Best Student Gaming Laptop

bestmak

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Dec 27, 2013
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10,580
As I'm nearing the end of highschool I want to purchase a gaming laptop that will last me at least 4 years. I currently have a PC (7870 & fx6300) so I'm looking for similar performance in the laptop. I'm willing to spend under $2k CAD.

Note: I was leaning towards to Asus rog g751jt BUT the deal breaker for me was the battery life (I understand its a gaming laptop so I wasn't expecting more than 5 hours on this) and you can't even change the battery!

Requirements:
- 1080p IPS display
- GPU performance no lower than 960m (can be 800 series)
- Intel i7 4th gen min
- REMOVABLE BATTERY
- min 4 hours on battery (surfing web/taking notes)
- Doesn't need to have ssd
- at least 500GB 7200 RPM HDD
- at least 12GB RAM

The Asus rog g551jw meets all my requirements expect it has a TN panel and I've read that the updated model with IPS and SSD has a terrible terrible SSD
 

bestmak

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Dec 27, 2013
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Thanks for the suggestion but 780m is a bit old atm. Though it performs like the 800/900 series (if you only look at fps), there have been improvements in the last years.
 

bestmak

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Dec 27, 2013
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Actually like the suggestion...but if you read about it's battery life, it's even worse than the g751jt (66WHrs/6-cell vs 8-cell in the g751jt) lol. Also, it's $530 CAD more than the one I suggested for a couple small improvements except for the IPS G-Sync display. If I was spending this much, I'd rather go for the g751jt because of the 970m :p
 

bestmak

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Dec 27, 2013
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10,580


Usually MSI gaming laptops are too flashy for my liking but the ones you listed are pretty nice. Only downside is that GE62 costs around the same as the Asus g751jt and GE70's battery life is not so good (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2014/05/14/notebook-review-msi-ge70-apache-pro-with-nvidia-gtx-860m-graphics/2/)

I'm leaning towards the one I listed but the reviews about the SSD on newegg are killing me lol:

"SSD Drive failed after less than one month. There is a known issue with the Kingston 128 gb half height msata drive that is included with this laptop. Asus keeps shipping them out anyways. They also won't warranty their product outside the "Mainland U.S." despite their promise of a GLOBAL warranty."

" I bought one in May and the SSD failed in June, newegg gave in to Rma it for me. Got new options brand new July 3rd. Well last night (August 5th) the SSD has failed again. I would not buy this thing as they use horribly cheap parts that cannot keep up for a month, it's not even worth getting a better SSD for it as the computer had blue screens anyways before the SSD failure. I have contacted newegg about a full refund as I don't want this garbage of a product anymore."

"Had it for about 3 months, acouple of crashes here and there but after 3 months it crashed and wouldn't boot past the bios. SSD malfunction so I sent it in for repair, Got it back and started installing my software on it. The next morning it crashed and the screen went all black. Sending it in for repair for the 2nd time. So dispappinted with this purchase. I wish I can exchange it for another machine, im gonna be stuck with this wack machine PLEASE DO NOT BUY THIS MACHINE!!!! Save yourself, time money, and dignity."

^ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232405
 

faalin

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Feb 22, 2012
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11,210


I was saying to look at their laptops not to buy the same model that i bought 3 years ago. But like I said its a 3 year old laptop that still plays every game I have on high settings.

I would look at this since it covers everything you are looking for.
[strike]MSI GT Series GT72 Dominator Pro G-034 G-Sync Gaming Laptop 6th Generation Intel Core i7 6700HQ (2.60 GHz) 24 GB Memory 1 TB HDD 256 GB SSD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M 4 GB GDDR5 17.3" IPS Windows 10 Home
[/strike] way over budget

try this one
MSI GE Series GE72 Apache Pro-242 Gaming Laptop 5th Generation Intel Core i7 5700HQ (2.70 GHz) 16 GB Memory 1 TB HDD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 3 GB GDDR5 17.3" Windows 10 Home
only this one doesn't have the IPS display
 

bestmak

Honorable
Dec 27, 2013
37
0
10,580


Doesn't have an IPS but it has "eDP Wide View Angle"...is that any good? I'm gonna consider the MSI GE72 Apache Pro since it's almost identical to the g751jt, except for the IPS display. In fact, the MSI's got a newer 5th gen i7 and a removable battery pack so it's a give and take.

While I was searching through the interwebs I randomly came across the G751JL with the 965m, IPS display, and a removable battery for $1.5k CAD which is not bad at all.

So once again, my main priorities from most important to least important would be:
1) Good removable battery
2) IPS Display
3) GPU (minnnnnnnn 960m...would want a 970m as 960m has lower performance than my current PC GPU, but I can live with it)

Also, I've heard of Sager/Clevo...are they any good?
 

Sandstorm3000

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Aug 8, 2014
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4,610
If you can i would definitely go for a laptop that is within your budget and has a 970m. I personally have a 960m which is a good chip, but the 970m is really a big step up.

Also, i think that pretty much any (new) laptop can reach 4 hours battery life. But you will have to go on power saving mode and reduce the screen brightness a lot in order to do so.