Buying a New Laptop: High performance, Dual drive (Form filled)

Feb 9, 2018
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Hi, I'm looking for a new laptop. My current laptop is a 2010 Toshiba Satellite A660 i7 upgraded with 8GB RAM and 1TB HDD
It's becoming slow, overheats easily and has troubles with booting and hibernation.

I work mainly with documents, spreadsheets, statistics software, and browser-based activities (including viewing 3D models). 3D modelling is my hobby.

I'm looking for an i7 processor (preferably quad core), 8GB RAM, dual drive storage.
Optional: 15.6' is the optimum, but larger is fine, 2-in-1 case, back-lit keyboard.

1. What is your budget?

Up to $1000, but around $850 would be best

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?

No less than 15.6'

3. What screen resolution do you want?

Doesn't matter

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?

Desktop

5. How much battery life do you need?

Doesn't matter, most of the time I'm plugged

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?

I don't play much. I play Tanki X, Civilization series, and rarely Need for Speed

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)

3D modelling, handling 40+ tabs in Chrome, and writing HUGE documents (300+ pages with images)

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?

Dual drive
128 GB SSD (NVMe)
500 GB HDD

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

None

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?

As long as possible (at least 5 years)

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?

None

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.

In Egypt, popular brands are HP, Lenovo, Toshiba, Acer, ASUS and Dell, so these are the brands that I will be able to deal with for repairs or parts, but I don't mind other brands if they are reliable

13. What country do you live in?

Egypt

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

It is very hot here with a lot of dust, so it is preferable to have a decent cooling system
A 2-in-1 case would be nice if possible since I do a lot of drawing as well
A back-lit keyboard would be nice since I'm a night owl

Thanks
 
Solution


So, you would like a quad-core i7 and it must be at least 15.6" and no more than $1,000...

This 17.3" ASUS meets most of your requirements, but it adds $86 to the price:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07661CYPD/ref=psdc_13896615011_t3_B074VBGWV4?th=1

Backlit keyboard and two disks available. Some of the extra cost is caused by the 4GB 1050 card which you don't seem to need. If you can live with a dual-core i7 and the more relevant 2GB 940MX GPU, the price drops to $885:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075VTD2W7/ref=psdc_13896615011_t3_B074VBGWV4?th=1

But here's a 15.6" Acer from WalMart:
https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/acer-aspire-156-gaming-notebook-intel-core-i7-8550u-nvidia-geforce-mx150-a515-51g-89at/6000197759779

$1,000 gets you the latest quad-core Intel i7-8550U CPU backed by a 2GB MX150 GPU. The laptop may be slated as a 'gaming laptop' but it really is a very powerful productivity machine, which should be exactly what you're looking for. Backlit keyboard, but you have to add your own SSD later on - and it doesn't seem to allow for more than one disk.

Cheers,
GreyCatz.
 
Solution
Feb 28, 2018
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This is one of the best guide for buying a new laptop. This will help everyone.
If your are planning to buy a laptop for gaming purpose then here are some more guidelines for you.

Things to Consider While Purchasing Best Gaming Laptop

1) Good processor
2) The latest display card with dedicated display memory.
3) Latest RAM with maximum capacity
4) SSD hard disk is better
5) Larger screen is better
6) More pixels on the screen can give good display clarity.
7) Good speakers – though you might use headphones, having a good built-in speaker is an added advantage.
 

zoltan.boese

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Jan 30, 2018
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