Another laptop thread!

[Astaroth]

Hey guys.

I'm going to start at Uni soon and I'd like to replace my current desktop with a laptop before that if possible.

What I'm looking for:

• The laptop will probably be used at home most of the time so it shouldn't be too small (screen size about 15'' at least).
• However, I also want to be able to carry it around so it shouldn't be too big either (17'' might be too big). Also, it would obviously be preferable if it didn't need to be recharged every other hour.
• It doesn't have to be able to play the latest games on the highest settings as I won't be gaming much. But if it's capable of running some games on medium settings or so that would be a plus.
• I'm mainly going to use it to write, surf the internet, perhaps watch some movies and such. I don't need to edit movies or pictures in an elaborate manner.
• It should be somewhat fast and not take forever to load.
• I don't really have any preferences in terms of hardware, I guess 4GB of memory should be enough... don't care about the OS, either, Windows 7 would be fine.
• Budget: up to about 1000€, less would of course be better.
• I live in Germany so shipping it here should be possible

I don't have any experience with laptops so any advice would be great!

The laptop questions:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

General Questions

1) What is your budget?
Up to 1000€.

2) What size notebook would you prefer?
a. Netbook; 10” screen or less
b. Ultraportable; 11" - 12” screen
c. Thin and Light; 13" - 14" screen
d. Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen
e. Desktop Replacement; 17"+ screen

3) Where will you buying this notebook? You can select the flag of your country as an indicator.
Germany.

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
a. Like:
b. Dislike:
N/A, don't have any experience with laptops.

5) Would you consider laptops that are refurbished/redistributed?
Maybe, but I'd prefer not to.

6) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?
Surfing the web, reading, writing, watching movies occasionally, playing a few games perhaps.

7) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both?
Both. Probably mainly on my desk and occasionally taking it around.

8) Will you be playing games on your notebook? If so, please state which games or types of games?
Maybe, it's not a high priority, though. Perhaps something like Assassin's Creed or some strategy games, but it doesn't have to be on high settings.

9) How many hours of battery life do you need?
No experience with laptops... I dunno, maybe 4 if that's possible? I guess I could live with less.

10) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK?
Don't care.

11) What OS do you prefer? Windows (XP or Vista or Windows 7), Mac OS, Linux, etc.
Prefer Windows but I could live with most things.

Screen Specifics

12) From the choices below, what screen resolution(s) would you prefer? Keep in mind screen size in conjunction with resolution will play a large role in overall viewing comfort level. Everyone is different. Some like really small text, while others like their text big and easy to read. Click here for Screen resolution information.

13) Do you want a Glossy/reflective screen or a Matte/non-glossy screen?
Don't know... doesn't really matter.

Build Quality and Design

14) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?
Not really, as long as it doesn't weigh like 10 lbs.

15) When are you buying this laptop?
Within the next 2-3 months, the earlier the better.

16) How long do you want this laptop to last?
Maybe 2-3 years?

Notebook Components

17) How much hard drive space do you need; 80GB to 640GB? Do you want a SSD drive?
Don't think I need much more than like 500GB. Dunno what an SSD drive is.

18) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a CDRW/DVD-ROM, DVD Burner or Blu-Ray drive?
DVD I guess, but not that important as I could just buy one separately.

[karamazovmm]

You just filled the form, I just love you right there!

With your budget, if you can get someone to configure the HP dv6t qe (and pay with an american credit card, just wire the money to the person in question), with the 6770m, 9 cell battery (so something close to 9 hours of battery life) and the FHD display matte with the 375 off coupon it totals at: 821 dollars, so you have still plenty of money to pay VAT and the importing taxes (since its about 60% of your budget)

Or you can go to kobalt and configure the NP5160 (or the one that comes with the gt 555m) and get the FHD 95% NTSC gamut screen upgrade (best screen on a 15'' with the exception of the IPS driven dream color 2 from HP) and get the i7 2630qm you are not going to need anything more than it.

There is also deviltech, which I think is german based, instead of UK based (Kobalt), those are also a clevo reseller. Fair warning resellers usually change the name of the laptop, so go for the specs and you wont be mistaken.

If you can raise your budget the best gaming in a 15'' is provided by the NP8150, which can and needs to be configured with the 6970m (stock is about the performance of the 6850 desktop, overclocked it gets close to the 6870, and yes you can overclock with a clevo!), battery life is about 3 hours

Sincerely aside the NP8150 your best laptop is going to be the hp dv6t qe, since it packs the punch, the screen (yes its more powerful than the clevo NP5160) and the battery life

Now that I said all the options here is the gaming run down

6970m - FHD res - all things maxed except on high demanding games like metro 2033
6770m - FHD res - all things on high, except on high demanding games like metro 2033, I would ditch AA so that the FPS can be higher
Gt 555m - FHD res - all things on high, except on high demanding games like metro 2033, I would ditch AA so that the FPS can be higher

When you lower the res on the 6770m or the gt 555m they can get some good games maxed

[Astaroth]

You just filled the form, I just love you right there!

With your budget, if you can get someone to configure the HP dv6t qe (and pay with an american credit card, just wire the money to the person in question), with the 6770m, 9 cell battery (so something close to 9 hours of battery life) and the FHD display matte with the 375 off coupon it totals at: 821 dollars, so you have still plenty of money to pay VAT and the importing taxes (since its about 60% of your budget)

Or you can go to kobalt and configure the NP5160 (or the one that comes with the gt 555m) and get the FHD 95% NTSC gamut screen upgrade (best screen on a 15'' with the exception of the IPS driven dream color 2 from HP) and get the i7 2630qm you are not going to need anything more than it.

There is also deviltech, which I think is german based, instead of UK based (Kobalt), those are also a clevo reseller. Fair warning resellers usually change the name of the laptop, so go for the specs and you wont be mistaken.

If you can raise your budget the best gaming in a 15'' is provided by the NP8150, which can and needs to be configured with the 6970m (stock is about the performance of the 6850 desktop, overclocked it gets close to the 6870, and yes you can overclock with a clevo!), battery life is about 3 hours

Sincerely aside the NP8150 your best laptop is going to be the hp dv6t qe, since it packs the punch, the screen (yes its more powerful than the clevo NP5160) and the battery life

Now that I said all the options here is the gaming run down

6970m - FHD res - all things maxed except on high demanding games like metro 2033
6770m - FHD res - all things on high, except on high demanding games like metro 2033, I would ditch AA so that the FPS can be higher
Gt 555m - FHD res - all things on high, except on high demanding games like metro 2033, I would ditch AA so that the FPS can be higher

When you lower the res on the 6770m or the gt 555m they can get some good games maxed

Well, I researched a bit now but my problem is that I've never really done this before. My past desktops were all prebuilt (or I paid/asked someone to build them for me) and I never paid much attention to the details.

The first option seems to be my cheapest but I don't really want to go through the trouble of giving money to an American just so he can get that notebook for me. The second one seems more feasible, but even without shipping that puts me at like 1000 British pounds easily which kind of destroys my budget.

Deviltech seems to have like 5 different laptops that you can configure... but aside from what you said (namely which screen and which processor) and what I know myself (hard drive size) I don't know what to go for. As in, which graphics card for example. Also, that "FHD 95% NTSC gamut screen upgrade" thing only seems to exist on Kobalt.

Finally, I want to emphasize again that I'm not going to do excessive gaming with this laptop. Being able to run some games would be cool but I don't have to be able to run the latest games at 40 FPS on highest settings. Also, I could spend 1000 bucks on the laptop but I don't necessarily have to. If I can find something nice for 800 that would work just fine.

[karamazovmm]

in the deviltech the ones that you want are either the FireDTX and Devil 9800gtx, I would go with the FireDTX

Das Konfig:

CPU: i7 2630qm
GPU: GT 555m
RAM: 4gb ( you wouldnt need more than that, I would simply get the 1 stick option, a 4 euro increase, but you dont lose one stick when you want to upgrade latter, which is a simple thing to do)

Screen: its up to you, since the 1600*900 res adds 4 weeks to shipping, but the FHD is not the great AUO panel that people praise the xps 15 with, and that the Clevo resellers had the better version of it (the matte one), so whichever is best for you added res for a price or wait a bit

The rest doesnt matter

The GT555m is about the same power as the GT 440 for desktops, its not the fastest thing in town (which the Devil 9800gtx is, the 6970m is about the same power as the 6850 and the GTX 485m is about the same power as the gtx 560) However as you said that you dont want something that powerful, I would simpy get the GT 555m, since its quite an improvement against the GT 540m, and with that res, you are going to be very limited with the GT 540m, medium low at its best

gpu power for the 6970m and gtx 485m: http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/291

for the gt 540m results go to the notebookcheck.com and search there, its quite hard to enter the site right now, its like Im in a 56k connection. However I advise you to look at it with a huge sea of salt. they usually dont put the way that they benchmarked the the notebooks, leading to skewed and biased results, and that is only one of the problem with the site.