Buying a Laptop

[brett the jet favre]

Re: Buying a Laptop

http://www.amazon.com/Asus-U56E-RAL9...aptop+8+gb+ram

I dont want to wait for the new laptops but i would if they'd be a lot better, but what do you guys think of this for college?

[DocHolliday]

Re: Buying a Laptop

If your just surfing the web and doing homework, thats fine. If you want to play any sort of real "game", get one with a dedicated GPU. That does not have one.

[ODogg]

Re: Buying a Laptop

If your just surfing the web and doing homework, thats fine. If you want to play any sort of real "game", get one with a dedicated GPU. That does not have one.

Yeah I agree...that's not going to play many but the very most basic games but other than that it's a quality laptop, can't go wrong with Asus, at least not from my experience..

[brett the jet favre]

Re: Buying a Laptop

Could you guys post a few links that could be a good gamer that's under 800 bucks? I dont know much about computers (Well about builds and specs and stuff) so any help would be appreciated.

http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Satell.../ref=de_a_smtd


http://www.amazon.com/HP-Pavilion-dv.../ref=de_a_smtd

[OSUFan_88]

Re: Buying a Laptop

My personal opinion:

First on brand: ASUS is the one I would recommend most. Their quality is so high and their stuff will not be messed up easily. Toshiba's are nice as well, although every once and a while you will see one melt up or something like that. Stay away from HP. They announced a few different times they were going to get out of personal computers/laptops, then changed their mind. That and the hilarious technical support is just not worth it. Also, their laptops burn out quickly and usually need replacing in about 3-4 years.

Second: I'd look for something with at least 6 gigs of ram. Simply because unless you are gifted with laptops, you are not going to want to add more.

Third: Processer: I'm not too sure on the Ivy Bridge, but if you do go to Intel, which on a laptop, you probably should because AMD is fairly average, then you should look for, at the very least, an i3. An i5 or i7 would be ideal. Anything with 4 cores, and 3.0+ GHz.

Various other things: HDMI slots are almost universal now. Finding a laptop without an HDMI slot is nearly impossible. Same with finding one that doesn't do CD/DVD/DL drives. BD may be something to look into but could get quite pricey. Also, for carrying it around campus, stay at the 15 inch size screen. I know it sounds pathetic, but the 17 inch and be an absolute nightmare to carry around, with the extra weight, trying to find a bag to fit it in, and trying to fit it on a desk.

[mikenoob]

Re: Buying a Laptop

For budget gaming, look for AMD llano or even the upcoming trinity laptops. Honestly, you do not need a quadcore with 3.0ghz+ for basic computing such as surfing the web, typing papers, and whatnot. Sure, the intel CPU's are light years ahead of AMD, but for what mKoz needs, it should work just fine. Also, you won't find a good laptop with a dedicated card at 400-600 which is why I suggest the AMD laptops for light/budget gaming.

Of course, if you have your budget above $700, intel with a discrete card is the way to go.

I just purchased the new Lenovo T430 for around $700 with the ivy bridge i5-3210m and intel hd graphics 4000. It's integrated, but is good enough for light gaming which is perfect for me.

Check out notebookcheck.net and notebookreview.com as they review the build, performance, and battery life for laptops. You can even search up benchmarks for a video card if you wanted to be sure it has enough power for your gaming needs.

[mKoz26]

Re: Buying a Laptop

Thanks a lot for the information, guys. I'm going to continue searching with everything I've read on here in mind.

I'll keep you updated when I decide to buy something.

[Dirty Turtles]

Re: Buying a Laptop

I actually have the laptop that you initially were looking at. It's a pretty solid laptop for the 400-600$ region. I upgraded it to 8gb of RAM for just 30$ from Newegg. It's not hard on most laptops to change the memory sticks out. Unscrew a screw or two, pop the old ones out, put the new ones in and close it back up. It actually has an extra HDD bay, which is great because you can add a second smaller HDD and dedicate it to just hosting the OS. I have the Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Vizio, Microsoft Office, and all the other jazz I need for school installed on it. I often run multiple programs at once and always have enough memory to keep truckin'. All that said, it's definitely NOT a gaming laptop, so you'll want to stay away if you plan to play anything more than ROMs or text-base/light graphic games.

[jb12780]

Thinking about getting a Dell Inspiron 15R for 539+tax. 2.5 ghz processor, 6gb of ram, 500gig HD.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

[daflyboys]

Re: Buying a Laptop

Also, check the Dell Outlet store. Can really get some good buys on brand new models. Got my son the 17" Inspiron for around $420. It's a beast.

[jb12780]

Also, check the Dell Outlet store. Can really get some good buys on brand new models. Got my son the 17" Inspiron for around $420. It's a beast.

Yeah its normally 700 but they give real nice student discounts, and its rated as a Consumer Reports best buy.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

[daflyboys]

Re: Buying a Laptop

Yeah its normally 700 but they give real nice student discounts, and its rated as a Consumer Reports best buy.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

It was surprisingly not even a student discount. Could be because I bought something from them earlier and found out about it through an email alert. I bought SquareTrade complete stupidity warranty for 3 years on top of it for about $100 (or whatever they're called).

[PVarck31]

Re: Buying a Laptop

So the laptop I got like 4 or 5 months ago is a piece of crap. I'm having a ton of issues with it. The MS tiles won't go away and I can't get to my desktop. It freezes frequently too. This is my 3rd laptop in 3 years. All Windows based and all crapped out on me.

I'm thinking about saying screw it and getting a Macbook. I'm tired of dealing with **** laptops. My question though is would getting a referbished or used Macbook be a good idea? I can't really spend 1,200 to 1,500 on a laptop. I realize I would probably have to get one that's 2 or 3 years old, I'm just wondering if that would still be a good investment. My sister's Macbook is like 8 years old and still works like a champ with no issues.

So I guess I'm asking if they are worth it.

[p_rushing]

Re: Buying a Laptop

Sounds like you need to do a refresh or reset.

Sent from my Venue 8 7840 using Tapatalk

[PVarck31]

Re: Buying a Laptop

Sounds like you need to do a refresh or reset.

Sent from my Venue 8 7840 using Tapatalk

Yeah, you're probably right. I'll try that tonight or tomorrow.