Looking to get a 600-800 dollar lappy

[jonnyboyC]

So i finally got my refund check from college and oh boy it was alot more then i thought it was going to be so now i'm kinda looking at replacing my old practically falling apart inspiron 1525.

So pretty much I'm looking for a laptop with some gpu ummff to it. Most laptop i see in this range have way to much cpu power for the gpu their packing, usually just the intel hd solution. So looking for a laptop with a i3 i5 dual core, (sandy bridge would be nice but i haven't seen any that aren't the super high end i7 sandies) Not to worried about hard drive space just like 250GB or something like that, i have a desktop with a 1TB and a 500GB backup so i'm not too worried about space. And then having decent battery life would be nice just like 4ish hours would be great

So any suggestion would be awesome

 

[agjino]

At that price range with the specs you desire you will make a gamble on build quality. If you just want a mobile gaming system then ok.
I'm an IT professional who uses his laptop 10+ hours a day. I used to buy "the best bang for the buck", but after getting a system I could have had for half the price if it had the Acer sticker on it, I am never going back to economy class.

 

[Espada]

I have the acer 4820tg for about a week or so.
Amazon had it on a deal for $729.
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-TimelineX-AS4820TG-6847-14-Inch-Aluminum/dp/B004G6005Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298859538&sr=8-1
oh they still have it
has the i5-480m and 6550m and 640gb hdd. Youll get about 4hr and 30min on battery life with websurfing. I play bfbc2 on it on everything high except hbao off, bloom off and shadows on low I get 35fps in a full 32man server and with aa to 1x instead of x4 i get 45fps. Its 14inch its light so easy to carry around. The laptop gets warm in gaming either replacing the thermal paste will drop the temps noticably or getting the zalman nc1500 will drop the temps by 6C and keep your laptop cool when having it plugged in and gaming etc...

 

[WindowsTeam_Kevin]

I'm a big fan of the Sony VAIO EB, starting at around $650.

It has the i5-460M you were looking for at 2.53 GHz, 4 GB RAM, and 500 GB storage. Should be plenty to run smoothly and be adequate for your storage needs, since you have the other 500 backup.

I think its a reasonable price, especially with the i5, and I've always had good experiences with Sony Vaio series. Might be worth a look at least.

Good luck on your hunt.

Kevin
Windows Outreach Team

 

[jonnyboyC]

Ok another question to anyone who can answer it, how powerful is the HD graphics on the intel chips, are they strong enough to play say, starcraft 2 on medium or valve games,

Because even though i'm aware of the somewhat bad reputation acer has it's really hard to pass up impressive specs like that

 

[jonnyboyC]

How about this IdeaPad Core i5 15.6" Notebook $699.00?
http://www.dealstudio.com/searchdeals.php?type=id&q=d228771&ru=28904314
Intel Core i5-480M 2.66GHz, 4GB DDR3, 500GB 5400RPM HDD. Looks cool,right? Anyway, hope u find the best bet. Good luck for u.

Also i don't know much about leveno, what kinda of a reputation do they have, as these are some very impressive specs as well

 

[jonnyboyC]

bumpage!

 

[Espada]

sc2 on intel graphics will not be able to play sc2 on medium. The new sandybridge igp intel graphics will be able to play on low with like 50fps so the old intel graphics will play someonewhere around that area. Lenovo is a good brand when we are talking about thinkpad are the main brands lenovo focuses on i guess their "premium". Just like acer many people will say their crappy etc.. timeline is their "premium" laptops. I have the timeline series And i have checked many forums lounges to see any problems etc.. Especially since its been a while since they came out no problems what so ever. Only people who dont like the laptop people who hate acer with a passion or hasnt used it.