<--- Want a ride?
New laptop suggestions please?
Hi folks,
I'll be getting a new laptop soon, but my knowledge on computers and understanding of what I really need is limited. I'm a bit lost and don't know which laptop I should get, could use some help.
I'll be going to college soon, so first and foremost, I'm looking for something that's reliable and built well. I'm really into gaming, so as far as I understand, I need a good graphics card, fast processor tons of RAM. That's about all I know. Can someone please recommend a laptop that would suit my needs as a student and gamer?
Since we're talking electronics here, can you also recommend a good racing wheel that wont cost me an arm and a leg?
Thanks in advance guys.
The only Exec in Saudi that's now properly badged!
Compulsive.
Definately look at an i series processor, they are leading the market with the hyperthreading technology. You will pay more but the AMD processors don't even stack up.
Also if you're asking for suggestions maybe a roundabout budget would help.
There is no such thing as stupid questions, Only stupid people.
Buy a netbook for school, cheap as chips, and get a desktop for games at home. A good gaming laptop is a myth.
A basic netbook with an atom ion setup will be less than 400 bucks, strong and portable, and will play most games. You can use it at school, bring it home and transfer stuff into a desktop.
Whats your budget?
A basic gaming desktop, capable of playing any modern game but not about to win any competitions regarding frame rates etc, can be put together for about 400 bucks, then you will need a screen as well. Depending on how much you want to spend, and just how well you want the game to play, this can blow out to a couple grand or more.
Or.. you could buy a cheap laptop and just stick to PS3...
America just kicked in yo
Go with an Intel i5 or i7 (7 is better than 5) with 6-8gb of ram and one of those fancy onboard 1gb-2gb graphics cards, it wont stack up to anywhere near as good as a gaming desktop pc but it will be pretty fast but heavy and expensive.
<--- Want a ride?
Thanks for the replies, I forgot to mention my budget is about $800 at max. In my opinion, it's a rather impractical idea to have 2 computers, a netbook and a gaming desktop.
A basic netbook is not enough for me. I do almost everything on the current family laptop, cost $1000 back in 07. Lots of web-surfing, many open windows, demanding games, movies, heavy video and photo-editing (Sony Vegas, Photoshop etc.). I'm thinking, since I'll be spending a decent amount of money on a good laptop, why not pay a bit extra for some gaming performance? ATI 5000+, i5 processor and at least 2 GB RAM.
Haven't got a PS3 or 360, and neither will be coming for a while. Long story short, the parents think games are completely useless and do nothing but kill brains. Once I'm in college, I'll have the freedom to get one... still a long way though. The reason I've got the chance to get a gaming laptop is they see a laptop as a useful investment.
To give yee an idea of what I'm looking for; I'm interested in the HP Envy, Dell XPS and Studio, and ASUS G-series laptops.
The only Exec in Saudi that's now properly badged!
Sleeper Builder
Ok, here's the rundown. This is my advice copied and pasted from another thread.
Macs are a rock solid laptop, they are made from good hardware with a good OS, however, you pay for the "top-of-the-line" mentality. It is overpriced for what it is, but none the less, good at what it is designed to do. I really do recommend Mac's to people going into any sort of creative environment. Not exclusively mind you, but it IS what they are built for.
PCs, I am going to split into two categories, then further down into which models I recommend.
PC-Windows is the widest used OS in the world, and something everyone knows how to use. It will come stock on most laptops. Avoid a netbook. Seriously. The screen is too small, the keyboard is too small, they don't hold #### all in terms of data. Get a laptop, something with a bit of grunt.
My personal laptop is an Asus. They are cheap, reliable and wonderfully middle-of-the-line. Don't expect fantastic things out of it, because you won't get it. Shit heat management combined with middle of the line hardware will be your boon, however, they are very reasonably priced and will still "get the job done". Mine's been soldiering on for years, still a rock solid performer.
HP, a good brand also. You pay a little more for them, but they seem to come with better hardware. They are also loaded with ALOT of shit software, so uninstall that with something like PCDeCrapifier straight away. The built quality of HP is a little higher too, so they tend to be alot sturdier also.
Avoid Acer like the ####ing plague. They tend to be over priced and like HP, come loaded with alot of shit you don't need. Their customer support is run by goons, their hardware breaks like my mates sister when she see's me walk through the door, and well, they're shit. The only positive I can really add here is "impressive battery life" considering they're running windows by default and considering well, they really are shit.
Lenovo, formerly IBM, make a series of business laptops. My ####ing god, some of the best pieces of equipment you can buy...provided you are strong enough to lug them around. They will NEVER fail on you, and if they do, Lenovo customer support is run by the swiss. Or some shit. They will literally courier you out a whole new laptop if you know how to ask them right. Their hardware is rock solid, their software is reasonable, the drivers are strong, the customer support is good and even the battery life is a solid performer. The reason they make such good laptops is because they aim their services at rich executives with expensive suits, fast cars and (probably) small penises. Expect professionalism out of this company, but expect to PAY for it. The lenovo's usually sit around 300-700 dollars above most laptops, but it's a cost you will appreciate down the line. Also, they tend to pay maybe 500g-1kg more too, I would estimate. Just keep that in mind.
Now I'm going to have a plug for Ubuntu. Consider NOT using Windows on your PC. Seriously.
Ubuntu is a free linux distro which comes Jam-Packed full of fun shit which spans right across from hacking tools all the way to free photoshop alternatives. It sports longer battery like than Windows and well, with Gnome desktop installed, is really, really pretty. Got some cool features with facebook integration and automatic teaming up with windows.
Comes pre-installed with OpenOffice, a MSOffice style alternative. Can also rip songs right off ipods, recovery data off damaged hard drives or USB sticks.
Maybe dual-boot it, maybe run it exclusively, just give it a thought, it's a worthwhile OS, I run it in 3/4 of my computers.
Also, try NOT to buy from places like Harvey Norman or Clive Peters or something. Go to wholesale computer stores like MSY or Scorptech. (Avoid Centrecom). You will usually get a better deal. Less service, but a better deal.
I also hear good things about Toshiba, but have never dealt with them personally.
Also, there is some mention above of specs, which I didn't read.
Anyone who says you need 6-8gb is living in 2015. You can happily run Windows 7 along with photoshop and other movie editing software on a Dual-Core processor with 4gb of ram. Unless you KNOW exactly what specs you need for a particular program (Say, you're doing university and you use a particular modelling program or something) then you should stick to something like:
Processor: i3, i5 or the AMD Athlon or Turion.
Memory: For future sake, insist on at least 4gb, but there's not much point going above 6gb.
HDD: Aim for at least 500gb. Unless you are playing hard core high end games and hate loading screens, avoid Solid State Drives (SSD). They are too expensive right now.
Video card: It's not NEEDED, but my advice would be to insist on discreet graphics. Ask for a Nvidia card in your laptop, as in my experience they out-perform most, and are much more reliable. Try for something with about 1gb or ram on the card.
OS: Avoid Vista, it's very shit. Avoid XP, it's coming to the end of it's life cycle. Go for Windows 7, but try to get Professional or Ultimate edition. Might cost a few extra bickies, but it has features which will save your sanity later, like the ability to turn off UAC (Annoying black "DO YOU WANT TO RUN THIS PROGRAM" screen".
Aside from that, I have a system I will suggest to you.
Available from MSY (http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/notebook.pdf) is a Lenovo laptop.
CPU: Intel Core i5 480
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
RAM: 4GB DDR3
HDD: 500GB SATA
Graphic:Nvidia G310M
1GB Dedicated VGA
Screen: 15.6” (1366x768)
WXGA Led Glossy
* 1yr Warranty * DVD Burner * USB2.0
* WiFi * Bluetooth * 6 Cell Battery * Web Cam
It's $749 before cashback, with a $50 cash back incentive.
I highly recommend this laptop.
<--- Want a ride?
Thanks a lot mate! That's some seriously good information! From which thread did you get this?? I didn't know much about Lenovo laptops at all, but from what I've read seems they're very solidly built and made to last, which is a first on my priority list. I'm not sure about the Nvidea graphics card, I heard ATI is a better performer. If I can find one with an ATI graphics card I'd definetely consider it.
Tell me fellas, Nvidea or ATI and why?? Also, size isn't all that matters, the newer the better, so I heard. The graphics card is probably the most important when taking high-end games into consideration, so I need a laptop with a really decent one!
The only Exec in Saudi that's now properly badged!
How hard can it be?
Without a decent graphics card in that laptop, it won't play any games bar flash based games. You will struggle to find a gaming laptop below $800, but bargains can be found, really for gaming on a budget a desktop is needed.
As far as Nvidia vs ATI, it's mostly down to preference. It's like arguing Ford vs Holden lol. I like Nvidia cause I have always used them, that's all.
ASUS would be my recommendation of laptop if you can afford it (I can't lol). I have a HP running Pentium D @ 2.13Ghz cost me $530 4 months ago.
The New Ride - The Class 2 Shuttle Craft (VE)
I'll be he comes to get you, some shopping trolley kind of thing, that gets you where your going nice and slow... Well off you go that's fine, the pleasure's all mine.
When I light the nitro on my HQ 454 Monroe!
<--- Want a ride?
Hi mate, I know that a desktop is better (and cheaper) than a laptop for gaming. But in my case, its very impractical to have a desktop. I'm always moving around the house and go out quite a lot. I'm practically stuck without a laptop. There are a few ASUS G51 J's lying around at my local electronics store, $750. No idea how much it should actually cost. Is this a bargain or is it over-priced??Originally Posted by MikeCuzzy
I know that when comparing similar ATI and Nvidea cards, the ATI wins in performance, but the Nvidea excels in operating temperatures. Well, what the heck? What's wrong with burning my balls off for some good gaming experience haha!
The only Exec in Saudi that's now properly badged!
How hard can it be?
Not talking about this are you?
ASUS G51J 3D gaming notebook review
The New Ride - The Class 2 Shuttle Craft (VE)
I'll be he comes to get you, some shopping trolley kind of thing, that gets you where your going nice and slow... Well off you go that's fine, the pleasure's all mine.
When I light the nitro on my HQ 454 Monroe!
<--- Want a ride?
Very close, but without the 3D screen and an i5 instead of an i7. Seems that its Nvidea video card is not so recent... there's always something behind these bargain prices, outdated hardware and such...
My cousin recommended an HP Envy 14. Seen it, good specs (among the latest too) and reasonably priced. Not so sure, have you had or heard of anyone's experience with HP? I heard the Pavilions are basically a bunch of crapware in a casing, that's what's keeping me skeptical about HP.
As far as I've heard of Lenovo so far, looks pretty promising. Same goes to certain ASUS laptops. Alienware is generally too expensive, the M11x is underpowered, explained by the lower price. I'm not a big fan of Toshiba. I'm sharing a Tecra A8 currently with the familiy, don't like it, under-powered, painfully slow, hard-drive already crashed once. Is it a different story with the Qosmio??
The only Exec in Saudi that's now properly badged!
Your mum's new boyfriend
I had a HP until not too long ago, just got it back from the shop with fresh windows 7 and some more RAM installed, oh and also it was stuffed to the guys fixed it too since I didn't have my old CDs so I couldn't fresh install, cost around $500 and after a week my gfx card melted. My mate's HP also f-cked up, they get really hot & I find they are just sh-tty laptops in general
I'm currently running a Toshiba Satellite A660 (Discontinued for a few months now) & my first one stuffed up within about a month, even less (the NUMPAD 4 key was acting as if it was held down) and after I got that replaced I have no trouble playing most games in high quality, good sound, after a bit of tweaking it's super fast & I love it, but each to their own. My mate has the next model up (Qosimo or whatever) and his is roughly the same as mine in terms of gaming etc, I see no real differences except maybe his loads certain screens 1 second faster, which doesn't seem to matter, and the price tag (mine was about $1300 after haggling, his was around $2000 with no haggling).
Both my A660 and his Qosimo have never had HDD issues (apart from when we bump them, the HDD disconnects to protect it from damage but it doesn't really cause problems, just makes music go "dzzrrrr" for bout half a second), never have sound issues, or visual issues etc, massive resolution, decent screen size (I think they're 15.6 Inch), though his came with a bluray player whereas mine didn't since I have a bluray/dvd player & 2 ps3's so I didn't need it for the extra $600.
Some features are turbo cpu, 4xusb ports w/ 1 being a super fast/high speed or whatever it is, tv aerial input, HDMI port, SD card port, touch-buttons for volume & music controls etc, ethernet port & standard monitor port (blue plug with the screws)
Here's my specs:
System Specification---6/20/2011 10:42:16 PM
Windows Windows 7 Home Premium Edition (64-bit) Service Pack 1 (Build 7601)
Internet Explorer 8.0.7601.17514
Memory (RAM) 4027 MB
CPU Info Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU Q 740 @ 1.73GHz
CPU Speed 1729.7 MHz
Sound Card Speakers (Realtek High Definiti
Display Adapters NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M | NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M | RDPDD Chained DD | RDP Encoder Mirror Driver | RDP Reflector Display Driver
Monitors 1x; Generic PnP Monitor |
Screen Resolution 1366 X 768 - 32 bit
Network Network Present
Network Adapters Virgin Mobile | Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller | Broadcom 802.11n Network Adapter
CD / DVD Drives D: HL-DT-STDVDRAM GT30N | E: WJM EFG9YVGX | F: DTSOFT BDROM | I: HUAWEI Mass Storage
Ports COM15 | COM16 | COM17 | COM18 | COM19 | COM20 | COM21 | COM22 | COM23 | COM24 | COM9 | COM10 | COM11 NOT Present
Mouse 16 Button Wheel Mouse Present
Hard Disks C: 451.8GB
Hard Disks - Free C: 284.1GB
USB Controllers 2 host controllers.
Firewire (1394) Not Detected
Manufacturer TOSHIBA
Product Make Satellite A660
AC Power Status OnLine
BIOS Info AT/AT COMPATIBLE | 07/02/10 | TOSCPL - 74
Time Zone E. Australia Standard Time
Battery High
Motherboard TOSHIBA NWQAA
IP Address
MAC Address
Host Name JAKESLAPTOP
Last edited by 87RB30VL; 20-06-2011 at 11:28 PM.
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<--- Want a ride?
Thanks for the heads-up. But which HP laptop was this specifically, so I'll definetely avoid it. Pavilion? G series?
It seems that now the options have narrowed down to Lenovo and ASUS. Happy to get more advice and suggestions fellas!
The only Exec in Saudi that's now properly badged!
How hard can it be?
That's interesting, I have a HP (one of the little Compaq budget ones) and is a great machine.
The New Ride - The Class 2 Shuttle Craft (VE)
I'll be he comes to get you, some shopping trolley kind of thing, that gets you where your going nice and slow... Well off you go that's fine, the pleasure's all mine.
When I light the nitro on my HQ 454 Monroe!
Sleeper Builder
Hold up.
You guys need to be careful about what advice you are giving out in relation to performance.
A laptop with 4gb of ram and ANY i5 processor, with a 1gb video card recent as of any time in the last 2 years will play ANY game on the market today, hands down, no questions asked.
Anything you buy above this is "future proofing" for anything else in the future that requires alot more. Don't buy into the hype that you need the LATEST video card to run the games. As long as it's got a decent clock speed, and a decent amount of memory, you'll be fine.
As a general rule, Nvidia, simply because they tend to have more stable and reliable drivers. But that shouldn't mean you should discount ATI either, they often produce very good cards for sometimes a fraction of the cost.Tell me fellas, Nvidea or ATI and why?? Also, size isn't all that matters, the newer the better, so I heard. The graphics card is probably the most important when taking high-end games into consideration, so I need a laptop with a really decent one!
Again, don't buy into the hype that you need a brand new video card. Any nvidia card that has a model number of only three numbers (GT250, 330 ect.) will be more than sufficient without knowing the ins and outs of every damn card on the market. It may not be the BEST, but it will do the goddamn job, and do it well, and probably save you 100-200 dollars in the process.
Also, some of the above mention Toshiba laptops. Good brand also, designed for business use.
Your mum's new boyfriend
It was a Pavillion I'm pretty sure
I guess maybe I abused mine too hard lol, though the only thing I can think of with that is the smaller it is, the less it has to work for, which means less heat?
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How hard can it be?
You've never seen me near electrical devices :P Generally rule is if it survives me, it's indestructible. My guess would be since I have a lower end/spec one, and as it lacks a graphics card, much less heat to deal with. I have it on 24/7, on my lap, on my bed, everywhere- never overheated. Probably the best laptop I've played with for the price. PC User gave it a 90-95% rating or something. I really can't speak more highly of it.
Interesting, perhaps you got a dud one? Only I have heard good things about HP before, it may be your series had a fault. Sucks when that happens though, I had a Western Digital HDD, always been fond of them. Mine had a head crash 1 week out of warranty. Wooooooo for me.
The New Ride - The Class 2 Shuttle Craft (VE)
I'll be he comes to get you, some shopping trolley kind of thing, that gets you where your going nice and slow... Well off you go that's fine, the pleasure's all mine.
When I light the nitro on my HQ 454 Monroe!
Your mum's new boyfriend
I guess I should point out that mine was pretty old, well not like Packard Bell old, but I got it when The Burning Crusade expansion came out for WoW, so whenever that was haha
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Amending my earlier post, when I recommended a net-top it was just for data input and such at school, and I would have foreseen the bulk of the actual work happening at home on the desktop, with such added benefits of cheaper, faster internet thrown in. (yes of course the net top would have been able to use the home internet too but if you are at home anyway why not use the desktop.. )
In my own laptop hating world, they serve a purpose, but its only a very minor part. Laptops have small screens, small keyboards, cost a bomb to fix, have limited expansion possibilities and I find them uncomfortable and awkward to use.
You specified you wanted a gaming computer too. Depending on what you consider that to be, that also limits your choices. If you just want the game to play acceptably, then many laptops have sufficiently good inbuilt graphics for the job.
If you get the bug and start looking for better frame rates and higher res etc.. or start competing with your friends for the best benchmarking score.. then a laptop isn't going to cut it for you.
Keep in mind that laptops are harder to fix and easier to break. If you must have one, buy the Lenovo, just on the basis that its more likely to keep on keeping on....
Sleeper Builder
What he said.
Available from MSY (http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/notebook.pdf) is a Lenovo laptop.
CPU: Intel Core i5 480
OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
RAM: 4GB DDR3
HDD: 500GB SATA
Graphic:Nvidia G310M
1GB Dedicated VGA
Screen: 15.6” (1366x768)
WXGA Led Glossy
* 1yr Warranty * DVD Burner * USB2.0
* WiFi * Bluetooth * 6 Cell Battery * Web Cam
It's $749 before cashback, with a $50 cash back incentive.
I highly recommend this laptop.
Your mum's new boyfriend
I dunno if this is true, but when setting up your windows, a lot of people have said that if you go 32 bit (Why you would I have no idea) your laptop doesn't utilize all of your RAM unless you go 64 bit? Something like 32 bit only uses 4gb where 64 bit can use upwards of 6 to 8GB or something? Just thought i'd throw that out there
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Sleeper Builder
32-bit operating systems are only able to address up to 4gb of ram, or 3.4gb of RAM due to limits in their address space. (As a general rule, some OS's can overcome this issue).
However, 64-bit Operating systems support much more:A 32-bit address register meant that 232 addresses, or 4 GB of RAM, could be referenced. At the time these architectures were devised, 4 GB of memory was so far beyond the typical quantities (4 MB) in installations that this was considered to be enough "headroom" for addressing. 4.29 billion addresses were considered an appropriate size to work with for another important reason: 4.29 billion integers are enough to assign unique references to most entities in applications like databases.
So, in laymans terms, a 64-bit operating system with a new AMD processor can support 4 194 304 gigabytes of RAM nowadays (Theoretically...).For example, the AMD64 architecture currently has a 52 bit limit on physical memory and supports a 48-bit virtual address space.[4] This is 4 PB (4 × 10245 bytes) and 256 TB (256 × 10244 bytes), respectively.
I run a 64-bit cluster at home, which is virtualised to a single machine, running 16GB of ram and 3 CPU's, hyperthreaded.
How hard can it be?
Windows has 2 platforms, 32 bit and 64 bit.
32 bit operating systems can utilize a maximum of 3.3 GB of RAM. So even if your computer has 4GB of RAM installed, Windows will only read 3.3GB.
64 bit operating systems can handle well over 128GB of RAM.
The New Ride - The Class 2 Shuttle Craft (VE)
I'll be he comes to get you, some shopping trolley kind of thing, that gets you where your going nice and slow... Well off you go that's fine, the pleasure's all mine.
When I light the nitro on my HQ 454 Monroe!
Your mum's new boyfriend
Thanks for clearing this up guys! I didn't know if I should cash in on more than 8GB of RAM when I build my gaming PC or not (It would run 64 bit)
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Go down to china town and see what they are using.
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