Laptop Hunting!

[VM007]

Hello everyone!
I'm searching for a laptop (to take to college) that can be serious with the boring everyday work, but can also handle gaming with good ease. Details given below!
1_What is your budget?
About $1200-1250

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15-16' is perfect

3_What screen resolution do you want?
Doesnt matter - I wouldnt mind having HD, but for the budget I dont have a problem without it either.

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
A bit of both actually!

5_How much battery life do you need?
No specific time. But about 2 hrs I guess. (the more the better obv.!)

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)?
Yes, definetely. Mostly fps games with med-high settings and some racing ones. Some mropg ones too.

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
Basically quick internet browsing, making documents and some movie watching would be nice.

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
320gb with 7200rpm preferably.

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
N/A

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
The longer the better.

11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
DVD+R/RW Writer, Bluray is not necessary.

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.
Looking mainly into ASUS, Toshiba and the XPS series of Dell.
Rather not into Acer and HP.

13_What country do you live in?
KSA.

14_Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I'd like to have a setup with the new Intel i5/i7 @2.4 or 2.53Ghz. 4GB RAM and Windows 7, and a proper dedicated graphics card.

Pls respond soon!! Thanks!

 

[Maziar]

Hello and welcome to the forums
MSI GX640 would be a great choice.

 

[VM007]

Hello and welcome to the forums
MSI GX640 would be a great choice.

I actually forgot to edit the original post in time. But I wanted to add that I have checked the following ones out too:-

Dell Studio XPS 16
Toshiba Satellite A665-S6067
ASUS G51Vx (can we spec it with the i5 540M @ 2.53ghz?)
And the ASUS G60Jx too....(though I dont know it much properly)

What are the pros and cons of these laptops? And which one of these would you suggest would be the best choice for me??

Also - are nVidia gfx cards being better than the ATi ones??

Thanks a lot!!

 

[$amurai]

I'm going to rank on GPU and therefore gaming, because all of those have good processors so can do normal work just fine.
Asus G51vx is the best, second in performance (sometimes first) and best in games. I honestly might keep it at the C2Q, those are very nice processors and can beat out i7's in some cases.
Asus G60jx is a good choice, nice processor and the GPU is strong. Middle in normal tasks, second in games.
Dell has the best processor and a middling GPU. Best for normal tasks (sometimes second), third place in gaming.
Toshiba is a weaker GPU. It could work, but it's not that great. Middle in normal tasks, last in games.
I vote the G51.
nVidia compared to ATI are about the same. Look at the individual GPU, but no need to bias one way or another based on the brand.

 

[Maziar]

I actually forgot to edit the original post in time. But I wanted to add that I have checked the following ones out too:-

Dell Studio XPS 16
Toshiba Satellite A665-S6067
ASUS G51Vx (can we spec it with the i5 540M @ 2.53ghz?)
And the ASUS G60Jx too....(though I dont know it much properly)

What are the pros and cons of these laptops? And which one of these would you suggest would be the best choice for me??

Also - are nVidia gfx cards being better than the ATi ones??

Thanks a lot!!

I would still recommend the MSI GX640 over all of those choices because of having a much more powerful VGA and a better battery life, but between those choices, ASUS G60 and G51 have the best VGA so they will be better for gaming.
And as for Nvidia VS ATI, there isn't an exact answer for that,it depends on the models that you are comparing

 

[VM007]

I'm going to rank on GPU and therefore gaming, because all of those have good processors so can do normal work just fine.
Asus G51vx is the best, second in performance (sometimes first) and best in games. I honestly might keep it at the C2Q, those are very nice processors and can beat out i7's in some cases.
Asus G60jx is a good choice, nice processor and the GPU is strong. Middle in normal tasks, second in games.
Dell has the best processor and a middling GPU. Best for normal tasks (sometimes second), third place in gaming.
Toshiba is a weaker GPU. It could work, but it's not that great. Middle in normal tasks, last in games.
I vote the G51.
nVidia compared to ATI are about the same. Look at the individual GPU, but no need to bias one way or another based on the brand.

Thanks for the advice!! But I've heard that the G51Vx had some heating issues - and a fair few applications had to be shut down to keep the temp under control? Is that true?

Also - with a C2Q in a G51vx - do you think its possible to get it for upto $1200? Or any of the other choices here for that matter??
Most of the laptops I have been seeing have had Nvidia's 330M or ATi's 5000 HD series ones...pretty same you reckon yeah?

 

[VM007]

I would still recommend the MSI GX640 over all of those choices because of having a much more powerful VGA and a better battery life, but between those choices, ASUS G60 and G51 have the best VGA so they will be better for gaming.
And as for Nvidia VS ATI, there isn't an exact answer for that,it depends on the models that you are comparing

Surprisingly, I saw the exact same model which you mentioned just yesterday! The price and specs seemed pretty decent - but the MSI brand name, in general, I dont know much about it - what are its cons - like reliability, sturdiness - etc.? (since you already mentioned the pros )

 

[Maziar]

MSI is a good brand, and here is a review of this laptop
http/www.anandtech.com/show/3766/msi-gx640-speedy-dx11-laptop

 

[VM007]

MSI is a good brand, and here is a review of this laptop
http/www.anandtech.com/show/3766/msi-gx640-speedy-dx11-laptop

Thanks for that link - I'm definetely thinking about the MSI now even though its keyboard looks disappointing....but really neat specs and in some games it seems to be beating out Asus's g73!! :O

I'm narrowing down the list now - from reviews I checked the Dell Studio 16 seems to be set more towards photoshopping and having a brilliant a very sweet display - lesser towards games than the MSI.

I cant find any reviews of the G60Jx - but I want to have a look at how it does compared to the MSI before making a call....any links?
Last thing - GTX 260M (in the Asus G51vx-a1) vs ati 5850 HD? - Which one is better??

Thanks for the replies!!

 

[Maziar]

HD 5850M is significantly better than a GTX 260M.

 

[VM007]

Thanks Maziar! I ended up buying the MSI! And got a slick gaming mouse and bag with the deal too.....driver updating was a pain - but it did help somewhat!
And its handling Battlefield Bad Company 2 at high with ease!! Love that!!

A question though - even after updating the BIOS and all the drivers, battery life is just hitting an hour and a half or 1hr 40min at tops! Which isnt even close to the 3hrs it should be hitting.....any idea what could be the matter? (I checked on the eco mode too - not much diff.) -

 

[Maziar]

Congrats
As for the battery life,go to
Control Panel\System and Security\Power Options
And choose Power saver(and lower your brightness if it didn't do it automatically), test and report back.

 

[VM007]

Hey! I put it onto power saver mode and lowered the brightness completely too - but still at 100% charge its saying 1hr 47min of battery life.
Any idea what should I do??

 

[Maziar]

hmm the battery life maybe defective,since its still under warranty,you may want to talk with them and send it for a repair/battery replacement.