DesktopReplacement Sub $1000US

Eric Heckman

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Nov 4, 2011
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Hello all. I am currently a highschooler looking to get a rig that's a bit more reasonably sized (possibly for college) than my gaming PC. Any help to guide in a final decision is much appreciated, so I have a somewhat lengthy description on what it is exactly I'm looking for. If you want more of a tl;dr version and want to get to the my main question on gaming performance, focus on #6 and 14. Thanks in advance for any help.

1. What is your budget?
My preference is under $1,000 US. There is also a “Plan B” route of $1,500 max, but see section 6 for the main factor.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
At least 15.6”.

3. What screen resolution do you want?
1600X900 is what I'm used to on my desktop, so I'm hoping for in a reasonable range of that.

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

5. How much battery life do you need?
The laptop is going to be primarily plugged in at all times. Any times used on battery only with be light duty tasks such as web browsing and word processing. I have no problems using power saving modes either to extend life. I'm not sure of a laptop standard, so I guess I'll shoot for 3-ish hours?

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 want to come right out the gate and state that I am a reasonable person and am not expecting BF3 on ultra at +60fps (that’s what my desktop is for). From a sub $1,000 laptop, I want a rig that can play some simpler games such as Minecraft and League of Legends (or similar requirement games) on high quality at +60fps without hiccups. There are some games that I play on my gaming PC that I would like portable too. I enjoy steam games such a TF2, Killing Floor, and Counterstrike. If there isn't a sub $1,000 machine that can play at a high-ish settings with little AA at +60fps, is anything under the $1,500 department going to work? I think the main point is I'm not asking anything too overly demanding, just if a range from Minecraft to something like TF2, at decent quality, for under $1,000 (or possibly $1,500) is reasonable.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
This is going to heavily be a multimedia laptop; however, I do use some CPU intensive programs such as CAD and Photoshop.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
At least 500GB. The more the merrier.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
I've always been loyal to Newegg when it comes to order computer hardware, so they are preferred, however I might consider other, reputable sites.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
3-4 years.

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

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.
From what I've seen, Acer and Asus have quite a few options with decent performance and a reasonable price. Dell and HP seem pretty standard when it comes to laptops, and I don't want to come off narrow minded, but I feel they may be a bit too mainstream or for the “average user” to have much emphasis on power. Coming from a desktop background, I'm not quite sure who the king in the portable spectrum is, so I'm open to any replies. An important note is that I will NOT buy anything Alienware.

13. What country do you live in?
USA.

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
-Cooling is huge to me. I know that laptops are notorious for high temperatures and I don't want to put the machine through any unnecessary stress if it cannot handle it. I will not buy a laptop without proper ventilation.
-Build quality is very important. It is going to be primarily plugged in at all times. I've helped repair broken plugs/ports before and I want to be sure that it has a solid connection. I expect high quality overall. I treat my electronic devices very well and should not expect the laptop to fail anytime soon.

So far from Acer at sub $1,000 for performance I've seen compared these 3 Acer Aspire AS7750G : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006740&IsNodeId=1&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&CompareItemList=-1%7C34-215-245%5E34-215-245-TS%2C34-215-266%5E34-215-266-TS%2C34-215-267%5E34-215-267-TS

and I've looked at the ASUS G53SX-NH71 at under $1,500: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230141

I know that is quite a bit of information to try to digest and put into a recommendation, but thank you for any help that I receive. I plan to purchase next week, so I hope the thread lives a few days to get as much input until then.
 

jmsellars1

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Dec 31, 2010
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Here are a few suggestions:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834214604

This looks great for your usage, it has a great CPU and the graphics card should be able to handle those games with ease (high settings @ 1600x900). It also looks quite chunky which suggests plenty of room for vents.



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215267

This is $150 cheaper and comes with a better CPU and more RAM but you get bad battery life and a less powerful graphics card. The HD 6650M is no slouch though, if you're happy with medium settings it would be a good option.



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152293

This is an example of what you could get for the full $1500. I think you could play those games at ultra settings on this machine and it should look great because of the 1920x1080 resolution. You also get an i7 CPU and 12GB of RAM as well as USB 3. Another major bonus is that there is space for another hard drive (SSD perhaps?)
 

Eric Heckman

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Nov 4, 2011
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Thanks for the response. Right now I think I like the Acer the best. I stopped into best buy after work today to check out the Asus G74 and I'm glad I've got to see how big it is first hand.