Recommend me a new Laptop

Caporegime
Joined
7 Apr 2008
Posts
25,773
Location
Lorville - Hurston
Hi. can anybody recommend me a new laptop around the 500-700 price bracket please?

The following things i will use it for are:

  • Bit of gaming(Rift, Pro evo 2011, fallout new vegas)
  • Programming
  • Photoshop
  • watching HD movies
  • Video chat using skype
  • Web browsing



so far i found this from samsung http://www.trustedreviews.com/laptops/review/2010/03/25/Samsung-R580-JS02UK---15-6in-Laptop/p1 and this from toshiba http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe....llite-Pro-L650-1CG/1090498/toshibaShop/false/

both look decent for my needs. I am trying to stay away from acer as i have had two acer laptops and both suffered from various reliablity issues.

i have heard both samsung and toshiba offer better reliability?

thanks in advance.
 
I think you should wait for a month more.

The 310m on the samsung will struggle with the games. The 5650 less so, but im pretty sure you could pick up a dell XPS from the outlet for around 500 to 600 that will have a decent card for the gaming as well as a i5/i7 processor.
 
I think you should wait for a month more.

The 310m on the samsung will struggle with the games. The 5650 less so, but im pretty sure you could pick up a dell XPS from the outlet for around 500 to 600 that will have a decent card for the gaming as well as a i5/i7 processor.

why wait a month or more? i need one before end of next week. my current laptops screwed after i tried applying new thermal paste on it!
 
why wait a month or more? i need one before end of next week. my current laptops screwed after i tried applying new thermal paste on it!

Sorry, should have said :)

I think prices might get a little better when the sandybridge laptops come back out, but if you need it now then it doesnt matter :)

I think some of the cheapest sandy laptops will almost be within budget though.
 

I assume that would be good for Warcraft? I've a mate who's in the market for a gaming laptop, Warcraft is all he plays currently but would like to check some other stuff out when his sub expires.

His budget happens to be £700.

What type of other games would this run "reasonably" or rather playably.... Modern Warfare? Crysis 2?
 
Performance would be roughly equivalent to a budget gaming desktop (i3 + HD5770). So yeah, it'll play Warcraft, COD, WC2, BFBC2...

For under a grand, performance-wise, you'll be hard pressed to find a better laptop. Maybe a i7, but the GPU is good.
 
Looking at the tech specs :

Sandybridge
HM67
GT550M
touchscreen Option
3D panel option

The other is older generation Core processors, GT425M and so on.

I'd take the updated version, It looks more powerful.
 
I assume that would be good for Warcraft? I've a mate who's in the market for a gaming laptop, Warcraft is all he plays currently but would like to check some other stuff out when his sub expires.

His budget happens to be £700.

What type of other games would this run "reasonably" or rather playably.... Modern Warfare? Crysis 2?

I would think it would run all the games in your list med if not the high the 5870 is one of the best single gpu cards about for a laptop. I ve got a GT660 and it handles pretty much anything I throw at it and I belive the GX740 with its better gfx card will as well.

5870 bench marks

http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5870.23073.0.html
 
Looking at the tech specs :

Sandybridge
HM67
GT550M
touchscreen Option
3D panel option

The other is older generation Core processors, GT425M and so on.

I'd take the updated version, It looks more powerful.

i have to wait 12 days minimum :( for delivery. thats harsh. does dell charge you the day you make a purchase?
 
Sorry for hijacking OP, but I myself am thinking of ordering a XPS 17" with the GT550m but was wondering, would I see a big difference from going to the base i5 from i3?, also will the 550m play most (not Crysis or Metro lol) games smoothly with settings at high'ish?, or is the 3GB GT555m worth the extra cash?
 
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Difficult to say without reviews, but the GT 550M looks more brute-force than the GT 555M. Higher clock speed, less shaders, smaller memory bandwidth, probably will overheat more readily. I don't know which one would fare better for high res screens, I suspect the 555. The 550 looks better at home with lower resolutions.

I would get a i5 too. the i3 is clocked at 2.10GHz, which is rather low. The i5 can turbo boost to 3GHz. That would be a better match up for the GT555M, which is, gaming to reasonable standards.

If you want an example of the capabilities of a medium-power notebook graphics card, look up the GT 445M, the 555M seems to be a rebadged version of the 445M.

The GT445M plays BF2 on High at 40 fps, and COD MW2 and black ops on high at over 50 fps.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-445M.35835.0.html

the GT 555M would be marginally better.
 
Difficult to say without reviews, but the GT 550M looks more brute-force than the GT 555M. Higher clock speed, less shaders, smaller memory bandwidth, probably will overheat more readily. I don't know which one would fare better for high res screens, I suspect the 555. The 550 looks better at home with lower resolutions.

I would get a i5 too. the i3 is clocked at 2.10GHz, which is rather low. The i5 can turbo boost to 3GHz. That would be a better match up for the GT555M, which is, gaming to reasonable standards.

If you want an example of the capabilities of a medium-power notebook graphics card, look up the GT 445M, the 555M seems to be a rebadged version of the 445M.

The GT445M plays BF2 on High at 40 fps, and COD MW2 and black ops on high at over 50 fps.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-445M.35835.0.html

the GT 555M would be marginally better.

Cheers for that, but I ended up getting a good deal on a 15" XPS last night with the i7-740m, and 2GB GT 435m
 
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