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$850 laptop for University.

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Last response: in Laptops & Notebooks
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1. What is your budget? $850

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? less than 15"

3. What screen resolution do you want?

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?

5. How much battery life do you need? 8 hours or so, enough to get through my classes for the day.

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)? League of Legends, Bloodline, Skyrim, BF3 (high as possible, but probably low because of the price)

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) Note taking, etc.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? Around 500gb

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. newegg.com amazon.com tigerdirect.com

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? 4-5years

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? Not very important, but a writer would be nice.

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. None

13. What country do you live in? US

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. Windows 7, but it coming with an OS is not unnecessary.

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-U41JF-A1-14-Inch-Laptop-Silv...

this is the best I have found.


Most important to least important::

Gotta be 14" or less
Gotta spend 'round $850
Gotta be able to run non gaming programs for 6+ hours
Gotta be able to game as well as possible

More about : 850 laptop university

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He won't be in class for 8 hours--it will be hibernating while in transit. Realistically, you'll only have 4 or 5 hours of class when a laptop might be in use. Days with more class than that will likely include a 3 hour lap where you won't take your laptop out of your bag.

5 hours is completely doable. Obviously playing a game will drain the battery much faster.

OP, that laptop you linked is ridiculously overpriced--just so you know. You could get an HP i7-2630QM w/ a Radeon 6770M for that price. That would be a 15.6" laptop though. Are you saying 15.6" laptops (the most popular size) are too large for you? If so, your drastically limit your options.

So far, all choices listed are pretty lousy for the price. I'll see what I can find...

You probably want to start here: http://www.techbargains.com/catsearch.cfm/0_3_0
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It looks like to me you'll either have to go with a customized 15.6" HP dv6t Quad w/ 9-cell battery (+$21) and Radeon 6770M. I can give you full specs on that.

Or you can go with an AMD Llano laptop. They were just launched and manufacturers tend to give vague descriptions of the graphics they carry. You have to be careful and I don't think they're worth more than $600. I'd wait for prices to drop if I wanted one of these.

Unfortunately, the screen has to be around 14" or lower. My dad (who's funding it), insists upon it, and after living with him for 18 years and seeing the sudden generosity, I'm not going to kick the gift horse in the teeth. I realize that this hurts my choices, but it's what I have to work with. I have enough money on my own to build a very solid desktop, but I'd rather take the money hes offering me, buy a (decent) gaming laptop and work with that for a year or two. Considering I'm entering college, maybe I won't even want to game anymore, I really don't know. It's definitively not an ideal situation, but it's what I have to work with.

I really appreciate the feedback, and if you happen to find anything, please let me know. The laptop that I linked, while overpriced, seems to do the job.

trogdor796 said:
You can't have 8 hours of battery life and be able to run those games you listed. Even on lowest settings, I don't think any 8 hr laptop will be powerful enough.


the laptop I listed seems to have solid battery life, because it switches off the graphics card when it's not being used, obviously no laptop will last 8 hours while gaming, but one that can run microsoft word for 8 hours is valuable to me.
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Well...I just want to say, my laptop has an 8 cell battery, and it only lasts 2 hours on idle...Core i7s... they swallow the battery..

So, don't get a Core i7 if you want to use the laptop 8 hours without charging... Those are meant to be set on a desk, a "desktop replacement". Yes, there are small laptops thast have Core i7s, but that really depends on what you want to do with the laptop. A Core i7 in college classrooms isn't a good idea.

Threedin said:
Considering I'm entering college, maybe I won't even want to game anymore, I really don't know. It's definitively not an ideal situation, but it's what I have to work with.
College: Oh, you're definitely gonna game still. Probably more since you don't have to waste 8 hours in school every day, more like 4.

hpfreak said:
Well...I just want to say, my laptop has an 8 cell battery, and it only lasts 2 hours on idle...Core i7s... they swallow the battery..

So, don't get a Core i7 if you want to use the laptop 8 hours without charging... Those are meant to be set on a desk, a "desktop replacement". Yes, there are small laptops thast have Core i7s, but that really depends on what you want to do with the laptop. A Core i7 in college classrooms isn't a good idea.
My i7 has a 9-cell battery and lasts through a couple 1 hour shows on Hulu before I plug it in with about half the power remaining. It would get about 4 hours playing video, much more on MS Word. Is your laptop a 2nd Gen i7? The Sandy Bridges get much better battery life.

@Threedin: Dealzon is legit. It's just a site like slickdeals.net or techbargains.com where people post deals. So you're not buying from them anyways. I'd go with the i5 on Dealzon with the same graphics as the i7 you linked:
$674.10: 14" i5-2410M w/ GT 550M & 7200rpm HDD
http://dealzon.com/deals/lenovo-ideapad-y470-coupon#len...

It's the first laptop I've seen that actually meets your requirements well. And you can pocket the other $175. Also--check if it meets any of the free Xbox 360 requirements. You'll need a .edu email address.

EDIT: Battery size (6, 8, 9-cell, etc.) will affect battery life a lot. But I'd still get the above laptop if I were you and consider investing the extra $175 into a spare battery if you decide you need it (after starting classes and seeing how long the battery lasts). Keep in mind that the only place you need you battery is in class. In study lounges, the library, and plenty of other places you will sit, there will be electrical outlets.
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