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So as most of you know I recently tranferred to UVIC and I'm in need of a new laptop because I used to rely on my desktop at home for my entertainment and work needs. Now I am in need of a laptop that does both because I live on res. I did a little research on the youtube reviews, a little shopping, but I can't seem to decide because of the amount of variety, reputation, and amount of extras you can have and such.
My criteria:
- i5 or +
-15 inches around
-good graphics card that can run basically HoN or Dota 2 on high settings
-best under $1000 or around
-I will be moving it around back and forth from Van to Vic so mobile is a small factor. If it's really mobile I can even bring it to classes as a bonus
-don't really care about other bonuses as much because I don't understand lol
-almost forgot that I don't want it to get really hot easily like AMD or fan working hard to keep the system cool
I checked some reviews and see that you can only run battlefield 3 on low-medium settings but WoW at around medium only. I mean this seems reliable to me but I don't trust how reliable it is when I actually use it and try it. I don't want to be stuck with something I don't like for a couple years.
I hope someone has actually sort of come across this and can point me in the right direction. I'm not a computer geek and I just require something simply to game and be able to do my work on at school. If you can do a link me that would be great if you actually have had experience or seen something you know about it. Thanks
I'm not sure about Dota 2, but my current laptop which is running a i5-2410M/GT 540M manages to run med/high on HoN, so a GT 555M should be more than enough to run HoN on high.
I'd advise getting a laptop stand/cooler if you plan to game because these things can get pretty hot under stress. My old Dell XPS got so hot it fried my hard drive before.
Lenovo offers really good bang for buck specs, but I've had some noise and heat issues with the two ideapads that I've owned in the past. They also tend to be a tad heavier than their competitors, but I guess it reflects in its price.
Thanks for the input guys. I just don't have a clear idea how an GT 540 runs vs GT 555 and such. Most importantly I pretty much just need the CPU and video card, the rest I can upgrade really myself.
The Acer Aspire 3830TG was $549 at Memx just last week. I bought one. It's has a 13.3 inch screen no optical drive so it's small and easy to carry. At home you could connect it to larger monitor.
__________________ Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.
There was the Asus for $849.99 with i5 and GT 540 14.3" screen. I mean yea I can connect it to a bigger screen at home, but I'm not leaving a monitor in Victoria. 15 inches is a good carrying size and larger visuals. 14 inch is a little too small and 17 is going to be heavy for sure.
With my criteria I mean the Lenovo looks like the best bang for the buck, just trust issues since I don't buy/look into laptops that much.
Mmmmm I will be plugging it in my dorm and such. 4 hours seem like its low and the 15 inches is heavy but I'm using a Vaio Presario C700 that weighs 10lb and 1 hour of battery life and 15.3 inches. Comparing, I think the Lenovo would be lighter so too heavy or too low battery life in comparison to what I used to use isn't really much on average. For me 4 hours is great and the weight I think was 3-5 pounds when I tried the demo. Question is, is it worth the bang for the buck? So far I think it is, but I mean if there is a better one out there then that would be great since I don't know about laptops that much
If you're planning on just doing some light, casual gaming, and don't expect to play upcoming 2012 games on high settings, then a GT 540M would probably suffice. If you're planning on using it to game for a couple of years... I would suggest raising your budget and going with something a bit better.
Advertised 4 hours is probably like 3.5 hours. It's about enough according to the amount of courses I have
The Asus is not bad. Still sifting through the Lenovo's to see if I can find a better one. i7 processor would be a pretty good bonus considering its the top of the line as of now and I won't need to worry about new games coming out
If you're planning on just doing some light, casual gaming, and don't expect to play upcoming 2012 games on high settings, then a GT 540M would probably suffice. If you're planning on using it to game for a couple of years... I would suggest raising your budget and going with something a bit better.
Which FPS range is about smooth. Idk where to put the line at for FPS lol
60+ is optimum, but 30~40 is still fairly playable. Under 20 you'd probably not wanna play the game lol.
I have a GT540M right now, and I can play skyrim in low settings with around 30~ish fps. BF3 is around 20~ish FPS on low playing multiplayer. I can run Rage on high, but the environment takes a little time to load from time to time. SC2 is playable at around 40ish fps with medium settings as well.
I guess the 555M should be fairly better. I plan to be able to play MW2 and such later or Diablo 3 so I'm guessing the 555M should be good for another year
Advertised 4 hours is probably like 3.5 hours. It's about enough according to the amount of courses I have
The Asus is not bad. Still sifting through the Lenovo's to see if I can find a better one. i7 processor would be a pretty good bonus considering its the top of the line as of now and I won't need to worry about new games coming out
I got a 25% off code from dell on certain laptops.
Dell XPS 15
2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM processor (2.20 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.10 GHz)
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Elemental Silver Aluminum
15.6 in HD WLED TL (1366x768) with Skype-Certified 2.0MP HD Webcam
8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
1TB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M 2GB graphics with Optimus
8X Tray Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
1 Year Basic Mail-In Service Plan
Offer Expires 23/1/2012 at 5 am EST.
The Dell's a pretty good deal. It offers a bit more compared to other brands which are around the same price. With the lenovo, you pay an extra $200 for a 64GB SSD, upgrade to a GT555M, and a blu-ray drive. The Dell is lighter and has better battery life though. (5ish hours actual battery life)
Display 15.6" Full HD LED-Backlit Display with Matte Finished Surface (1920 x 1080) Video & Graphics Card Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M GPU with 1.5GB GDDR5 Video Memory CPU Processor 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i5-2450M Processor ( 3MB L3 Cache, 2.50GHz) Thermal Compound Stock Standard Thermal Compound Operating System Genuine MS Windows® 7 Home Premium 32/64-Bit Edition ( 64-Bit Preloaded ) Memory 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 2 X 4GB Primary Hard Disk Drive 500GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive Optical Drive Ba 8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
$1069
except mines upgraded to 2670 and 750gb hd with 8gb ssd hybrid
runs dota 2 on max 1080p at 60+fps, 40 during teamfights, around 68C
skyrim on ultra 1080p at 30-60, 72C
38C on idle
i get 2-3 hours while watching movies on full brightness and high performance
can probably get 3-4 if its just for notes and internet (assuming you turn brightness and performance down)
So Sager, I can modify my own parts and they will add them, just pay the price difference. I don't need the Blue ray disk and all the other bonuses that come with the Lenovo, they are just bonuses. I need the CPU, 15", and good video card only pretty much.
Spoiler!
Display 15.6" Full HD LED-Backlit Display with Matte Finished Surface (1920 x 1080)
Video & Graphics Card Nvidia GeForce GTX 560M GPU with 1.5GB GDDR5 Video Memory
CPU Processor 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM Processor ( 6MB L3 Cache, 2.20GHz) [$80.00]
Thermal Compound Stock Standard Thermal Compound
Operating System Genuine MS Windows® 7 Home Premium 32/64-Bit Edition ( 64-Bit Preloaded )
Memory 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 2 X 4GB
Primary Hard Disk Drive 500GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive
Optical Drive Bay — Optical Drive or Hard Disk Drive in Optical Drive Bay with Caddy case 8X DVD±R/RW/4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software
Wireless Network Card Internal 802.11 B+G+N Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Combo Module
Primary Battery Smart Li-ION Battery Pack
Integrated Security Device Fingerprint Reader
Microsoft Office Microsoft Office Starter 2010 - Included in Price
Warranty Sager 1 Year Limited Parts and Labor Warranty
$1149
vs
Spoiler!
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Processor Intel Core i7-2670QM processor 2.20 GHz Quad-core
Chipset Intel® HM65
Memory 8GB DDR3
8GB Max
Display 15.6" HD 1366x768 color, anti-glare, LED backlight, 220 nits, 16:9 aspect ratio, 500:1 contrast ratio
Graphics NVIDIA® Optimus™ technology, auto-switch between discrete and integrated graphics, Intel HD Graphics 3000 in processor, and NVIDIA GeForce® GT 555M, PCI Express® x16, 1GB GDDR5 memory, DirectX® 11, NVIDIA CUDA™ technology
Storage 750GB and 64GB SSD
Optical Drive Blu-ray combo drive
Card Reader 6-in-1 reader (MultiMedia Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO™, Secure Digital Card, Secure Digital High Capacity Card, xD-Picture Card™)
Camera 2.0MP
Wireless LAN 802.11 b/g/n
Ethernet 10/100/1000
Bluetooth Bluetooth 2.1 wireless + EDR,
Interface 2 x USB 3.0
1 x USB 2.0
1 x USB 2.0/eSATA combo port,
external monitor port
1 x ethernet (RJ-45)
Audio High Defi nition (HD) Audio, RealTek® ALC272 codec / JBL® stereo speakers (1.5 watt x 2), SRS® Premium Sound™ / dual array microphone, microphone input jack (3.5 mm), headphone jack (S/PDIF-out) (stereo, 3.5 mm)
Keyboard Full-size keyboard, 6-row, recovery key
Numeric keypad on right of keyboard
Touchpad Two-button touch pad with scroll feature, multi-touch
Battery Six-cell lithium ion battery
up to 4 hours
Power Adapter 120 W AC adapter
Dimensions 15.2" x 10.0" x 0.9" ~ 1.4"
385 x 255 x 22~ 35.7mm
Weight 5.95 lbs
2.7 kg
What's the deal with Sager? I haven't heard about them until now... looking at same spec'd 8130 that fs604 has and the price is right.. i really wanted a mac pro reliability wise but don't have over 2g's to spend on one just to be able to play games...
Any bad things about sager? They're not the greatest looking things on the market.. but that can be looked over due to price for what you get
What about an Asus G53? They're usually around the 1k price range on sale and can run things quite well. Doesn't get very hot at all due to some excellent ventilation work by Asus and the fan doesn't get loud until the GPU is at ~85 degrees Celsiu . It's just they're quite heavy at 8-9 pounds and the battery lasts ~2.5 hours on average if you use on the lowest power settings.
You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today!
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