Help choosing road warrior laptop

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kiwi king

kiwi king

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Jul 29, 2013
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Hello! I am usually traveling a lot, and I need help choosing one. I need a laptop that I can use on 8 hour car trips (I'm not the driver). I want to use the laptop JUST for Minecraft, Black ops 2, Lots of movies and videos, and Facebook, email, etc. I will also be heavily watching YouTube videos. Budget is under 750 bucks, but the full blown max I will spend is 850. I don't care about screen size, as long as its under 16 inches.

Don't suggest me an alienware, please.

Thanks! PS: us dollars PPS: I don't care about battery life, I have an external battery.
 
Solution
robax91
If you want it to last that long, you're looking at an effient and small screen laptop.

Things it needs to be efficient:

1. Try choosing a high end APU, this saves you from the extra power of a discrete card, but you won't get super high settings (the A-10 is pretty powerful though)

2. You need to have a small screen. This really is important and not really an option to adjust. Larger screens eat up a lot more power.

3. You will need to swap the HDD that comes with it for an SSD. There are 240GB SSDs out there for $140-170, which will boost performance and save a lot of power from a spinning HDD.

4. The trick in the bag. Buy an extra battery from the laptop's company. You won't get 8 hours from a single trip. If you have a car...
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Deus Gladiorum

Deus Gladiorum

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The Lenovo Y510p. Seriously, Lenovo is one of the absolute best laptop manufacturers. The $809 will do you very nicely.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y510p/
 
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robax91

robax91

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Dec 26, 2012
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If you want it to last that long, you're looking at an effient and small screen laptop.

Things it needs to be efficient:

1. Try choosing a high end APU, this saves you from the extra power of a discrete card, but you won't get super high settings (the A-10 is pretty powerful though)

2. You need to have a small screen. This really is important and not really an option to adjust. Larger screens eat up a lot more power.

3. You will need to swap the HDD that comes with it for an SSD. There are 240GB SSDs out there for $140-170, which will boost performance and save a lot of power from a spinning HDD.

4. The trick in the bag. Buy an extra battery from the laptop's company. You won't get 8 hours from a single trip. If you have a car outlet to AC converter, you could extend the laptop's life by charging while playing but that would probably kill the car battery. Just get another battery and charge it before the trips.

So, can all this be done under $850? We'll have to find out. I'll look around for some stuff, but I make no promises.
 
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Solution
Deus Gladiorum

Deus Gladiorum

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Jun 29, 2013
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Any laptop you expect to game on will get hot, but the Lenovo laptop doesn't get particularly hot. If it becomes unbearable, buy a laptop cooling pad, but I doubt it'd get to that point. Heat should be pretty manageable.
 
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Deus Gladiorum

Deus Gladiorum

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No. You won't average more than 20 fps with that on medium settings.
 
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robax91

robax91

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Dec 26, 2012
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This post will be updated as I find each piece for my earlier post. So far I found a really good candidate. It has an A-10 for a great price.

1. $550 Lenovo G505s http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312829

2. It has a 15 inch screen. I haven't been able to find an A-10 with a 12 inch screen, but 15 is much better than some 17 inch monster.

3. $160 Crucial M500 240GB SSD http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148694

4. $80 Replacement battery. I hope this is truely the right one like it says. http://www.love-battery.com/product_detail.asp?id=9809

5. Total: $790 Which is between your target price range.

The A-10 performance is a little more powerful than a 640M LE and a 555M from Nvidia. The only thing I would buy after all this is another stick of matching RAM to replace the 2GB stick with a 4GB stick. APUs share memory resources with the PC so having a bit more will help out. I know it comes with 1600 speed RAM but I am not sure what brand or the timings. It might be a far off upgrade, but consider just buying a matching pair of 2x4GB (8GB) 1600mhz Cas 9 laptop RAM. Make sure it is laptop RAM and not desktop for obvious reasons.
 
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