Help with buying a laptop

[Fenon]

It's not for me, someone I know wants to buy a gaming laptop and I said I'd help out, by asking on the place that gave me the excellent helped building my PC.

She wants to spend £700 or maybe £800 and needs help with it soon her current laptop is dying.

[Jaketh]

your not getting a laptop that can game decently for under 800 dollars..period. my Asus N series media laptop with the Core i7 and 5730 is the cheapest laptop i could find that can game

[Devilmaypoop]

your not getting a laptop that can game decently for under 800 dollars..period.

ORLY? I guess you havnt heard of AMD Fusion. Just wait a month or two and get a laptop with a Llano APU.

[karamazovmm]

ORLY? I guess you havnt heard of AMD Fusion. Just wait a month or two and get a laptop with a Llano APU.

He meant high res play with at least high detail settings. Llano cant make that, I would like to be proven wrong in here

the current apu is good enough for some games at low detail settings, it is remarkable since its to compete with atom cpus

[Devilmaypoop]

He meant high res play with at least high detail settings. Llano cant make that, I would like to be proven wrong in here

the current apu is good enough for some games at low detail settings, it is remarkable since its to compete with atom cpus

Llano will be a dual/quadcore and a 5670 - 5770 equivalent in graphics terms. One 5770 can run almost all games on high at 1680x1050 res or more.

I think you're confusing Brazos and Llano.

[karamazovmm]

Llano will be a dual/quadcore and a 5670 - 5770 equivalent in graphics terms. One 5770 can run almost all games on high at 1680x1050 res or more.

I think you're confusing Brazos and Llano.

not at all.

The point is that I dont believe that the apu will give such a leap in power, its just that. The cpu power of the mobile AMDs is terrible, the gpu performance is dominating the middle to low range market. However when you put the cpu + the gpu all AMD it leads to a very lower performance than the current intel + AMD combo. But as I said I would be very inclined to be proven wrong.

[Fenon]

It's 800 Pounds which is about 1267.92 Dollars according to the two converter I just used (Used 2 different ones just incase one was outdated).

She's in a real rush, as I said she doesn't expect her current laptop to last more than a few days so any suggestions would be good. My internet is hardly working so I can't really look, I'll be lucky to post this.

[Ishan]

You can buy this.(1,199.99$)

• Intel Core i5 450M(2.40GHz)
• 15.6"
• 4GB Memory DDR-III
• 500GB HDD 7200rpm
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870

[karamazovmm]

you could try to find some refurbished g51, those have hit the aol and are currently on sale everywhere, one at notebookreview forums have bought one for 550 bucks, quite a bargain, and that thing can game like @$%$#%$#

the usual specs are:

CPU: since core2duo and some have the i3/i5/i7
GPU: since the GT 9800m, gtx 260m and the GTS 360m
RAM: 4g

those can be found literally anywhere, since lowly stores like cotsco, walmart and so forth (I know that you are trying to buy one on UK)

Aside that you could try to find some last gen pavillion DV6 those could be found in the US starting at 600, prices in UK are probably higher, but they are now trying to liquidate the stocks since those have already being replaced for their respective SB versions.

Another go would be to try to find some asus U31/U41 series, those pack a gt 415m and a gt 425m, respectively. And come with a i3/i5 cpus.

There is the last gen Asus n43/n53, those pack a gt 425m and the n43 depending on the model comes with a gt 435m.

Check also for promotions on some quosmio line laptop, those are from toshiba (an OEM that I dont like that much, but the review on those machines appears to be average), the last line without SB is currently on sale and you might get lucky with some core2duo as well the latter would be cheaper.

you could also check on ebay for some used Sagers, the core2line mostly. Those are solid gaming laptops much better than AW. They are build with quality and gaming in mind. Have I mentioned the superb cooling? BTW you are mostly going to find the W860cu, which is thick as hell and weights about 4kgs

There is the new NP1560 from sager they come standard with a 1920*1080 screen (good one btw, with good contrast and a good adobe RGB fill out) they come with a gt 540m, they are equipped with the poor excuse for switchable gpu called optimus, so good battery life, and they come in a 15'' chassis, they start at 750 in US, some retailers are SAGER, Xoticpc, and the standard fare of clevo resellers (the makers of the chassis, the afore mentioned W860cu is also from them). THIS IS YOUR BEST BET, NEW AND THE START PRICE COMES ALREADY WITH THE GOOD SCREEN AND GPU. BTW DONT EVER BUY FROM EUROCOM, THEY ARE THE WORST RESELLER FROM SAGER/CLEVO NOTEBOOKS



Some refurbed AW might be an option as well.

You could also try to find, the now extremely hard to find (almost a dying breed), acer 3820tg (check the g at the end, it means dedicated gpu). It comes with a i3/i5 processors and a good 5650, now 6550 (same chip, just a slight tweak in voltage and a bump of 50mhz in the core clock). Aside the 13'' size the cooling is quite good with a dedicated fan for the processor and the gpu. There is also the 4820tg and the 5820tg.

There are some acer that not share the build quality of the timeline X series (the above mentioned laptops are all from that series, they are thin and can game on high on most titles due to the lower res that they pack, the standard 1366*768), those are the common aspire line, they come equipped with the same gpu from AMD, and some less powerful Nvidia gpu (yes on mobile at low and mid range AMD is the king, after that it matters on how much is your budget being the cost of Nvidia usually at double the price if not more, they are sure a little bit faster)

There is also the vaio E series, those are the budget line, they come with a AMD 5650, and are currently going to be aol, since they are going to be replaced in feb 20th (the release of the i3/i5/i7 dual core mobile cpus) for their SB equivalents, so some refurbed and some sales are due to happen

There is the lenovo Y460 and Y560 those are on sale currently everywhere, since that their SB replacements are already out, the AMD is the standard fare on those with a 5650 gpu, cpu is the i3/i5/i7, the SB replacements come with the same gpu the 6500 series and have a p at the end of the name (Y460p), you can find one as low as 600 if you search

Some cheap SB models are coming at march and april, one that I have my eye on is the lenovo thinkpad edge e420s, specs are:

CPU: i3/i5/i7 SB
GPU: AMD 6630
Chassis: magnesium/aluminum alloy under 1.2'' thick
Lenovo enhanced experience 2.0 (it means that aside the usual fare Sata for a 2.5'' HD it comes with a mSata port for a intel 310 SSD, so speed of SSD and storage of HD)
Weight: 4.1lbs
Price: starts at 750

Sincerely, you have really to hunt, those are only some options that I could pull from my head right now

[Fenon]

Hmm well I looked on some refurbished websites and they had brands I don't know or don't know about about, or they just didn't have anything.

Sadly that MSI laptop appears to be more expensive over here than it is in the US, it's around £950 in the place I looked. I'll suggest it to her anyway she might be willing to go higher.

Since my internet is working better I looked on Overclockers and found these:

Sony VAIO VPCF11J0E/H £749 (I know and like the brand and this one looks better than mine)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...id=1828&subcat=

Asus N52JV-EX342V £749.99
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...id=1828&subcat=

MSI GT640 £849 (I suppose this one is related to the one suggested)
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showpr...id=1828&subcat=

Are those any good? It's been a while since I bought a laptop so I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to look for. Also which one is the best? I think I'll need to get back to her today so please let me know as soon as possible.

[Ishan]

Fenon i would advise you not to pick a laptop that has 1920 x 1080 at that resolution you need a powerful G.card which usually means ridiculous prices in laptops.
A 5850m or 5870m GPU on 1366 x 768 resolution with a CPU i5 around >2.2 Ghz is something i would search for.

[Fenon]

Fenon i would advise you not to pick a laptop that has 1920 x 1080 at that resolution you need a powerful G.card which usually means ridiculous prices in laptops.
A 5850m or 5870m GPU on 1366 x 768 resolution with a CPU i5 around >2.2 Ghz is something i would search for.

That would be the Asus then I guess, but if she doesn't use the 1920 x 1080 screen size would it still be a problem?

Quick specs for each machine all use Windows 7 Home Premium:

Sony VAIO VPCF11J0E/H
- Processor Intel® Core™ i5-520M Processor 2.4GHz, 4.8GT/s, 3MB L3 Cache
- RAM 6GB DDR3 SDRAM
- Graphics card NVIDIA® 1GB GeForce® GT 330M GPU
- Screen type Widescreen LCD
- Screen resolution 1920 x 1080 pixels (Full HD)
- Screen size 16.4"


ASUS N52JV-EX342V
- 3D Mark 2006 Score of 6250 points (Ideal for Good Gaming Experience)
- Screen size - 15.6 in - 1366 x 768
- Processor - Intel Core i5 450M - 2.4 GHz
- RAM - 4GB DDR3
- Graphics - NVIDIA GeForce GT 325M

MSI GT640
- Intel Core I7 720 Quad Core 1.60GHz (8 Threads)
- 1.60GHz Clock Speed (Turbo Boost supported upto 2.80GHz)
- 4GB DDR3 1066MHz Ram (2x2GB)
- 15.4" WSXGA+ 1680x1050 Resolution LED Screen
- NVIDIA GeForce GTS 250M 1GB VRAM Graphics Card

[karamazovmm]

I would go for the msi, it is by far the more powerful of the 3.

the gts 250m has the same power of my hd 4670, with it overclocked (something easily done) it can play at high or medium at that rez.

the problem with using a lower res in a high res monitor is that it gets very blurry, and detracts the quality of the screen.

Now really try to find the gx640 it is a MUCH better option than the gt640 the nvidia middle to high range has been terrible for a long time, and it continues to be the least powerful, and more power consuming, aside that you dont have to deal with that pos of optimus that crappy driver that nvidia insist to on us, and yes the gx640 has switchable graphics

[Fenon]

Hmm she says she can't afford the MSI till next pay day, I can't find it cheaper anywhere else and she can't wait that long.

So I guess it's between the ASUS and the VAIO which of those two should she go for?

[karamazovmm]

none.

I have posted several laptops that are much better than those.

[Fenon]

none.

I have posted several laptops that are much better than those.

I'll take a better look at your post, I'm afraid I've been either sick or tried when I've been able to come on and I've only lightly scanned that big post. I'll sit down and read it properly tomorrow.

She did some maintainance to her laptop and she thinks it might last a little longer so I'll take a better look around than I have been able to the last few days.

[Jaketh]

my i7 quad core+5730=med/high settings on most games and the laptop is about 900-1,000 dollars depending where you go

[Jaketh]

well i was supposed to get the Asus gaming laptop but my dad bought the wrong laptop with my own money >.>

[karamazovmm]

well i was supposed to get the Asus gaming laptop but my dad bought the wrong laptop with my own money >.>

ooooohhh dammmmm!!!!1111!!1

[Jaketh]

ooooohhh dammmmm!!!!1111!!1

yeah i was kinda pissed, and he refused to send it back for a refund