solid build up front so I don't have to deal with support.

13_What country do you live in? USA

14_Please tell us any additional information if needed.
HDMI would be a nice bonus.
If it's not from somewhere like Newegg, the brand should have decent support (for major issues). e.g. if my screen is crap, I don't want to go through crap to get it fixed/replaced. This may figure into the price going over $1,500.
 
Solution
GS660 looks great, and has a great price.
Cyber power makes good laptops but i think you can get the same configured laptop cheaper from other manufactures like MSI,Sager etc.

dinatius

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Thanks Maziar. I have had good experiences with MSI desktop hardware, but I'll look into their laptops as well. Anyone else? I'll be looking to buy over the weekend.
 

IsabellaWinTeam

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Hi Dinatius,

Check out the Alienware M15x. It has a 2.8 GHz Intel® Core™ i7-720QM processor and NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 240M graphics. It also has a 15.6" screen, high def audio, and an illuminated keyboard.

What do you think?

Cheers,
Isabella
MSFT Windows Outreach Team
 

dinatius

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Agreed, and I looked at it more - I doubt I'd get anything less than a geForce 280-series.

While I'd prefer nVidia, I'm noticing they're behind on picking up dx11, on mobile at least... forgot about that when I posted first. From that point of view I'd have to either get a geForce 480m or ATI. Right?
 

dinatius

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Hopefully my last post, but with several questions.

I was poking around Xotic from that link, and found pre-orders for the GS660R-060. Main benefits I like are 1080 display and USB 3.0. Worth waiting a couple weeks for? The price isn't crazy, ~$1,700 configured.

Are CyberPower laptops worth considering? I was looking at the X6-9900, which I can configure fairly similarly to the MSI...

I'm tending away from Alienware since it seems you pay $200 for the brand and/or things I don't need.
 

iRaiden

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That's true, but at the cost of i5 instead of i7 and 4GB of RAM instead of 6.

When they have equal specs other than the slightly beefier graphics card in the GX640, the G51 is nearly $300 cheaper.