Need Suggestions for New Laptop

[zandre88]

Hey everyone.

I'm starting back at school again and am in the market for a new laptop. I currently have a 2007 Dell 17" XPS M1710. It is a bit too large to be carrying around from class to class so I'm looking for something a little smaller and lighter.

Generally when it comes to my computers I like to do a bit of everything. I download quite a bit of music, movies, TV shows, etc. More recently I've gotten into online computer gaming so I'd like it to be at least an "okay" gaming computer. I'd like for it to have an HDMI port and preferably a web cam. Enjoy surfing the web. Blah blah.

My price cap is probably right around $800-900. If there is something that would be drastically better for a little bit more I'd be willing to put the extra money towards it. I've been looking on newegg.com and a few other places. Just with so many different brands and models I'm having a hard time making a decision and just would like some with a bit more experience than me to give me some input.

If you have any questions you need to ask me to maybe give me a better suggestion, as I gave a very vague description of what I do while on the computer please feel free to ask.

Thanks in advance.

 

[koinonas]

Just as a suggestion does your Dell still fulfill all you need in terms of gaming and video (I'm assuming as you mentioned the HDMI, you connect it to a large screen). If it does, then you could focus more on the larger netbooks or these new 11" SULV laptops. This would leave your old Dell to do all the heavy lifting and multimedia stuff and leave you with a lightweight laptop that's highly portable to do all your school work on.

If the Dell doesn't quite cut it for you anymore, then I'd probably suggest looking at some of the new i5-430M based laptops. These seem to be a good mix of power (for your gaming and multimedia), battery life (so you can be portable around school) and value (help protect your hip pocket).

Where I'm located there's a brand called Asus and an few Acer's and Dell's which probably fall into this price range.

 

[MindoverMaster]

I heard Lenovo Thinkpad is good at battery life. Although they may be a bit out of your range.

ASUS is spectacular through and through. I have many ASUS boards, a desktop GFX card, and a Eee 1005HA.

I'd suggest something like the following:

Newegg.com - ASUS A52JR-X1 NoteBook Intel Core i5 430M(2.26GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 - Laptops / Notebooks

 

[zandre88]

Just as a suggestion does your Dell still fulfill all you need in terms of gaming and video (I'm assuming as you mentioned the HDMI, you connect it to a large screen). If it does, then you could focus more on the larger netbooks or these new 11" SULV laptops. This would leave your old Dell to do all the heavy lifting and multimedia stuff and leave you with a lightweight laptop that's highly portable to do all your school work on.

If the Dell doesn't quite cut it for you anymore, then I'd probably suggest looking at some of the new i5-430M based laptops. These seem to be a good mix of power (for your gaming and multimedia), battery life (so you can be portable around school) and value (help protect your hip pocket).

Where I'm located there's a brand called Asus and an few Acer's and Dell's which probably fall into this price range.

Thanks. To answer your question my Dell is still doing an okay job but would like to get something new that can handle the heavy lifting as well. Unfortunately when I purchased the XPS it was just before HDMI ports became the norm so I do not have one on this laptop. Nor does it have a web cam not exactly a must for me but it would be nice to keep in touch with relatives that I no longer live close to.

I heard Lenovo Thinkpad is good at battery life. Although they may be a bit out of your range.

ASUS is spectacular through and through. I have many ASUS boards, a desktop GFX card, and a Eee 1005HA.

I'd suggest something like the following:

Newegg.com - ASUS A52JR-X1 NoteBook Intel Core i5 430M(2.26GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 - Laptops / Notebooks

Thanks for the suggestion. I kept seeing the ASUS laptops but knew nothing about the brand. Am glad to hear they are putting out a quality product. That looks a lot like what I'm looking for and seems to have a good amount of positive reviews. Most seem to think it can handle the gaming, particularly WoW, pretty well. Highly interested in that notebook as it falls right into my price-range.

Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[fattty]

I think the ASUS is the best choice for you. I was seeing $900 laptops with Intel GMA 4500's


And MoM, how does that infinity laptops 8400m gt preform for gaming? (sorry for off topic)

 

[MindoverMaster]

PMed you, fattty.

I agree, the ASUS is a good choice. That's coming from a ASUS freak

 

[zandre88]

Thanks again for the advice. Just wanted to see what you all thought about this Lenovo compared to the ASUS.

Newegg.com - lenovo IdeaPad Y550P(324156U) NoteBook Intel Core i7 720QM(1.60GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce GT 240M - Laptops / Notebooks

Also if I was willing to shell out another $100-200 could I get something that would be drastically better gaming wise? Basically I'm just getting into the world of computer gaming and I know I'll be trying new games here and there and want this laptop that I do purchase to be able to keep up with the times for a couple years at least. So if it'd be better to spend a little more I'd probably be willing to do so.

Also another stupid question from a noob. If in a couple months I buy one of these two or possibly another suggested and wanted to upgrade my graphics card is that difficult to do?

 

[koinonas]

This is an interesting decision to make. I think right up front, I'll have to say if there were two machines with identical specs and price, I'd pick the Asus rather than a Lenovo. However these are two different machine specs.

The Asus has an i5 Processor which is dual core (think of it like two brains). On the otherhand the Lenovo is an i7 which is a quad core (think of it like four brains). So the Lenovo is likely to outmuscle the Asus in raw CPU power. So this is a plus on the Lenovo's side.

I'm not quite familiar with the graphics cards in either but do note that they are both dedicated systems with 1GB memory. One of the other members might be able to provide some more info on which Graphics is better.

The other things you might want to think about is are. The Asus is a touch lighter (you noted that you will be using it for school), and I'd suggest that an i5 is likely to run longer on battery than an i7 machine. I also noticed that the Asus warranty has some sort of accidental damage (drops, spills etc) cover where as the Lenovo has a standard limited warranty. Again a plus for me if you were going to move the machine around a lot.

And finally in terms of graphics card upgrades for laptops....the short answer is it isn't really done and in most cases isn't actually possible. For laptops, the only things you can upgrade are usually hard drive and memory. Most of the other bits are built into the motherboard.

 

[MindoverMaster]

The Lenovo GFX card would outperform the ASUS. BUT with that i7 and GT 240M, you will loose battery life fast.

These are both dedicated cards, although, the only way you can repair them is buy directly from the manufacturer. They are made especially for that size and pinout of the case.

The warranty for ASUS is one year Accedential Damage. Also regular warranty to fix any component inside.