Need a laptop for college... and Minecraft (FAQ used)

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c01e0

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1.What is your budget?
Around $1500, but I'll spend more for quality.
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Probably 15-16 inch... big enough screen yet easy to carry around. Is that the right size range?
3. What screen resolution do you want?
1080p
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portable
5. How much battery life do you need?
Not sure... enough for college and whatnot. Pretty good.
6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Minecraft, KSP, and that's probably it. Just don't want anything to be laggy, I don't really care how they look.
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Normal college stuff, looking to go into engineering.
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
Not sure. SSD drives look cool, but I'm open to suggestions. I can also use the cloud or an external hard drive if it means getting a better laptop for less money.
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
Any site
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
4 yearsish
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Idk... DVD reader and writer would be cool, but not a sticking point.
12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
Nothing Apple.
13. What country do you live in?
USA
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I want a good quality laptop that will last me a while. I'm new to this whole thing, so feel free to ask any questions you need to ask for clarity! Thanks in advance!
 
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Dell's customer service is only questionable for basic consumers, when it comes to machines that are for business Dell really ups their game.
About the three xoticpc links:
the first's battery life is...
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Megalordluca

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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834216736&cm_re=Gaming_laptop-_-34-216-736-_- Product is the best for your budget but if all you want to run is ksp and minecraft at any settings, including low (what you said in desc) then lol all you need is a $500 - $700 laptop!
 
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The Tech Guy

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With such decent budget of $1500, you can get a superb laptop that will do any college tasks or play any of today's games on high settings and also video and photo editing.
I recommend you go for the MSI GT70 Dominator-895 laptop. Click HERE to see mentioned laptop
This laptop has amazing power with a brilliant 4th generation core i7 processor in addition to 16 Massive GB of RAM , 1000, GB Hard drive, full 1080 p screen resolution and the most important component; the NVIDIA Geforce GTX 870M 3GB GDDR5 graphics card.
This laptop will do just about anything you throw at it. It has an excellent battery life and it is not so heavy- thus perfect for a college student who will need to move around.
 
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dasulman

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objection.
this laptop weighs 4kg. that's more than most college student's bags filled with books by itself, a more appropriate laptop would weigh around the 2-2.6kg mark.
Plus, 870M graphics, for just minecraft and KSP? that's just a waste of money.
OP i'm gonna suggest this: http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-V3-572G-54L9-15-6-Inch-Platinum/dp/B00K81O3RW
or if you want to go a bit more up market on quality, this: http://www.amazon.com/N550JK-DS71T-Full-HD-Touchscreen-Laptop-Aluminum-Body/dp/B00IAA5BSS/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1407360456&sr=1-1&keywords=n550jk
these are multi-media laptops - they'll do everything you want at a more respectable price tag. they fit your criteria and aren't too heavy.

However if anyone knows of an ultrabook that has an Intel Quadcore CPU, 8GB of RAM and a gt 740M GPU or better that's under say $900 then that would probably be a better option. I just can't find one at the moment.
Hope this helps.
 
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c01e0

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objection.
this laptop weighs 4kg. that's more than most college student's bags filled with books by itself, a more appropriate laptop would weigh around the 2-2.6kg mark.
Plus, 870M graphics, for just minecraft and KSP? that's just a waste of money.
OP i'm gonna suggest this: http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-V3-572G-54L9-15-6-Inch-Platinum/dp/B00K81O3RW
or if you want to go a bit more up market on quality, this: http://www.amazon.com/N550JK-DS71T-Full-HD-Touchscreen-Laptop-Aluminum-Body/dp/B00IAA5BSS/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1407360456&sr=1-1&keywords=n550jk
these are multi-media laptops - they'll do everything you want at a more respectable price tag. they fit your criteria and aren't too heavy.

However if anyone knows of an ultrabook that has an Intel Quadcore CPU, 8GB of RAM and a gt 740M GPU or better that's under say $900 then that would probably be a better option. I just can't find one at the moment.
Hope this helps.

This is the kind of stuff I was expecting. I just want a high quality laptop that will run very well and be able to run my games well. I'm a little turned off by the touch screen, though, if I'm honest.
 
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dasulman

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ahhh, apologies.
non touch screen for $20 off!: http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-V3-572G-54L9-15-6-Inch-Platinum/dp/B00K81O3RW/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1407361381&sr=1-4&keywords=acer+840M
Hope this all helped
 
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jaguarskx

jaguarskx

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Not sure how graphically intensive KSP is, but Minecraft is pretty easy to run especially if you don't really care if graphics are set to low. You can get a really good gaming laptop for $1,500, but you can get something for much less and still be able to play those games and more.

I actually recommend the 15.6" Dell Latitude 3540 which is the laptop that I use (bought it refurbished for under $500); currently selling for $800. It's a business laptop, not a gaming laptop. Business tech support is generally better than consumer tech support because large business buys PCs and laptops in bulk so business tech support tends to be better than consumer tech support should you need to contact them.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=sl35457p03d&model_id=latitude-3540-laptop&c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04


The basic specs are:

- Core i5-4210u = Pretty good performance and low power consumption.

- Radeon HD 8850m (Venus Pro) = This is the Radeon HD 8850m and performs almost as well as a nVidia GTX 755m graphics chip. But the drivers are more oriented for business so performance gets shifted down a bit, but it still performs better than the GTX 750m.

- 4GB of RAM = I recommend you install another stick of 4GB RAM after you recieve it.

- 1920x1080 Anti-Glare screen = Most people like glossy screens because they make color pop. But they are also very reflective and very annoying to use outdoors or in very bright conditions. I prefer laptops with anti-glare screens.

- 500GB Hybird Hard Drive = My laptop boots up real fast. From a cold start I get to the Metro screen in about 7 seconds (with the login screen disabled). Actual capacity is around 465BG.

- It comes shipped with Windows 7 Pro, but you also get the disc and license for Windows 8.1 Pro if you want to use the newest OS.

- DVD Read/Write Drive.


The only thing this laptop really lacks is a backlit keyboard. Speakers sound a little muffled as well. External speakers can always be connected.
 
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dasulman

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the dell lattitude recommended by the above poster and the acer I linked earlier, have almost the same graphical performance. literally its within 3% of each other (the Dell does come out on top, but I doubt most would notice it)
The dell is 0.25kg lighter,
above is correct, you'll get better customer support
a MUCH better battery life - seriously 12 hours idling is nuts, though 5.5 hours wifi surfing - remember to turn the wifi off and it'll be a long lasting beast.
The cooling and sound in the dell is also slightly better as well.
The main problem is that extra bit of ram, and not sure if you can get that upgraded within the warranty, plus if you do it'll be around $40-50 depending on who does it. so that brings the cost up to about $130 more.
OP you decide ^_^ hope the comparison helped.
 
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The Tech Guy

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Do you know anything about video and photo editing ? like the person who asked the question said he/she will also be doing with this laptop ?
 
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dasulman

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I know perfectly well about the video requirements of video and photo editing, It's just that I didn't skim read the FAQ - Nowhere does our OP imply that they will be doing any sort of video editing or photo editing. I think you simply saw the "7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) " and misread that as the OP's reply when that is one of the template questions ^_^ . his actual reply to that questions was "Normal college stuff, looking to go into engineering."
Engineering computing that requires any form of rendering or simulation is done better with a desktop of $700-800 (which is the price difference between the $1500 and the two most relevant laptop suggestions) than a gaming laptop of that max budget range.
here's an example build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/nn99wP)
Hope this clears up any confusion :)
 
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Squall321

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I'm in exactly the same spot as OP. Starting engineering and looking for a premium laptop. I'm so close to buying a Thinkpad E540 fully upgraded but it looks flimsy and heavy. The screen is said to have bad viewing angles but it's anti-glare. Would the "laptop-community" recommend it?
 
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c01e0

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I've heard of people having bad experiences with Dell's reliability/customer service. What can I expect out of them today? I like the anti-glare screen, and it seems to be a bit better performing...

UPDATE: What about something like this? http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np7358-clevo-w350ss-p-6991.html
or http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-p550caxh71-p-6560.html
Or http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-b551lgxb51-preorder-p-7349.html
Or something else from xotic? Looks pretty cool! Probably overkill, but I'd rather go overkill than underkill!
 
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dasulman

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Dell's customer service is only questionable for basic consumers, when it comes to machines that are for business Dell really ups their game.
About the three xoticpc links:
the first's battery life is terrible by comparison. Also the build quality is a bit meh compared to the others linked.
the second has integrated graphics and won't do well for modded minecraft. especially if you want a decent texture pack.
The third's GPU only uses 1GB of DDR3 Memory as its bus, and at 1080p that bandwidth is not enough to fully utilise the card, making it a bottleneck, though otherwise it can do almost everything you want.

Again if you want to look into the $1100 mark, then I would whole-heartedly recommend the asus n550jk. or if you want the same laptop in black, the asus G550jk.
 
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jaguarskx

jaguarskx

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Dell's and Lenovo's business technical support is probably among the best in the industry. Yes, from time to time you will hear of isolated situations where even their business oriented tech support sucks (which can be said for any other company as well), but on the whole they have a pretty solid reputation. Otherwise they will loose business customers which can mean hundreds of thousand of dollars or millions of dollars in potentially lost revenue if a large business drop either one of them for another brand name.
 
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jaguarskx

jaguarskx

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The Sager NP7358 definitely gives you a lot of performance for your money, however, battery life is not that great. The most complaints about laptop chassis developed by Clevo (Sager uses Clevo chassis) is that they feel a bit cheap due to plastic construction and they look rather bland.

The ASUS P550CA-XH71 is an older generation laptop. It uses an Ivy Bridge generation CPU which comes with an Intel HD 4000 graphics core. In addition it only has a 1366x768 resolution screen for $900. Compared to the Dell Latitude 3540 I recommend for $800 with the Asus looks like a very poor choice in comparison. The only thing better about the Asus is that the 3rd gen Core i7-3537u CPU can reach 3.1GHz vs the 4th gen i5-4200u which can only reach 2.6GHz. Processing power of 4th gen CPUs has increased by 6% on average based on many different real program (rather than synthetic) benchmarks. That means the 4th gen Core i5 is comparable to a 3rd gen CPU running at 2.75GHz. The Radeon HD 8850m graphics chip will simply maul the Intel HD 4000.

The ASUS B551LG-XB51 is more comparable to the Dell Latitude 3540, but at a much higher price point. You do get a 128GB SSD vs a 500GB Hybrid HDD (it has a SSD cache). But you are paying $460 for 1/4 the storage capacity. The SSD is faster, but is it worth the $460?

Actually, make that $410 since the Dell Latitude 3540 only comes with 4GB of RAM so another 4GB (which you have to buy and install yourself) will cost you about $50.
 
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c01e0

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Ive been looking at the G550JK. That looks like a sweet setup. Can anyone tell me what battery life is like on it? Also, if I were to order it, which site would be recommended? Xotic, or someplace else?
 
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