New gaming laptop for college

magicianz

Right so Ill be going into an electrical and electronics engineering course in September and Ive been given a very healthy budget for my laptop for college/gaming/work.

My main use for my current laptop is streaming music and tv shows, as well as playing Starcraft 2 (on minimum settings ), as well as word, excel, photoshop, etc.

Im looking for a decent laptop that should last me through at least the 4 years of college, preferably a few years more, have gotten over 6 years from this laptop and still working well. It needs to be able to run Starcraft 2 and programs like CAD and Solidworks easily, which means some fairly robust machine.

I would max the budget at around 1200 euro, preferably a bit less of course. :P

Thanks in advance

dazzday

For college you really want something a little portable and with a relatively good battery life (4hrs +). And then for gaming you want a 540M at minimum.

Currently the best thin-and-light gaming on the market are:

MSI X460DX

http://komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_02PC/02_NOTEBOO/20_121/productdetails/80003302/MSI_X460DX_033NL_14_i5_2410M_4GB_640GB_GT540_1_W7/X460DX_033NL/default.aspx

Asus U46SV:
http://skinflint.co.uk/eu/664983

(also out in europe (cyberport etc for ~€800)

Acer TimelineX 4830TG (cpu throttles though so better of to wait for a fix)

You could go for a 15inch and have plenty more options and stronger gpus but you will sacrifice portability which can be annoying when lugging in and out to college. TBF the 540M is a pretty solid card for the moderate gamer anyways, starcraft will play on High at minimum.

magicianz

Yeah I dont think Ill be going above a 14" screen for college definately as I have monitor and all that at home for proper gaming.

I was looking at the Alienware M14x? Its well specced but ive got some unexplainable distrust of Alienware :P Its probably top of my list now because of its RAM, do ye think that this would be the best choice? Or is there something out there similar to the M14x that rivals it on price + spec?

dazzday

magicianz wrote: »

I was looking at the Alienware M14x? Its well specced but ive got some unexplainable distrust of Alienware :P Its probably top of my list now because of its RAM, do ye think that this would be the best choice? Or is there something out there similar to the M14x that rivals it on price + spec?

Its ram? Only supports upto 8gb which all the models listed support. Never buy RAM upgrades off dell....much cheaper to upgrade yourself.

IMO, I dont see the value in the alienware. Great machines as they are, to get the best out of them you really need to spec up ( 900p screen, i7 cpu, 3gb 555m etc) which really puts them overbudget:

Tne 555m gpu is top range for sub 14-inch laptops but really isnt a great gaming card (compared to say the GT 460x). The differences between a 555m and 540m are not hugely significant in compariosn say between a 520 nad 540m. For the games you are going to play (starcraft is more cpu based anyways), I cant see the justice paying premium for the 555m over the 540m..unless you plan to play alot more demanding games at higher settings.

The 900p screen is nice, particularly for CAD work and I think would be a major plus here.
However speccing with that makes the machine come in at €1200 at the base model...

Id be inclined to go with this at €800 and use the extra to upgrade the RAM and the HDD to a SSD with change left over:

http://www.anvika.com/product/Asus_U46SV-WX044X_14_i5_W7HP_4GB_500GB/asu14508

+
Similar performance
Better battery life
Looks sexy
Lighter and thinner
comes with a single 4gb ram module = cheaper to upgrade to 8gb
2year warranty

-
lower screen resolution
slightly poorer gaming performance

Or the http://komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_02PC/02_NOTEBOO/20_121/productdetails/80003302/MSI_X460DX_033NL_14_i5_2410M_4GB_640GB_GT540_1_W7/X460DX_033NL/default.aspx

lucasw

A bit on the low side considering your buget but I'm thinking of getting a
http://komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_02PC/02_NOTEBOO/22_17/productdetails/80002519/Asus_N73SV_V1G_TZ464V_17_3FH_i7_2630_6_1_G540M_1_7/90N1RA429H528BVL933/default.aspx