Laptop/Notebook first time buyer need advice

[mrklotz]

1. What is your budget?
About €1500

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15,6" - 16,4" would be the optimal size for me.

3. What screen resolution do you want?
haven't really thought about it

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

5. How much battery life do you need?
2-3hrs while idle would be enough for me

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 I would play occasionally, not high settings. Medium would be good enough.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
Browsing the net, watching videos/DVDs, programming. Good linux compatibility would be a big plus.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
max 500GB

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?
Up to 5years.

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

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.
no preference

13. What country do you live in?
austria, europe.

I've considered the following choices up til now:

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834131115
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115987
http/skinflint.co.uk/eu/a620239.html

The problem is all of them have nvidia optimus and I read a lot comments saying how bad it works, it doesn't switch to the dedicated card on many applications/games and setting the affinity to the dedicated card via the control panel does nothing.

Are there no good laptops/notebooks in 15.6"/16.4" with an ATI card or does someone of you have good experience with the optimus feature?

 

[rykoshet]

I feel that the optimus problems will sort themselves out in due time with driver updates (and there are a lot more positives than negatives right now). The only persistent problems I have heard of have been on linux.

Regarding the machines, the Samsung does have a second-gen processor, but the older i5 on the acer is fast enough, and at $300 cheaper makes a better bargain, I would say. The resolution on both is 1336*768, so while the Samsung may have a brighter screen, they are both going to suck (imo).

For $999, I would look at a Sager 5160 with a 1080P screen.

Otherwise, I would spring for the Acer.

The nvidia 540 will play most games on high at native (736) resolution on both laptops.

 

[mrklotz]

Thanks for the input, I would consider a sager but there doesn't seem to be local reseller in germany/austria/switzerland.

Edit: actually I just found a reseller in austria, will have a look at it
Edit2: Welly this reseller sucks, anyone got a good reseller for europe?

 

[rykoshet]

Thanks for the input, I would consider a sager but there doesn't seem to be local reseller in germany/austria/switzerland.

Edit: actually I just found a reseller in austria, will have a look at it
Edit2: Welly this reseller sucks, anyone got a good reseller for europe?

http/forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/264311-clevo-guide-v2-0-faq-reseller-info-read-before-posting.html#europe

Has some austria-specific resellers. I can't comment on them, but call up the ones you like, ask a quote, and see what sort of vibe you get.

 

[mrklotz]

Thanks again for the feedback, already found some good german based resellers with good prices.

However I keep reading about heat issues on the np5160; ~90°C on load - I'd like for my notebook to last me 4-5yrs and I won't be using a Laptop cooler.

Can anyone comment on the heat issues?

 

[rykoshet]

I can't comment myself on that model, however Clevo models in general have superb cooling (separate CPU/GPU fans at opposite ends of the chassis) and that forum (notebookreviews) has a dedicated thread for owners of the 5160, maybe check out what they are saying.

Again, good luck.

 

[mrklotz]

Well the np5160 has a shared heat sink for the gpu/cpu... will look further into it.