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Laptop help needed!
So here's the thing: recently my father's laptop broke down (after many years of use) so he went ahead and bought this: http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Superior_Mobility/U32U/#specifications - the E-450. He then offered to exchange it with my old laptop, which is still in a very good condition, since he doesn't really do anything other than browsing the web / playing around with photoshop and he prefered my 15.6" screen.
I accepted the exchange, primarily duo to the small size/weight which would make it easier to take to college.
Anyway after trying it out i noticed it wasn't really any faster than my old laptop, which i thought it would be despite being a netbook. It did run some applications faster, like autocad. I guess this would be a pretty good college - study laptop, but the problem is, i enjoy gaming!
I currently do not have a desktop computer (and probably won't have one in the near future), so i do need my laptop to handle a bit of gaming. After checking the store where my father bought the asus i found this HP Pavilion G6: http://www.worten.pt/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=04915830&oid=30|131&c=1191529 (Shouldn't be a problem, but sorry for the portuguese site, i couldn't find this exact model on any english one).
I've heard good things about these newish AMD processors in terms of price/quality, and i did see Quizzical suggesting a laptop somewhat like this one on another thread, to someone also on a low budget. However i do have some concerns. I've never owned an HP laptop before and i've heard they generally have some heat problems (besides the obvious fact that it's a laptop), aswell as a poor material quality (mostly plastic), but the heat is definitely what i'm mostly worried about. Is this true with these models aswell?
So long story short: In the end i'm ok with sacrificing the small size for some extra power and gaming goodness. What's your opinion on the G6? Do you think there's something better out there for that same price? (The G6 is actually 50€ more than the asus, but that's as high as i can go).
PS: Note that i should be able to do a shop exchange, but i'm not so sure about a full refund, and this particular shop doesn't really offer much variety.
Comments
So your plan is to return the netbook and have store credit mostly pay for the new laptop?
One option that I'll bring up is to keep the netbook and also get a budget gaming desktop. You can get a functional gaming desktop for about $500 excluding peripherals. If you don't have any peripherals from an old machine, though, that can push the total price tag to about $700. That might be out of your budget, but I thought I'd bring it up just in case.
If you really do need a budget gaming laptop, then Llano is definitely the way to go. The problem is that it's basically impossible to get a budget gaming laptop configured properly, even in the United States. So instead, it's an exercise in finding the least bad option, or perhaps something that you can modify yourself to be decent. And that's in the United States, when you're not locked into one particular shop.
The laptop you link might be the least bad option on the site. But the way it's configured is catastrophically dumb. It has integrated graphics, and also a discrete card that is slower than the integrated graphics. No, really, I'm not making that up. In some games, turning on the discrete card will reduce your performance as compared to what you'd get from the integrated graphics.
It also sports mismatched memory channels to cripple the memory bandwidth for a part that is very sensitive to memory bandwidth. It also goes with a glacially slow 5400 RPM hard drive, even though nearly all customers would be better off with a faster 7200 RPM hard drive of smaller capacity (320 GB)--which would also be cheaper.
And in spite of those defects, it's probably still the least bad budget gaming laptop option on the site.
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As for heat, I wouldn't worry that much. Llano doesn't put out very much heat. Outside of gaming loads, the laptop will barely put out any heat (the monitor will actually be the main thing that uses power), so it really can't overheat. Even under gaming loads, Llano's TDP seems to be very conservative, so it would take some seriously stupid engineering on HP's part to make it overheat. (Not that I'd put it past them, but I wouldn't be that worried.) Heat is far more of a concern in laptops that actually put out a lot of heat, or perhaps try to cram parts into a too small (i.e., ultrabook) form factor. Or worse, HP's "envy" line that tries to put gaming hardware into a too small form factor.
First of all, thanks for the answer!
About the desktop pc, yes that would definitely be my choice if i had the money. I do have all the peripherals i'd need, but still, being a college student without any source of income, i simply can't afford it. Asking my parents for a second pc is also out of the question, and i do need to have a laptop for college work.
Considering what you said about the G6, i guess that will have to do, because after checking other laptops not only on that shop but also on pretty much all the other portuguese shops, all the 500-600€ Llano systems i find either have the same dual GPU build or only one 7450M. I also couldn't find any 7200 RPM hard drives.
It's good to hear about the heat, as that would have certainly been a problem.
Also, do you think the A6 quad core on that G6 is worth the extra 100€ compared to this one's dual core (scroll down for the specs): http://www.fnac.pt/HP-Pavilion-g6-1355ep-Computador-Portatil-Computador-Portatil/a547056?PID=18314&Mn=-1&Ra=-5000&To=0&Nu=8&Fr=2
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EDIT: Meanwhile i got an answer to a previous email i sent to the shop asking about their return policy, and apparently i can't trade in laptops after the box being opened. I thought about insisting to see if they would accept the exchange but i've also been thinking and i've decided that in the long run it will be best to keep the asus laptop for easier transport and try to save money to build myself a desktop pc. One more reason for me to get a job this summer ahah!
I've owned two HP laptops in the past and both had the same issue. The hinges. My first HP I got in 2004 and the right hinge broke but since it was covered under the warranty HP sent me a box and replaced the TOP cover of the laptop (leaving a gaping hole in the front of my screen case). When I felt it was time for an upgrade I got a Dell Inspiron 1520 which was pretty nice when I first got it. I kept that for a few years until I upgraded to an HP Pavillion dv4 with the newest specs out. That laptop came with a 1 year limited warranty. About 9 months after I got it i noticed a small crack in the plastic in the lower left corner. I contacted HP and they said unless it was serious damage to the case they would not fix it. That crack seemed not to grow over the next few months but about 3 weeks after my warranty ran out I was closing the laptop and the hinge completely snapped from its plastic housing and I was left with a laptop that wasn't particularly useful once again. After a week or so of searching I finally decided to go with a MacBook Pro. Unfortunately the MacBook that I bought had some issues with the GPU and Nvidia was only willing to fix them up to four years after their initial purchase date. I bought my MacBook in March of 2008. The graphics card started acting up causing overheats and constant crashes around early May. That laptop had given me a good run for my money and I had been thinking about upgrading soon anyways so after some looking I found this beauty (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215261&nm_mc=OTC-C173T&cm_mmc=OTC-C173T-_-Notebooks-_-Acer+America-_-34215261) I bought this laptop and I havem't had an issue with it yet. The processor is 4 cores with 8 threads so any CPU monitor will show it with 8 CPUs. The CPU runs at 2.2 Ghz and has Intel's TurboBoost up to 3.1Ghz so it works great for gaming. It comes with a single 4Gb ram stick in one of the bays and can be upgraded to 8Gb at any time. The graphics card is an Nvidia GeForce 630m 2Gb and runs most games on maximum settings. The laptop itself is amazingly quiet even when running a graphicaly intensive game. It has about 4 hours of battery life and its had that since I got it. IT HAS A NUMPAD! There are so many good things I can say about this computer that I can't fit them in one post and I think Acer has done an AMAZING job with the new Aspire laptops. They also make this same laptop with an i5 processor for $650.
tl;dr - Don't buy an HP they suck.
A monitor resolution of 1366x768 isn't even high settings.
That's old hardware, which means a lot more heat than necessary for the level of performance. A GeForce GT 630M will give you about the same performance as Radeon HD 7660G integrated graphics. Integrated graphics are fine for a budget gaming laptop, but $800 is too expensive for that market segment. Give it a few weeks and you'll probably be able to find a comparably configured A10-4600M based laptop that will get you comparable gaming performance for less than 2/3 of the power consumption (ignoring the monitor), and will be a lot cheaper, too.
Besides, the big complication on this thread is that the original poster is in Portugal, so he can't buy from New Egg or a lot of other sources, and may be restricted to buying from one particular shop.
It would still do him good to wait for the Trinity APUs coming to a town near him.
Yes, like Quizzical stated, i do live in portugal.
Anyway my initial problem is solved guys. I eventually decided to keep the asus laptop and save some money for a gaming desktop. Already got plans for a summer job so shouldn't be a problem getting some extra money before next fall.
Either way, thanks for the answers