Is it really worth it? Laptop selection.

webjunkie

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Nov 13, 2012
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Ok. I have a problem picking a laptop. I have my eye on the following...

http://www.xoticpc.com/msi-gt70-0nd202us-p-4500.html

Yes I know it's a pretty good laptop but my original budget was $800.
After talking to a few people i learned that I won't get a decent laptop to play the games I want without going over $1,000 dollars.
I'm not trying to be cheap but i want to spend as less as possible, but get a great deal.
I want a powerful machine and a good warranty so that if it breaks in a year i won't be stuck buying a new one.
So I also researched the following laptops from the same site...

http://www.xoticpc.com/forcemsi-16f3-36026-670m-msi-gt60-barebones-preorder-p-4335.html

http://www.xoticpc.com/gigabyte-p2542g-p-4830.html

They're cheaper, but would i be better up saving for my original choice?

Oh and idk if it matters but the games I play are as follows:

Sims 3 (All expansion packs so alot of space is a must)
SWTOR
World of Warcraft
The Secret World
Mass Effect Series
Dragon Age Series
Skyrim
Guild Wars 2



 
Solution
Those are decent laptops you've chosen, especially the MSI GT70, which is a beast of a laptop. But the jump from $800 to $1,400 is really large. Yes, it's true, if you want good specs, $800 isn't enough. But that's still a pretty huge jump. As I've said in many of these kind of posts, the best gaming laptop available in the under $1,000 range is the Lenovo Ideapad Y580. Please take a look at it, and you'll find it has very similar specs to the three of those laptops and comes at a much lower price. It has the i7 3820QM processor, 2GB RAM (Upgradable to 8GB), and a NVIDIA GTX 660M graphics card, which is a really good card. You're getting all this for under $1,000. And it's a 15.6 inch screen with a 1920x1080 resolution... It's true that...

Labrynthian

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Oct 9, 2012
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Those are decent laptops you've chosen, especially the MSI GT70, which is a beast of a laptop. But the jump from $800 to $1,400 is really large. Yes, it's true, if you want good specs, $800 isn't enough. But that's still a pretty huge jump. As I've said in many of these kind of posts, the best gaming laptop available in the under $1,000 range is the Lenovo Ideapad Y580. Please take a look at it, and you'll find it has very similar specs to the three of those laptops and comes at a much lower price. It has the i7 3820QM processor, 2GB RAM (Upgradable to 8GB), and a NVIDIA GTX 660M graphics card, which is a really good card. You're getting all this for under $1,000. And it's a 15.6 inch screen with a 1920x1080 resolution... It's true that it's base RAM is only 2GB, but it IS upgradable to 8GB, which is good enough. You don't really need more than 8GB RAM, even if you're gaming. The graphics card is a really good mid level class 1 graphics card, which will play all games in medium-high settings without a problem. So you're pretty much set, as it's a package deal in the under $1,000 section.

Here's the link, take a look. Let me know what you think :)

http://www.theverge.com/products/ideapad-y580/4604

 
Solution

webjunkie

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Wow... this really does sound like a good laptop. It does keep me closer to my budget and the specs are really good.
The Lenovo might be a better buy for my first laptop compared to the other ones i mentioned.
Thanks for showing me that link it really helped Labrynthian!
 

cursedreject

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Nov 28, 2012
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i dont know why people say you need to spend over 1000 dollars to get a decent gaming rig

I spent $500 on a dv6-6135dx and i could play most if not all recent games
sure you might have to disable some post processing or anti aliasing which i did in some cases but i could easily keep high textures and still run games at 40 - 60fps or more
truth is you probably dont need more than 60 fps (i had screen tear when i had 60+) and 40 fps already provides fluid gameplay

I managed to overclock my dv6 and play arkham city at 40-60 on what i remember being the highest settings with dx11 disabled
the 6750m was capable of dx11 but the graphical difference was not worth the huge performance drop (card is not all to blame some games implement dx11 very poorly)

if i could game well on a 500 dollar laptop you could easily game well on an 800
i saw your other thread on y480 and y580 and i recently bought a y480

sorry just wanted to get that out there that it isnt necessary to sell your house to play games at really decent frame rates and settings
especially now with intel hd 4000's those could already play games well enough not to rip your hair out
 

seriousgamer

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Sep 26, 2012
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I'm quite positive that the Y580 has an I7-3610qm or I7-3630QM not an I7-3820QM (This CPU is worth nearly $800 itself lol)
 

Labrynthian

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No problem wdbjunkie :) Glad I could help.

At seriousgamer, it does have a 3610QM in most places, but the 3829QM is listed as its processor on the lenovo site. I suppose it depends where you get it from. On Amazon it has a 3610QM...