Recommend me a laptop

[MichaelS]

Hi, I was wondering whether any of you knowledge geeks could recommend me a good laptop.

Price range would be around max 700 pounds. I'd like one that is powerful enough run modern demanding games at around mid detail. Basicly, I don't want a laptop that is outdated immediately or in or year or 2. I don't know anything about hardware anymore, and I especially dont know what a strong graphics card is anymore which is often difficult to get in a laptop.

 

[MichaelS]

What do you guys think about this laptop?

Acer Aspire V3-771G-53231275Makk

Processor: Core i5, generation 3, I5-3230M, 2.6 GHz
Ram: DDR3 SDRAM 12 gb

Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce 710M 2gb ram

price: 750 pounds

 

[Cina]

It's a beast.

From where?

 

[NotoriousISSY]

A mate of mine at Uni who is into his gaming has a HP Pavillion which he says is pretty future proof. He paid around £700

The link he showed me was for this model no: dv6-7080se (whack into ebay maybe?)

i7- 2670QM 8GB Ram, 1TB HD, Blu-Ray, 2GB Graphics - GT630M from a google search. Seems like enough to run mid-range games.

 

[MichaelS]

It's a beast.

From where?

http://www.edbpriser.dk/baerbar/acer-aspire-v3-771g-53231275makk-id-7149788.aspx

It's all in Danish. I just converted the price to pounds.

 

[Red Pavan]

£750 seems steep for an i5

 

[MichaelS]

I think it's the grapics card that pushes the price tag.

 

[Justin]

I think it's the grapics card that pushes the price tag.

710M? That's an entry level card

 

[MichaelS]

If there is a better laptop in the pricerange i'm all ears that's afterfall why I'm asking. I'm clueless about modern hardware.

 

[MichaelS]

Okay what about this baby?

Lenovo IdeaPad Z500 5931
2.2 GHz core i7 quadcore
8 gb Ram
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 645M / Intel HD Graphics 4000 2gb

pricetag around 785 pounds



- I edited a mistake where I wrote it had 2gb ram instead of 8.-

 

[Red Pavan]

2 Gb ram?

What about this? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lenovo-G780...?ie=UTF8&qid=1361545326&sr=8-7#productDetails

or

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-350...&ie=UTF8&qid=1361545470&sr=1-7#productDetails

 

[Slevs]

Okay what about this baby?

Lenovo IdeaPad Z500 5931
2.2 GHz core i7 quadcore
8 gb Ram
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 645M / Intel HD Graphics 4000 2gb

pricetag around 785 pounds



- I edited a mistake where I wrote it had 2gb ram instead of 8.-

No mate, I'm sorry but you can get the Y580 with a much better graphics card that will read the newest games easier than the GT 645M. Check out the Y580, seriously, I have it and it is near perfect.

 

[MichaelS]

No mate, I'm sorry but you can get the Y580 with a much better graphics card that will read the newest games easier than the GT 645M. Check out the Y580, seriously, I have it and it is near perfect.

I'm checking it out.

According to this site though

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php

the GT 645M outperforms the GTX 660m

 

[Slevs]

I'm checking it out.

According to this site though

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gpu_list.php

the GT 645M outperforms the GTX 660m

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.notebookcheck.net%2FComputer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphic-Cards.13849.0.html&ei=cpQnUbiLK8jT0QWJwoAY&usg=AFQjCNEYK0r--8z1yLzA609HLu5GB1nmUA&sig2=PlBECeOV0Oyw1P83XsgpfQ&bvm=bv.42768644,d.d2k&cad=rja

 

[MichaelS]

I think you guys have convinced me to get the Ideapad y580. Thanks for the input

Now I will be looking for the best price at a place that ships to Denmark.

 

[MichaelS]

Damn I wish I lived in the US sometimes. You can buy this puppy there for 819$

 

[Slevs]

Damn I wish I lived in the US sometimes. You can buy this puppy there for 819$

Exactly. It is very cost-effective and about the same specs as the over-priced Alienware brand. Over here, there is only one agent for Lenovo and I managed to get it at $ 1,200. If you can buy it from the US, and the shipping costs are low, go for it.

 

[Dante]

You'd get hit by import duty and VAT for buying something from outside the EU.

I've no idea if they're still cheap or not, but I bought my laptop from computeruniverse in Germany and had it imported into the UK without needing to pay any extra taxes or suchlike. I've just been on their site and the y580 is 899 euros, which may be more expensive than you've found elsewhere, but at least they do ship to Denmark.

 

[MichaelS]

Just ordered the Ideapad y580 from the German Amazon. Looking forward. It's more expensive than I can afford really, but I really wanted it.

 

[Levo]

Just quickly hijack this thread.

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/compaq-cq58-278sa-15-6-laptop-20811653-pdt.html#longDesc

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/acer-aspire-e1-571-15-6-laptop-19414898-pdt.html#longDesc

Can someone tell me how good these are for the money? Plus which one is better. Also how good would they be at running games such as FM and the like.

Cheers.

 

[JmRssll555]

This is a better deal in Currys at the moment;

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/acer-aspire-e-nx-m09ek-012-15-6-laptop-19414900-pdt.html

Very similar to the Acer that you posted, but it has an i5 processor - for the extra £40 it's well worth it, both in terms of speed and longevity.

 

[Levo]

Cheers, I'll take a look.

 

[Snow]

I'd look into getting an SSD if you're buying a new laptop. It'll make the world of difference in terms of performance.

 

[Liam147]

How easy to come by are i5 processors for less than £400? Or do you start sacrificing things for that?

Also, I know the last laptop posted falls into that category, but in general terms?

 

[Pscholes18]

 

[Levo]

Right, my quest for a new laptop has increased has current one has died, blue screen of death an all.

Few quick questions regarding the SSD's people go on about.

Are they available in factory standard machines or is it exclusively an after market part?

How much difference do they make to performance and longevity?

Are they expensive?

Is they a certain brand to go for?

How difficult/expensive are they to install?

 

[Levo]

Bastards.

Help me with this please:

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/comput...sa-15-6-laptop-red-18093445-pdt.html#longDesc

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/comput...e1-571-15-6-laptop-21286170-pdt.html#longDesc

Is the difference in price between the two reflective of the difference in quality? Would prefer to get the HP as it has a good amount knocked off it and has a bigger amount of memory and a larger hard drive.

 

[AngeloHenriquez]

If you aren't playing games, the cheaper isn't a worser model... from first view I would take the HP over the ACER, unless the ACER has a brilliant GFX, but can't see anything obviously listed. THe ACER has a slightly better processor but less RAM but space for extra RAM to match the limits of the HP. The Acer comes with a lot of crap software which bumps the price up to, so overall I suppose it depends what you want, but if it's just a desent laptop, then I would go with the cheaper of the two.

 

[Levo]

Well apart from browsing and the such it's used for Football Manager mainly, would it run that comfortably without shortening the life of the laptop?

 

[AngeloHenriquez]

Very easily, if you go and look at Football manager minimum specs is the best idea and just make sure to check the main components

GFX
Processor
RAM

Its also a good idea just to know how each of them implements/ affects the game etc also, for example obviously GFX renders graphics, but it's not as simple as the bigger Mhz/Ghz graphics card is better, than can read at different speeds and accept different levels of Direct X etc O/S etc so it is quite a bugger really.

Main things to look out for I would say you want a MINIMUM of 4-6gb of RAM, (DDR2) the processor isn't so important as long as its (if your going intel) i3,i5,i7 all the new processors are very good, if you can get an i5 I would but unless you want to do video editing etc you will hardly need an i7.

GFX is the hard one, there are two main types, Nvidia and ATI, everyone will tell you a different reason as to why they love/ hate the other, in reality, they are very similar, I personally prefer to go with an Nvidia (as I have one) and have only ever had Nvidia's, bar once. IMO, the GFX card you can just put into google, how well does Nvidia 6870 or whatever run FOotball maneger 2013....

 

[Zen]

Macbook Retina 2,4GHz 15inch should suffice for a couple of years, get on it.

 

[Levo]

Thanks for the help Jaybezia, much appreciated.

Will have a quick look at the FM requirements and hopefully buy the laptop in the next couple of days.

 

[AngeloHenriquez]

No worries mate, if you want a final nod or whatever before you buy it, let me know... there are plenty better on here that have helped me, but you are better off finding them come PM rather than noon

 

[Levo]

Jayb, check your pm's.

 

[KingEric7]

Hello all,

Just after a little advice if anyone's around. I've realised recently that I could probably do with a decent gaming laptop. Got to the point now whereby that's possible but I'm after a little help with a few things; in particular, I could use some advice about PS2/Wii emulation and the difference in performance in relation to this between dual and quad core. I'm looking at going with the fantastic 'PCspecialist' website recommendation in this thread but I'm not sure how to proceed here. I've looked at the official forums but it's full of people who are either contradicting each other or are getting genuinely angry with others for not having a desktop. Weirdos.

I really do know absolutely feck all about computers, but my understanding is that the PCSX2 and Wii emulators only use 3 and 2 cores respectively of any processor. Would this mean that I'd be better off looking at one of the i5/i7 dual cores instead of going all out and getting an i7 quad core? This is the main reason I'm thinking of getting a new laptop so the advent of games requiring quad core in the future is of secondary importance.

I gather that running some of these games on any laptop can really push the boundaries of what's possible a bit, but unfortunately it must be a laptop. I've been getting giddy recently finding out that I can somehow play Kingdom Hearts at full speed on this laptop, but (because of my own stupidity) it has already done fatal damage to a charger of mine and is just about to kill off this battery. I've only just started the game but I know already that I absolutely must play the second one (amongst other things I missed whilst younger), and this will obviously involve getting a newer system.

Specs I'm looking at:

2.66 - 3 ghz Intel dual core.
8 gig RAM
Nvidia Geforce GT 650m

Without an operating system, I can get something like this from that site for between £550-£700. It depends on how good I want that processor to be and how much memory I want on it. Will this be good enough for what I'm looking at taking into account that what I have now (2.13ghz single, 4gb RAM, Intel HD) can play Kingdom Hearts? Some people on the forums say no, some say more than enough and that it works for them and others say overclocking needs to be done. It's all extremely unclear, basically.

Edit: It obviously goes without saying that I own or will own all these games and that I will be taking the bios from my own consoles for emulation. Obviously.

 

[Red Pavan]

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/ASUS_N55SL-S1188V_1338703.html

That was available for £599 a month ago, now they pushed it back up to £699. Still a decent price for those specs.

 

[KingEric7]

Cheers, that looks a great site. I'll favourite that in the mean time because there's another one on there as well for £599 that looks similarly good going by specs. (http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/MSI_CX61_1356341.html)

I wish I understood more about this stuff regarding how the graphics card would stand up, for example. I genuinely have no idea. Would a GT 645M stand me in good stead?

 

[Red Pavan]

Cheers, that looks a great site. I'll favourite that in the mean time because there's another one on there as well for £599 that looks similarly good going by specs. (http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/MSI_CX61_1356341.html)

I wish I understood more about this stuff regarding how the graphics card would stand up, for example. I genuinely have no idea. Would a GT 45M stand me in good stead?

Use this website to compare the Graphics cards for Laptops

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

Anything below 120 should be able to handle most games at a decent performance. Mid - range.

The MSI one you posted was at 91st - so that is a pretty good one. Note that 'SLI' means 2 graphic cards of the same model.

 

[KingEric7]

Thanks a lot, much appreciated. Looks decent going by that list.

 

[KingEric7]

Hello, sorry again. Final piece of advice if anyone can help.

I've decided to go all out on this next laptop in an attempt to make it reasonably top drawer for a good few years. It'll take a bit longer to save up for but I'm currently looking at:

i7-3840qm - 2.8ghz -3.8ghz quad core
GTX 670 MX Nvidia - 3GB
8-16GB RAM
1TB hard-drive

I've looked all over but was wondering if anyone knew of one that could be found for less than £1250? Help much appreciated again, I am going to be absolutely skint after this.