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Forums - PC Discussion - Laptop selection assistance!

Baalzamon on 26 January 2011
Soleron said:

You should probably wait for Sandy Bridge-based laptops to appear sometime this quarter.

Don't go for a current quad-core i7 because the battery life will be abysmal.

For gaming you need a discrete graphics card, preferably a Mobility 5650 (AMD) or GT 335M (Nvidia) or above, but not too good or battery life will again suffer. Fine balance there.

Office Depot in central Minnesota had in their local flyer for $900 a Toshiba with the 2630QM like a week ago...it said you may need to special order for certain locations, but still said that its available, so no you don't need to wait.



Money can't buy happiness. Just video games, which make me happy.

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Baalzamon on 26 January 2011
xeroxm3 said:
Baalzamon said:
trasharmdsister12 said:

I've had an Asus laptop for 3 years and it has been on for weeks at a time (not sleep mode... but actually ON and running). I also had the screen crack in my bag and a hard drive failure at one point and ASUS's warranty and customer service was actually really good on timing and service. It was honestly the least hastle I've ever had getting a piece of tech re-worked by a major company (well.. tied with my RROD'd 360).

I'd recommend ASUS for sure and tell you to stay away from Acer, Dell, HP, MSI and Toshiba. I'd also recommend Lenovo. Although the Thinkpad brand has diluted since moving from IBM to Lenovo, they're still very well spec'd machines with excellent damage prevention measures and great design (well.. I'm a really vanilla guy so I like the design) for reasonable prices.

I don't get why everybody says there is something wrong with Toshiba, what is wrong with it?  If you read the article I linked in my previous post, you will see Toshibas are actually very reliable machines.

I think the only problems I've heard people complain about are heat issues. My friend got an ASUS notebook because his Toshiba always ran too hot when he was playing HoN.

Oh, well I've heard a little bit about that.  Overall, my computer stays relatively cool, but if you feel by the fan, there is usually a LOT of heat coming out of it, so I just make sure I don't block it at all and have had 0 problems.

Edit: And to be completely honest, my dad's older Sony Vaio gets a lot hotter than my Toshiba does.



Money can't buy happiness. Just video games, which make me happy.

PullusPardus on 26 January 2011
Baalzamon said:
pacman91 said:
PullusPardus said:

Whatever you do, avoid Toshiba and MSI laptops.

Interesting. My Toshiba has treated me well.  Fairly cheap and depending on the model can handle quite a bit of gaming.

Yea, he doesn't know what he's talking about.  Toshiba is the 2nd most reliable laptop brand there is:

http://blog.squaretrade.com/2009/11/study-finds-one-in-three-laptops-fail-within-three-years.html

Plus, for $900, you can usually get a really nice Toshiba.  In August, I got one with 1.6 GHz i7 and a 1 gb geforce 300 something graphics card which has done nothing but impress me, 4 gb ram, 500 gb hard drive for $900.  Now, the new model is out with a 2.0 GHz i7, a little better graphics card, 6 gb ram, 750 gb hard drive for $900 around here...I would suggest nothing but a Toshiba.

no i know what i am talking about, Toshiba failed me twice.....



poroporo on 26 January 2011

My reasoning is this:

All laptops WILL eventually break on you and then cost a ridiculous amount of money to repair. So, two strategies:

1) Go for something that has a 3-year warranty (Asus, etc.)

2)  Buy the cheapest laptop there is (i.e. Acer) and deal with it when it breaks

Also, desktop PCs are not very future-proof, but laptops are even less future-proof. It doesn't make much sense to buy a monster, thinking it will last you a long time. It won't.



Baalzamon on 26 January 2011
PullusPardus said:
Baalzamon said:
pacman91 said:
PullusPardus said:

Whatever you do, avoid Toshiba and MSI laptops.

Interesting. My Toshiba has treated me well.  Fairly cheap and depending on the model can handle quite a bit of gaming.

Yea, he doesn't know what he's talking about.  Toshiba is the 2nd most reliable laptop brand there is:

http://blog.squaretrade.com/2009/11/study-finds-one-in-three-laptops-fail-within-three-years.html

Plus, for $900, you can usually get a really nice Toshiba.  In August, I got one with 1.6 GHz i7 and a 1 gb geforce 300 something graphics card which has done nothing but impress me, 4 gb ram, 500 gb hard drive for $900.  Now, the new model is out with a 2.0 GHz i7, a little better graphics card, 6 gb ram, 750 gb hard drive for $900 around here...I would suggest nothing but a Toshiba.

no i know what i am talking about, Toshiba failed me twice.....

Well thats just plain unlucky, lmao...the funny thing is that we have never had a main computer of ours fail, laptop or desktop.  The only one that did we were messing around with and we wound up wrecking it when we were unplugged it and plugged it back in.  I really wonder what people do to their stuff that it fails on them that much.



Money can't buy happiness. Just video games, which make me happy.

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poroporo on 26 January 2011
Baalzamon said:
PullusPardus said:
Baalzamon said:
pacman91 said:
PullusPardus said:

Whatever you do, avoid Toshiba and MSI laptops.

Interesting. My Toshiba has treated me well.  Fairly cheap and depending on the model can handle quite a bit of gaming.

Yea, he doesn't know what he's talking about.  Toshiba is the 2nd most reliable laptop brand there is:

http://blog.squaretrade.com/2009/11/study-finds-one-in-three-laptops-fail-within-three-years.html

Plus, for $900, you can usually get a really nice Toshiba.  In August, I got one with 1.6 GHz i7 and a 1 gb geforce 300 something graphics card which has done nothing but impress me, 4 gb ram, 500 gb hard drive for $900.  Now, the new model is out with a 2.0 GHz i7, a little better graphics card, 6 gb ram, 750 gb hard drive for $900 around here...I would suggest nothing but a Toshiba.

no i know what i am talking about, Toshiba failed me twice.....

Well thats just plain unlucky, lmao...the funny thing is that we have never had a main computer of ours fail, laptop or desktop.  The only one that did we were messing around with and we wound up wrecking it when we were unplugged it and plugged it back in.  I really wonder what people do to their stuff that it fails on them that much.

The problem with laptops is that people carry them around, bump them on tables or against walls, use them in dusty areas, drop their coffee or wine on it, etc.

Laptops are very accident-prone and sensitive to heat, dust, liquids, etc.



PullusPardus on 26 January 2011
Baalzamon said:
PullusPardus said:
Baalzamon said:
pacman91 said:
PullusPardus said:

Whatever you do, avoid Toshiba and MSI laptops.

Interesting. My Toshiba has treated me well.  Fairly cheap and depending on the model can handle quite a bit of gaming.

Yea, he doesn't know what he's talking about.  Toshiba is the 2nd most reliable laptop brand there is:

http://blog.squaretrade.com/2009/11/study-finds-one-in-three-laptops-fail-within-three-years.html

Plus, for $900, you can usually get a really nice Toshiba.  In August, I got one with 1.6 GHz i7 and a 1 gb geforce 300 something graphics card which has done nothing but impress me, 4 gb ram, 500 gb hard drive for $900.  Now, the new model is out with a 2.0 GHz i7, a little better graphics card, 6 gb ram, 750 gb hard drive for $900 around here...I would suggest nothing but a Toshiba.

no i know what i am talking about, Toshiba failed me twice.....

Well thats just plain unlucky, lmao...the funny thing is that we have never had a main computer of ours fail, laptop or desktop.  The only one that did we were messing around with and we wound up wrecking it when we were unplugged it and plugged it back in.  I really wonder what people do to their stuff that it fails on them that much.

Lol, well i'm a heavy Laptop user, i carry it all the time and use it on almost everything even games, i've used a lot as well, Acer was Ace (no pun intended) , Samsung, Sony, HP are great, LG was fantastic (and looks great as well!) , MAC is okay though overpriced .... what else is there?

i've used Toshiba twice, and the first one had hard time doing simple stuff , (like WMM) and kept overheating, the second one kept having it's battery fail (at first it was okay, then the battery can't last for more than an hour)

as for MSI it was dead on arrival , its noisy and its horrible at doing the simplest things....



Soleron on 26 January 2011
Baalzamon said:
...

Office Depot in central Minnesota had in their local flyer for $900 a Toshiba with the 2630QM like a week ago...it said you may need to special order for certain locations, but still said that its available, so no you don't need to wait.


Good find. I don't know what the battery life of SB quads is compared to the previous ones, I would only get it if it is significantly improved.



Baalzamon on 26 January 2011
PullusPardus said:

 

Lol, well i'm a heavy Laptop user, i carry it all the time and use it on almost everything even games, i've used a lot as well, Acer was Ace (no pun intended) , Samsung, Sony, HP are great, LG was fantastic (and looks great as well!) , MAC is okay though overpriced .... what else is there?

i've used Toshiba twice, and the first one had hard time doing simple stuff , (like WMM) and kept overheating, the second one kept having it's battery fail (at first it was okay, then the battery can't last for more than an hour)

as for MSI it was dead on arrival , its noisy and its horrible at doing the simplest things....

I see.  My battery lasts a little over an hour, and with eco mode, a little longer yet, but I've never been impressed with battery length on laptops, unless you buy a heavier duty battery than what you can generally get in stores.



Money can't buy happiness. Just video games, which make me happy.

Strategyking92 on 26 January 2011

If you value portability, the M11x is nice it has around 5 hours battery life, and very portable (from what i've heard anyway). Asus laptops are a lot better if you are looking to get more bang for your buck though. I have a G51J and it's been awesome, not counting the glitchy BIOS I waited until now to fully patch It can play almost any game on high/very high, so it suits my needs.



And that's the only thing I need is *this*. I don't need this or this. Just this PS4... And this gaming PC. - The PS4 and the Gaming PC and that's all I need... And this Xbox 360. - The PS4, the Gaming PC, and the Xbox 360, and that's all I need... And these PS3's. - The PS4, and these PS3's, and the Gaming PC, and the Xbox 360... And this Nintendo DS. - The PS4, this Xbox 360, and the Gaming PC, and the PS3's, and that's all *I* need. And that's *all* I need too. I don't need one other thing, not one... I need this. - The Gaming PC and PS4, and Xbox 360, and thePS3's . Well what are you looking at? What do you think I'm some kind of a jerk or something! - And this. That's all I need.

Obligatory dick measuring Gaming Laptop Specs: Sager NP8270-GTX: 17.3" FULL HD (1920X1080) LED Matte LC, nVIDIA GeForce GTX 780M, Intel Core i7-4700MQ, 16GB (2x8GB) DDR3, 750GB SATA II 3GB/s 7,200 RPM Hard Drive