$600-800 casual gaming laptop for a clueless nurse

mermak

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Nov 24, 2011
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18,510
Howdy all!

I'm in the market for a new laptop, but have been out of the loop for so long I have no clue on current technologies or offerings, so I thought I would come to the crowd I trust for advice. :) My last laptop was a Dell Inspiron 9200, and it got me all the way through nursing school and up to this point (its 7 years old now). But its dying, so I need a replacement. I can stop a gushing wound or help someone survive a heart attack, but this laptop stuff is hard! Help! Thanks for any help you can give me!

Mermak

1. What is your budget? $600-$800

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 15"-17"

3. What screen resolution do you want? 1600x900 would be nice, but not necessary. Would prefer widescreen to normal screen.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Portability over desktop replacement, but since my current laptop is 11.5 lbs, anything is going to seem light to me. :)

5. How much battery life do you need? Not really an issue, about the longest I ever go not plugged in is about an hour or so.

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)? Mostly 2d stuff, although I do play WOW on a regular basis. No raiding though, just kick around stuff, so don't need high graphics settings.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) Just web browsing, movies, etc. Nothing fancy.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? 300-600 gigs would be plenty.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. Just been browsing costco, best buy, etc for what I can get for the money. I'm not tied to any one site.

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

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? Would like a Blu-Ray player, if possible in that price range.

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. I've purchased Dell in the past and had good luck with them, although I am not as impressed with their offerings as I was several years ago. My home desktop has ASUS components that seem to work well, although I have no experience with their laptops.

13. What country do you live in? The good old US of A.

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
 

perfectblue

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Oct 25, 2011
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Though a laptop of even $400 would serve your purpose, this sony is pretty good for $600. It has integrated graphics enough for medium details and great quality :D
http://www.dealstudio.com/link.php?id=8280a9b48e808b165fdb584617077ea96523b45b&id1=d300735
At $800 we are looking at a quad core with pretty decent graphics card. The below link is for a dell XPS. But you could get an ASUS A73 or Lenovo Z or Y570 for roughly the same amount.
http://www.dealstudio.com/link.php?id=e5fce4c9dc4293f0b9b995cf0943dbe0a3f899c6&id1=d298397

Good luck!
 

mermak

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Nov 24, 2011
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Thank you for the suggestions, it got me looking at the New Egg site which I had never even heard of. I found a machine that seems like it would be a good fit, but I was wondering if you all could give an opinion.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230132

Not having ever even seen an ASUS laptop in person, any comments? Do they have good support/customer service? I ended up calling Dell several times on my last laptop, and their service dept was always on top of it. Just want to make sure ASUS has a good rep.

 

mermak

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Nov 24, 2011
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Thank you for the suggestions, it got me looking at the New Egg site which I had never even heard of. I found a machine that seems like it would be a good fit, but I was wondering if you all could give an opinion.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230132

Not having ever even seen an ASUS laptop in person, any comments? Do they have good support/customer service? I ended up calling Dell several times on my last laptop, and their service dept was always on top of it. Just want to make sure ASUS has a good rep.

 

mermak

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Nov 24, 2011
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Damn! I checked that link while I was at work last night, and it was there. I planned to purchase it as soon as I got home, and they were out of stock. :(

Well, makes me hope that it will come back at some point. At least I know what to keep an eye out for now. Thank you all for your help!
 

AnimWill

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Aug 26, 2011
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These two are a little more expensive but I was in the same boat as you and I am currently looking at these. Can someone let us know if one of these is better than the other considering:

Medium level gaming
Processing power
One is recertified

Links:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220733
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215197&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-RSSDailyDeals-_-na-_-na&AID=10521304&PID=4176827&SID=e8qgho72as37

Or should we look else where??