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Is this a good buy? (laptop)
I need a laptop for college this year, and I also plan to game (EQ2, GW2 most likely). For the money, these are two of the best overall machines that I could find. I'm not looking to spend over $1,500 really.
Comments and suggestions welcomed!!
http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Xplorer_X6-9500_Gaming_Notebook/
http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=product_info&model_name=NP8150
Comments
something to think about here
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/1107853/
they are both good but 15.6 screen.. realy?? i would never buy a laptop if its not 17+ screen , but if u realy want 15.6 i would go with the NP8150
~The only opinion that matters is your own.Everything else is just advice,~
You haven't given any justification for why you'd want to spend $1500 on a gaming laptop. If you need a laptop, then get a laptop. If you need a gaming machine, then get a gaming desktop. Why do you need both in the same machine? You'd end up paying more in total for a gaming laptop that is inferior to either the gaming desktop or the cheap laptop at nearly everything. It's kind of like how, if you need a toaster and you also need a refrigerator, it doesn't follow that you need to find a single machine that can do both.
Now, if you do have some reason why you need a gaming laptop in particular, then we can look at your options there.
Really, I wouldn't get a laptop with a screen larger than 15.6", and I prefer the 13" models. But that's just me, I have a laptop because I need a computer to travel - a bigger screen just adds more weight and uses more power. If I'm doing something that absolutely needs a bigger screen, odds are a) I'm either at home or in the office and can just use a desktop, or b) I'm in a spot where I can hook it up to an external monitor (or more likely, a projector).
Not everyone needs a 17"+ monitor on a laptop. Especially in laptops, bigger isn't always better.
I don't understand your intended usage model. A GeForce GTX 560M alone has a TDP of around 70 W, for just the video card. Add a processor and the various other components and you could be looking at over 100 W of power draw under realistic gaming loads. The laptop likely can't do that at all on the battery, and even if it can, you'll be looking at something like half an hour of battery life. If you need good graphical performance on the go, then you'll have to have the laptop plugged into a wall wherever you're using it.
An alternative would be to get something like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834101253
That's got 240 shaders, 12 TMUs, and 8 ROPs, so it has decent enough graphical performance, and pretty much any game on the market will run well enough to be playable at moderately low settings. And it can do that on the battery just fine, and will have excellent battery life at idle.
And then you can spend the other $1000 on a gaming desktop with performance far greater than any laptop you could possibly find for under $1500.
If you really do need a gaming laptop, then try the Sager one you linked with the $65 upgrade to a Radeon HD 6970M. That goes over your budget a bit, but a Barts card is dramatically faster than GF116. The rest of the base specs of that unit look fine.
Nothing to think about here - that is not a real gaming PC and doesn't use half of his $1500 budget. OP isn't looking to get a $600 laptop, he's looking for the best gaming laptop for around $1500. It may be the latest and greatest from AMD but it's still integrated graphics and he is better off with either of the laptops he already chose.
Gonna go out on a limb here but usually when posters say they need a laptop for college they are implying that they want the portability that a laptop provides. If he wanted a gaming desktop he would have said so. $1500 will get him a perfectly fine gaming laptop and either one he chose is just fine for his intended purpose.
Screen size means nothing power wise compared to the dedicated cards in the laptops you chose. Those GPUs will suck the power. Either of the two PCs you chose are fine but they will last an hour tops on battery, 30 mins if you are gaming. Do like I do and keep your gaming laptop, which ever you buy, plugged in at ALL TIMES.
I don't usually post on here, but Sager notebooks are generally good deals. I have one of their 18.5" laptops. I recommend staying away from Radeon graphics cards though.
One of the major problems with those cheaper laptops is the graphics and LCDs. Look at the resolution.
And why not get a Radeon video card in a laptop? It's not 2009 anymore. AMD is way ahead of Nvidia in both performance per watt and performance per dollar for laptop graphics. What advantage is there to getting an Nvidia card anyway?
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"Gonna go out on a limb here but usually when posters say they need a laptop for college they are implying that they want the portability that a laptop provides."
If portability (whether weight or battery life) is the goal, then a $1500 gaming laptop is entirely the wrong class of product to be looking at, unless he needs to play games in a variety of different places and move around more often than is practical to move a desktop. Maybe things have changed since I was in college, but then, if I was going to play computer games, I did it in my dorm room.
Most of the people who think they would like to have a $1500 gaming laptop shouldn't get one. Maybe the original poster is an exception here. But I'd like some explanation of what he's going to do with it that requires a gaming laptop.
My architecture classes require that I have a higher-end laptop, and I also want to game. I do not have the money to buy both a laptop and a desktop that are capable of the programs that I will be running (structural rendering, etc. as well as MMO's).
P.S. If I am plugged in for hours at a time will these laptops overheat? Will this then affect the overall longevity of the machine? I plan to get a laptop cooling pad but they can probably only do so much. Thanks again everyone!
First, If all you plan on playing is GWII and EQII, I would just get a low end lap top and a decent gaming deskstop, with perhaps a slightly better GPU. I wouldn't but a really expensive laptop, but that is just me..
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If this helps, these are the minimum requirements for last year's architecture computers.
http://www.arch.utk.edu/docs/Computer_Purchase_2011.pdf
I wouldn't think that you need a computer, unless the campus has pushed that aspect onto the students. Normally there are plenty of computers available at anytime if you do not procrastinate. I would reccommend you purchase a nice desktop and a large flash drive instead of a laptop. There isn't a laptop on the market in your price range that will be fast enough to render your drawings efficiently.
Fall 2011 doesn't sound like "last year" to me. The minimum hardware requirements don't mention a video card at all, except to say 256 MB of video memory.
"My architecture classes require that I have a higher-end laptop"
If that's the case, then none of the laptops that they're selling will work. Most of them have graphical performance in the same ballpark as Llano integrated graphics. Radeon HD 6490M is the lowest end GPU chip of AMD's latest generation. GeForce GT 525M and GeForce GT 550M are a respin of the lowest end GPU chip of Nvidia's previous generation (not the current generation!). Quadro FX 880M is an old chip from two generations ago, that wasn't very good when it launched. That leaves the Radeon HD 6750M in the MacBook Pro that Tennessee-Knoxville will charge you nearly $3000 for as the only one with graphics substantially better than Radeon HD 6620G integrated graphics.
One thing that you should be aware of with gaming laptops is that they have very short battery life. If the classrooms are set up such that everyone brings a laptop to class and plugs it in while in class, then that will be fine. If you get a gaming laptop and try to use it in class on the battery, the battery might well be dead before a single class ends.
"If I am plugged in for hours at a time will these laptops overheat? Will this then affect the overall longevity of the machine? I plan to get a laptop cooling pad but they can probably only do so much. Thanks again everyone!"
One problem with gaming laptops is that they release too much heat in too little space. It is possible to cool it at the expense of the laptop making a lot of noise. But they do tend to get hot. If you aren't pretty zealous about cleaning out dust, they do tend to overheat. And yes, that does hurt the longevity of the machine.
One big advantage of Llano is that it avoids a lot of the problems intrinsic to gaming laptops. Low power consumption means little heat produced, so that it is less likely to overheat. It also means long battery life. It lets you avoid problems from the discrete switchable graphics not switching properly, like all of the laptops that Tennessee-Knoxville sells will probably be plagued with.
If you need Windows 7 Professional, then that adds substantially to the price tag, though.
Even so, I'm still not sure what your intended usage model is. It sounds like you might not be sure, either. But I still don't think a gaming laptop makes sense for you.
Unless you asboslutely HAVE to bring a computer (a laptop that runs efficiently for your work) to class because it's required, I'd go with getting a desktop for $900-$1000 and spending around $500, give or take, on a laptop. You could simply take notes and such with the laptop, and do your big work on your desktop.
EDIT: Well I just read the PDF you linked:
"We believe that the purchase of a laptop computer has proven to be an excellent
investment. Not only is it essential in the required computer course, but it is an
important tool in the design studio and in the upper level elective and required
courses. Access to your own hardware and software promotes independent learning
and experimentation on in your spare time. Also, many employers will not hire
entry level staff who lack a knowledge of computer aided design."
Sounds to me like they are just pushing the idea of having a laptop as a kind of "common trend". Unless they state you HAVE to bring one to class, and it HAS to run all your programs efficiently, I'd stick to getting a desktop and laptop separately.
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I agree with this: A laptop in class really only has to be good enough to take notes on and do whatever labs you have to do. That won't need a lot of horsepower. Even a light netbook can do some nominal design work, it just won't do it efficiently (say, when your with your study group or whatever). I would prioritize battery life and size/weight (you have to lug this thing, with books, to all your classes, but you want it big enough that it's comfortable to type on and see enough of your notes/design work)
Then when you need to get down to work on homework and heavy design, you'll have a nice, fast desktop that's easily upgradeable as you go through the coursework and need to (any machine you buy now as a Freshman, your almost certainly going to want/need to upgrade it by your Jr/Sr year).
The combination of a small, lightweight laptop for notes, and a solid desktop can be found within that $1500 budget and give you better flexibility and performance than any single laptop you could get for even $2000+.
So far, you're giving out a lot of contradictory information. You make it sound like you have the slightest clue what you're going to do with the laptop, but just want to get a gaming laptop and hope it works for whatever you decide to use it for later. There's a significant chance that it won't, and then you'll be stuck with a $1500 laptop that you have to use like a poor quality, overpriced desktop, and still have to go buy some other laptop for whatever you needed the laptop for in the first place.
So let's see if you know what you're going to use the laptop for. Where are you going to use it? In your dorm room? In a classroom? At your parents' house? On an airplane, train, or bus? Outside sitting on the grass?
Next, what are you going to use it for in each place? The demands of gaming are very different from the demands of e-mail and web browsing. Finally, will you have the option to plug it in in each place that you use the laptop, or will it have to run from the battery?
If you don't know how you're going to use it, then it's not possible to determine what you should get.
No it won't over heat just from remaining plugged in. Only scenario I could forsee causing an overheating episode would be if you gamed heavily while accidently blocking the airflow from escaping the exhaust. Also never use a laptop for gaming on any type of bedding that could combust.
Read all the posts before throwing in your suggestions, the OP already stated in his last post:
"My architecture classes require that I have a higher-end laptop, and I also want to game. I do not have the money to buy both a laptop and a desktop"
I'm sure the OP and most everyone on this forum undertsands the trade offs/benefits between laptops and desktops. Also never ever recommend a "low end laptop" to anyone who wants to play games.
On the contrary, either of those two laptops the OP originally chose will both game and render architectural drawings just fine.
ya ,If u travel ur good with smaller screen. i just prefer bigger screen since i play alot of game 26'' screen for my desktop and 50 for my xbox 360, would be very wierd for me to return to a very small screen, i would not stand it :P anyway we all have peference,
~The only opinion that matters is your own.Everything else is just advice,~