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I want to buy a gaming laptop for my son - budget of $1,000 USD - help please

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  • Systems
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April 2, 2013 1:45:03 PM

I'm don't know much about this, things I've heard I should consider are:

- Dedicated graphics card at least 2GB , should be DDR5

- Intel i7 2.4GHz or comparable

- at least 8GB memory

- SSD Hard Drive

- 15 inch display would be great

So, is this setup even possible for a budget of $1,000 USD?

Also, how do those specs look, or what am I missing?

Thanks for any help!

More about : buy gaming laptop son budget 000 usd

April 2, 2013 1:47:08 PM

Hi :) 

1000 what ? this is an International site :) 

All the best Brett :) 
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April 2, 2013 1:57:48 PM

An i7 Lenovo Y500 with SINGLE GT650m $849 (Sometimes goes down to $800) YOU can always add another GT650m Ultrabay from Lenovo for around $150
http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/Len...


It has a 1tb 5400rpm harddrive, you could probably remove it and install an SSD. The graphics are DDR5 and 2gb. You can also install a SECOND GT 650m (2 GT650M's are the performance of a GTX 670MX and sometimes higher). It should be around $1050 if you decide to get a second GPU
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April 2, 2013 1:58:26 PM

The Lenovo Y500 is great and has everything you listed. It offers the best value in this price range. Please let me know if you have any questions about it as I own the 14" version the Y400.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

$1049.99

Intel Core i7 2.4-3.2 Ghz.

2x (SLI) GT 650m 2gb graphics cards. (Performs roughly equal to a 670m or slightly better)

16 GB SSD

15.6" 1920x1080 screen (This is important as higher resolutions screens are hard to find in this price bracket)
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April 2, 2013 2:10:25 PM

it clearly isn't. did you not see the posts above yours?

also, is it important that he have a laptop? if you were to get a 700 USD desktop it would outperform a 1100 USD laptop.

niether of those have SSD's, though. SSDs aren't cheap.
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April 2, 2013 2:20:12 PM

CarolKarine said:
it clearly isn't. did you not see the posts above yours?

also, is it important that he have a laptop? if you were to get a 700 USD desktop it would outperform a 1100 USD laptop.

niether of those have SSD's, though. SSDs aren't cheap.


Actually, the Y500 I linked does have a 16 GB mSATA SSD. No it's not huge, but you aren't going to get anything more than that at this price range.
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April 2, 2013 2:25:21 PM

CarolKarine said:
it clearly isn't. did you not see the posts above yours?

also, is it important that he have a laptop? if you were to get a 700 USD desktop it would outperform a 1100 USD laptop.

niether of those have SSD's, though. SSDs aren't cheap.


1. My reply was posted later.

2. I'm assuming his son wants better performance than a 650M. That card is pretty terrible, even in SLI.
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April 2, 2013 2:30:06 PM

JD88 said:
The Lenovo Y500 is great and has everything you listed. It offers the best value in this price range. Please let me know if you have any questions about it as I own the 14" version the Y400.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

$1049.99

Intel Core i7 2.4-3.2 Ghz.

2x (SLI) GT 650m 2gb graphics cards. (Performs roughly equal to a 670m or slightly better)

16 GB SSD

15.6" 1920x1080 screen (This is important as higher resolutions screens are hard to find in this price bracket)


Thanks! This one looks amazing. The guys in my office are saying this looks like it might be the one.
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April 2, 2013 2:31:30 PM

again, do you really want a laptop? I promise you you can get much more for your money in a desktop.
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April 2, 2013 2:32:41 PM

minibossmike said:
JD88 said:
The Lenovo Y500 is great and has everything you listed. It offers the best value in this price range. Please let me know if you have any questions about it as I own the 14" version the Y400.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

$1049.99

Intel Core i7 2.4-3.2 Ghz.

2x (SLI) GT 650m 2gb graphics cards. (Performs roughly equal to a 670m or slightly better)

16 GB SSD

15.6" 1920x1080 screen (This is important as higher resolutions screens are hard to find in this price bracket)


Thanks! This one looks amazing. The guys in my office are saying this looks like it might be the one.


No problem. Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
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April 2, 2013 2:46:44 PM

While I had my doubts, this review on NotebookCheck.net shows GTX 650 SLI seems to handle plenty of games fairly well at med to high settings.

-Wolf sends
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April 2, 2013 2:53:58 PM

In comparison to the 670M, it falls slightly short. Considering the price of the 670M, it's not really a contest.
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April 2, 2013 3:06:16 PM

I play Battlefield 3 and Planetside 2 on Medium (some high) settings and Starcraft 2, League of Legends, Torchlight 2, and Diablo 3 all maxxed on my Y400 with SLI 650's.

The interesting thing is that you can use Nvidia Inspector to overclock those 650's by about 20% to 660m levels without any noticeable increase in heat.
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April 2, 2013 4:06:01 PM

SHORYUKEN said:
Having a core clock the same as a better card doesn't make the card the same as the 660M. There are still differences. Here's the BF3 670M:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUlriS9CF7U

Planetside 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYfxSSSaexU

You will get like 5-10 FPS better without capture.


Actually, the 660m and 650m are the same chip. The 660m is just clocked higher.

They both are based on GK107 and have the same number of shader cores. Binning might be the only difference.
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April 2, 2013 4:36:30 PM

JD88 said:
SHORYUKEN said:
Having a core clock the same as a better card doesn't make the card the same as the 660M. There are still differences. Here's the BF3 670M:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUlriS9CF7U

Planetside 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYfxSSSaexU

You will get like 5-10 FPS better without capture.


Actually, the 660m and 650m are the same chip. The 660m is just clocked higher.

They both are based on GK107 and have the same number of shader cores. Binning might be the only difference.


Except the Texture Fill Rate, memory interface, supported technologies and 3D Vision.

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April 2, 2013 4:55:11 PM

SHORYUKEN said:
JD88 said:
SHORYUKEN said:
Having a core clock the same as a better card doesn't make the card the same as the 660M. There are still differences. Here's the BF3 670M:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUlriS9CF7U

Planetside 2:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYfxSSSaexU

You will get like 5-10 FPS better without capture.


Actually, the 660m and 650m are the same chip. The 660m is just clocked higher.

They both are based on GK107 and have the same number of shader cores. Binning might be the only difference.


Except the Texture Fill Rate, memory interface, supported technologies and 3D Vision.



I don't want to get too far off topic here, but:

Memory interface is the same. (GT 650m actually has more bandwidth.)

They both Support 3D vision.

Those other technologies really don't matter at all. I don't think anyone with a 650m or 660m is going to be using 8x FXAA.

Texture fill rate differs by <10%.

My original point was that you can get nearly identical performance out of a 650m as that of a 660m by overclocking. The subtle differences don't matter for the topic here. That means that theoretically you can get 660m sli performance at around a 1k pricetag. That's not bad at all.



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April 2, 2013 5:17:58 PM

650M runs off of DDR3.

My mistake.

I would like to use 8x FXAA in low demanding games to get better quality.

So it's better.

Arguably. I wouldn't want to overclock on a laptop, just because it's not meant to handle temps.
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April 21, 2013 4:56:51 PM

I'm not sure if you want anything to do with this kinda thing but I'm trying to sell off my MSI. It's packed for the gamer and is going to be in your price range since it's been used.

GT683-242US
Quick Specs
Intel i7-2630QM (Not the best but sufficient in my eyes)
Dual Raid 0 500GB (1TB) at 7200rpm (No SSD sorry :/ )
12GB of DDR3
15.6 FullHD (1980x1080)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560M discrete (DDR5 1.5GB VRAM)
Nice Dynaudio Premium speakers with a subwoofer
Also: built in fan, cool lights, and a turbo button

Again, I do realize you're probably looking for a new computer but for 1000$ I don't know if you can do much better. retail on this is about 1600$.

Cheers
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