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[K.Jack]

Ugh... good stuff I asked.

Well, the one pro to the used 5870M machine is that it (ASUS G73?) most likely has a 1080p screen. I'd take it for $500.

the Acer M5: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00829KE1Q/

the Acer M3:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007PPCEO8/

both have a GTX 640 which would be good for light gaming the m3 has a sandybridge and the m5 an ivybridge

the m5 also seems to have a metal case, but its about £50 outside my maximum budget

i realise the zenbook doesnt have the dedicated graphics but its so thin and sleek...

also seen the Acer Aspire V3-571G-9435 for if I want a cheap power house but it has cheap build quality and screen. I'm completely torn between power and build quality

Yeah, that's the thing, Acer dominates this price range as far as performance goes. It's really hard to argue against this particular Acer V3, with it's combo of i7 quad and GT 640M, for £676.97.

Any recommendations for a 1600 x 900 or higher resolution <= 15" laptop? I've got my eye on the Lenovo T430 and Y580, which are both very attractive on sale (regrettably, I wasn't interested in a laptop when the Y580 was $800...), but if there are other models I should look out for I'd like to know about them. Gaming isn't strictly a priority.

Sager NP6350, Sony VAIO S 15

 

[hodgy100]

Yeah, that's the thing, Acer dominates this price range as far as performance goes. It's really hard to argue against this particular Acer V3, with it's combo of i7 quad and GT 640M, for £676.97.

i can get a version of that laptop from my local comet in their closing down sale for about £620 and that comes with a 1TB HDD and 8gb of RAM. it sounds like an unbelievable deal to me, and being a games programming student it makes sense for me to get something like that. although i do have a gaming pc which i currently use for work its no good if i need to do work at home

 

[mannerbot]

Sager NP6350, Sony VAIO S 15

I'll add those to my watch list on slickdeals, thank you. Do you have any recommendations in a lower price range?

 

[tafer]

Well, the one pro to the used 5870M machine is that it (ASUS G73?) most likely has a 1080p screen. I'd take it for $500.

Exactly! Man, I'm impressed.

I'll see If I can get the owner to lower it.

Thanks!

 

[K.Jack]

i can get a version of that laptop from my local comet in their closing down sale for about £620 and that comes with a 1TB HDD and 8gb of RAM. it sounds like an unbelievable deal to me, and being a games programming student it makes sense for me to get something like that. although i do have a gaming pc which i currently use for work its no good if i need to do work at home

That is a really good deal.

The thing about the low level screens is that every single 1366x768 screen on the market is average to mediocre, and the only way to avoid them is to spend enough to get a 1080p SKU. So reviewers will phrase it in different ways, but there literally isn't a "good" 768p LCD out there. Check out the entry-level notebook reviews on Anandtech and NotebookReview, and you'll see that confirmed.

I'll add those to my watch list on slickdeals, thank you. Do you have any recommendations in a lower price range?

Nope, not if you want the higher screen resolution. The line for greater than 768p LCDs is right at ~$900. It's like the industry got together and made an agreement.

Exactly! Man, I'm impressed.

I'll see If I can get the owner to lower it.

Thanks!

I understand the person wanting to get some value back, but my main trepidation is coming from the fact that it's out of warranty. I don't know how well you know the seller, but the G73h had issues from day one of production, and I'd hate to see you get burned with no safety net.

 

[tafer]

I understand the person wanting to get some value back, but my main trepidation is coming from the fact that it's out of warranty. I don't know how well you know the seller, but the G73h had issues from day one of production, and I'd hate to see you get burned with no safety net.

Thanks a lot for the concern, I really appreciate it. The seller is someone I can trust, but knowing that the machine had some issues I think I'll avoid it. (It's the best for the 2 parties)

 

[Max]

I'm looking for a laptop for when I travel abroad in April

I play a lot of Dota 2 and not much else and will need it for video editing

Is the Acer V3 the shit? I found it in K.Jack's post

 

[thirty]

Any gaming laptops have a touch screen?

 

[K.Jack]

I'm looking for a laptop for when I travel abroad in April

I play a lot of Dota 2 and not much else and will need it for video editing

Is the Acer V3 the shit? I found it in K.Jack's post

For a GT 650M in that price range, yeah that's the only option, unless you don't mind losing screen on the 15.6" y580. There's a bunch of GT 640M equipped laptops, if you want something more portable.

Any gaming laptops have a touch screen?

No.

 

[mannerbot]

Nope, not if you want the higher screen resolution. The line for greater than 768p LCDs is right at ~$900. It's like the industry got together and made an agreement.

Really sad that this is the case when the Nexus 10 is 2560 x 1600, boo @ industry. Thank you for the info though!

 

[Max]

For a GT 650M in that price range, yeah that's the only option, unless you don't mind losing screen on the 15.6" y580. There's a bunch of GT 640M equipped laptops, if you want something more portable.

Is the 650M top of the line right now? Because that laptop is in my price range. And I want something for the eventual GTA5 PC release

I don't mind the less portable size, probably won't be moving it from my room

 

[Minsc]

Is the 650M top of the line right now? Because that laptop is in my price range. And I want something for the eventual GTA5 PC release

I don't mind the less portable size, probably won't be moving it from my room

It's high-end, but not top of the line. See the list here, lower generally means slower. Definitely not going to stand up against a 680M (or 680M SLI) when maxing games out.

See here and here for more direct comparisons of those two (just check off 1, 11, and 60 then scroll to the bottom and hit restrict to see the differences easier). You're generally looking at a 50-100% improvement in framerate in the higher settings between the 680 and 650, which in a lot of games is under 30fps vs well over 30fps.

 

[hodgy100]

how about this? http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/optimusIV-15/

i can get a 1080p screen 1tb hdd 8GB RAM GTX660m core i5 3320m for £702 i just knock off the operating system as i can get that for free through uni

i know the cpu isnt as good as the acer, but i get a better screen and batter graphics card.

 

[K.Jack]

Is the 650M top of the line right now? Because that laptop is in my price range. And I want something for the eventual GTA5 PC release

I don't mind the less portable size, probably won't be moving it from my room

Uh... well it's made from the latest tech, but king of the current Nvidia hill goes:

GTX 680M > 675MX > 670MX > 660M > GT 650M

The 650M is good for high settings at 720p in most games. DOTA 2 it'll max out easily. GTA5 is harder to call, because part 4 was such a shit port. You'd definitely want to have a quad core.

how about this? http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/optimusIV-15/

i can get a 1080p screen 1tb hdd 8GB RAM GTX660m core i5 3320m for £702 i just knock off the operating system as i can get that for free through uni

i know the cpu isnt as good as the acer, but i get a better screen and batter graphics card.

I'd take the Core i5 and GTX 660 GDDR5 over the Core i7 and GT 650M DDR3, plus the 1080p LCD is just better for overall productivity, outside of gaming.

But if you're getting the 3320M, you might as well bump that up to the 3630QM. It's like 20 more.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

The 650M is actually pretty much the middle of Nvidia's mainstream laptop GPU line. It's meant mainly for laptops in the 15" class, which is the most common size of laptop sold today.

 

[nicoga3000]

OK - silly question (maybe?), but what would I be looking at for a laptop that could reliably play Guild Wars 2 on medium+ settings with a solid 40 FPS?

 

[Z_Y]

Dear gaming laptop-GAF, please help me....


I'm buying a laptop for my daughter and the only requirement is that it runs Minecraft. I'd love to get one that runs it even better than the XBLA version but let's just use that as the baseline for now. I'm trying to keep my budget to around $500 but would consider going to $650 if there was a huge jump in performance...

How do these laptops compare in your expert opinions....


Acer Aspire V3-551G-8454 Notebook AMD A-Series A8-4500M(1.90GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi AMD Radeon HD 7670M
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215663

Acer Aspire V3-771G-6851 Notebook Intel Core i5 3210M(2.50GHz) 17.3" 6GB Memory 750GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215661

lenovo IdeaPad U410 (59351632) Ultrabook Intel Core i5 3317U(1.70GHz) 14" 6GB Memory 750GB HDD + 24GB SSD HDD NVIDIA GeForce GT 610M
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834310652

Again...the only requirment is that it runs Minecraft as I doubt she will play anything else. So I'm open for suggestions if you think there is cheaper out there.

Thanks for all your guidance!

 

[K.Jack]

I finally got some NeoGAF Pro Dark compatible banners, so I guess I'll get to a new thread soon.

OK - silly question (maybe?), but what would I be looking at for a laptop that could reliably play Guild Wars 2 on medium+ settings with a solid 40 FPS?

Core i5 and GT 650M.

Dear gaming laptop-GAF, please help me....

Do you want me to tell you the $499 laptop will run Minecraft? The $499 laptop will run Minecraft.

Of course the $679.99 machine will run it better, but how much does better matter when we're only talking Minecraft?

 

[FoneBone]

My old laptop just died, and I'm looking to spend $500-700 on something that can run newer games playably (if not necessarily at top settings).

Wondering - any good Black Friday deals in this vein? Looking at some stuff on Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215401
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834310630
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834310625
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215662

 

[Row]

anyone here own an asus n56 (not sure of the exact model, but i7 and 650M)? I'm considering buying one if a canadian site puts it on sale soon. It would replace my current pos laptop and act as my desktop as well. The specs seem nice but the price is a bit high, and I'm wondering how it is in regards to gaming. I'd like to play current titles and futures ones like farcry 3 and simcity with relative ease

 

[DTKT]

Anyone know any good sites for laptop deals during BF?

As an aside, how much faith can I have in the Lenovo support staff? I just asked them about the 650M 2GB in the Y400 and the Y480 and they told me it was DDR5. Thing is, I asked the same question 2 weeks before and they said DDR3. :\

 

[Edwardo]

The Lenovo Y580 went down in price again for the next day or two at least. The base price is $799 now.

 

[K.Jack]

Alright peeps, I'll have the shiny new thread up by the end of the holiday weekend.

Anyone know any good sites for laptop deals during BF?

As an aside, how much faith can I have in the Lenovo support staff? I just asked them about the 650M 2GB in the Y400 and the Y480 and they told me it was DDR5. Thing is, I asked the same question 2 weeks before and they said DDR3. :\

I know 100% that they come with the GDDR5 cards.

Confirmation.

 

[Row]

Getting a Y480 or Y580 is tempting, but their shipping times are ridiculous

 

[Blablurn]

I can also recommend thre asus n76vz.im having a hell of a time with that. I7, GT650M, 8GB ram. Plays alot of stuff.

 

[DTKT]

Getting a Y480 or Y580 is tempting, but their shipping times are ridiculous

Yeah, that's mostly why I'm waiting. 4 weeks seems kind of insane.

 

[the doombass]

Friend is interested in this gaming laptop.

What're your thoughts on it for that price?

 

[thirty]

Has anyone lowered the price on something more powerful than the y580?

Friend is interested in this gaming laptop.

What're your thoughts on it for that price?

Get a low end y580 instead. Could even hook to tv for better resolution.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

I've been playing some Vindictus on my laptop. 1080p native res, all settings maxed, 4xAA. Easily stays above 30 fps, most of the time closer to 60 fps. This laptop has been a good buy for me, it's nice to be able to take some gaming home with me for Thanksgiving.

 

[K.Jack]

Friend is interested in this gaming laptop.

What're your thoughts on it for that price?

Terrific waste of money. The price is being boosted by the i7-3520M, which is a dual core Intel slaps the i7 branding on, then raises the price of it per unit higher than an i7-3610QM.

The GT 640M is 2x the speed of the GT630M, and can be had for less than $700. But all of that is moot, when the basic Lenovo Y580 is down to $799, with an estimated ship date of 11/25/12.

Tell him to buy that, asap.

Has anyone lowered the price on something more powerful than the y580?

No, and that's because the GPU prices raise viciously above the GTX 660M, so it's hard to sell the notebooks for less.

 

[BamYouHaveAids]

How do I ensure a Y580 uses the 660M instead of the Intel graphics option? It seems no matter what I do most games default to the Intel chip and in some cases I can't get them to even use the 660M. Really annoying.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

How do I ensure a Y580 uses the 660M instead of the Intel graphics option? It seems no matter what I do most games default to the Intel chip and in some cases I can't get them to even use the 660M. Really annoying.

You can control the behavior of Nvidia Optimus in the Nvidia Control Panel.

 

[thirty]

Lenovo has dropped the price again. Hmmm reorder or try to walk into frys right now and have them price match?

Edit aaaaaand frys came thru with the match! Y580 get!

 

[Easystride]

Hmmm, which model of the Y580 should I get, the $799 or $899 one?

 

[Blablurn]

you cant complain about your laptop if max payne 3 looks like this

 

[K.Jack]

^not bad!

Hmmm, which model of the Y580 should I get, the $799 or $899 one?

$899 sir. 1080p is priceless.

 

[Knux-Future]

Yeah the y580 is so awesome. Thanks for the recommendation

Now if I can only find games to play...or rather money to buy games with.

When is the next steam sale...I'll probably get started down the rabbit hole then.

 

[DTKT]

Went for the Y480. I had to tone down my inner "I REALLY WANT THAT 1080P" screen. Portability versus power.

 

[Swig_]

Looking for something with decent battery life for gaming and non-gaming.. Was thinking that I may have to get an ultrabook like the Prime, but found this.. I'm pretty sure if I go with an ultrabook for battery life, I'll have to give up on performance a little more than I'd like.

http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Gaming_Powerhouse/G46VW/

Anyone have any opinions on this thing? I have an ASUS G50VT-X1 now, but it's about on life support. The screen keeps getting these pink artifacts in the whites and it's getting worse and worse. I know the resolution on the initial G46 is bad, but maybe I'd wait for a 1080 version. I'm mostly looking for something that might give me an hour or two of gaming an several more hours of web browsing on a charge.

 

[K.Jack]

Looking for something with decent battery life for gaming and non-gaming.. Was thinking that I may have to get an ultrabook like the Prime, but found this.. I'm pretty sure if I go with an ultrabook for battery life, I'll have to give up on performance a little more than I'd like.

http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Gaming_Powerhouse/G46VW/

Anyone have any opinions on this thing? I have an ASUS G50VT-X1 now, but it's about on life support. The screen keeps getting these pink artifacts in the whites and it's getting worse and worse. I know the resolution on the initial G46 is bad, but maybe I'd wait for a 1080 version. I'm mostly looking for something that might give me an hour or two of gaming an several more hours of web browsing on a charge.

No mid-to-high level gaming GPU will last 1+ hours on battery, so I'm going to have to crush that dream right now.

The G46 looks nice though.

 

[Swig_]

No mid-to-high level gaming GPU will last 1+ hours on battery, so I'm going to have to crush that dream right now.

The G46 looks nice though.

Yeah, I'm not expecting much as far as gaming on battery. Maybe I should just scrap the idea and just get something with decent battery life for web browsing, etc that can handle games when it's plugged in. I was just hoping there might be something that could last 1-2 hours for gaming.. sounds like that's not gonna happen.

 

[K.Jack]

The issue is that they can't yet design batteries which can power the full load of a 45W CPU and a 50W+ GPU on top. Battery technology just isn't there yet.

 

[thirty]

Hmmm, which model of the Y580 should I get, the $799 or $899 one?

899. More mem, higher res screen and blu ray. I'm despising windows 8 tho. Metro UI has no business on a non touch device. It's a bit ridiculous. It's so bad I tried to install my win 7 upgrade over it and no go. Any y580 owners out there with any tips to get this thing running nice outside of gaming? Hell overall tips and tricks?

 

[Edwardo]

They originally said my y580 would be here next week, but it just got pushed back to 12/9.

 

[JLG-]

Looking for a decent laptop for $700-$800. I see the Y580 is been recommended but i don't want to wait a long time for it to get delivered. What other Laptops would you guys recommend in that 700-800$ price range. I'd like to be able to play current titles.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

899. More mem, higher res screen and blu ray. I'm despising windows 8 tho. Metro UI has no business on a non touch device. It's a bit ridiculous. It's so bad I tried to install my win 7 upgrade over it and no go. Any y580 owners out there with any tips to get this thing running nice outside of gaming? Hell overall tips and tricks?

You should be able to perform a clean install of Win7 by wiping the drive first and then installing it. There's a bit of a trick to making it accept an upgrade serial for a clean install though.

http://winsupersite.com/article/windows-7/clean-install-windows-7-with-upgrade-media-128512

Win8 sucks, so you might as well bite the bullet and perform the downgrade process now while the laptop is still new. You'll still have the Win8 disc and serial for future use, in case MS ever fixes it.

 

[Blablurn]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008HDOEG8/?tag=neogaf0e-20

 

[efyu_lemonardo]

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008HDOEG8/?tag=neogaf0e-20

damn! that's a nice deal.

edit: apparently I am way out of date, as there seem to be better options from msi, Lenovo, etc.

 

[Kamek]

any y580 owners know how to clean install with windows 8 while keeping the rapid boot setup working?

 

[K.Jack]

Looking for a decent laptop for $700-$800. I see the Y580 is been recommended but i don't want to wait a long time for it to get delivered. What other Laptops would you guys recommend in that 700-800$ price range. I'd like to be able to play current titles.

This

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B008HDOEG8/?tag=neogaf0e-20

$899 for a GT 630M? That is garbage.