Laptop ~750

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Hi guys just come into ~750 pounds to spend on a laptop (nice!) however my knowledge of laptop specs is well non existent. plus the last desktop i spec'ed out was a while ago, could someone basically recommend a good laptop, focusing mainly on processor performance, i hear mobile i7 is all the rage?

some (just to play old games like rise of nations of something) graphics performance would be nice but dont go mad :)

also things like good battery life, nice sized screen and well know make would be desirable to me also

Thanks
 
If you go i7, you sacrifice batteries (no switchable graphics). You'll have to wait for the i7-620UM, but then you might as well try to find a i5 laptop.

So basically, you'll be looking at i5, and mid-range switchable graphics card (NVIDIA GT310M -> GT335M, ATI HD5470 -> HD5650), and 55wh battery or more. That's my personnal recommendation, but a lot of these laptops haven't made it it the UK yet.

A list of i5-optimus laptops

Asus N61JV
Acer 3820TG (the whole timeline X series).
the new HP pavilion line (dm4t and so on).
Lenovo Y460
 
Yeah, I've got the i7 720 and I can only get just over an hour of battery life out of my HP. Very disappointing. I'm not sure the performance is worth it either.
 
Dell is currently building me a custom laptop,

-Intel® Core™ i5-520M (2.4GHz, 4 Threads, turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz, 3MB cache)
-4096MB 1067MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
-1GB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5650 Graphics Card
-500GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
-Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit- English
-DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD) with DVD Burn software
-Intel® Wireless LAN 6200 2x2 802.11a/b/g/n card (EUR)
-1 year Collect & Return Hardware Support included with your PC
-Primary 6-cell 56 WHr Lithium Ion battery
-2.0 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera
-17.3" Full High Definition (1920x1080) LED with TL

came to about £830 (including dells £194 discount) add 10% discount voucher + quidco cashback and i got it for a smidge over £690, fits the bill with spare cash for a mouse and backlit keybard :D
 
Oh dear.... I thought they underclocked to extend battery life?

They do, there's a lot of power saving tech under the bonnet but it's still pants. I guess having a beefier battery might help. The one I got with it isn't very large.

There are plenty of i5 laptops around though, and tbh I'm not sure anyone really needs a quad in a laptop.
 
ROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i5-540M (2.53Ghz, 4 Thread, turbo boost up to 3.06 GHz, 3MB cache) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit- English ed
LCD 15.6" High Definition (1366x768) WLED edit
MEMORY 4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048] edit
HARD DRIVE 500GB (5400RPM) Serial ATA Hard Drive edit
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 6-cell 56 WHr Lithium Ion battery edit
KEYBOARD Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Keyboard edit
GRAPHICS CARD 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5470 Graphics Card
OPTICAL DRIVE DVD +/- RW Drive (read/write CD & DVD) with DVD Burn software
WEB CAM 2.0 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera
Cables 1 Meter Power Cord (3 Wire) - UK

just got this quote from dell they want £730, good deal?

im a little confused with this new i5, i heard it has some kinda fusion gfx thing but in the spec there is an ati card whats that all about?
 
intergrated graphics into the chip (someone else will explain better) but dedicated graphics > intergrated graphics
 
It's what switchable graphics are about. You have integrated graphics in the CPU chip for when you want battery life but not require graphics performance, and then 'optimus' (for NVIDIA) or 'switchable graphics' (for ATI) will turn on the dedicated graphics card automatically for games and such.

So, you get a lot less power draw on the internal graphics at the cost of poor 3D performance, and powerful graphics with the dedicated graphics card at the cost of poor battery life. You just can't get both at the same time :)

That's as far as technology is capable at this moment. While you play games on a switchable graphics setup, you'l still have relatively poor battery life (about 2 hours), but you get much better battery life when you don't need the GPU for browsing and watching videos on the go.

The previous technology (say, the Asus UL30VT) required the user to switch the graphics manually. The UL30VT also had a crude turbo boost that would overclock the CPU up to 33% also manually. You had to restart the laptop for underclocking or overclocking. Now it's just done automatically on the i5/i7/i3.

The HD 5650 has a TDP of 15=20 watts, which is pretty impresive for the performance you get. But 15 watts on a 55WH battery (plus CPUm about 20 watts) gives you under 2 hours battery life.

With the integrated GPU and the underclocked CPU alone and the dedicated GPU turned off, you get about 12 watts consumption, which would give you 4+ hours battery life. :)

The 4570 TDP is about 10-15 watts, so you get a bit more battery life for gaming but don't expect miracles. However, the 5650 is over twice the performance, which makes the 5650 very attractive.

The GT335M is just under the 5650 for performance / TDP, and the 320m is just above the 4570 and the 310M. That should help you make a decision.
 
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i've bought a sony e-series for £758 which has what i'm told is a good gpu, a cpu, 6gb of ram, and the lower of the 2 screen res. only 3 hours battery but maybe that can be improved by someone who knows how. looking forward to receiving it as first laptop in a long time and first brand new one ever :) worth having a look imo
 
I don't quite understand why you went for a 17'' and you want battery life. Battery life for me = mobility, and a 17'' is pretty heavy and cumbersome. But it should perform ok, I'd say about 3.5-4 hours light use maybe a bit more. The i5 should be powerful enough for anything, and the graphics card should cope well with previous gen games (half life 2, things like that). It will be stretched for newer games, like Mass Effect 2, Battlefield 2, but playable.
 
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