Looking to buy a new Laptop

[dubjg]

1. What is your budget? 1000-1200

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

3. What screen resolution do you want? 1080p preferred

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

5. How much battery life do you need? should be plugged in most of the time so not a big issue

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)?
Not much, if anything WoW and Old Republic on medium

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) video editing, vehicle diagnostic/tuning programs, browsing, music

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? 320+

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. i look through newegg, tigerdirect, etc but open to anywhere reputable

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? 4 years would be nice

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? DVD ROM/Writer, bluray not needed

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. My last few have been Sony's but i never really researched them so i really have no preference

13. What country do you live in? US

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. Im interested in ssd's but i dont know if the extra cost would be worth it for what i need

 

[WR2]

Hello dubjg;

Your budget can handle a notebook that can more than WoW & SWTOR on medium.

At the top end of your budget would be some thing like ASUS G53SX-RH71 $~1163
Core i7-2670QM 2.2Ghz Quad CPU, 8GB RAM, 500GB 7200rpm HDD, 15.6" 1920x1080 anti-glare matte LCD w/ Geforce GTX 560M.
Also available @ NewEgg $1199

 

[dubjg]

Thanks WR2,

I just posted WoW & SWTOR on medium to satisfy the gaming question. I don't game much at all. I would say I'm more interested in video/pic editing and just overall performance.

 

[WR2]

Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards

Something at the lower end of you budget range: Sager NP5175 17" custom gaming notebook ~$1050 with options
Core i7-2670QM 2.2Ghz Quad CPU, 8GB RAM, 500GB 7200rpm HDD, 17.3" 1920x1080 LCD w/ Geforce GT 555M.

 

[WR2]

Dell (XPS 17) and HP (DV7) both have options that can be configured about the same as the Sager NP5175 performance wise.

$450 Coupon Dell XPS 17 Intel 2nd Gen Core i7 2.2GHz Quad-core Laptop w/256GB SSD

HP Pavilion dv7 Quad Edition Core i7 "Sandy Bridge" Laptop w/ Free 8GB RAM & Blu-ray

 

[WR2]

How soon are you planning on getting your new laptop?

 

[dubjg]

Within the next month

 

[WR2]

There is a new set of CPU/motherboards due out in April (Ivy Bridge family).
There's some thought this might make the current Sandy Bridge systems try to tempt customers with lower prices.
Just a thought.

 

[dubjg]

Any idea what kind of price drop it might be? How would you rank what you've listed so far? I feel like I've read more recommendations by experts for Sager or Asus than Dell or HP. Am I right?

 

[WR2]

You would be right. Asus (with it's 2year warranty, 1yr accidental damage policy) and custom Sager rigs get the nod over the batch mode OEM Dell/HP products.
That's not saying they arent good options.

It's hard to say how much prices will drop. If you look at NewEgg you might notice, if you look around a bit, some models going 'out of stock' and not being replaced already. If there is a glut of certain models on hand? Likely to see some price drops.
Low supply with higher demand? No reason to drop prices in that scenario.

 

[WR2]

CamelEgg price tracker for ASUS G53SX-NH71

 

[dubjg]

How much difference does the speed of the procesor between the 2.2 of the Asus and the 3.1 of the Dell. Also, i realize it would be more money and i've never worked on laptops before, would it be possible to add another 4gb of RAM and some hdd for extra storage?

 

[WR2]

The CPU performance between Asus and Dell XPS 17 will be virtually identical.
Both use the same Core i7-2670QM 2.2Ghz Sandy Bridge Quad CPU. Dell just happens to also mentions it's top 'turbo' speed of 3.1Ghz.
Intel Core i7-2670QM review

 

[WR2]

XPS 17 does offer the option of upgrading RAM. It's also something you could do yourself, later.
Same for adding a HDD drive (or a SSD drive). They're pretty easy for the end user to upgrade.

ASUS G53SX is unusual for a 15" notebook in having enough room for a 2nd HDD/SSD. Most of the usual consumer 15" models don't have that option.

 

[dubjg]

A friend of mine has a Dell Inspiron n7010 2.4ghz duo core i3 4gb RAM 500gb hdd and runs Adobe Premiere Elements but says it loads and runs a little slower than he had hoped. It gets sluggish when editing during playback but once the video is complete and run in a different player without APE running it plays fine. Will any of these run that program much better?

 

[dubjg]

https/www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/cart_detail.do?pageLink=true&bvLoadCart=1&action=add&disp_msg=0

the hp added more options to upgrade

 

[imusorka]

Fishing for a very similar kind of device as the thread author. Positive experience only with Sony, so I have checked them out first. What can local experts say about the F-series (e.g. F23JFX, F232FX etc)? Screen quality is important to me if this is at all possible with this budget.