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Shopping for a laptop looking for some advice

post #1 of 7
5/25/12 at 7:34pm
Thread Starter 
Picking up a mid to high end laptop.

Although it won't be used for gaming I want it to be fairly powerful.


Requirements:

Backlit keyboard - A must

PC based win7 - No mac products

15" screen or higher

DVD/ drive

quad core intel processor

minimum 4 GB RAM

at least 500gb hard drive

would prefer an aluminum exterior

decent to good battery life


Budget around $1400 but will go higher if there is a benefit.

No HP or Acer


All suggestions welcome!
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post #2 of 7
5/26/12 at 10:02am
IMO, the Samsung NP700Z7C is the nicest high-end 17" laptop.

$1400 in the US, but sadly I don't see it on any Canada sites :/ . There's a Samsung NP700G7C (gaming edition) for about $1900, complete overkill though, and you'd be better off paying import duties.
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-Series-NP700Z7C-S01US-17-3-Inch-Laptop/dp/B006MX0WPW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338049499&sr=8-1
http://forum.notebookreview.com/samsung/660337-new-samsung-series-7-np700z7c-s01us-laptop-i7-3615qm-650m-review.html

Samsung NP700Z5A is another good choice, only thing is it has a 1600x900 15" screen instead of 17" 1080p, Sandy Bridge i7 quad, and slower graphics. http://ncix.com/products/?sku=67868

Only other laptops in the 15", maybe 17" high-end category with an aluminum chassis, perhaps Asus N53 or N56, but the design isn't nearly as clean, and the chassis has a tray-load DVD drive, and some plastic or painted aluminum, not sure which.
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post #3 of 7
5/26/12 at 10:08am
wait for AMD trinity dual graphic laptops to drop. I'm still using a overclocked t9600 in my laptop and it has more then enough CPU power. Trinity is built to be a more balanced system. Giving you plenty of CPU power and GPU power when you need it, Game are not the only thing that will you your gpu.
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post #4 of 7
5/26/12 at 10:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by DzillaXx View Post

wait for AMD trinity dual graphic laptops to drop. I'm still using a overclocked t9600 in my laptop and it has more then enough CPU power. Trinity is built to be a more balanced system. Giving you plenty of CPU power and GPU power when you need it, Game are not the only thing that will you your gpu.

AMD Trinity will be a good product, but I'd never recommend it in a $1000+ system. A10-4600M will be a lot slower than Ivy Bridge i5's in single-threaded, and not much faster (if at all) in multi-threaded. Needless to say, they don't come close to an i7 quad. And there's the issue of finding a high-end AMD system, anyway. There's not a single high-end Llano laptop, same will probably apply for Trinity if you exclude Ultrathins.
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1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 250 GB WD Caviar Black Samsung 20X DVD-R/RW Thermaltake MaxOrb 
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Toshiba Portege R835-P50X
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Lanbox Lite
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Hard DriveOSMonitorCase
640GB Hitachi HDD Windows 7 13.3" LCD Magnesium Alloy, 3.2lbs 
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Phenom II X4 955 BE Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-UD2H MSI Hawk R5770 3x2GB G.Skill DDR2 800 4-4-4-12 
Hard DriveHard DriveOptical DriveCooling
1TB Samsung Spinpoint F3 250 GB WD Caviar Black Samsung 20X DVD-R/RW Thermaltake MaxOrb 
CoolingOSMonitorPower
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post #5 of 7
5/26/12 at 10:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jrbroad77 View Post

AMD Trinity will be a good product, but I'd never recommend it in a $1000+ system. A10-4600M will be a lot slower than Ivy Bridge i5's in single-threaded, and not much faster (if at all) in multi-threaded. Needless to say, they don't come close to an i7 quad. And there's the issue of finding a high-end AMD system, anyway. There's not a single high-end Llano laptop, same will probably apply for Trinity if you exclude Ultrathins.

I was just trying to say he may not need all of that. Sure you can get a mobile i7 and have a lot of Mobile CPU power. For for the CPU heavy tasks it would be more efficient just to use a desktop then a laptop if you already have the desktop. Dual Graphic Trinity can already run BF3 at a playable level, while still giving you plenty of multi threading performance. For single thread power, desktops will always continue to be the best ways to go. Those AMD Sleekbook/Ultra Thin with 7+ hours of battery life and i3-i5 like performance.

Though for $1400 you will get a much better Intel + gpu setup then you would with a $800 trinity setup. But when your just browsing the web, and other simple things the trinity offers great value to someone wanting a well balanced system for less. I am temped to get one myself when they drop, as the gtx260m in my laptop gets SUPER HOT.
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HAF922 Logitech G500 Creative Sound Blaster Z  Klipsch Synergy B-20 & Dayton Audio B652 (rear)... 
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Q9550 @ 4GHZ Gigabyte EP45 UD3P GTX465 OCZ Reaper 1150 
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MonitorKeyboardPowerCase
Vizio VL370M Logitech K400 Corsair CX500 nMEDIAPC 6000B 
AudioOtherOtherOther
Yamaha HTR-5063 Xbox 360 Elite  PS3 80GB BC PS3 with 250GB hard drive. Polk Audio Monitor 60s Bi-AMP Front 
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Polk Audio Monitor 30s Rear Polk Audio CS1 Center Polk Audio PSW10 
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The RED Beast
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HTPC
(19 items)
 
SUPERMICRO SYS-5015A-H
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Intel Core i7 920 @ 4.3GHZ Lapped Intel DX58SO 2x Nvidia GTX470 850/1700/1900 SLI with swiftec... Mushkin Enhanced Redline 12GB @ 1600mhz 7-9-8-24 
Hard DriveHard DriveCoolingOS
3x 640 WD blacks Raid 0 Samsung 470 Series 128GB SSD XSPC Raystorm Windows 8 64bit 
MonitorMonitorKeyboardPower
PLANAR SA2311W Acer G245HQ Logitech G110 TX850 
CaseMouseAudioAudio
HAF922 Logitech G500 Creative Sound Blaster Z  Klipsch Synergy B-20 & Dayton Audio B652 (rear)... 
AudioAudio
Yamaha HTR-5640 Audio Technica ATH-A700 headphones 
View all
CPUMotherboardGraphicsRAM
Q9550 @ 4GHZ Gigabyte EP45 UD3P GTX465 OCZ Reaper 1150 
Hard DriveOptical DriveCoolingOS
Western Digital Blue 500gb LG Bluray Corsair H50 Windows 7 Home Premium  
MonitorKeyboardPowerCase
Vizio VL370M Logitech K400 Corsair CX500 nMEDIAPC 6000B 
AudioOtherOtherOther
Yamaha HTR-5063 Xbox 360 Elite  PS3 80GB BC PS3 with 250GB hard drive. Polk Audio Monitor 60s Bi-AMP Front 
OtherOtherOther
Polk Audio Monitor 30s Rear Polk Audio CS1 Center Polk Audio PSW10 
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post #6 of 7
5/26/12 at 2:10pm
I don't know what the average opinion of dell is on the forum but for my linux learning I've been looking at a XPS 17. For decent gaming performance a customized one came out around 1500 bucks before shipping & tax. That was with a 1080p screen. Not sure if it was aluminum or not though, it looks like it but probably isn't.

www.dell.com for that.

Another option is lenovo, I know alot of people like those. But I havn't put one together to get a price range.

www.lenovo.com
Edited by Tadaen Sylvermane - 5/26/12 at 2:17pm
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post #7 of 7
5/27/12 at 11:00am
might want to take a look a clevo/sager p150em or p170em both might be able to configure to around 1500 just make sure you shop around cause i think you might even have a reseller in canada but i think he the brand he has is called eurocom all the same though
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