New Laptop advice?

• Yanm wrote on 2011-06-30 22:49
  Hey everyone. So....I'm looking to getting a new laptop. As far as a budget goes, I'm thinking under $1000 dollars. I'd probably use some financial aid money to get it. What I'm looking for is a computer that can handle Vindictus in...decent settings, not exactly maxed, such as Normal Map Speculation Enabled and on maybe directx 9, (I want my shiny graphics darn it D:). I decided to do a bit of research using that PC Scout thing on microsoft.com (Not sure if that's a bad thing or not) and it came up with these results. http://www.microsoft.com/windows/buy/recommendations.aspx?cbid=guided-tour&cat=4%2c2%2c3&price=3&processor=2&pproc=2&ram=3&pram=3&harddrive=3&pharddrive=3&graphics=3&pvideocard=3&os=1&pos=1&screensize=3&psize=2
  
  Now, just by looking at the Laptops they provided to me, the HP Envy 14 seems pretty good. However, I'm not sure if there's a better one out there nor am I a computer wiz like you people. As far as the video memory goes....I'm not sure why it's not showing. Some of them tell you the graphics card when you click on them. Also, I'd like to be able to play Amnesia on it as well.
  Any help would be appreciated :awesome:
• Shirayuki wrote on 2011-07-01 02:39
  This is a lot under your budget, since spending less money is always better.
  
  It has a nice i5 CPU, runs a GPU that is better than the one I use in my desktop(sadly :[), and comes with decent RAM.
  
  This one has a CPU that can perform almost twice as well as the one from the previous laptop.
  
  The GPU is better, the CPU is better, and the RAM is pretty much the same. It costs around $1050, so it is a bit over your budget, but it seems like it's worth it.
• Yanm wrote on 2011-07-01 19:20

  Quote from Shirayuki;496104:

  This is a lot under your budget, since spending less money is always better.
  
  It has a nice i5 CPU, runs a GPU that is better than the one I use in my desktop(sadly :[), and comes with decent RAM.
  
  This one has a CPU that can perform almost twice as well as the one from the previous laptop.
  
  The GPU is better, the CPU is better, and the RAM is pretty much the same. It costs around $1050, so it is a bit over your budget, but it seems like it's worth it.

  
  
  Jeez, you guys find Laptops like crazy. The battery power is bad somewhat, but I do keep my laptop plugged in majority of the time. The CPU is bugging me on the first one....if only because it meets minimum specs. I wouldn't lag in game on decent/high settings on Vindi would I? The second one....seems really nice. Don't know if I can get it though so I'm looking more at the first one. Any other suggestions or advice?
• Shirayuki wrote on 2011-07-02 12:58

  Quote from Yanm;496855:

  Jeez, you guys find Laptops like crazy. The battery power is bad somewhat, but I do keep my laptop plugged in majority of the time. The CPU is bugging me on the first one....if only because it meets minimum specs. I wouldn't lag in game on decent/high settings on Vindi would I? The second one....seems really nice. Don't know if I can get it though so I'm looking more at the first one. Any other suggestions or advice?

  
  
  Well, the first one is really good anyway, so it should do pretty well in Vindictus. You won't be able to run Crysis 2 or anything like that, but any Source game should max out with at least 40+ fps(max is 60 fps).
  
  The second one is better in a lot of ways though, so if I were you, I'd just save a bit more and buy it, since investing in a computer is worth it imo.
  
  All in all though, both should be able to do what you want them to do.
• Yoorah wrote on 2011-07-02 21:21
  Um.. no offence, but Acer is.. crap. D: They have a bad rep for building low-quality junk. I chose to disregard that rep when I bought my netbook, because that Acer thing got decent reviews and it was cheap. That has proved to be a mistake, as the webcam on that thing died 2 months after the warranty period ended. :|
  
  I dunno how Samsung is rated in terms of laptop build/engineering quality. Probably better than Acer, at least. HP has committed many sins in the form of poor engineering, leading to overheating and other issues with laptops belonging to some of my friends. (In one of the cases, the girl had a warranty with Best Buy, so they kept shipping her HP for repairs, they'd replace the motherboard, and the overheating issue still wouldn't get fixed. They did that 3 times, until they were forced to give her a refund in the form of a gift card as per the warranty's terms so she could buy a laptop that didn't suck.) Dell has a bad track record as well, but their new 15z model looks tempting...
  
  All in all, I would not trust a consumer laptop.. unless it's one of the higher end lines, like Dell's 15z. But even then, it's still a gamble. If you don't care if it starts having problems after a year or two of use, then I guess it's an option. I'd suggest paying a bit more (or getting less powerful hardware) and going with a business-grade model, specifically Lenovo's ThinkPads, like the T series. They always have sales and coupons for them, making the prices a bit more affordable... I managed to configure a decent T420 for $998, lawl.
  
  Still, if you want more processing power for your $, and quality/reliability, or portability don't matter to you, then the Samsung Shirayuki linked to is a better deal. Or you can check out Lenovo's non-ThinkPad, consumer-oriented lines. They are not built as tough, but may still be better than many other brands around.
  
  In any case... in terms of specs, the main thing you want to look for is the 2nd gen Core CPU, denoted by the model name Core i3/5/7-XXXX (4 numbers for 2nd gen, 3 for previous gen). The 2nd gen chips have integrated graphics which are good enough for basic gaming needs, unlike Intel's previous attempts at GPUs. :P My friend says her laptop handles Vindictus smoothly with the Intel HD3000 that's built in the Core i5, but I'm not sure what settings she's under... so someone else better confirm. A dedicated graphics chip is nice to have, though. You want 4GB of RAM, minimum.