Best value multimedia/gaming laptop

dorro6391

Decided to sell my macbook pro, going for a windows 8 multimedia laptop, must have a 17" screen, good graphics and good speakers on board.

Macbook is a five years old but still works great, love the 17" screen on it so new laptop would need to match that.

Im only planning to get round 450-500 on the sale of the mac, looking to try windows 8 (need a windows laptop for college), I used to have an alienware and still hope to be able to play some games like Diabo 3, Arma, Day-z etc.
Graphic card dosent need to be AMAZING just good enough to run games on medium settings

Any suggestions from any of you pc folk out there what the best brand is to go for? Sager, MSI, ASUS, DELL, Samsung?....

Also any good deals on at the moment? would i be better off going second hand? only planning on spending around 800-1000

THANK YOU!

Torqay

dorro6391 wrote: »

Any suggestions from any of you pc folk out there what the best brand is to go for? Sager, MSI, ASUS, DELL, Samsung?

Sager = Clevo

PC Specialist is a UK system builder using Clevo chassis. 17.3" Optimus IV in the following configuration costs £815/€1,001 (plus delivery):



Full HD, 3 yrs warranty, the GPU will play pretty much everything you may throw at it.

A similarly configured 17.3" Voyager II will be cheaper (£712/€875), but the graphics fun stops with a GT 640M.



Of course, everything can be configured pretty much to your likings.

dorro6391

That laptop looks great but dont really need all the extra horsepower (blu ray, 2gb graphics) it provides, was looking at the Dell Inspiron 17R (dell i know:o) but you can customise it with 1tb hard drive and 1 gb 630m graphics, i3 etc for only 669 euro.

Budget is quite tight.... anything else around that price range? could save up 1000 but rather not if i dont necessarily need it, only play the odd pc game here and there, will be using it more for virtual dj, serato, etc music software, and for multimedia more than anything.

Thanks for the reply

Torqay

dorro6391 wrote: »

was looking at the Dell Inspiron 17R (dell i know:o) but you can customise it with 1tb hard drive and 1 gb 630m graphics, i3 etc for only 669 euro.

I have no problem with Dell.

There's a 17.3" Lenny, faster CPU, more RAM and same graphics for 20 yoyos less at Komplett.

Anyhow, the GT 630M is nothing to write home about.

dorro6391

Cheers mate that's a really nice Lenovo actually, tempting....

Any other suggestions out there?

Torqay

Same Lenovo model but with a quad Core i7 3612QM, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD and Bluray combo drive, €860 at LD.

17.3" Tosh, Core i5, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD and Radeon HD 7670M (slightly better than the GT 630M), €760 at LD.

But if you are looking for gaming capability, you better think beyond a GT 630M or HD 7670M.

dorro6391

would the GT630m be more capable than the GT555m found in the alienware m14x?

Torqay

dorro6391 wrote: »

would the GT630m be more capable than the GT555m found in the alienware m14x?

No, the old GT 555M is still faster than both, the GT 630M and the Radeon HD 7670M. The GT 635/640M will beat the GT 555M

dorro6391

How is the GT640m for gaming? big improvement over the 630m or minor upgrade?

really cant decide on a machine yet....

Liking the lenovo G780 but the GT630m is turning me off it now

How are the speakers and build quality on the PC Specialist custom laptops? would you have any experience with them?

dorro6391

The PC specialist optimus iv with GTX 660m, 128gb ssd, 4gb ram and i3 proccessor is 863 euro...

is that a good configuration? or would the i3 be a bottleneck for that kind of GPU?

Torqay

dorro6391 wrote: »

or would the i3 be a bottleneck for that kind of GPU?

Not really a bottleneck. And the CPU can be upgraded later.

dorro6391

would you go for the PCS one then? Can all components be upgraded?

Torqay

dorro6391 wrote: »

would you go for the PCS one then?

You'll hardly find a GTX 660M for this price elsewhere. Komplett had a 15" Lenny with a Core i5 & GTX 660M for 950 yoyos for a while.

dorro6391 wrote: »

Can all components be upgraded?

Not sure about the GPU, better ask this question their forum. As for the i3, not a poor CPU by all means but I'd rather add £43 and get the Core i5 3210M... looks a bit more balanced then.

dorro6391

Do you know what the onkyo speakers are like? thats quite important to me

Really tempted to go with this PC specialist with i3, 4gb ram, gtx 660m, 120g SSD, windows 8...

860 including delivery not bad at all.....

Torqay

dorro6391 wrote: »

Do you know what the onkyo speakers are like?

From a review of the Schenker XMG 502 (the equivalent of the 15" Optimus):

Speakers
Beats Audio, Harman Kardon, Dynaudio, Bose, etc. - in the meantime almost every manufacturer adorns itself with the good-sounding names of known audio companies. Clevo doesn't want to be last in line and cooperates with Onkyo. Or at least its logo emblazons the wrist rest's right. Painted, mind you - not a cheap sticker.
You should also remember to activate the included THX software. Only then do the integrated speakers supply a useful sound. The built-in 2.1 audio system gives a satisfactory result at medium volume for notebook conditions. External audio playback units are, as so often, to be preferred over the mini speakers for high requirements.

dorro6391

Ordered an optimus iv 17.3", i3 (might upgrade later), gtx 660m, 4gb ram, windows 8 :-)

Now to play the waiting game... Thanks for your assistance torqay much appreciated