Laptop for college & bit of gaming

Hello,

I'm looking for a laptop for college and also for a bit of gaming on the side. I have a 750 euro budget for a laptop but I can stretch it a little further. The main games I will be playing is Battlefield 3, Minecraft, Age of Empires 2 HD & 3. If anyone has any recommendations??

Thanks,

Daspendy

Simi

I'd recommend building one to your spec here. The Enigma IV and the Optimus IV can both be configured to fall within your budget.

However, this is a terrible time to buy, as both processors and graphics cards are due their annual refresh. Haswell chips are due next week and Nvidia should be refreshing their mobile graphics offering in the coming weeks.

My advice would be to hold off buying as long as possible to get the best bang for your buck. That being said, both the 650M and 660M will play all the games you've listed and then some (both are also extremely overclockable), so if you really can't wait an i7-3630QM with 8GB ram with either of the above graphics cards will do you nicely.

Simi

Simi wrote: »

I'd recommend building one to your spec here. The Enigma IV and the Optimus IV can both be configured to fall within your budget.

However, this is a terrible time to buy, as both processors and graphics cards are due their annual refresh. Haswell chips are due next week and Nvidia should be refreshing their mobile graphics offering in the coming weeks.

My advice would be to hold off buying as long as possible to get the best bang for your buck. That being said, both the 650M and 660M will play all the games you've listed and then some (both are also extremely overclockable), so if you really can't wait an i7-3630QM with 8GB ram with either of the above graphics cards will do you nicely.

Hello,

Yeah I probably won't be buying until the leaving cert results are released so start/mid august. So then I know what type of laptop I need for the course.

Thanks,

Daspendy

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00AW6ZKCA/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1370056427&sr=1-1&m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pi=SL75

Do you think this laptop will be good enough for a small bit of gaming?

Thanks,

Daspendy

Overheal

Don't buy a laptop for gaming, buy a laptop for college. If it games, all the better, but think about what you need it for. I've seen students get 17" 10 pound juggernaut gaming laptops that become effectively useless as an academic tool. Now, you can get a good college laptop that games, but don't shop like that. Look at the HP M6 with an AMD A10 Processor. Decent size, durability, battery life, and performance that can handle BF3 and Skyrim. Or simply wait until the end of the summer when Intel brings out the 4th gen Core processors and the Intel HD 5000 graphics, while they will be a pittance to 4th gen AMD graphics, will still be good enough to handle the same titles, negating the need to buy something with a dedicated GPU (which is a big pitfall if you don't know what you're looking at, and even if you are, is a big dent to battery life and cooling). When 4th gen rolls out find yourself a nice i5-4xxx Ultrabook which will handle your casual gaming binge and actually be a reliable laptop to plow through a degree program with, like the Dell XPS Duo or the ASUS Zenbook. I'd personally something with an SSD for ruggedness and performance.

Overheal

Overheal wrote: »

Don't buy a laptop for gaming, buy a laptop for college. If it games, all the better, but think about what you need it for. I've seen students get 17" 10 pound juggernaut gaming laptops that become effectively useless as an academic tool. Now, you can get a good college laptop that games, but don't shop like that. Look at the HP M6 with an AMD A10 Processor. Decent size, durability, battery life, and performance that can handle BF3 and Skyrim. Or simply wait until the end of the summer when Intel brings out the 4th gen Core processors and the Intel HD 5000 graphics, while they will be a pittance to 4th gen AMD graphics, will still be good enough to handle the same titles, negating the need to buy something with a dedicated GPU (which is a big pitfall if you don't know what you're looking at, and even if you are, is a big dent to battery life and cooling). When 4th gen rolls out find yourself a nice i5-4xxx Ultrabook which will handle your casual gaming binge and actually be a reliable laptop to plow through a degree program with, like the Dell XPS Duo or the ASUS Zenbook. I'd personally something with an SSD for ruggedness and performance.

Yeah like I wont be even getting one until the leaving cert results are out. Do you think they will have some out middle of august to end of august?

Thanks,

Daspendy

Anyone have any reviews or experience with this laptop? http://www.dell.com/ie/p/inspiron-17r-se-7720/pd?oc=n0017s33&model_id=inspiron-17r-se-7720

Thanks,

Daspendy

Overheal

looks legit. good build quality. pretty decent GPU too.

Overheal

Overheal wrote: »

looks legit. good build quality. pretty decent GPU too.

Think it'll get me through a 4 year computer science course?

Thanks,

Daspendy