Buying New Laptop, advice please

[Heijoushin]

My primary gaming laptop finally died this week, may its laptop soul RIP (´･_･`)

 

Now I find myself in the awkward position of having no PC right before pillars of eternity is released. I'm thinking of buying a new one, so I need to start doing some research.

 

Do you guys have any recommendations? Assuming price wasn't a problem, what are the best graphics cards and processors nowadays? I need something that will be able to play new releases for the next couple of years.

 

Thanks for any advice.

Edited January 25, 2015 by Heijoushin

[Humanoid]

I consider Notebookcheck  to be be most reliable source for everything laptop. They do monthly breakdowns for various categories of laptop, the top ten business, convertible, multimedia, etcetera. So here's their top ten gaming notebook list.

 

Note the site is actually German so model availability is a little Euro-centric at times, but most of it is applicable internationally.

[ShadySands]

 

I'm looking for a very, very cheap laptop with decentish performance

 

My cousin and my inlaws are both in the market for super cheap laptops for skype, web browsing, and other light activities

 

Thanks in advance

[Gfted1]

For those type activities, would a Surface Pro or tablet suffice?

[ShadySands]

They have tablets already and I think they want something with a keyboard and larger screen and aren't the Surface Pros kinda pricey?

[Bartimaeus]

What's your price range? Like, sub-300, sub-400, sub-500..? "Cheap" is a lot of different things to different people.

Edited March 25, 2016 by Bartimaeus

[Gfted1]

A quick look shows them going for ~900 at Best Buy. Probably be over $1k by the time you were done buying the keyboard and whatnot.

[ShadySands]

350ish is probably the upper limit

 

Thanks guys

[Bartimaeus]

Yeah, see: Gfted's opinion of "cheap" is so expensive I wouldn't ever even consider it, not in a million years. Different people have way different finances - this is why real price ranges are important.

 

(e): I'll see what I can scrounge up.

Edited March 25, 2016 by Bartimaeus

[Sarex]

Yeah, see: Gfted's opinion of "cheap" is so expensive I wouldn't ever even consider it, not in a million years. Different people have way different finances - this is why real price ranges are important.

 

(e): I'll see what I can scrounge up.

 

It's not even finances, it's pretty much what you are willing to give. Some people like to have the highend stuff and are willing to pay for it and other, smart, people know what they need so they don't end up selling their organs.

 

Can't wait for them OLED monitors to come...

Edited March 25, 2016 by Sarex

[Gfted1]

I didn't know the cost of the Surface Pro until I looked it up when Shady asked. I was more focusing on devices that were not laptops because I didn't think he could get one "cheap" and the functionality required doesn't really necessitate one.

[ShadySands]

Well my inlaws don't have much money as they are retired in Estonia (they get like 700 euros a month so I'll likely be footing this bill) and my cousin just refuses to pay for more than he needs

 

I should have mentioned budgets in my first post, apologies

[Bartimaeus]

I didn't know the cost of the Surface Pro until I looked it up when Shady asked. I was more focusing on devices that were not laptops because I didn't think he could get one "cheap" and the functionality required doesn't really necessitate one.

Neither did I, to be honest...I can't believe tablets can get that expensive.

 

Also, you're right: it is pretty difficult to find a laptop at that price range that's worth anything at all. Shady, basically, you have to make a choice between i3 and 4GB of RAM or an AMD (or maybe lower than i3 Intel?) CPU with 8GB of RAM. I tried to find even just one laptop that had 8GB of RAM + i3 for sub-400, and it's just...it doesn't matter what anything else is set to, it's just not there - unless you're willing to go refurbished.

Edited March 25, 2016 by Bartimaeus

[Bartimaeus]

It's not even finances, it's pretty much what you are willing to give. Some people like to have the highend stuff and are willing to pay for it and other, smart, people know what they need so they don't end up selling their organs.

 

Can't wait for them OLED monitors to come...

What you're willing to give is at least partly determined by your finances, though. I'm a pretty greedy and frugal miser, to be honest, so I can't even imagine spending that much money on a silly tablet.

[Sarex]

What you're willing to give is at least partly determined by your finances, though. I'm a pretty greedy and frugal miser, to be honest, so I can't even imagine spending that much money on a silly tablet.

 

Yeah at the end of the day you need the money to buy said stuff even if you consider eating as optional. I'm in the same boat as you, I don't like to spend money on gimmicks as I know I won't use it (my mobile has a keypad and it's not a BlackBerry), but when I know it's something I will get full milage out of I go overboard... (build thread for proof)

[ShadySands]

Are AMD and the i3 procs that bad? I'm not seeing much else for this price range

[Sarex]

Are AMD and the i3 procs that bad? I'm not seeing much else for this price range

 

I mean they are not bad, but you can't expect them to run everything you throw at them, they will show their limitation as soon as you try to do anything hardware demanding. But as your requirements are pretty light they should be more then enough.

 

My recommendation would be to see if you can squeeze in a SSD in to the config, although that depends on how much money you have left over and how much space you want for storage.

Edited March 25, 2016 by Sarex

[Bartimaeus]

At that price range, I don't think there's any way to do that, Sarex.

 

...though, personally, if it were me, I'd much rather have a random 128GB SSD over a 500GB/1TB HDD, and even though the two roughly cost the same, it's just not really offered at the price range.

 

An i3 is fine...although mobile i3s are admittedly pretty weak, and essentially a tier below desktop i3s. Won't be a world-shaker for gaming at all, of course (...although since there will be no dedicated GPU, it's likely the iGPU that will be the bottle-neck for any gaming, not the CPU), but it should handle pretty much all desktop needs. The AMD CPUs...well, let's just say I'd rather stick with an i3, personally. It wouldn't be the end of the world - not at all - but between power consumption and the options already being a little weak...

 

I would guess 4GB of RAM is probably not the end of the world to you.

[Humanoid]

Eh, for the use case described I'd be totally fine with an Atom, an i3 preferred of course, but I don't even see a reason to aim any higher. Maybe check the Dell Outlet for the "as new" stuff (most often cancelled corporate orders), otherwise really the best machines at the price point will be superseded models (Haswells most likely) that brick and mortar retailers may be trying to clear.

[Gorgon]

I seriously considered the surface because of the pen function. Not quite as able as a wacom though. Hybrid tablet/laptops and especially powerful ones are still selling while traditional tablets are not.

 

My mom wants something to write and surf on as well and for some reason finding out what falls to me. Wondering if there is anything without some windows OEM installation included in the price. at the lower end of the spectrum that would be an obvious thing to try and cut out.