Need help picking a new laptop

Ryanfftl · 26 Dec 2014 at 22:59

Hey, I've recently sold my MacBook Pro 2009 and am now looking for my next laptop. I've been searching for a while but there are so many to choice from.
The main features I want the laptop to include are:

Decent ability with working with music (I produce music in Fl studio and my old mac just couldn't keep up)

Can handle gaming okay

Nice build quality (not that cheap tacky plastic stuff)

Backlit keyboard, whilst not completely needed it's always been a nice feature I like to have so I can work in crappy lit places

No screen size less than 15.6"

Portable

And the last I thought I should mention is my budget.
I have around £500-600 / $780- $930 to spend and I also don't mind buying a used laptop

Thanks in advance,
Ryan

thepharcyde · 27 Dec 2014 at 11:17

Lenovo Y500/510p 2nd hand. Y500 has a GT650m/750m and the Y510 has GT750m both of which support SLI with an additional card via ultrabay.

My 500 o/c to 1150mhz GPU SLI and plays anything that's thrown at it high/ultra re gaming.

Only budget a SSD drive as the 1TB that comes with them both is slow unless it has the 16GB SSD boot paralell with the 1TB

There are a few on the bay, however a lot seem to be USA sourced.

Ryanfftl · 27 Dec 2014 at 13:07

thepharcyde said:
Lenovo Y500/510p 2nd hand. Y500 has a GT650m/750m and the Y510 has GT750m both of which support SLI with an additional card via ultrabay.

My 500 o/c to 1150mhz GPU SLI and plays anything that's thrown at it high/ultra re gaming.

Only budget a SSD drive as the 1TB that comes with them both is slow unless it has the 16GB SSD boot paralell with the 1TB

There are a few on the bay, however a lot seem to be USA sourced.

Thanks for the response, the Y500 has been among the huge list I've been watching, haha. I will check out the others also.

I've also seen a lot of Lenovo with the AMD A10, any idea how that compares to the i5 or i7?

rik1301 · 27 Dec 2014 at 13:14

Ryanfftl said:
Thanks for the response, the Y500 has been among the huge list I've been watching, haha. I will check out the others also.

I've also seen a lot of Lenovo with the AMD A10, any idea how that compares to the i5 or i7?

"Nice build quality (not that cheap tacky plastic stuff)"

Unless they've drastically improved things since the T500 then you definitely don't want a Lenovo if you don't want "cheap tacky plastic stuff". The plastics on this are absolutely horrid with some rough/sharp edges. On the plus side it has been 100% reliable.

Ryanfftl · 27 Dec 2014 at 13:16

rik1301 said:
"Nice build quality (not that cheap tacky plastic stuff)"

Unless they've drastically improved things since the T500 then you definitely don't want a Lenovo if you don't want "cheap tacky plastic stuff". The plastics on this are absolutely horrid with some rough/sharp edges. On the plus side it has been 100% reliable.

Hmmm, okay. So what do you recommend getting?

Ryanfftl · 27 Dec 2014 at 13:28

I've heard a lot of good things from HP Elitebooks, any clue how they are?

and also the The Dell Inspiron 15 series

MagicBoy · 27 Dec 2014 at 13:34

rik1301 said:
"Nice build quality (not that cheap tacky plastic stuff)"

Unless they've drastically improved things since the T500 then you definitely don't want a Lenovo if you don't want "cheap tacky plastic stuff". The plastics on this are absolutely horrid with some rough/sharp edges. On the plus side it has been 100% reliable.

The T500 is from 2008 and it's a business ThinkPad. The entire point is that they're indestructible in normal use, and look like a monolith. Quite a lot of the cheap tacky plastic is magnesium alloy!