In the market for a new laptop
 

Nothing facy shmancy. Not interested in a TouchSmart or anything. Looking for recommendations on brands, particularly those to stay away from. My last Gateway was a real piece of work. Know next to nothing about Acer and Lenovo.

Looking for something with at least an intel core i5, 8 gb of memory and 500 gb hd.

I'd like to keep my budget in the 700-900 range.

I picked up a new laptop back at the beginning of the year. It was an HP Envy 15, with a Core i7, touch screen and 16GB of RAM. It was just under $1k. I ended up swapping out the 1TB drive with a 512GB SSD and that added another $300 to the price. I've had no issues at all with the laptop.

I've got a Lenovo and love it. my wife just got one as well--she'd always bought Dell (ugh) but realized if I'd never buy one, there must be something about this Lenovo! They're really solidly built, and hers actually looks nice as well.

I'm personally a big fan of Asus, but I have had to return a couple of things to them for warranty work too. I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure that Gateway and Acer and clones. FTR, I've had a good experience with both of them.

Here is a model I'd have no trouble recommending. It's got all you ask for plus a dedicated graphics card, usb 3.0 and a graphics card. It's priced right at $700 and has free shipping.

MSI CX61 2PC-499US Notebook Intel Core i5 4200M (2.5GHz) 8GB Memory 750GB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GT 820M 15.6" Windows 8.1

Newegg.com - MSI CX61 2PC-499US Notebook Intel Core i5 4200M (2.5GHz) 8GB Memory 750GB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GT 820M 15.6" Windows 8.1

Thabks for the feedback/suggestions so far.

What am I missing where this laptop is only $499? Is the processor weak, or graphics card? Dell Inspiron 17R Laptop | AMD A8 | Amethyst Purple

Price is good for me there are 3 drawbacks.

1) It's a big 17 inch screen. Some people might like that but it's really not portable.

2)The processor is comparable to a Core i3 although slightly worse. It's still going to be zippy, but this is part of the reason why it's cheaper.

3)It has an integrated video card. I know it may not seem like a big deal, but if you do any gaming at all it will really help.

4)It's got a tiny battery. 4 cell/45w/hr battery won't last very long with that big screen.

It's got some good upsides for sure, it's just a budget version with some entry level options. For sure the price is good and if you aren't going to worry about some of the performance issues it could probably serve you well.

If you get 3 years out of it it'll cost you $176.67/yr, where if you spend $700 you'll have to get 4 years out of it to get to $175/yr. So how long until you think you'll want to upgrade again?

What PilotMan said, plus it is Amethyst Purple.

Lol. Thanks again, it helps to know some who know what they are talking about.

Im kind of an impulse buyer. Purchased.

That looks like a pretty solid purchase. The thing that sucks about laptops is it is hard, if not impossible, to get great specs WITH a great screen for under a grand. The only two negatives I see for that laptop are the lower resolution and the slower hard drive which the hard drive can be replaced down the road with an SSD or faster regular HD. But other than that, that should be a good setup.

Mind if I threadjack a little?

I have a Lenovo Ideapad U460 that's approaching 4 years old. Its switchable graphics haven't worked, and have been causing some stability issues, for a while. Here are the specs:

Intel i5 (dual core) processor @ 2.66 GHz
4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 ram (2x2)
500GB HD (5400rpm)
14" display, 1366x768 res
Intel HD/NVIDIA GeForce 305M (512MB) switchable graphics
8-cell LiIon battery/65w adapter
No optical drive

I snagged this for $750-$800 at the time. I'm having a hard time finding anything better now--I can basically get the same computer for the same price, from my early impressions.

If age and declining graphics capability (laptop ran hot with Civ 5, etc.) are the main issues I've had, should I look in any particular direction for a new laptop?

Thanks.

Self-bump, but I've honed in on the Ideapad Y410p and Y510p.

You really want a laptop with Windows8 on it? - I've been shocked at how vehement my dislike of that OS is ...

I love my Lenovo Yoga.

Seems almost inevitable at this point. I would be willing to fight through it. I don't know anything about how "bad" it is other than the top-level UI that people have found workarounds for.

I've been waffling on getting a gaming PC for a while now. Originally I thought I wanted an Alienware but after reading a lot it seems like it's just overpriced and not worth it.

The leading candidate at the moment is an ASUS, probably the one going for $1.3k, but I can't decide. Reading that the parts break down, and remembering why I switched to macs in the first place 7 or so years ago. But I'd really like a decent gaming PC that will run games for the next few years. I don't need to run them at super high settings, even low graphics is fine - just as long as it's not slow as hell.

Does anyone have a recommendation of how I can get a good cheap Mac laptop? My work is almost exclusively on macs so Id prefer to have one but theyre so incredibly expensive. Has anyone had really good luck with a refurb or something like that?

Macofalltrades had a good reputation. There's a lot of eBay refurbers as well.

I'm in the same position. I have a 3 year old Sager that is just starting to feel its age. I would definitely have them at the top of my list again. I haven't dug into things in depth yet, but it's been my understanding that Sagers are very comparable to Alienwares in terms of performance and build quality, but the prices are much more reasonable. You can also bring your Sager to different places without drawing attention to the fact that you have a gaming pc. Sager might be worth investigating.

The refurbs through the apple website are top notch. They are under warranty I believe. I know a couple people who purchase exclusively through their refurb program for the savings for pretty much a brand new laptop.

Also, the new Airs were just upgraded slightly with a $100 price drop.

Wasn't sure whether to post this in this thread or the Windows 8 thread, but either way it would have been somewhat of a thread jack.....

Anyway, I just snagged the following laptop:

Amazon.com: Acer Aspire V5-552P-X617 15.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop (Cool Steel): Computers & Accessories

at Staples, new in box for $277 out the door after tax. Was on clearance to ~$355 with a $100 off coupon. Couldn't pass it up... been running an old HP core 2 duo that has sufficed but has really started to show its age lately.

Don't do much gaming or heavy editing, etc so didn't need something top of the line. I use the laptop more as a desktop, outputting via hdmi to a 24 inch monitor at all times... didn't want to get an actual desktop because if you can get portability why wouldn't you?

Anyway, this is my first brand new laptop and/or PC in a very long time, and I'm interested in doing two things:

- Clean install of the operating system (Windows 8) to remove bloatware, etc
- Replace the hard drive with a SSD.

I bought the following:

Amazon.com: Kingston HyperX 3K 120 GB SATA III 2.5-Inch 6.0 Gb/s Solid State Drive SH103S3/120G: Computers & Accessories

a long time ago but wussed out on ever replacing the drive in my current laptop for fear of effing something up. With a brand new pc I don't have fear of losing anything important, so it's a go.

Can anyone give me a step by step breakdown of how to go about the above two things? Or point me to a nice tutorial online?

I'm competent enough to replace the drive, install software, etc but this is a new experience for me as I have never replaced a drive with a different sized drive or done a clean install of windows before, so need a little hand holding. All I have done so far is turn of the new laptop and gone through initial setup to ensure it turned on/worked.

Do I partition the existing drive down to 120 GB then clone it to the SSD? Do I just pop in the SSD and install windows and register it with existing key? I did not get restore disks or anthing, so how do I get a fresh copy of windows to install? Should I upgrade the laptop to 8.1 before doing any of this? Etc etc etc etc.... As you can tell I'm a little hesitant to turn my new laptop to a brick, but feel like this shouldn't be too difficult.

Any help on a Friday night at home?

Im very interested on learning how to revert from W8 to W7 once this thing arrives.

Personally, I've become a fairly big fan of Lenovo in the budget computer category the last few years.

If your old laptop has a win 7 license, just Google the digital river downloadable version of windows 7 and fresh install that.

Interesting, Sager hasn't popped up in my searches yet but I'll give it a look see.

I would second the Sager recommendation. I have had two. I bought the first one in December of 2008 and the second in November 2012. I've done all of my PC gaming on a Sager laptop for the last five and a half years.

Very good machines. Zero bloatware. Solid prices. I am big fan and will probably stick with them.

Here is the re-seller I used to buy my first machine:

Gaming Laptops | PowerNotebooks.com™ | Custom Built Laptops

Here is the other top re-seller:

Gaming Laptops - XOTIC PC - Gaming Notebooks - Custom Laptops - Custom Notebooks

Their prices are pretty similar.

For my second laptop I went with these guys:

MYTHLOGIC :: Custom Performance Computers

I chose them mainly because they are local (in Ann Arbor).

There are a few posts in older threads on Sager. Just do a search for it.

I did a very extensive (near obsessive) search on gaming laptops back in 2008 when I first decided to go that route. I had never heard of them before, but after doing a lot of research it's the direction I chose.

Hmm. One (probably silly) question: 8gb of RAM or 12gb? I presume the 12gb is 2x6. If the 8gb is 1x8, that's nice and upgradeable...

I've used Asus' ROG line of laptops for the past 4 years as my main machine because it has a good cooling system and comes with good power for a decent price. I went with the G75jh a few years ago and the G75vx a year or so ago. I'm not a big gamer, but they provided the best combo of power and cost for me. I usually have a couple of virtual machines running with an Oracle db and the machines have performed very well. The main complaints I've had are related to the battery: the battery life is very short, especially on the g75jh, and finding replacement batteries has been a pain.

Otherwise, they have handled pretty much everything I've thrown at them.

Edit: For the memory, the 12g is usually 3 4g sticks, at least that's the way I noticed it when I looked into it during my last laptop purchase.

I don't really care about battery life - I'll always have whatever PC I get plugged in when I use it.

But the cooling reviews on the Asus were definitely helping lean me in that direction.

12 is probably 1*8 and 1*4 and 8 is either 2*4 or 1*8. I'd look it up to be sure though.

My laptop is near the end. It's 2011 Dell refurbished computer which has done a pretty good job for me, but it's time to upgrade. I was giving an xbox one for Christmas, but I'm taking it back to put the money in a better gaming laptop. My budget is around 1K for it, which puts me on the low end of the gaming computers. I have a few questions in general though.

The kind of games I play are generally CK2 and FM so I generally get lag when I'm playing. Paradox games are hell on my current setup, to the point where the fastest speed is sometimes like the second slowest speed. Even Mount/Blade Fire and Blood has terrible load times. Ironically, Elder Scrolls and Tropico 5 do not, but I'd prefer OOTP/FM/CK2 to run fast. I have bought some other STEAM games and I'm afraid to really try them.

Which aspects are most important? SSD? Graphics Card? Memory? I'm pretty much set on an i7-4700 series and up processor. I'm looking at NVIDIA GTX 860 or up, but could live with the renamed GTX 850 card (which isn't really a GTX, but a GT). It seems like ram at 16 is ideal, but 12 or 8 would suffice.

Would the SSD make the biggest difference? Since it's been some time since I've really looked into it, everything I've seen tells me that makes the biggest difference. Would an intel 4600 graphic system, 16gb of Ram, and an SSD drive be better than GTX card, I7, and non SSD drive?

A few computers
ASUS ROG GL551 series GL551JM-DH71 Gaming Laptop Intel Core i7 4710HQ (2.50GHz) 16GB Memory 1TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 2GB 15.6" Windows 8.1 64-Bit - Newegg.com
Acer Aspire V17 Nitro Black Edition VN7-791G-7484 Gaming Laptop Intel Core i7 4710HQ (2.50GHz) 16GB Memory 1TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 2 GB GDDR5 17.3" Windows 8.1 - Newegg.com
MSI GE60 Apache-629 Gaming Laptop Intel Core i7 4710HQ (2.50GHz) 8GB Memory 1TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 850M 2GB 15.6" Windows 8.1 64-Bit Multi-language - Newegg.com
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Lenovo-Y50...s-8.1/37673230
http://www.walmart.com/ip/ASUS-X550J...-DH71/40514815

I'm leaning towards the first one. An Ideal laptop would be i7-4710, 2 gb dedicated GTX card, and an SSD drive all for about a grand, but havent seen them less than 1200.

Any ideas or feedback?

The two most important performance factors are RAM and an SSD. Eight gigs is usually enough for good performance; if you can afford 16 then by all means get it. An SSD makes a world of difference speed-wise and I can't recommend one enough. Of course, you still need adequate CPU and graphics power but I wouldn't sacrifice the RAM/SSD for a slight upgrade on the processor/graphics. I think that laptops with SSDs are more than you want to spend, though. Having a price limit sucks because we all would like all four bits to be top notch.

So you would rank it
SSD
Ram
Processor
Video Card

Obviously a dedicated card would be preferred but could I get away with an integrated Intel 4600 graphics card?

I would rank RAM and SSD as 1 and 1a. What I mean is that an SSD will make your system fast but you don't want to get bogged down with less than enough RAM. Again, 8 gigs is plenty. But if you have a lot of things running and a shortage of RAM, you don't want Windows to have to write to the swap file if it can be helped. One of the downsides of an SSD is the limited number of writes you will get. My understanding is that there will be very little warning that the SSD is about to fail. This may not be a problem (depending on usage) if you're going to buy a new laptop in 3-5 years.

A dedicated video card is always better, but if you're not playing anything graphically intensive you should be alright. If you are, then that may be a higher priority than an SSD.

I have the 15.6" Asus ROG laptop. Simply put, it's a beast. High quality manufacturer, spiffy looking, excellent keyboard. My buddy recommended it to me, he loves his, and I second the motion.

CW - What specs?

ASUS ROG GL551 series GL551JM-DH71 Gaming Laptop Intel Core i7 4710HQ (2.50GHz) 16GB Memory 1TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 2GB 15.6" Windows 8.1 64-Bit - Newegg.com

Exact one I got. No SSD is the only drawback, but that wasn't a huge deal for me on for a portable gaming rig. If it was a desktop replacement, I'd want an SSD and a 17" monitor.

I'll second the ASUS ROG laptop lineup love. I have a G75VX that I've had for about 2 years. I got it more for the computing power and the ability to expand it to 32G more than for gaming, but it's been able to handle the games I play with no problems.

This is the second ROG that I've owned and they both have done very well. The only drawback for me is using it as a work laptop replacement. My company is starting to allow us to bring our own computers in to work and I'd like something that doesn't stand out as much externally. The ROG laptops definitely stand out.

I'll third it. I'm on an ASUS ROG right now and it is a great laptop. I can play any game I want on it and it is very efficient for work projects as well.

Seems like that is some overwhelming good recommendations. It has less reviews than this acer, but other than a bigger screen, it looks the same?

Acer Aspire V17 Nitro Black Edition VN7-791G-7484 Gaming Laptop Intel Core i7 4710HQ (2.50GHz) 16GB Memory 1TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M 2 GB GDDR5 17.3" Windows 8.1 - Newegg.com

Probably pull the trigger on the ROG tonight

Looking further, the ROG is in stock at Costco, so for 100 dollars I can get three years of squaretrade protection.

When I was researching laptops, I pretty much arrived at the conclusion from a couple friends + the intertubes that Acer produces cheap, unreliable garbage. Had a buddy who had nothing but problems with one, and a couple of google searches for comparisons between Acer & Asus led me to conclude the quality of Asus is way, way higher.

I have a Lenovo Ideapad.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops...-series/y510p/

Has not failed me in gaming so far. (I opted for the additional video card set to dual SLI mode instead of the disc drive)

My last laptop was a gamer-friendly one, but in two years I rarely used anything that really put the graphics, etc to the test. I am leaning toward something more lightweight and battery-friendly, but still powerful enough to multitask, etc without much guff.

Here's my current leaning:
ATIV Book 9 (2014 Edition)

It's going for $1638 at Amazon, haven't check around to see if that's the best price around.

On other forums I read one of the first gaming laptops I see recommended is the Lenovo Y50. I saw that they are on sale over at the Lenovo website. Might want to check it out.

I've heard very good things about that ASUS. Back when I used to build PCs I used their motherboards quite frequently and they were always solid quality.

Showed up today. Pretty slick, just trying to get used to the keyboard layout

I've been quite happy with my Asus ROG G750JM-DS71. Only use it for gaming.

I'm still amazed at how fast CK2 runs. Didn't know the very fast option a cry ally takes about a second to go through a month