Looking to buy my first laptop, but I need HELP

Monttu

Estimable
Aug 6, 2014
4
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4,510
I'm going to buy my very first laptop but I don't know much about them. I need it for school but I like playing (actual games, not FB) so I need the computer not to crash or lag all the time. I wondered if someone could help?

I've actually looked around online and found some laptops that I need an opinion of:

HP Pavilion 15-p065no with AMD A8-6410M, 8 GB of RAM, 500 GB 5400rpm and an AMD Radeon HD R7 M260 2 GB

HP Pavilion 17.3" with AMD Quad-Core A10-5750M, 8GB of RAM, 750GB 5400rpm and an AMD Radeon HD 8650G

HP Touchsmart 15" with AMD Quad-Core A10-5745M, 8GB of RAM, 1TB 5400rpm and an AMD Radeon HD 8610G

HP ENVY Touchsmart 15 with AMD A10-5750M, 12GB of RAM, 1TB 5400rpm and an AMD Radeon HD 8650G

Then I found some used ones, which seem really lovely, but I don't know if they work as well as the new ones:

Lenovo U510 Laptop with i5-3337U, 6GB of RAM, 1TB 5400rpm +24GB SSD and an integrated Intel HD Graphics 4000

HP ENVY TouchSmart 15t-j000 with i7-4702MQ, 8GB of RAM,1TB 5400rpm +24GB mSSD and an NVIDIA 740M 2GB

Samsung ATIV Book 4 with 3rd gen. i7, 8GB of RAM, 750GB 5400rpm and an onboard Graphics card (I have no idea what)

Samsung Series 7 Chronos with 4th gen. i7, 8GB of RAM, 1TB 5400rpm and a dedicated Graphics card (I have no idea what)

Lenovo IdeaPad 17-Z710 with i7-4700MQ, 8GB of RAM, 1TB 5400rpm and a dedicated NVIDIA GTX 745M 2 GB

Dell Inspiron 15R 5537 with i7-4500U, 16GB of RAM, 1TB 5400rpm and I don't know what Graphics it has

A really long an a bit stupid looking post...

I'd relly aprecciate any help or opinions, and if all my options are bad, would you suggest something else?



 
Solution
iBuyPower can hook you up pretty decently and their machines are a bit more customize-able. The problem with all laptops is heat. Everyone wants them to be light and portable, but as they get smaller, the heat at load gets higher. Generally I recommend buying a crappy laptop to do your school stuff on (and then you can abuse the heck out of it) and then buy a good desktop. For $1500 you can buy a low end laptop that will do word processing and the internet quite easily PLUS a desktop that is a pretty decent gaming machine.

If you've decided to absolutely get a laptop, I would recommend getting a solid state drive (SSD) as opposed to a traditional spinning drive as they have a higher failure rate in laptops (moving a laptop while...
Just based on this list, the best choice would be the Lenovo IdeaPad 17-Z710. You listed out several AMD processors/integrated GPU's, which are perfect for casual use and light gaming, but not for anything that performs at higher settings.

Anything with the i7 4700HQ processor is perfect for high-end gaming and the Lenovo's GTX 745 is the best listed GPU from your post.

The next best option would be the HP ENVY TouchSmart with the NVIDIA 740M, which is only marginally worse than the 745!

Let me know if you have any questions about a specific model or laptops in general! :)
 

Steve Simons

Estimable
May 31, 2014
27
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4,610
iBuyPower can hook you up pretty decently and their machines are a bit more customize-able. The problem with all laptops is heat. Everyone wants them to be light and portable, but as they get smaller, the heat at load gets higher. Generally I recommend buying a crappy laptop to do your school stuff on (and then you can abuse the heck out of it) and then buy a good desktop. For $1500 you can buy a low end laptop that will do word processing and the internet quite easily PLUS a desktop that is a pretty decent gaming machine.

If you've decided to absolutely get a laptop, I would recommend getting a solid state drive (SSD) as opposed to a traditional spinning drive as they have a higher failure rate in laptops (moving a laptop while it spins is bad news). SSDs also have lower heat outputs. Overall, you want to try to maximize processor (I recommend an Intel i7 (though some of the i7s aren't all that great to be honest) and graphics card while tossing in 8 GB or RAM if possible. Your graphics card will generate the most heat, so get the best one you can as it will be less likely to be at load (which generates the most heat). Sadly, by doing that, expect the laptop to be at least an inch thick and fairly heavy.

My desktop, for instance was $1500 at ibuypower a few years ago now and still runs every single game at ultra high settings. I run an older i7 3820 with 16 GB of RAM and a NVIDIA GTX 670 graphics card. You can outperform that today for less than $1000. If my machine can run everything at ultra high settings (and the heat is never an issue in the desktop), then you can do that no problem. If you have a budget of $1500, that would leave you $500 for a basic laptop.
 
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