Advice for a portable work/gaming laptop

[darkknight4686]

Just a note: I haven't done much research on laptops lately and some of these might be WTF estimates.

1_What is your budget?
-$1000 - $1500

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
-15-17

3_What screen resolution do you want?
-Not sure but obviously a better resolution would be good for games

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
-Portable since I'll also be using it for work

5_How much battery life do you need?
- I would like more than 5+ hours if that is possible

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)?
-Starcraft 2 - Medium/High
-Portal - (don't care)

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
-Movies - Hulu/Netflix
-Music

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
-Enough to hold OS, game(s), and documents for work.
-On a side note here, is SSD worth it?

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
-www.newegg.com
-www.sonystyle.com (i can get a discount through a friend who works at sony)

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
- 3-5 years, most likely

11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
-Bluray would be great but really only need CD-ROM/RW

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.
-Sony (Have a friend who may get me a discount)
- I'm open to other brands but don't know which ones are great

13_What country do you live in?
- USA (Northeast)


14_Please tell us any additional information if needed.

 

[sidewinderx2]

Just a note: I haven't done much research on laptops lately and some of these might be WTF estimates.

1_What is your budget?
-$1000 - $1500

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
-15-17

3_What screen resolution do you want?
-Not sure but obviously a better resolution would be good for games

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
-Portable since I'll also be using it for work

5_How much battery life do you need?
- I would like more than 5+ hours if that is possible

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)?
-Starcraft 2 - Medium/High
-Portal - (don't care)

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
-Movies - Hulu/Netflix
-Music

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
-Enough to hold OS, game(s), and documents for work.
-On a side note here, is SSD worth it?

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
-www.newegg.com
-www.sonystyle.com (i can get a discount through a friend who works at sony)

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
- 3-5 years, most likely

11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
-Bluray would be great but really only need CD-ROM/RW

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.
-Sony (Have a friend who may get me a discount)
- I'm open to other brands but don't know which ones are great

13_What country do you live in?
- USA (Northeast)


14_Please tell us any additional information if needed.

I think the only laptop that will fit the bill for you is the HP ENVY 15, which has a 15" screen, a nice Radeon HD 5830 graphics card, and can come with the optional (but pretty much NECESSARY in your case due to your battery life requirement) Slice Battery.

You can customize your own here: http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/series/category/notebooks/ENVY15_series/3/computer_store

EDIT: Oh yeah, if you want battery life, make sure you DO NOT select the core i7 processors, as they lack the on-chip integrated intel GPU, which can save you a lot of battery power over the dedicated 5830 when you're doing something that doesn't require too much graphical power (MS Word, Youtube, DVD movies)

 

[darkknight4686]

Thanks for the reply!

The only reason I state battery power is because I want to be able to watch a movie in the plane or carry my laptop from meeting to meeting or just lounge on my couch while working WITHOUT CONSTANTLY having to worry about any outlet. When playing starcraft 2 or doing other intense activities, I will most definitely have the computer plugged in so I don't necessarily see a need for the Slice Battery.

Portability is pretty important as I don't want to lug around a desktop replacement all day and I would be willing to pay a bit more for something that is both portable and powerful. (I say this because I haven't done any browsing in a real store to see what weight I want and the HP ENVY 15 specs say that it is 5.17 lbs)

I don't quite understand the 'EDIT' ... are you saying that a computer with an i7 processor will ALWAYS use the dedicated GPU for basic applications(due to lack of on-chip GPU) and therefore will consume more battery power during these apps (MS Office, etc.).

Does that imply that other processors switch between their on-chip GPU and a dedicated GPU depending on what task the user is doing?

Thanks again for your help!

 

[sidewinderx2]

Thanks for the reply!

The only reason I state battery power is because I want to be able to watch a movie in the plane or carry my laptop from meeting to meeting or just lounge on my couch while working WITHOUT CONSTANTLY having to worry about any outlet. When playing starcraft 2 or doing other intense activities, I will most definitely have the computer plugged in so I don't necessarily see a need for the Slice Battery.

Portability is pretty important as I don't want to lug around a desktop replacement all day and I would be willing to pay a bit more for something that is both portable and powerful. (I say this because I haven't done any browsing in a real store to see what weight I want and the HP ENVY 15 specs say that it is 5.17 lbs)

I don't quite understand the 'EDIT' ... are you saying that a computer with an i7 processor will ALWAYS use the dedicated GPU for basic applications(due to lack of on-chip GPU) and therefore will consume more battery power during these apps (MS Office, etc.).

Does that imply that other processors switch between their on-chip GPU and a dedicated GPU depending on what task the user is doing?

Thanks again for your help!

Well, i mentioned the Slice because other than this envy 15 with the Slice, i'm not really aware of any 15" and above laptop that will last more than like 3 hours, so even if you don't game, i don't think the envy 15 will last 3+ hours without that extra battery.

The Envy 15 with the Slice will probably come around to be 6-7 lbs, which is pretty darn heavy, so if you actually want something portable, i suggest something 14" or even 13", which would also mean you get a lot more examples of computers with your requested battery life.

In the EDIT part, i meant that some i5 and i3 laptops comes with 2 graphics card: the dedicated Radeon/Geforce one, and the integrated Intel GMA HD that is built into the CPU itself, which would give you the option to use the relatively power hungry dedicated card for when your job demands it, or when you dont need it, use the integrated GPU. However, for core i7 processors, the integrated GMA HD is NOT built in, so the laptop most likely only has 1 graphics card: the dedicated one (there's some exceptions with the higher end Nvidia Optimus laptops but they still have the Intel card off chip), so you would not have the option to switch to a low power GPU when you want to save battery/dont need the performance.

The graphics card switching can be automatic (as in the case of the Nvidia Optimus platform), or manual (in the case of ATI/AMD, or non-Optimus equiped Nvidia platforms). I'm currently using a switchable Radeon, which is manual, but it's not that big a hassle: just right click the desktop -> Configure Switchable Graphics -> click the card you want... tho the Optimus option is pretty attractive.

Hope that helped!