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Kept wrote on 2012-07-30 10:18
I've been saving up for a piece of machinery to play games on, namely Mabi and Steam-supported games, and should be able to afford something I'll be happy with within a month. I've been doing a ton of looking on my own, but I thought I'd bring my thoughts to the community for something more than just my own.
I'm a soon-to-be college student, so most of what I've looked at are laptops. Friends of mine have told me to just get a netbook to get me by (
the netbook i'd get) and to save up a little more for a gaming desktop.
With a laptop, they come preconfigured with some upgradeability, but with a desktop (which I'm likely to build myself), it's much more customizeable and I get a bigger bang for my buck, I just don't get to carry it around.
-I'm willing to spend a little over $1000. With a netbook + desktop combo, a little more.
-I don't really want a huge screen, but I can live with one. The PC (Piece of Crap) I'm using now is a 10.1" netbook with an Atom processor, so about anything can beat it.
-Dedicated graphics isn't a must, but nice to have.
-Backlit keyboard has such appeal =/
-I eventually plan to switch out the HDD for a SSD.
Laptops that have caught my eye:
HP dv6-7000 (All-around great specs)
Sony VAIO F2 (Liked the design and unique screen size)
Acer Aspire (Just affordable)
Sony VAIO E-series (I love the bundled headphones. The bundled software also piques my interest)
Acer Aspire V3 (This one has two drive bays, and with what it's packing, great for the price)
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Sapphireoath wrote on 2012-07-30 13:28
HP from what I've heard, has really poor heat management. Acer is just...rubbish imho. Heard the VAIO's are pretty good, just slightly more expensive. If you want a laptop that still does gaming well, get an ASUS. Otherwise a VAIO would probably be just fine. These suggestions are just my opinion, I haven't really delved much into laptops, just going by some research I've been doing (looking to get a laptop eventually :P).
Edit: Hmm, only thing I dislike about the VAIO's...is the Intel graphics. I prefer something that can actually be replaced (if ever needed) instead of having to buy a new laptop =/
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Kept wrote on 2012-07-30 15:06
Replacing graphics cards is manageable in new computers, although Intel has integrated graphics. You'd have to do a little looking online to see if the laptop you're looking at is compatible with dedicated graphics. There's no need to replace the entire machine.
I initially looked into ASUS, but the reviews on the machines in my price range weren't as great as for the machines my eye caught. They also weren't up-to-spec most of the time. I was really disappointed =/
Also, about customer service, I'm skeptic about it coming from any brandname company, but I've had friends have to deal with HP very recently and come out with good results. Can't listen to everything the public says.
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rzetlin wrote on 2012-07-30 15:27
I don't know how handy you are with PCs, but you can always buy a brand PCs and then upgrade it with the parts that you want.
That's what I did with my HP PC.
I took out the weak 250 W power supply and replaced it with a 500 W power supply.
I replaced the crummy Intel graphic card with a Nvdia Geforce GTX 560 Card.
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Kept wrote on 2012-07-30 17:15
Quote from rzetlin;922188:
I don't know how handy you are with PCs, but you can always buy a brand PCs and then upgrade it with the parts that you want.
That's what I did with my HP PC.
I took out the weak 250 W power supply and replaced it with a 500 W power supply.
I replaced the crummy Intel graphic card with a Nvdia Geforce GTX 560 Card.
I've learned it's simple enough to do on a desktop. I like the idea of building one from square one, though. I plan on switching components out on the laptop I get given time.
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Yoorah wrote on 2012-07-30 17:34
You can't upgrade the graphics card on a laptop, just FYI. And I wouldn't look to play demanding games on a laptop. Gaming laptops tend to suck both as gaming machines and as laptops. Not to mention the price premium they carry.
I'd recommend a Lenovo ThinkPad X series or T series, depending on how much you value mobility. I think the X series is pretty cool, and supposedly you can configure them with an IPS panel. Judging by basic specs like CPU, RAM, GPU and HDD capacity, you'll find that ThinkPad X and T series are usually more expensive than most comparable consumer laptops. The ThinkPads are however are not consumer laptops and are built to a different standard when it comes to quality and durability--in my opinion, they are worth it.
Just be sure to pick the 3rd gen Intel Core model with the HD 4000 GPU, and not the older HD 3000 one.
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Kept wrote on 2012-07-30 18:11
Quote from Yoorah;922292:
You can't upgrade the graphics card on a laptop, just FYI. And I wouldn't look to play demanding games on a laptop. Gaming laptops tend to suck both as gaming machines and as laptops. Not to mention the price premium they carry.
I'd recommend a Lenovo ThinkPad X series or T series, depending on how much you value mobility. I think the X series is pretty cool, and supposedly you can configure them with an IPS panel. Judging by basic specs like CPU, RAM, GPU and HDD capacity, you'll find that ThinkPad X and T series are usually more expensive than most comparable consumer laptops. The ThinkPads are however are not consumer laptops and are built to a different standard when it comes to quality and durability--in my opinion, they are worth it.
Just be sure to pick the 3rd gen Intel Core model with the HD 4000 GPU, and not the older HD 3000 one.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/148909/upgrading_your_laptops_graphics_card.html
It's just a lot of work. Like I said before, it's easier to do on newer laptops. I'm not necessarily getting a gaming laptop, but since components today that cost a lot will only get cheaper later on, I plan to upgrade parts (i.e. exchanging the HDD for a SSD, installing dedicated graphics, RAM).
I haven't really looked into Lenovo Thinkpad since their aim tends to differ from the other brandnames. I see a lot of students with them, but I dunno if the feel they have is for me.
I've only ever read things about the laptops I've been looking at, but heavy gaming is very possible with the right equipment. Especially on a SSD to keep the thing from overheating and a powerful enough graphics card, Skyrim's easily played at ultra settings on a ~$1000 laptop.
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Cucurbita wrote on 2012-07-30 18:15
Don't get a gaming laptop. I've owned like 4 laptops now and the final conclusion is honestly:
Gaming Desktop + Browsing Netbook.
Especially for college. You're really not going to take your laptop to play video games around on campus anyways. And dedicated gaming laptops are beastly and huge. I got a pretty good deal on mine and it runs very well, but its actually too huge to fit in my backpack. It probably wont even fit on the tiny college desks.
Also, its a huge waste of money.
And upgrading your laptop, even though its possible, is highly discouraged.
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Yanm wrote on 2012-07-30 18:35
Quote from Yoorah;922292:
You can't upgrade the graphics card on a laptop, just FYI. And I wouldn't look to play demanding games on a laptop. Gaming laptops tend to suck both as gaming machines and as laptops. Not to mention the price premium they carry.
I'd recommend a Lenovo ThinkPad X series or T series, depending on how much you value mobility. I think the X series is pretty cool, and supposedly you can configure them with an IPS panel. Judging by basic specs like CPU, RAM, GPU and HDD capacity, you'll find that ThinkPad X and T series are usually more expensive than most comparable consumer laptops. The ThinkPads are however are not consumer laptops and are built to a different standard when it comes to quality and durability--in my opinion, they are worth it.
Just be sure to pick the 3rd gen Intel Core model with the HD 4000 GPU, and not the older HD 3000 one.
Quote from Cucurbita;922308:
Don't get a gaming laptop. I've owned like 4 laptops now and the final conclusion is honestly:
Gaming Desktop + Browsing Netbook.
Especially for college. You're really not going to take your laptop to play video games around on campus anyways. And dedicated gaming laptops are beastly and huge. I got a pretty good deal on mine and it runs very well, but its actually too huge to fit in my backpack. It probably wont even fit on the tiny college desks.
Also, its a huge waste of money.
And upgrading your laptop, even though its possible, is highly discouraged.
I can think of a good amount of people that'll completely disagree with you guys. For one, Kitae yours was an Asus G53 right? That's pretty much a 15 inch screen with a 17 inch body. There are plenty of people that've had their laptops last all throughout the 4 default years of college, and still play games just fine. There are people that take their laptops around college to game, that's the main attraction of those that come with matte screens. One last thing, Yoorah you're wrong about not being able to upgrade the GPU on laptops. Last years Sager NP8150 came with up to a GTX 580M graphics card. On notebookreview, some people were able to upgrade to the Radeon 7970M GPU. Expensive yes, but it's still possible.
Now then. Kept, since your budget is around 1k, how about. . .
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087¤t-category-id=AC523278A4F13F27A84F5F5622D1AC7A&action=init Actually, the one I was looking at has a 768p resolution on the cheaper one, so I don't recommend it actually >.>.
http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np6165-clevo-w150er-p-4344.html GT650M GPU is stronger than last years GTX 560M, but weaker than the 570M. More efficient and cooler running, also boasts 1080p screen, with integrated fingerprint reader.
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Aikuna wrote on 2012-07-30 18:42
Kept asked me to copy/paste what I was telling him on Skype into this thread, so here it is with time stamps/names removed (and extended a bit):
If you're 100% on buying a desktop, I'd focus on that being the thing you save forever for and then buy a good one. That said I probably wouldn't spend too much on it since they're so much more easy to upgrade
That said, I'm assuming you still want a laptop.
If that's the case, I'd get a laptop that's decent. Most likely buy a good one from Staples that's capable of things, but portable. Because buying a netbook I feel is a waste of money, and this way you have a laptop that DOES things you'd want it to do but you don't need to put in all the money to customize it like you would your desktop.
'Cause anything you wouldn't be able to do on a decent laptop is what you'd use the desktop for anyway.
Hell I don't even know if you need a laptop, really, unless you'd like it for times when you're traveling or whatever. My laptop is decent but not uber high-end, I can play Mabi and other games on it as long as I've got a cooling pad running. It's pretty small (14.5" or so), so it's portable too. For me, this serves all the purposes I need, whether at school or just playing around. As Cucurbita said, you're not gonna lug a huge gaming laptop around campus even if you could, and the desks you have will be smaller than what you had in high school so you want it to be on the small/light side, if you want it for that purpose.
I think you need to make up your mind on exactly what you want a laptop for --if you decide you still want one-- before moving forward. Or perhaps alternatively, maybe that you can make-do without a desktop if you have a decent laptop. The only thing I know of that you can upgrade comfortably on a laptop (in general) is its ram, so you should buy it with that expectation especially since you've never really done any sort of computer upgrades before.
The way I see it, either a) get a good desktop and forgo a laptop b) get a well-rounded laptop or c) buy a good desktop now and buy a small netbook later if you have a situation that calls for it.
(sorry if this post is confusing, as it was started talking directly to Kept and less so as a response to this thread)
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Yanm wrote on 2012-07-30 18:48
Quote from Aikuna;922315:
Kept asked me to copy/paste what I was telling him on Skype into this thread, so here it is with time stamps/names removed (and extended a bit):
If you're 100% on buying a desktop, I'd focus on that being the thing you save forever for and then buy a good one. That said I probably wouldn't spend too much on it since they're so much more easy to upgrade
That said, I'm assuming you still want a laptop.
If that's the case, I'd get a laptop that's decent. Most likely buy a good one from Staples that's capable of things, but portable. Because buying a netbook I feel is a waste of money, and this way you have a laptop that DOES things you'd want it to do but you don't need to put in all the money to customize it like you would your desktop.
'Cause anything you wouldn't be able to do on a decent laptop is what you'd use the desktop for anyway.
Hell I don't even know if you need a laptop, really, unless you'd like it for times when you're traveling or whatever. My laptop is decent but not uber high-end, I can play Mabi and other games on it as long as I've got a cooling pad running. It's pretty small (14.5" or so), so it's portable too. For me, this serves all the purposes I need, whether at school or just playing around. As Cucurbita said, you're not gonna lug a huge gaming laptop around campus even if you could, and the desks you have will be smaller than what you had in high school so you want it to be on the small/light side, if you want it for that purpose.
I think you need to make up your mind on exactly what you want a laptop for --if you decide you still want one-- before moving forward. Or perhaps alternatively, maybe that you can make-do without a desktop if you have a decent laptop. The only thing I know of that you can upgrade comfortably on a laptop (in general) is its ram, so you should buy it with that expectation especially since you've never really done any sort of computer upgrades before.
The way I see it, either a) get a good desktop and forgo a laptop b) get a well-rounded laptop or c) buy a good desktop now and buy a small netbook later if you have a situation that calls for it.
(sorry if this post is confusing, as it was started talking directly to Kept and less so as a response to this thread)
Don't worry, it's not confusing. I do agree with what you say about the well-rounded laptop. But. . .well, I may be wrong in saying this, but I don't think some posters in this thread have realized something. . .
his budget is 1k. For the most part, a
real gaming laptop won't go for 1k, unless it's during some kind of sale. Most of the ones he can choose are multimedia ones, that aren't as big and bulky as say, the MSI GT60, Asus G series, Alienware, and Sager/Clevo laptops. By the way, what steam games are you going to play? Does highest settings matter? Or just FPS?
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Kept wrote on 2012-07-30 18:50
Quote from Yanm;922313:
I can think of a good amount of people that'll completely disagree with you guys. For one, Kitae yours was an Asus G53 right? That's pretty much a 15 inch screen with a 17 inch body. There are plenty of people that've had their laptops last all throughout the 4 default years of college, and still play games just fine. There are people that take their laptops around college to game, that's the main attraction of those that come with matte screens. One last thing, Yoorah you're wrong about not being able to upgrade the GPU on laptops. Last years Sager NP8150 came with up to a GTX 580M graphics card. On notebookreview, some people were able to upgrade to the Radeon 7970M GPU. Expensive yes, but it's still possible.
Now then. Kept, since your budget is around 1k, how about. . .http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087¤t-category-id=AC523278A4F13F27A84F5F5622D1AC7A&action=init Actually, the one I was looking at has a 768p resolution on the cheaper one, so I don't recommend it actually >.>.
http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np6165-clevo-w150er-p-4344.html GT650M GPU is stronger than last years GTX 560M, but weaker than the 570M. More efficient and cooler running, also boasts 1080p screen, with integrated fingerprint reader.
I was wondering where I'd find those awesome back-to-school deals. Now I've got more study material >:D
Quote from Aikuna;922315:
Kept asked me to copy/paste what I was telling him on Skype into this thread, so here it is with time stamps/names removed (and extended a bit):
If you're 100% on buying a desktop, I'd focus on that being the thing you save forever for and then buy a good one. That said I probably wouldn't spend too much on it since they're so much more easy to upgrade
That said, I'm assuming you still want a laptop.
If that's the case, I'd get a laptop that's decent. Most likely buy a good one from Staples that's capable of things, but portable. Because buying a netbook I feel is a waste of money, and this way you have a laptop that DOES things you'd want it to do but you don't need to put in all the money to customize it like you would your desktop.
'Cause anything you wouldn't be able to do on a decent laptop is what you'd use the desktop for anyway.
Hell I don't even know if you need a laptop, really, unless you'd like it for times when you're traveling or whatever. My laptop is decent but not uber high-end, I can play Mabi and other games on it as long as I've got a cooling pad running. It's pretty small (14.5" or so), so it's portable too. For me, this serves all the purposes I need, whether at school or just playing around. As Cucurbita said, you're not gonna lug a huge gaming laptop around campus even if you could, and the desks you have will be smaller than what you had in high school so you want it to be on the small/light side, if you want it for that purpose.
I think you need to make up your mind on exactly what you want a laptop for --if you decide you still want one-- before moving forward. Or perhaps alternatively, maybe that you can make-do without a desktop if you have a decent laptop. The only thing I know of that you can upgrade comfortably on a laptop (in general) is its ram, so you should buy it with that expectation especially since you've never really done any sort of computer upgrades before.
The way I see it, either a) get a good desktop and forgo a laptop b) get a well-rounded laptop or c) buy a good desktop now and buy a small netbook later if you have a situation that calls for it.
(sorry if this post is confusing, as it was started talking directly to Kept and less so as a response to this thread)
Well, here's the thing: I want a laptop primarily because under my circumstances, being able to take it around and play games is better for me. I'm hardly ever at home, and I'd like to save up more than just $1000 for an actual desktop. The laptop is more for sooner gratification than later. I've been without Mabi for over a year and I just wanna come back to you guys x.x I also want to go back into gaming. I don't really need to play games on ultra-high settings, though it'd be nice.
That said, I'm sure one of the machines in the links on this thread might be the one for me. A desktop's looking further off down the road at this rate. And like Aikuna said, I really have no use for a netbook =/
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Cucurbita wrote on 2012-07-30 19:12
What I've got is actually a Asus G74SX.
The screen is actually 17.3"
There is actually honestly nothing this thing can't play on the highest settings. Its no good for doing some work with it though, like recording or streaming, since the HDD write speed is awful and the processor isn't actually as solid as it pretends it is. But definitely ran Battlefield 3 on highest settings and managed a consistent 90 fps.
Here is the thing though. After going through several laptops it is just a strong personal opinion that you shouldn't give in to your "I need to get something now that I can play games on wherever I go" desire. Its what led me to buying the several laptops I've had. You'll just be far more satisfied with a gaming desktop.
As far as laptops go, if you want to play mabinogi, I can even recommend ones that go as cheap as 400 dollars that will run the game no problem at all. My suggestion overall now is option C, which is to buy a good desktop now and buy a weaker laptop later.
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Yanm wrote on 2012-07-30 19:31
Quote from Cucurbita;922335:
What I've got is actually a Asus G74SX.
The screen is actually 17.3"
There is actually honestly nothing this thing can't play on the highest settings. Its no good for doing some work with it though, like recording or streaming, since the HDD write speed is awful and the processor isn't actually as solid as it pretends it is. But definitely ran Battlefield 3 on highest settings and managed a consistent 90 fps.
Here is the thing though. After going through several laptops it is just a strong personal opinion that you shouldn't give in to your "I need to get something now that I can play games on wherever I go" desire. Its what led me to buying the several laptops I've had. You'll just be far more satisfied with a gaming desktop.
As far as laptops go, if you want to play mabinogi, I can even recommend ones that go as cheap as 400 dollars that will run the game no problem at all. My suggestion overall now is option C, which is to buy a good desktop now and buy a weaker laptop later.
Whoops, that's my mistake, but regardless that's still bigger than normal 17 inches. Though, that's due in part to the cooling system, which has the fan noise much quieter than the other gaming manufacturers. Also, Bf3 is an intense and draining game yes, but I can think of two that are much more demanding: Metro 2033 and The Witcher 2. If I recall correctly that the Asus G74SX comes with a GTX 560M, then yeah, you definitely can't max out those two titles, with over 30 FPS. Hell, The Witcher 2 is still a problem for the current high end GPU's, specifically because of Ubersampling. Kitae, I'm pretty sure you know what Anti-Aliasing does to your FPS, right? Now, just imagine that on
steroids. That's what Ubersampling is, and it kills the FPS for almost every GPU, even some desktop GPU's x_x. . .
I can't say I blame you Kitae, but when it comes to college and dorms, I just feel that a high performance laptop will do much better than a desktop. Doesn't have to be the absolute best like an MSI GT60/Alienware, or Sager NP9150, but something to play games at reasonable FPS at a decent $1k-$1.2k price range. Of course, this all depends on what titles you play.
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Cucurbita wrote on 2012-07-30 20:13
:/
Except I ran Witcher 2 on high settings with 75 fps. On this laptop.
And I dunno why you think a laptop will be better than a desktop. Its so much cheaper to buy a desktop and the parts just pop in and out like legos. Laptop is such a liability.
I still haven't overclocked this thing yet, and it comes with a one click button software for it too :O
Edit: Is OP going to try to run Witcher 2 on the highest settings or something? He just wants to play mabinogi and 'some steam games' right?