Best laptop for

By MightyJordan
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Grand Master

MightyJordan

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My brother wants to get a new laptop soon, so what with me being the technology "know-it-all" of the family, I've been called on to look for the best laptop for the money. Unfortunately, I don't really keep up with the latest laptops, hence why I'm posting this topic asking for your help. :p

Quick rundown...

  • He wants to spend a maximum of ?800, preferably less than ?700 if possible.
  • It's going to be primarily for his university work, but he wants to do gaming on it as well (doesn't know what kind of gaming though, as he always plays on the Xbox 360, so let's just say the best performance possible in that price point).
  • Annoyingly though, he won't be taking it anywhere outside, so battery life isn't an issue. I know now some of you will be asking "then why does he want a laptop?", well basically he doesn't have much room in his bedroom, and even though I've suggested a nettop or a similarly small desktop hooked up to his TV, he likes watching TV while doing work on the laptop at the same time (or playing the Xbox 360 while watching videos on the laptop).

That's pretty much it. Looking forward to your suggestions. :)

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BigDavy

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If you're looking for a budget gaming laptop, then I'd consider an AMD Llano-based one. Currently, HP's top-of-the-range model, the HP Pavilion G6-1331EA is available for just ?419! For more information, click on this: http://www.pcworld.c...884802-pdt.html

I have an older model (HP Pavilion G6-1220SA), and I'm extremely pleased with this.

A decent Intel-based gaming laptop will probably be over the ?800 budget.

Grand Master

MightyJordan

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If you're looking for a budget gaming laptop, then I'd consider an AMD Llano-based one. Currently, HP's top-of-the-range model, the HP Pavilion G6-1331EA is available for just ?419! For more information, click on this: http://www.pcworld.c...884802-pdt.html

I have an older model (HP Pavilion G6-1220SA), and I'm extremely pleased with this.

A decent Intel-based gaming laptop will probably be over the ?800 budget.

Thanks for that. :) The graphics does seem a bit weedy (and the processor at 1.6GHz, especially as it's an AMD one), but the rest of it seems alright. He's willing to spend up to the ?800 though, so feel free to suggest something costing a lot more than that one. ;)

I spent some time looking earlier today. At first, I was thinking of recommending the Dell XPS 17, then I came across this;"]http://www.comet.co....op/789399]this; the Acer Timeline Ultra M3[/url]. It's the first laptop I've come across so far in the price range that comes with an SSD, so that's a big plus. Plus they claim it can play Battlefield 3 on ultra settings. :) Unfortunately, reading The Verge's review on it, they say the screen is terrible (definitely doesn't help the fact that it's a lowly 1366x768 resolution), and that the speakers are, in their words, "the worst drivers ever heard on a device of any sort, including the tiny ones that go into cheap pack-in earbuds, corporate speakerphones, and the occasional singing birthday card". And it doesn't help the fact they're pointed downwards as well, so on a flat surface, it'll be muffled. :/

So has anyone got any better suggestions? There has to be another similarly-specced laptop out there. Quick summary of that...

  • SSD
  • NVIDIA Kepler graphics (actual Kepler chipsets, so that means either a GT 640M, a GT 650M, or a GTX 660M)
  • Intel i5 Sandy Bridge CPU

Enthusiast

BigDavy

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In general day-to-day tasks, I doubt your brother really needs something as fast as a Core i5 Sandy Bridge CPU, and since he's looking for a laptop for University studies that can play the occasional game, the suggestion I made I thought was more than fair.

I know the CPU is only runs at 1.6GHz, but the whole idea behind Llano is to provide an affordable gaming platform with decent battery life. The average laptop user won't be using their system for HD video encoding or CGI animation (that's what my two Sandy Bridge systems are for).

To be honest, it sounds like your looking for your own ideal laptop, not your brothers...

Grand Master

MightyJordan

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To be honest, it sounds like your looking for your own ideal laptop, not your brothers...

Oh no, my ideal laptop is a 17" MacBook Pro at an affordable price; in other words: nonexiststant. :p

I'm trying to look through for AMD laptops right now. Just taking some time to navigate through sites like Comet and PC World on my iPhone right now.

Grand Master

+Audioboxer Subscriber²

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I bought the Vaio SE 15.5" for around ?800 (can be had cheaper, I just pimped the customization options). Starts at ?654 - http://www.sony.co.u...uct/vn-s-series

Yeah a Vaio is overpriced (most likely), but it was the thinnest (it is very thin for a 15.5" laptop) and fastest laptop I could get with a 1080p screen which still played games decently (Radeon 1GB 6850).

The balance of portability and power is what sealed the deal for me, I can't stress enough how thin and light it is compared to every other (non Apple paper laptop or w/e that **** Apple sell is :p) 'normal' 15" laptop. Plus the materials are fairly premium (maybe not high end Apple), or lets just say your standard ?400-600 laptop from any other company feels like crappy plastic compared to it.

Grand Master

MightyJordan

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OK, my brother has now downsized his budget a bit. He plans to get Microsoft Office 2010 now too; the cheapes I've found it is ?75, so his laptop budget is now ?725, so sorry o0ohappyo0o, but that Novatech laptop now comes in over-budget (when Windows 7 is added in).

And BigDavy, I did tell him your recommendations, and he just shot them down with some annoyance. He says he wants to spend around the full ?800, and he wants the high performance for gaming, even if he uses it just for uni work and videos 99% of the time (insane, I know; I think the student loan's gone to his head, which I hope doesn't happen to me come September :p ).

Community Regular

Lunfai

Posted
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OK, my brother has now downsized his budget a bit. He plans to get Microsoft Office 2010 now too; the cheapes I've found it is ?75, so his laptop budget is now ?725, so sorry o0ohappyo0o, but that Novatech laptop now comes in over-budget (when Windows 7 is added in).

And BigDavy, I did tell him your recommendations, and he just shot them down with some annoyance. He says he wants to spend around the full ?800, and he wants the high performance for gaming, even if he uses it just for uni work and videos 99% of the time (insane, I know; I think the student loan's gone to his head, which I hope doesn't happen to me come September :p ).

Here: http://www.hotukdeals.com/tag/laptop

Keep your eyes pealed and you'll be able to find a decent laptop for the price point. :-)

Contributor

trihawk7

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The MSI X460DX is a perfect choice with a 14" display with amazing battery life. This laptop for me so far has been astonishing but the only downside to a lot of people but not me, is that the keyboad is American and not British style. But if he doesn't care it's a good contender to any laptop. The longest I have ever had with the battery is 7.25 hours with HTML websites only. It even has a 2.5 GHz i5 and a amazing graphics card. The graphics card is a NVidia GeForce GT630M with 2GB GDDR3. But I find the bloatware annoying so you may want restore.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5073788/Trail/searchtext%3EMSI.htm

Hope this helps!

Grand Master

MightyJordan

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Ahh, that MSI laptop just made me remember something else he said: he wants a numerical keypad too. I know, he's bloody annoying... :rolleyes: Sorry about that, everyone! So essentially, with that requirement, it's pretty much limited to 15" and above, isn't it?

Contributor

trihawk7

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Ahh, that MSI laptop just made me remember something else he said: he wants a numerical keypad too. I know, he's bloody annoying... :rolleyes: Sorry about that, everyone! So essentially, with that requirement, it's pretty much limited to 15" and above, isn't it?

Ahh, that MSI laptop just made me remember something else he said: he wants a numerical keypad too. I know, he's bloody annoying... :rolleyes: Sorry about that, everyone! So essentially, with that requirement, it's pretty much limited to 15" and above, isn't it?

Doesnt that just make the laptop more cluttered, your brother has mental issues jks :/

Grand Master

MightyJordan

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Doesnt that just make the laptop more cluttered, your brother has mental issues jks :/

Well, he prefers to have a bigger screen, so I don't think he'd care there. His current laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1720, which he's had for several years, so he's used to that screen size; he says he's willing to go down to 15", but no less.

OK how about this one with win7 and Office2010 Home/student http://www.novatech....irepro2450.html

even the upgrade to 8gb brings it under budget

That's a pretty good one there. :) I'll keep that on the shortlist. Just to say, Office won't be bought from them; I found it for ?75 on Play.com, and it's a three-user license, so I'll be nabbing one of those for myself and upgrading from Office 2007. :p

Grand Master

MightyJordan

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Any chance your brother can wait 'till around June/July?

If he waits he could get Trinity based laptop which are supposedly performing great in benchmarks.

Yeah, I bet he could; I think he's finished all his uni work for this year now, so he's off until September.

Grand Master

MightyJordan

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I'd go for that option then personally.

He might even be able to snap one up for around ?600.

I'm running an A8 laptop now and it's been fantastic.

Good to know. :) That should be enough time to convince him he doesn't need to blow an extra ?200 then. :p

  • 2 weeks later...
Enthusiast

BigDavy

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I'd go for that option then personally.

He might even be able to snap one up for around ?600.

I'm running an A8 laptop now and it's been fantastic.

I've started experimented with overclocking the A8 (via K10STAT http://sites.google.com/site/k10stat/).

I was a bit nearvous about overclocking a laptop CPU, but apparently Llano can run overclocked and undervolted! My 1.5GHz A8-3500M is now running at 2.35GHz @ 1.1125v with only around 5-6 degrees extra heat from the chip. Apparently, the dual-core Llano can overclock further - some reports state it can hit 2.8-3GHz!

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drazgoosh

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The Samsung RV511 is a great laptop for around ?600 depending on where you buy. Pretty much perfect for everything, apart from running Crysis 2 (believe me I tried).

You have to check out the specs:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-RV511-Laptop-2-66GHz-Premium/dp/B004NSUG0E/ref=sr_1_sc_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1338978934&sr=1-2-spell

Grand Master

Arceles

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I've started experimented with overclocking the A8 (via K10STAT http://sites.google.com/site/k10stat/).

I was a bit nearvous about overclocking a laptop CPU, but apparently Llano can run overclocked and undervolted! My 1.5GHz A8-3500M is now running at 2.35GHz @ 1.1125v with only around 5-6 degrees extra heat from the chip. Apparently, the dual-core Llano can overclock further - some reports state it can hit 2.8-3GHz!

Mine Does

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