[Socom]

Hey OCN, it's about that time for me to pick up a laptop for college. Before you read the list below I don't want to hear anything about just buying a cheaper laptop and upgrading my desktop. My desktop is fine (775 ftw

)

What is your maximum budget? $1300 max, $1200 preferably.

What country are you in? USA

What will be the uses of this laptop? School work (Astronautical Engineering Major), Gaming on the side (demanding stuff, such as WoW, Crysis 2, BC3, Skyrim, etc)

Do you have brand loyalty or care which brands we select for you? Open to anything

What screen size do you require? 17" preferably

What screen resolution do you require? 1600x900 minimum, 1920x1080 would be cherry

Are you looking to buy NEW or would refurbished/recertified/used be okay? New preferably

How long should the battery last? (Under optimal conditions, no movies/games/heavy internet) Don't care

What games would you like to play with your laptop? And on what settings? Maxed out. Crysis 2, BC3, Skyrim, WoW

What operating system do you need? (if any) Win7 64 bit

Is there a certain style of laptop you want? (aluminum, black, gaming, etc.) Gaming?

How much hard drive space do you need? 500gb minimum

Do you need any special hardware? (blue ray, webcam, specialty ports, etc.) 1 USB 3.0 would be nice.

Is there anything else we need to know? Nope.

I was looking at the Asus G74SX-BBK7, Seemed like the best bang for the buck. The only downside was the resolution. The 1tb (2x500GB 7200 RPM, Probably RAID capable) is nice

Any input? I'm open to any suggestions.

Thanks for any help/input.

 

[mbudden]

http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.p...el_name=NP8130

Though 15", & 1,299$.

 

[Socom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbudden http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.p...el_name=NP8130 Though 15", & 1,299$.

I'm not seeing how its better than the ASUS? It seems like I would be paying $100 more for -500gb space, no RAID, and a 1920x1080 resolution 15" screen where the icons would be microscopic at that res, that is backordered. Thanks for the post though, I'll keep it in consideration.

 

[mbudden]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Socom I'm not seeing how its better than the ASUS? It seems like I would be paying $100 more for -500gb space, no RAID, and a 1920x1080 resolution 15" screen where the icons would be microscopic at that res, that is backordered. Thanks for the post though, I'll keep it in consideration.

Which ASUS? The G73?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834230028

Not sure how much better the 560M is over the 460M.
The ASUS is a fine choice though.

 

[Socom]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mbudden Which ASUS? The G73? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834230028 Not sure how much better the 560M is over the 460M. The ASUS is a fine choice though.

No the G74. G74

 

[Ben the OCer]

My take on laptops is that they should be decently portable to be useable unless they are never leaving the desk and then you might as well get a desktop. The Asus G74 weighs close to 10lbs (9.4lbs to be exact) and it's 2.4" thick. I really don't see why you need such a powerful laptop unless you want to completely replace your desktop.

As a college student myself I would highly recommend getting a more portable laptop in the 14" size range or below. Your backpack will start to feel like a ton of bricks with the 9.4lbs Asus G74. I went a very different route with my school laptop. I got an 11.6" MacBook Air that weighs 2.3lbs and is 0.11-0.68" thick. I liked a lot about the MacBook Air and wanted to try out a Mac. So far it has worked great for me. I can barely tell that it's even in my backpack at all. I didn't buy it to really game on but it can run Portal 2 decently. The uses I did buy it for it does with ease like note taking, paper writing, and Internet Surfing on the go. My desktop with a Dell 30" U3011 2560x1600 IPS LCD, Phenom II X6 1055T, and HD6850 takes care of the rest.

Still, if you want a very powerful laptop I'd go for the HP Envy 17. It's pretty close to the Asus G74 when it comes to specs but it is thinner and more portable. Amazon has one with an i7-2630QM, 6GB DDR3, HD6850M 1GB, 17.3" 1920x1080 LCD, 2x500GB HDDs, and slot load Blu-Ray Player/DVD Burner for


$1399.99
. This machine also qualifies for Microsoft's

free Xbox 360 4GB
student offer. It weighs 7.25lbs and is 1.25"-1.52" thick with the included 6-cell battery installed (obviously if you install the included 9-cell battery it adds weight and sticks out of the bottom a decent amount, and that is right it includes two batteries).

Well that's my take on everything. I hope it helps. In the end you know what's best for you. All I can do is suggest what I think will fit you based on your requirements. Have a good one man and I hope college goes smooth for you.

 

[Socom]

Thanks for the input man. The envy is nice looking but is a bit too pricey for me. And the main reason that I want a powerful laptop is so that I can leave my desktop in my dorm when I come home on the weekends and still play games with my friends at home (College is ~half an hour from my house). Hopefully college will be smooth for me, I took some classes at my community college during senior year so hopefully that helps a little. I'm keeping all options in mind, I still have some time to buy one

 

[Ben the OCer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Socom Thanks for the input man. The envy is nice looking but is a bit too pricey for me. And the main reason that I want a powerful laptop is so that I can leave my desktop in my dorm when I come home on the weekends and still play games with my friends at home (College is ~half an hour from my house). Hopefully college will be smooth for me, I took some classes at my community college during senior year so hopefully that helps a little. I'm keeping all options in mind, I still have some time to buy one

No problem, I'm happy to put my 2 cents in. Your requirements make a lot of sense now. I live at home while going to college but I totally understand your situation. It's nice you are only 30 minutes from home. I took courses at a community college when I was in high school as well. Then I went to a community college for a couple years. Last year I transferred to a four year college to finish up my Network Administration degree but I still commute and live at home. I have about one year left till I get my bachelors degree.

I understand where your coming from about the price but it might appear to be more over budget than it really is. When you figure it out it's actually very close in price to the Asus G74. When you figure in tax the Asus G74 costs $1271.99 (sales tax is 6% in Maryland if my Googling has served me right). You don't pay tax for the HP Envy 17 since it's sold online by Amazon (and you have no warehouse in your state) and you get the free Xbox 360 that you could resell for $150-$200 probably pretty easily (see more info here). So the HP Envy 17 would be about $1250 or less depending how much you sold the Xbox 360 for.