I Need a Gaming Laptop for £700 (approx $1120).

Brickfaced

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Hello, I'm new here, hope I'm posting in the right place. :hello:

Here's the form thingy:

1. What is your budget? No more than £700 ($1120), if cheaper suggestions fit what I'm looking for then even better.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 15.6/17.3

3. What screen resolution do you want? 1600 x 900 is fine for 15.6, 17.3 would probably need 1920 x 1080, but I could settle for 1600 x 900 here too if pushed.

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

5. How much battery life do you need? Not a major issue since it will usually be plugged in, but preferably nothing too small.

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)? Skyrim on High (if not ultra) settings, Total War games (Shogun, Empire etc). I'd like it to be able to play most new games (and upcoming games too) on fairly high settings with stability.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? Listening to music (so decent speakers/subwoofer would be a nice bonus), Work (so Microsoft Office already installed would save hassle) skyping occasionally (so good webcam would again, be a nice bonus) and general media storage.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? At least 500GB, would prefer 750GB though. 7200rpm Is preferred but if 5400 would run smoothly enough then I can settle for that.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. Not really, Trustworthy sites of course, UK based sites aren't essential but useful since that is where I am.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? I plan to use it for a long time, say 5 years, so I don't want it to fall behind too quickly.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? DVD is adequate. Not a major issue.

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 major preference, a reputable company would be more desirable, if it is from an obscure brand, I'd prefer to see some reviews of the product first.

13. What country do you live in? UK (England)

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Just to summarize, As the title suggests I'm looking for a gaming laptop that has impressive performance in all the areas that will matter (graphics card, processor, screen display, memory etc) £700 ($1120) marks the absolute maximum I am able to spend, cheaper suggestions are welcome, but none more expensive than £700 (unless it is literally teetering over the boundary). I'd prefer it if the laptop had good ventilation. It must be able to run at a good speed whilst having several high-spec games installed at once since, whilst £700 isn't a huge budget, it isn't a particularly small one either!

Thanks. :D
 

Labrynthian

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Well, the best gaming laptop under $1,000 is the Lenovo Y580. With it's 3rd gen core i7 processor, 8 GB RAM (2GB Default, upgradable to 8GB) and its NVIDIA GTX 660M card, it's packed with a lot of power for around $900. It's a 15.6 inch laptop with a 1920x1080 resolution. It's true that the default 2GB RAM is pretty low, but once you upgrade to 6 or 8GB it should be fine. Although I'm not sure how much it's sold for in the UK... I found some prices which said £850...

Here's the link - http://shop.lenovo.com/gbweb/gb/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y580#.ULrkvmdsvBU

Here's the original link where you can see all the details - http://www.theverge.com/products/ideapad-y580/4604

Then again, you can take a look here... There are some pretty good options. I think this will be better for you. The 17.3 inch Optimus IV seems to have some pretty good specs on it.

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/laptop-computers/2/

The main thing you want to focus on for your gaming is the processor, RAM and graphics card. It's best to get a 3rd gen core i7 processor, since they're designed specifically to handle gaming. You'll need at least 6GB of RAM or more so that your comp can manage the memory load when you're playing games. And try to get a NVIDIA GTX 650M or higher, since the 650M is the entry level class 1 card and it'll manage most of your games on medium-high settings, as will every card above this. Anyway, see if there's anything you like on those links, otherwise I'll look some more :)

 

Brickfaced

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Thanks for your help! :)

the Lenovo Ideapad Y580 comes in a variety of specs, so whilst a lower end one might be in my price range, the one I need doesn't appear to be, £850 is far too steep for me, which is a shame because it fits my needs. Although $900 converts as about £570, so you seem to be getting a better deal than I would be!

The Optimus IV Looks good, the sound blaster, graphics card and screen size + resolution are all exceptional, although all parts that I put together totals it at about £733 VAT inclusive. A tad bit over but I could stretch to that If I know it will run high-spec games very well.

For that price though, I had to go for an i5-3210M dual core processor (2.5GHZ), along with 8GB RAM and 500 GB Hard drive, with 8MB Cache (5400 rpm). I opted for arctic mx-4 thermal compound paste since I thought it would help keep the system cool, otherwise I could have standard thermal paste, making the price £724 instead.

I get the feeling the lower end i5 processor may leave something to be desired but I'm not sure myself. However I couldn't increase it any further since it's already overbudget. Do you think this spec would still give me good performance?

Thanks for your help by the way.
 

Brickfaced

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Actually, in order to ensure I'm getting something top of the range, I could get the 15.6" version to save £26, then get a 7200 rpm 500 GB hard drive instead, with an i7quadcore 2.4 ghz processor. That clocks in at £800, but it really is state of the art for that price, it just means I'd have to save up for a while before I could afford it. If you find any great deals as you browse the net feel don't hesitate to tell me haha.
 

Labrynthian

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Ah. Well an i5 isn't a bad processor, it's still pretty good. You could manage fine with a 3rd gen core i5 and a good graphics card and RAM. The thing is, if you're planning to spend £700, which is a lot of money, you might as well spend £750 or £800 and get a high performance laptop that suits your needs, as opposed to spending £700 and settling with something that's just all right...
The thing about these kind of things is, buy once and buy well, instead of changing it every year or two years. Get something that will last you at least a few years. That way your £750 is spread over the duration you have the laptop. Ergo, £750 over 3 years, is a pretty good price for a high end laptop. :p

Also, a 17.3 inch screen is HUGE. You don't need such a large screen. Go for the 15.6 inch one. In all likelihood, the resolutions in this price range will be the same. There's no point paying extra for a 17 inch screen when both the 17 inch and 15 inch screens have a 1920x1080 resolution. It's not worth the extra 1.6 inches. And yes, I do think it's a good idea to get a drive that runs at 7,200 RPM as opposed to 5,400 RPM. This is merely for efficiency. Space shouldn't really be a problem because of the large supply and variety of external hard drives these days.
Also, don't worry so much about keeping it cool. Most good systems these days experience heating up issues only after like 10-12 months of use. So don't waste cash investing in cooling apparatus now. Use the cash to secure a good laptop. In any case no matter what laptop you get, it won't have heating problems for the 1st 6 months at least. Laptops in your price range are normally made better than that. Once you get the laptop and actually start experiencing heating issues, THEN check out cooling pads etc.

Well, I only found the Y570...

http://www.logicbuy.com/deals/lenovo-ideapad-y570-best-deal-coupon/30685.aspx

It's all pretty much the same price. :(

Here are some other laptops in your price range, but with a 640M card...

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/nav/graphicsmodel/geforcegt640m/graphictype/dedicated/ml/laptopsnetbooks/pbgbp/07/processor/intelcorei7/type/laptops/0?&isort=price%20rev

Also, check out this site, it's a popular gaming laptop site where you can customize your laptops. This is just for reference. Maybe you can find a laptop with good specs that's available in the local UK market...

http://www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-laptops-notebooks-gaming-laptops-ct-118_96_98.html
 

Brickfaced

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I see what you mean, it seems that for an extra £100 or so I could massively improve it, since the processor is probably the most important part. It would save me money in the long run if it meant it lasted longer, it just means I'm going to have to find £100 out of nowhere...maybe Christmas cash contributions would be enough to get me there, I hope. :D

15.6" screen would be fine for me I'm sure, it's still 1920 x 1080 and it'd save me £26, it's not much more for the sake of getting a bigger screen but on top of the other costs it certainly adds up. I can't afford an SSD, so I figured at least a 7200 rpm would help performance a little bit and it's only £15 more. :)

I was worried about ventilation so thanks for the reassurance, I didn't want to spend a ton of money on accessories straight away since I probably won't be able to afford them for a while after I buy it.

That Lenovo Ideapad link is very cheap for the spec, but it's in dollars so I'm not sure if I'd be able to get it at a reasonable price (since I'd have to add 20% tax to the price I think), and the graphics card + hard drive is a little on the low side (otherwise it's good though). It said the offer expires 29th August, if that is the August just gone then I couldn't get it for that price anyway.

Some of the laptopdirect laptops have a decent spec for the price, but they all seem to have a few downfalls, plus the specs aren't that detailed. As you said, it might be worth stretching that extra bit more just to get something that will last for a long time, I don't want to have to replace parts over time, I'm not tech savvy enough to risk it.

I really like the look of the optimus IV so thanks for showing it to me, I'll get some variation of that model I imagine. :D

 

RetiredChief

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Common problem; England vs US. Stateside prices are close to what a person in England would pay in Pounds. Do to VAT and wage differencial.

For gaming, if that is your Number 1 priority then the GPU is more important than the CPU.

When you find one that sounds good before BUYING, Use the below link to check the games you want to play.
For reference here is the GTX 660M. Right side will show which tier it is in and how it stacks up against other crds. Right side toward bottom will show expected FPS (and if playable) for many games.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-660M.71859.0.html
 

Brickfaced

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@Lab

Of course, sorry! :whistle:



That's brilliant! It's nice to be able to see the FPS my gpu could run things at (assuming that the rest of the system doesn't let it down of course). That graphics card can run most games on high, some on ultra, and only a few games on low settings (those games don't appeal to me anyway). Thanks for the reassurance.
 

RetiredChief

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I'm Not a gamer, so settled for a i5-2500m (17") with 540m GPU, 128 gig SSD & 256 gig SSD w/Blu-ray ROM/DVD writer (Excluding the 2 SSDs which I upgraded to) it was $750 on sale.
 

Brickfaced

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If you're not gaming whatsoever, then that sounds like a great spec to me. Envious of the SSDs, I bet from power on to login screen only takes about 10 seconds? :D

@captainblacko

I checked them out actually, although they didn't seem to be on the site they were elsewhere. Really, really nice specs on the expensive ones but too far out of my price range from what I saw (2 of them were in excess of £1000, the cheaper one had a way too sub-par spec). It said parts of it were customizable though, but I didn't see anyway to customise on the site I viewed them on...
 

Brickfaced

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If I'd considered that the dollar conversion wouldn't transfer to GBP equally because of VAT etc, In hindsight I wouldn't have put $1120, it's crazy to think that if I was living in America that the laptops The Great Randini posted would almost be in my price range haha...
 

RetiredChief

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Have relatives in England (Cambrdige). Back in the Mid 60's prices where just the opposite in many cases.
Whish I had bought a BUNCH of the $20 USD gold coins (were in many of the Jewery stores for $56 (USD)
My Wife only earded about 6 Quid per week as a typist.
How times have changed.
 

Brickfaced

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Indeed they have, an on going recession is never helpful, the GBP has devalued quite a lot recently I believe due to many countries apparently not having much faith in our economy....although all things considered we're in a better position than a lot of European countries are. :p