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So, I'm buying a laptop...
And I'd like some help.
You see, I'm heading off to college in the fall, and I'd like to buy a laptop for class... and of course, gaming. The deal is... I'm having a hard time finding something that isn't insanely over-priced or is actually along the lines of what I might be looking for.
While I'm not 100% tech savvy, I'm not tech retarded, either. So here's the deal. I've got around $2000-$2500. I'm looking for something that's hopefully going to last me my duration at college (4 years). I need something with some decent gaming specs (I could go into details, but I think you know what I mean)... battery life I'm not too concerned about because I'll probably have it plugged in half the time anyways, and gaming laptops are notorious for being juice hogs.
I don't care for Blu-Ray, and it jacks up system prices significantly. I'll need a decent sized HD, something around 120 GB is good enough. Basically, just something to keep me amused, and help me study for 4 years.
So I'm asking, if you guys know of any decent websites out there, aside from newegg and Tiger Direct, that might have what I'm looking for, or any other advice, I'd be eternally grateful. Thanks!
Comments
Honestly? You'd be better off buying an 800$ laptop for taking to class and spend the rest on a gaming desktop.
Gaming and laptops still don't mix very well, and are notoriously heavy.
Now with 57.3% more flames!
For that kind of money, I doubt you'll have trouble finding a good laptop. I do not recommend a Toshiba, however. Every one I've bought had major problems. I have a friend of mine that is a Dell reseller...he gets great deals. If you want to PM me your email address, I'll pass it on to him. He does all of the computer work for my company and he's very trustworthy. I know he gives free quotes by email.
And I'm not worried about weight. I've been carrying 80 pounds worth of books in a piece of luggage by hand on a daily basis for 4 years now. I can handle a 30-lb laptop.
Nobody else, huh?
Maybe I'll PM you later, but I'm not keen on Dells.
He may sell others. Let me know if you want me to put you in touch with him.
Tbh don't waste all of your money on a laptop, you can get a pretty kick ass desktop for a grand
all you'll get if you spend 2 g's on a laptop is something overpriced you can play crysis/VG on..
like someone said earlier buy one of each... and i second don't buy a toshiba laptop, they're overheating crashing piles of crap
and don't buy anything from best buy
www.alienware.com/Product_Pages/notebook_all_default.aspx
Trump 2016
If you go to www.notebookreview.com, they often have really good coupons and discounts on dell laptops, I'll be buying an xps 1530 within the week, and i'll be getting a good $450 off of it too.
Gaming laptops generally have a very short lifespan and repairing/upgrading them is astronomical. Get a cheap laptop for your schoolwork and put the remainder in a desktop to game on. You can get a nice gaming rig for $1500 and put $500 into upgrades over the next few years and get by with no problem, but you'll never make it 4 years with just a gaming laptop.
Lugging around $2500 worth of electronics is not a good idea.
Alright, I suppose I can see the logic in that.
Ok, suppose I buy: www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx
For $600
Leaving me with roughly ~$1700 after taxes and shipping. I'm assuming most of you would recommend I build my own desktop? I have to say I have no experience. Like I said, I'm not super tech savvy, but I'd have a general idea of what to get.
So, I suppose the question now is, can anybody recommend a desktop/parts for a desktop to fit my budget?
If you're going to school go to gateway and get a tablet. Can't beat a touchscreen...
member of imminst.org
I just looked that up, and I have to say, cool as it looks, it seems like a colossal waste of money.
You obviously haven't used a tablet then.
member of imminst.org
But you see, I'm getting a laptop because I write extremely slowly, but I type quickly enough in order to keep up in class. The pad seems like it'd be great if I need to do a lot of drawing, but with a Mass Comm major, I doubt I will. So, it seems like I'd be paying for something that looks pretty, has some function, but nothing I really need or want, and I'm paying a lot for it.
But yes, I've never used one before.
Ok, perhaps somebody more technically proficient can help me out here.
I've decided to go for the laptop. I'm going to take a gamble on it, because I believe that it'll be just fine to use to take notes and game on. So, I've narrowed down my choices:
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx
But something is puzzling me. The second laptop is almost $200 cheaper, right? But it also has 180 GB more hard drive space, and a card with 1 GB of video RAM. The only difference that I see that might at all account for the difference is that the cheaper one has Vista Premium while the other has Vista Ultimate. But that just doesn't make sense to me.
Is there something that I'm not seeing? Is the Nvidia card with less video RAM better than the ATI card? Is Ultimate really that much extra (and is it worth it? I heard that Premium won't recognize all 4GB of RAM)? Which is the better buy?
Its not like your doing anything that requires a good PC. Get an Eee PC or something similiar. Then spend the rest on an actual gaming PC instead of a gaming laptop. You will get a good PC, and something to type with in class.
Also Laptops are near useless if they are above $1k in all functions. In portability, its the small notebooks that sell for $300. At Gaming its a gaming PC. In other cases its a Tablet PC. Also regular laptops that sell for over $1k are already being phased out by TabletPCs. Especially since the next iteration of Windows will be Touchscreen.
You have to remember, portables are very limited in thier power and access time. You will have an overpriced underpowered machine that you can only have up for a few hours at a time even on an A/C jack because of heat.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220284
this one is obviously better, but if you buy something from saaay ibuypower it would cost you a lot less...
fixed
member of imminst.org
Hahaha, gaming laptop? 4 years? Don't be stupid. Even a laptop that all you use is for word processing and reading e-mail will break after 18 months. Laptops are crap, and aren't built for heavy use. They're built to be used when you don't have access to a desktop. So yeah, good luck wasting your money. You'll just end up having to buy a desktop in the future.
Sadly I do agree with him
Ok...
How about...
www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx
and
www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx
I'm not necessarily sure if the choices I made in the ibuypower customizer will show up, if not, I'll post them afterwards.
But I suppose you're right. I just made something vastly superior to both those other laptops for about $500 cheaper.
EDIT: Yeah, no, it didn't show up, so I'll just post it:
EagleTech Sidewinder Gaming Tower Case w/600W Power Supply
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E8400 (2x 3.0GHz/6MB L2 Cache/1333FSB)
iBUYPOWER Liquid CPU Cooling Fan System Kit --- [for INTEL CPU]
[SLI] Asus P5N-E SLI nForce® 650i SLI Chipset w/6-channel CODEC, Gb LAN, S-ATA Raid, USB 2.0, IEEE-1394 Dual PCI-E MB
4096MB [1024MB X4] DDR2-800 PC6400 Memory Module Corsair-Value or Major Brand More Options
2x Nvidia GeForce 8600GT 1GB w/ DVI +TV Out Video - running in SLI Mode
WD Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 16M Cache Hard Drive
2nd 160 GB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 8M Cache]
20X Dual Format/Double Layer DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW Drive
3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard
Onboard LAN Network (Gb or 10/100)
20.1" LCD 16:10 Wide WSXGA HD(HDCP) Monitor Support DVI Video up to 1080P(HDMI) More Options
Total: $1453
Good, no?
It doesn't look like they changes showed. the laptop should be good
member of imminst.org
Updated.
Goto www.velocitymicro.com best gaming pc's there are havn't checked prices in a few months but they come with liquid cooling systems so no over heating and they use the best parts.
a 420 watt PS on that system will prolly reboot every 30 seconds need atleast a 600 watt for what you have listed and also i would do some research ibuy is getting slammed on reveiws.
a 420 watt PS on that system will prolly reboot every 30 seconds need atleast a 600 watt for what you have listed and also i would do some research ibuy is getting slammed on reveiws.
Eh, like I said, I'm not completely tech savvy, so any help is appreciated. I'll upgrade the power supply. My budget is about $1905 in total, so it still fits well enough.As for the site, well, it seems pretty fine to me. Unfortunately, I've no idea where to really research the reputations of these sites, and the computer site you showed me was just a bit more expensive for just about the same system, though the help, like I said, is appreciated. This is the first time that I'm actually stretching out and making (or at least customizing) a PC of my own for exactly what I need and want to do.