Buying a Laptop

[StoneByName]

Hello,

I'm buying a new laptop for gaming, surfing, work etc.

I'm looking for some advice.

I've narrowed down my options and I'm going to get one of the following laptops. I can't decide which to buy. Depends on how much a solid state hd is worth it really.

I'm looking at this website: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk

These are the configurations I've made. £850 is my ceiling.

Laptop A. Enigma IV
Faster + more reliable solid state hard drive, less ram, slightly worse gpu

CPU: i7 Quad Core 3630QM 2.40 ghz
Memory: 8GB Samsung 1600mhz DDR3 Memory (2x4gb)
GPU: Nvidia GT650M 2GB DDR3
HD1: 240GB Kingston HyperX 3k SSD, SATA 6GB/S (upto 550MB/sR, 510MB/sW)
HD2: 250GB WD Scorpio Black, SATA 3GB/S, 7200RPM

Laptop B. Optimus IV
One 7200RPM HD with +260GB space, more ram, better gpu, 17" screen instead of 15"

CPU: i7 Quad Core 3630QM 2.40 ghz
Memory: 12GB Samsung 1600mhz DDR3 Memory (3x4gb)
GPU: Nvidia GTX 660M 2GB DDR5
HD: 750GB WD Scorpio Black, SATA 3GB/S, 7200RPM

If you have any better configurations then tell me.

 

[Al Botross]

alienware laptops

 

[StoneByName]

alienware laptops

The cheapest one I can find is above my budget and with worse parts, although it might be better ventilated.

 

[dbuzz]

what games are you looking to play?

edit: build a gaming desktop and get a decent laptop with the leftovers. you would get sooo much more with a desktop. gaming laptops are highly overpriced and un-upgradable. but if you're set on one, grab one with an i5. there are few games that support hyperthreading in the i7. so unless you plan on doing some heavy encoding and transcoding (video rendering), go with an i5. you'll get the same performance in gaming.

 

[Hydro-Soil]

what games are you looking to play?

edit: build a gaming desktop and get a decent laptop with the leftovers. you would get sooo much more with a desktop.

25 years in computer repair... this is great advice.

Unless you REALLY need to play games on the go (without spending a fortune you're going to always have lower performance than a desktop. Period.)... build a desktop gaming machine or have a local pc-shop build you one.

Again... unless you spend a fortune on a laptop, chances are good it'll be dead in about 18months. Get a cheapie for surfing and work and backup your data.

SSDD?? Nah! Skip it as you can get a lot more hddrive space with standard drives and believe me... they perform much better than they need to in most applications.

Want better performance from your computers? Put your operating system on an 80'gig drive, install your applications on a 150gig drive and store all your data, movies, pictures and personal crud on the big 500gig-1terabyte sized drives.

You'll be amazed at how much quicker your applications load up and crank through stuff.


Stay Safe!

 

[Sat X RB]

once you've used an Apple laptop everything else seems like crap!

 

[watts]

not for gaming

 

[lost in a sea]

apples are rubbish, made of rubbish, designed to die on you and you cant open them up now, always were rubbish for upgrading or fixing by design, and made in the worlds biggest factory in china where working conditions shouldnt really be encouraged by these multinational corps,, just sold off their looks really, all the cult members that bit the apple and bought into design over quality so hey just keep buying apple crap..

that's how i feel about apple anyway.. alienware were good before dell bought them.. i think dell use that same crappy factory in china that apple use..

 

[dddaver]

apples are rubbish, made of rubbish, designed to die on you and you cant open them up now, always were rubbish for upgrading or fixing by design, and made in the worlds biggest factory in china where working conditions shouldnt really be encouraged by these multinational corps,, just sold off their looks really, all the cult members that bit the apple and bought into design over quality so hey just keep buying apple crap..

that's how i feel about apple anyway.. alienware were good before dell bought them.. i think dell use that same crappy factory in china that apple use..

The fact that apple had to install suicide nets around that apple factory in China told me all I needed to know about those apple sleeze-bags. It would make me feel shitty every time I even looked at my mac, if I had one, just knowing I was supporting a corporation that was so sleazy that someone felt their only escape was in trying to kill themselves. They got my ass, I bought a POS iPad a few years ago. Fucking TOY!, designed with cool bells and whistles to divert attention from what is really there. There is a reason those pieces of shit have an internal battery the user can't access. It's for THEM. NEVER AGAIN.

BTW, the apple coporation is the second biggest company in the US only exceeded by that wonderful corporation Exon/Mobile. Does THAT mean anything to anyone?

 

[Bobby Stainless]

I've got a ibuypower desktop that I really like.

 

[FRIENDinDEED]

25 years in computer repair... this is great advice.

Unless you REALLY need to play games on the go (without spending a fortune you're going to always have lower performance than a desktop. Period.)... build a desktop gaming machine or have a local pc-shop build you one.

Again... unless you spend a fortune on a laptop, chances are good it'll be dead in about 18months. Get a cheapie for surfing and work and backup your data.

SSDD?? Nah! Skip it as you can get a lot more hddrive space with standard drives and believe me... they perform much better than they need to in most applications.

Want better performance from your computers? Put your operating system on an 80'gig drive, install your applications on a 150gig drive and store all your data, movies, pictures and personal crud on the big 500gig-1terabyte sized drives.

You'll be amazed at how much quicker your applications load up and crank through stuff.


Stay Safe!

always had a love of bare bones kits and building my pc from the ground up the way i liked to BUT i always notice that after a while it always tends to slow down.

ive since fell off the wagon, but with this advice i might just get right back on it. i see myself walking around with the laptop, the "app drive" in my pocket and downloading the days crap onto the "stay at home" terabyte drive . . . .(smile) yeah sounds like a solid plan

apples are rubbish, made of rubbish, designed to die on you and you cant open them up now, always were rubbish for upgrading or fixing by design, and made in the worlds biggest factory in china where working conditions shouldnt really be encouraged by these multinational corps,, just sold off their looks really, all the cult members that bit the apple and bought into design over quality so hey just keep buying apple crap..

that's how i feel about apple anyway.. alienware were good before dell bought them.. i think dell use that same crappy factory in china that apple use..

have to agree, always thought there was too much hype and the fact that they charge you for memory is something that still baffles me to this day besides how much the idiots just jump at it.

The fact that apple had to install suicide nets around that apple factory in China told me all I needed to know about those apple sleeze-bags. It would make me feel shitty every time I even looked at my mac, if I had one, just knowing I was supporting a corporation that was so sleazy that someone felt their only escape was in trying to kill themselves. They got my ass, I bought a POS iPad a few years ago. Fucking TOY!, designed with cool bells and whistles to divert attention from what is really there. There is a reason those pieces of shit have an internal battery the user can't access. It's for THEM. NEVER AGAIN.

BTW, the apple coporation is the second biggest company in the US only exceeded by that wonderful corporation Exon/Mobile. Does THAT mean anything to anyone?

WOW!! i never really watched/cared/looked at apple for any reason so i would have never known about this. thats crazy!

 

[Hydro-Soil]

always had a love of bare bones kits and building my pc from the ground up the way i liked to BUT i always notice that after a while it always tends to slow down.

The slowdown has nothing to do with the hardware you put together. Computer hardware doesn't get 'slower' it either works or it doesn't.

Either learn to clean your current Operating $y$tem or switch to something that doesn't allow other people to use your machine so easily... like a *nix based operating system.

Though... it would be quicker to learn how to clean your machine and keep it clean.

Stay Safe!

 

[lost in a sea]

i think apple is communist as well...

and i think they may start making cars in detroit in the future.. just a feeling,, i can imagine an Icar.. but hopefully people will see quite how much they con you and brainwash children..

and apple have the right to all of your information, more so than other computer manufacturers, and use the military firm lockheed martin to store the info in israel much like google..your searches are catalogued and used to profile you anyway without some effort..

its all in the terms and conditions

you'll end up with someones ass stitched to your face one day

 

[Tronic]

Apple is absolutely the largest American corporation...


Their computer products are fantastic. I have not seen a manufacturer with build quality to match.

If you don't like OS X, run Windows. Or Linux.

 

[Hammerhead]

I just finished building a very nice Desktop gaming rig. I did not add up the cost. Im pretty sure it was around 1500-2000$

System specs
Apevia Discovery-x case
Apevia Iceberg 680w power supply
Intel 330 Series Maple Crest 180GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive
2 WD 750G/350G HD
Intel i5 3750 3.4GHz Ivy
MSI Z77A-GD55 MOBD
Zalman CNPS 20LQ CPU Cooler
EVGA GTX 570HD Graphics card
Biostar USB 3.0/3.5" Adaptor 2 port
wireless pci WDN4800
Netgear N900 Router
Acer 20" LCD

 

[barnyard]

You can always hook up a laptop to a standard monitor, keyboard/mouse and speakers. That's the way I have one of my systems set up. Then you still have the portability of the laptop and some nice desktop features but you're not invested into two machines.

 

[soulfly22583]

The commentary in this thread is hilarious! Thanks for the laughs everyone.

To the OP - If you are looking at laptops the first thing (and to me, the most important aspect) is if you plan on carrying the laptop around with you. My first laptop was a 17" and it killed my back and neck on the daily commute. My next laptop (current machine) is a 15" and is much easier on my neck/back.

Someone above made a comment about building a desktop machine at home and using the leftover funds for a laptop - I would suggest going down this road. In this day and age you can build a kick ass desktop machine that will be able to handle a vast majority of what you are doing and then buy a cheap laptop to handle the rest of it (unless you are doing NASA/Engineering level number crunching, intense graphic work, or a shit ton of virtualization on the laptop)

If you can do the majority of your work on a desktop and leave the internet/document processing to a laptop then I think you will be good to go.

Big piece of advice - everyone on the internet has an opinion on technology, do your homework before you spend a single dime on new stuff. Do not just go off of posts like mine or anyone else. If you are unsure, use google and educate yourself a little bit.

 

[barnyard]

soul, the OP is asking for advice on a gaming laptop.

 

[soulfly22583]

soul, the OP is asking for advice on a gaming laptop.

I realize that - I just dont know what his "work" consists of, hence why I laid out my response the way I did.

If OP's "work" is simple data entry and web-based then I would say go alienware for gaming laptop. Still personally think that a gaming desktop would be more comfortable and useful than a laptop (especially if OP is not used to working with a laptop)

 

[StoneByName]

Thanks for the replies, I'd forgotten I made this thread!

The work I am doing is not very taxing on the computer. I had a high spec in mind for computer games. Unless the laptop is unreliable/faulty, the spec determines the longevity of the computer for me based on whether it can play the newest/newer games.

I know that you can get much better value with a desktop. I will be moving to Asia in the next 6 months and I'd have to send a PC by air freight. The computer I'm using is on its last legs and won't last much longer.