suggestions? looking to buy a laptop

[eddiespaghetti]

I need suggestions for a laptop.

budget 600-750. maybe a little more
long battery is a must.
small storage is fine as long as I can upgrade the hard drive.
able to game with decent settings is a plus but I know with that budget, I wont get anything powerful.

 

[jaguarskx]

I recently purchased the Dell Inspiron 15 7559 (linked above). Overall, it is pretty good though I have not had the time to play games on it. For $660 it is pretty much the least expensive laptop you can buy with a GTX 960m. Battery life is pretty good with many user and more professional reviews pegging it at around 6 to 7 hours based on "average usage". As for playing games on battery, I believe on review stated it is possible to play games for between 1.5 to 2 hours. Be aware that the GPU will not run at full power when running on the battery.

It is pretty easy to upgrade the laptop. There is only 1 philips screw that keeps the underside panel in place. Removing it gives you full access to the laptop's innards. It comes with a 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM. Installing another 8GB of RAM and a 1TB 2.5" HDD took less than 1 minute. Waiting for the price of a 1TB m.2 SATA SSD and 2TB 2.5" SATA SSD to come down in price before buy 'em an installing 'em in the laptop. The interenal battery is also pretty easy to replace should you need to do so; remove some screws and disconnect a cable.

The drawback of the Dell Inspiron 15 7559 is that it is a bit heavy at 5.6lbs. That is mostly due to the cooling solution necessary to cool the quad core i5-6300HQ and the GTX 960m. There is also the 74WHr battery; the larger the capacity, the heavier the battery.


If light weight is more of a concern, then the above linked Asus K501 seems to be a pretty decent deal. It is roughly 4.4lbs so definitely lighter than the Dell. However, you give up performance to save weight since it only has a dual core CPU, a less powerful GPU and smaller battery with 48Whr capacity.

The dual core i7-6500u uses less power than the quad core i5-6300HQ, but it is difficult to say long "average use" battery life can be without reading reviews.

 

[eddiespaghetti]

I recently purchased the Dell Inspiron 15 7559 (linked above). Overall, it is pretty good though I have not had the time to play games on it. For $660 it is pretty much the least expensive laptop you can buy with a GTX 960m. Battery life is pretty good with many user and more professional reviews pegging it at around 6 to 7 hours based on "average usage". As for playing games on battery, I believe on review stated it is possible to play games for between 1.5 to 2 hours. Be aware that the GPU will not run at full power when running on the battery.

It is pretty easy to upgrade the laptop. There is only 1 philips screw that keeps the underside panel in place. Removing it gives you full access to the laptop's innards. It comes with a 256GB SSD and 8GB of RAM. Installing another 8GB of RAM and a 1TB 2.5" HDD took less than 1 minute. Waiting for the price of a 1TB m.2 SATA SSD and 2TB 2.5" SATA SSD to come down in price before buy 'em an installing 'em in the laptop. The interenal battery is also pretty easy to replace should you need to do so; remove some screws and disconnect a cable.

The drawback of the Dell Inspiron 15 7559 is that it is a bit heavy at 5.6lbs. That is mostly due to the cooling solution necessary to cool the quad core i5-6300HQ and the GTX 960m. There is also the 74WHr battery; the larger the capacity, the heavier the battery.


If light weight is more of a concern, then the above linked Asus K501 seems to be a pretty decent deal. It is roughly 4.4lbs so definitely lighter than the Dell. However, you give up performance to save weight since it only has a dual core CPU, a less powerful GPU and smaller battery with 48Whr capacity.

The dual core i7-6500u uses less power than the quad core i5-6300HQ, but it is difficult to say long "average use" battery life can be without reading reviews.

thanks for all the information. I will check them out and see which one I like better. I will most likely go for the Dell laptop. I don't mind if its that heavy as long as it has decent battery life and can play some games.

 

[Oliver_21]

thanks for all the information. I will check them out and see which one I like better. I will most likely go for the Dell laptop. I don't mind if its that heavy as long as it has decent battery life and can play some games.

Avoid getting high HQ CPUs because when it comes to battery runtimes they will drain your battery. Either way, when you are purchasing something with a 950 or 960M there are no palpable differences in terms of performance, even an ULV i5 or i7 can't bottleneck a 960M

 

[Oliver_21]

thanks for all the information. I will check them out and see which one I like better. I will most likely go for the Dell laptop. I don't mind if its that heavy as long as it has decent battery life and can play some games.

https/www.amazon.com/K501UW-AB78-15-6-inch-Full-HD-Gaming-Glacier/dp/B01DT49XN8/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1481064479&sr=1-1&keywords=i7+6500U+gtx+960m

This is the best I could get although it exceeds your budget

You may resell the SSD and get an HDD to save some money

 

[eddiespaghetti]

thanks for all the information. I will check them out and see which one I like better. I will most likely go for the Dell laptop. I don't mind if its that heavy as long as it has decent battery life and can play some games.

https/www.amazon.com/K501UW-AB78-15-6-inch-Full-HD-Gaming-Glacier/dp/B01DT49XN8/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1481064479&sr=1-1&keywords=i7+6500U+gtx+960m

This is the best I could get although it exceeds your budget

You may resell the SSD and get an HDD to save some money

do you think its better than the Dell one shown above?

 

[jaguarskx]

do you think its better than the Dell one shown above?

It depends on what your definition of "better" is.

In terms of performance the Dell will provide better performance overall and in games because of the quad core i5 CPU. Games that can take advantage of more than 2 physical cores would generally perform better on a quad core CPU compared to a dual core CPU when paired with the same GPU; in this case the GTX 960m. For example, the Dell will definitely provide better performance in Skyrim and Fallout 4. the i7-6500u in the Asus will still provide good performance in those games, just not as high as as the Dell.


If weight is very important, then the Asus would be the better laptop because it is 4.4lbs vs 5.6lbs for the Dell.


Battery life seems to be somewhat comparable. As stated above based on user and professional reviews of the Dell 7559 it can generally get around 6 to 7 hours of battery life. Some of the user comments do mention that the Asus can last up to 6 hours based on whatever they were doing. Can't say for sure though because the only was to actually compare battery life for both laptops is to run the exact same tests on both laptops to get apples to apples results. The i7-6500u does use less power than the i5-6300HQ. But the Dell does have a larger capacity battery which adds to the weight.

 

[Oliver_21]

do you think its better than the Dell one shown above?

It depends on what your definition of "better" is.

In terms of performance the Dell will provide better performance overall and in games because of the quad core i5 CPU. Games that can take advantage of more than 2 physical cores would generally perform better on a quad core CPU compared to a dual core CPU when paired with the same GPU; in this case the GTX 960m. For example, the Dell will definitely provide better performance in Skyrim and Fallout 4. the i7-6500u in the Asus will still provide good performance in those games, just not as high as as the Dell.


If weight is very important, then the Asus would be the better laptop because it is 4.4lbs vs 5.6lbs for the Dell.


Battery life seems to be somewhat comparable. As stated above based on user and professional reviews of the Dell 7559 it can generally get around 6 to 7 hours of battery life. Some of the user comments do mention that the Asus can last up to 6 hours based on whatever they were doing. Can't say for sure though because the only was to actually compare battery life for both laptops is to run the exact same tests on both laptops to get apples to apples results. The i7-6500u does use less power than the i5-6300HQ. But the Dell does have a larger capacity battery which adds to the weight.

The CPU only matters when you have a good GPU inside

a 960M is a GTX 750 ti or even slower. So there can't be noticeable differences between those CPUs, Indeed a quad core CPU doesn't even have to mean better performance in laptops. This website: http/www.gaminglaptopsjunky.com/i5-vs-i7-dual-vs-quad-core-with-the-gtx-970m/ tried disabling two cores on a laptop equipped with a 970W (which is way faster than the 960M) and they observed like 1-3 FPS difference between dual core and quad core

It comes down to optimization and power limits bacause the i5 might run even slower due to thermal throttling given the higher TDP, it's a 45W CPU and in case the manufacturer doesn't design an effective cooling solution that CPU will be running at 2.3 GHz and the 4 cores will make no difference

 

[Oliver_21]

thanks for all the information. I will check them out and see which one I like better. I will most likely go for the Dell laptop. I don't mind if its that heavy as long as it has decent battery life and can play some games.

https/www.amazon.com/K501UW-AB78-15-6-inch-Full-HD-Gaming-Glacier/dp/B01DT49XN8/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1481064479&sr=1-1&keywords=i7+6500U+gtx+960m

This is the best I could get although it exceeds your budget

You may resell the SSD and get an HDD to save some money

do you think its better than the Dell one shown above?

It simply has a lager storage capacity

As the other guy said it's up to you and what your spechific needs are