Work/Gamer Laptop Rec(s)

[MadKatX]

Dear Community,

1. What is your budget?

Trying to keep it under $1100 USD.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?

15.6 inch to 16.0 (no 17")

3. What screen resolution do you want?

Something better than my current 1366x768. But this parameter only matters to me as far as future proofing.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?

The lighter the better, but as a gamer a desktop replacement seems unavoidable at this budget. Currently lugging a 6.5 lber and I travel frequently for work.

5. How much battery life do you need?

At least 2 hours for powerpoint presentations.

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)?

Hoping to future proof a bit here. Hoping to run Medieval Rome 2 on at least medium with decent frame rates.
My current rig, ASUS NQJ1 with 4 GB RAM and an ATI 5700 series (about 2700 MB memory) practically chokes on Samurai TW2 on even low settings.

DOTA2 on high. Europa Universalis 4 on high (these are not particularly graphically demanding but in case there is a Win8 compatability issue)

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)

I run MATLAB and similar high RAM computational tools. I also use fairly RAM intensive image processing, like OriginPro. I have until now managed with 4GBs RAM and am hoping to cure these RAM limitations.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? >500 GB

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

I have had good experiences with Newegg. Used to be a lurker here on Tom's.

A few links of laptops under consideration:

Y500: http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312439

Acer Aspire:
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834314006

MSI:
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152389

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?

At least 3-5 years

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?

A DVD drive would be preferred.

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.

Do not like:

DELL -- previous poor experience with Inspiron notebooks that were poorly built with multiple RMAs.

Toshiba-- Atrocious experience

Considering:

Lenovo: It's trading on the IBM/ThinkPad name but is it any good? There are plenty of good and bad reviews.

I've spent alot of time considering the Y500, but I'm on the fence about the company, the "ultrabay" DVD vs. SLi, and I have had trouble finding a Win7 downgrade guide for it.

ASUS: Current rig had some heat issues but otherwise rather happy with it

Acer: An unknown for me

MSI: Have had good motherboards from them in my desktop rigs.

13. What country do you live in? USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

I am curious about the ease of swapping out the Lenovo Sli Config and DvD drive. I do not appreciate the current mobility GPU performance levels. I will also very likely downgrade to Win7 and I am very nervous about how to do that on laptops without optical drives. I am also not sure if reinstalling Win7 would interfere with system configurations as I read somewhere that Microsoft had forced IEM manufacturers to make drivers for new components not backward compatible.

Ideally I would want a very nice new Win7 laptop with better specs. Anyone with a link to a comprehensive downgrade guide (I don't care if I have to buy a Win 7 install extra), you would have my thanks.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

Clevo P151SM1 is about $1150

Display: 15.6” Full HD 16:9 Wide screen (1920x1080) LED‐Backlit Matte Screen
15.6” Full HD 16:9 Wide screen (1920x1080) LED‐Backlit 95% NTSC Color Gamut Matte
Video Card: NVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 770M
Memory: 8GB DDR3 1600MHz
Hard Drive: 750GB 7200RPM

But the new chipsets are just hitting the streets....will be week or two before all the new models are out

http/www.lpc-digital.com/notebooks.html

 

[jaguarskx]

^^^

At a minimum, you will also need to add $80 for Windows 8 or $95 for Windows 7 Home Premium since by default the laptop does not come with any operating system.

 

[jaguarskx]

You could also consider the 15.6" Sager NP6652 with a starting price of $911. By default it comes with a quad core i7-4700MQ, 8GB of RAM, nVidia GT 750m, 1920x1080 IPS panel matte finish (non glossy), and no operating system.

Win 7 Home Premium is another $95.

Since it is a gaming laptop I would recommend spending an extra $25 for the IC Diamond thermal paste which has gotten pretty good reviews. More effective than Arctic Silver 5 which is still very good despite it's age.

That works out to $1031 before taxes.

http/www.xoticpc.com/sager-np6652-clevo-w650sr-p-5846.html?wconfigure=yes

If you are really concerned about overheating, then consider spending and extra $79 for the copper cooling upgrade since copper can more effectively dissipate heat than aluminum. It will also slightly increase the weight since copper is heavier.