Buying a laptop to last me a long time

The_B_Man

My current HP laptop was made in 2006.
It has a 12.1 screen, not widescreen.
2GB RAM,
40GB HDD,
Intel GMA900, and
weighs 4lbs.

It grossly outdated and is basically a noisy, hot, facebook machine, with a broken hinge that I need to lean it against something to even use it!

I have just started a new job, and I am looking to get a good laptop that I can carry with me when needed, and will last me a long time. So weight and build quality are important. I'm thinking 17" might be too big as well.

So rough specs would be:
i7
USB 3.0 (to match my 1.5TB USB3 external HDD)
<17" screen
1080p screen
dedicated gfx
HDMI
~5lbs/~2kg
bluray drive is a "nice to have" but not essential.

I saw the HP ENVY on a review site that looked good, but it seemed a bit big and heavy. It also has a slot loading bluray drive which is pretty cool. See here: http://www.techspot.com/guides/536-buying-laptop/page4.html

I'm completely out of the loop with regards to CPU model numbers. I had a quick browse of some laptops in PC World/Currys but didnt see anything, and didnt have the internet to look up the processsors/graphics I was looking at so it was pretty useless.

Can anyone help me out here, so I can play some StarCraft 2, Black Ops (2?), MW3, FIFA, and make some Android apps?
Budget would be around €1500.
Thanks.

Jarren

So you looking for GT 650M min in terms of playing the games.


Specifications
Product Description Asus N56VZ-S4022V
Display 15.6" Widescreen LED
Resolution 1920 x 1080
Processor 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7 3610QM
Chipset Intel® HM76
Memory 8 GB DDR3-1600 SO-DIMM
Storage (HDD) 1 TB - 5400rpm
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GT650M 2 GB
Optical Drive Blu-ray player and burner
Card Reader Yes
Network Gigabit Ethernet
Wireless Network Wireless B/G/N
Webcam Yes
Colour Black/Silver
Connections 1x HDMI, 1x VGA, 4x USB 3.0, 1x Microphone, 1x Headphone
Dimensions (WxDxH) 38 x 25.5 x 2.73 cm
Weight 2.7 kg
Battery 6 Cell
Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Additional Software Office Starter 2010

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/15_16_inch/80007335/asus_15_6_n56vz_s4022v_i7_3610qm_8gb_1tb/details.aspx




New Inspiron 15R SE
Date & Time: Thursday 19 July 2012 2:17 PM


New Inspiron 15R SE Qty 1

Base Inspiron 7520 Base
Operating System Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
Memory 8192MB (2x4096) 1600MHz DDR3
Keyboard Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Backlit Keyboard
Video Card 2GB AMD Radeon HD 7730M
Driver Driver : 2230 Wireless Card
Hard Drive 1TB Serial ATA (5400RPM)
CD ROM/DVD ROM Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD)
Wireless Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230 Card (802.11n + BT 4.0)
Cables 1 Meter Power Cord - UK
Documentation/Disks Ship Accessory : EMEA3 MUI Docs - West/Swiss/MEA (Eng, Ger, Fre, Dut, Ita, Ara, Tur)
Bundle N0515S10
Extended Service 1 yr Next Day In-Home Hardware Support
Widi Wireless Display Application
Daughter Board Daughter Board for WLAN
Documentation Documentation Not included
Digital Photography Retail&Hard Bndl Only Adobe Photo+Prem Elements 9 Bundle MUI (EN,FR,GER,ES,IT,SE,NL,CZ,RU,TU,PL)
Order Information Inspiron 7520 Order
Primary Battery Primary 6-cell 48W/HR LI-ION
Processor 3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3612QM processor (6M Cache, up to 3.10 GHz)
Color Choice Switch by Design Studio - Aluminium
Accidental Damage Support No Accidental Damage Protecton
Packaging Packaging : Brown Box
Online Backup DataSafe Online Backup 2GB - 1 year licence
FGA Module A5TRBO1303_035/BTO
Online Backup Software Software: DataSafe Online Backup 2GB - 1 year trial
Optical Software Blu Ray PowerDVD Software (Home Premium)
Additional Hard Drive Additional Hard Drive Not included
CFI Included (Smart Selection) CFI Not Included
Retail Marker Retail Marker Not included
Retail Financial Marker Retail Financial Marker Not included
Retail Drop In the Box Leaflet Retail Drop In the Box Leaflet Not included
Retail Registration Retail Registration Not included
Retail Information Retail Information Not included
Retail Tech Sheets Retail Tech Sheets Not included
LCD 15.6in Full High Definition (1080p) WLED with AntiGlare
Microsoft Application Software Microsoft® Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook
Non-Microsoft Application Software Inspiron 7520 Diagnosis and Drivers
Protect your new PC McAfee® SecurityCenter 15 Month Subscription
Operating System Recovery Options OS Windows® Recovery Media Not included
TOTAL :€ 1,042.97 - use this code to get 10% OFF Q92XTT?Z7FLP31

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=n0015s10&model_id=inspiron-15r-se-7520&c=ie&l=en&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1



and there is a bigger fella


43.9 cm (17.3 "), 1920 x 1200 matte
Core i7-3610QM 4x 2.30 GHz (3.30 GHz Turbo), 16 GB RAM, 120 GB SSD, 1.0 TB HDD
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 2.0GB, BD-ROM / DVD burner
WLAN a / b / g / n, 2x USB 3.0, 2x USB 2.0, HDMI / VGA
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

1299 Euros + delivery

http://www.computeruniverse.net/products/90470999/acer-aspire-v3-771g-7361161-12tbdcaii.asp


or this guy



Lenovo IdeaPad Y580 39.6 cm (15.6 in) Laptop (Intel Core i7 3610QM, 2.3 GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, Nvidia GTX 660M, DVD, Windows 7 Home Premium)

EUR 1106.99 + delivery

http://www.amazon.de/Lenovo-IdeaPad-Notebook-3610QM-NVIDIA/dp/B0089HXI14/ref=sr_1_24?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1342708490&sr=1-24


This is less known brand name

Medion

CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM processor
Operating system: Windows® 7 Home Premium 64 Bit (OEM Version)
Clock Frequency: 2.3 GHz
Memory size: 8 GB
Total RAM slots: 2
Used RAM slots: 2
Hard disk capacity: 750 GB
Screen size: 39,6 cm (15,6")
Resolution: 1920x1080 pixels
Screen Type: non-glare display
LED Backlight: Yes
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT650M DirectX® 11 graphics
with 2048 MB memory and digital HDMI audio/video output
+ NVIDIA® Optimus™ technology
Blu-ray reader/multi-standard DVD/CD burner1
with DVD-RAM and dual layer support
High-definition audio with 2 loudspeakers, Dolby Home Theater® v4-certified
Integrated 1.3 MP webcam with microphone
Multi-card reader for SD, SDHC, SDXC, MMC, MS and MSPro memory cards
Multimedia control via backlit sensor keys
MultiTOUCHpad
MEDION® Solid Keyboard
6-cell li-ion high-performance battery

£729 + delivery

http://www.medion.com/gb/electronics/prod/MEDION%C2%AE++AKOYA%C2%AE+P6815+15.6%22+Laptop+%28MD98061%29/30014011A1?category=notebook_12


MSI GE60 0ND 15.6-inch Full HD Gaming Laptop (Chief River i7-3610QM 2.3GHz, 8GB DDR3, 750GB HDD, Blu-Ray, Nvidia GeForce 2GB GTX660M Graphics Card, Windows 7 Home Premium)

£1049 + free delivery

Click the Amazon more buying choices link on the right hand side

http://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-GE60-15-6-inch-i7-3610QM-Graphics/dp/B008ERJST0/ref=sr_1_9?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1342708981&sr=1-9


Over to you

The_B_Man

Sorry for not replying sooner. I ended up going on holiday instead so spent last months budget on that!

I like the first one and the last one.
Just a quick question though, does anyone know if that graphics card is decent? I was looking at some that had faster ones but then some reviews were saying the higher ones were rebadged older ones that will drain the battery.

I was looking at a few here:
Lenovo
i7-3610QM
8GB DDR3 - 1600 MHz
1TB - 5400rpm
64GB SSD
NVIDIA GeForce GTX660M - 2GB
Bluray
2.8kg
€1200
http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/15_16_inch/80007714/lenovo_15_6_y580_m772cmh_i7_3610qm_8g_64ssd%2b1tb/details.aspx

Medion Erazer
i7 3610QM
8GB DDR3
750GB 7200rpm
128GB SSD
NVIDIA GeForce GTX670M -1.5GB
3.5kg
€1400
http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/15_16_inch/80006571/medion_erazer_15_6_x6821_i7_3610qm_8gb_750g%2b128/details.aspx

MSI GT60
i7 -3610QM
8GB DDR3
750GB 7200rpm
NVIDIA GeForce GTX670M - 3GB
3.5kg
€1550
http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/15_16_inch/20160649/msi_15_6_gt60_0nc_009nl_i7_3610qm_8gb_750gb/details.aspx

Schenker XMG P502-4UB
No OS
i7 3610QM
8GB DDR3
750 GB HDD / 7200 rpm
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M - 2GB
3.1kg
€1500
http://www.computeruniverse.net/products/90461919/schenker-xmg-p502-4ub.asp

Schenker XMG P502-1AX
No OS
i7 3610QM
8GB DDR3
750 GB HDD / 7200 rpm
128GB SSD
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 675M - 2GB
Bluray
3.1kg
€1650
http://www.computeruniverse.net/products/90461915/schenker-xmg-p502-1ax.asp

Like I said, I have 1500 earmarked for this so if I spend about 1100, I would probably look at the next model up, to see if I can get maybe a better graphics card in it. Stuff like RAM and HDD I can probably upgrade down the line anyway.
Actually, do any of these laptops have upgradeable graphics? I'll definitely want to upgrade the CPU in a few years but an upgradeable graphics card is a huge bonus!

Torqay

The_B_Man wrote: »

Actually, do any of these laptops have upgradeable graphics?

I doubt it. If any, then I'd say the Clevo. Contact Schenker ans ask about the possibility of a later GPU upgrade.

Dell xps 14 ultrabook
http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=n00x1421&model_id=xps-14-l421x&c=ie&l=en&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1

core i7 2.0ghz (higher end of core i7), ssd drive + 500gb hard drive.
1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 630M Graphics Card
high res screen.
nice and light to0 - 2.1kg

review -
http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/26/dell-xps-14-review/

there are probably some dell discount codes going around too if you look.

The_B_Man

Ye I like that Dell. The size and weight are definitely ideal, except the CPU only scores about half in the benchmarks with the others, and the GPU scores similarly, or less.

Torqay

The_B_Man wrote: »

except the CPU only scores about half in the benchmarks with the others

No surprise since it's only a ULV dual core processor. Ultrabooks are not made for gaming.

The_B_Man

The_B_Man wrote: »

Ye I like that Dell. The size and weight are definitely ideal, except the CPU only scores about half in the benchmarks with the others, and the GPU scores similarly, or less.

well you can't have everything. it will run those games fine.
personally, if you need a laptop that's portable and you'll be lugging around with decent battery life, looks good or on your lap watching tv and the like a lot with decent specs I'd go for something like that. if you're going to be using it mainly at home on a table / desk then go for a heavy one with better specs where you don't need portability and battery life. or buy a heavy one and something like a decent 11.6 laptop for 400 euro or so for lugging around.

ED E

Just like to point out the fact that longevity and laptops dont go well together. While some may last ages, most dont.

Battery will last 2 years tops of regular use. Then theres the wear and tear something on the road takes etc.

OP I'd buy with a max of three years in mind max, as chances are at that point in time it will need replacing to be anywhere half decent.

2 Hell and Back

If you are spending €1500 on a laptop, it should have a solid state drive.

Solid state drives are so much faster than normal hard drives you wouldnt believe it.

Try and get one with a solid state drive to launch windows and programmes. and also a normal hard drive as well for storage.

No point in buying a laptop with a huge hard drive and no Solid State Drive, as Solid State Drives are where its at.

Torqay

Unfortunately, laptops usually have only one HDD bay, some remedy the lack of a second bay by ripping out the optical drive and stuffing in a 2nd HDD, other go for hybrid drives (IMO useless and overpriced). Which brings us back to the Clevo laptops at Schenker, the XMG series do have a 2nd HDD bay.

2 Hell and Back

I find laptop reviews on techradar.co.uk to be good...

for example: http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/laptops/best-13-inch-laptops-which-is-right-for-you-901574

xps 14 and other laptops have both ssd (small for quick load and resume) and hdd (for main storage).

Torqay

glasso wrote: »

xps 14 and other laptops have both ssd (small for quick load and resume) and hdd (for main storage).

Actually, those are the "dreaded" hybrid drives, both flash memory and platter HDD in one. . Programs/Games don't benefit from those drives.

The_B_Man

http://www.mysn.de/detail.asp?bestellnr=XMG-A522&userid=19F5351EDAEB4CD69A6EEA1C58E056C7&KategorienOrder=010;020;010;010;010

I like the 15" A522 laptop there. I've added the top i7, and a couple of hard drives, and it comes out at ~1600. I could probably ditch the bluray burner and take another 50 euro off that.

Any suggestions on the best hard drive and SSD combo to get?

Jarren

Another option for custom built laptops

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/customsystems/type/laptops

jimmycrackcorm

ED E wrote: »

Just like to point out the fact that longevity and laptops dont go well together. While some may last ages, most dont.

Battery will last 2 years tops of regular use. Then theres the wear and tear something on the road takes etc.

OP I'd buy with a max of three years in mind max, as chances are at that point in time it will need replacing to be anywhere half decent.

Have to agree. Bar The battery, you should plan for a three year upgrade. I'd also examine your use of a laptop for the spec needed; are you planning for heavy cpu usage such as games / engineering or more mundane Internet requirements?

Perhaps an i5 suits more but definitely lots of ram and solid state drives are a must regardless.

gzoladz

Edit: I was meant to open a new thread and inadvertently hijacked this one. Pls ignore.

The_B_Man

jimmycrackcorm wrote: »

Have to agree. Bar The battery, you should plan for a three year upgrade. I'd also examine your use of a laptop for the spec needed; are you planning for heavy cpu usage such as games / engineering or more mundane Internet requirements?

Perhaps an i5 suits more but definitely lots of ram and solid state drives are a must regardless.

Nah well I defo want the i7, so at least I'll have some level of future proof.
My thinking was that I would buy above what i need now and "grow" into the specs as they become more and more standard.

I suppose I could take the hit on the gfx card.
Actually, I was looking at the gtx 675m and apparently its a battery hogger that uses more wattage, and heats up too. This is down to it being an older model rebadged.
Does anyone know whats the best trade off with regards to power consumption over the GTX 675M? IS its the GTX 660M? Coz I could handle that.

I had a look at this: http://www.laptopsdirect.ie/Lenovo_Y580_Windows_7_Laptop_M772CUK/version.asp

Seems pretty good. Is there anything wrong with that? Can i get same specs cheaper elsewhere? I'm gonna try that mySN.de site to see if i can get the same specs for cheaper, but I think thats a decent spec anyway.