Going to invest in a new laptop.

[Gman91]

So the time has come where I decided to purchase a laptop for school. I have a general Idea of what I want (AMD A-Series processor/6+gigs of ram/). I am not to worried about the HD, screen etc. I just want a decent laptop for everyday college life and some light gaming. I have been looking into customizing one through HP with upgraded dedicated graphics and more ram. I have roughly 600$ (not to much more) to invest in a laptop. I would like to play skyrim on it (obviously not maxed out, not even my desktop can do that atm). What would you guys suggest? A-6 or A-8? Dedicated graphics are a must, there is just too many options right now.

 

[dontqqnub]

HI, go with the dv6t
leave everything the same basically

Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2330M (2.2 GHz, 3MB L3 Cache)
• 1GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7690M GDDR5 Discrete Graphics(TM) [HDMI, VGA]
• FREE UPGRADE to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 640GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection

BUT CHANGE GRAPHICS to 7690m 1GB version.
2gb is marketing scam.

Total should be $629.99

Also you were probably look at the dv6z.
A better cpu can greatly increase fps.

Edit: it also has a fingerprint reader =p(other versions might as well)

 

[WR2]

To help you get the best deal:

HP dv6 deals

HP Academy

 

[Gman91]

I was looking into the student discount, I think for 614$ I got dv6 AMD Quad-Core A8-3550MX and a 1GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7690M GDDR5 upgraded, the rest is pretty basic. So as of right now, for mild gaming and everyday tasks, this will be my best bet? My desktop runs skyrim on high settings, the specs for my desktop are as follows

AMD Athlon II x4 620 > 2.61 ghz (stock)
4 gigs of DDR2 (don't know the speeds)
GT 545 Video Card
300gig Sata HD (believe its 5400rpm, but I could be wrong)(*EDIT* The HD is a Seagate barracuda ST3320820AS 320GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Hard Drive lol)

Most of this came out of a gateway desktop I got for free. I did upgrade the Video card/Heat sink/Put windows 7 on it.

Can I expect the Laptop to be faster then this desktop?

*EDIT*
And from what I've read the A-8 3550mx out performs I5's mainly because of the GPU? Most I5's get paired up with the HD 3000 Graphics which are garbage.

 

[WR2]

The graphics card is a bit better (~10%) than your desktop card.
The CPU trails behind your desktop CPU by ~10%.

Passmark GPU scores:
http://www.videocardbenchmark.net
Geforce GT 545 1213
Radeon HD 6770M 1357 (7690M is 100mhz faster than 6770M)

Passmark CPU scores:
http://www.cpubenchmark.net
AMD Athlon II X4 620 2979
AMD A8-3550MX APU 2632

Core i3-2330M @ 2.20GHz 2741
Core i5-2430M @ 2.40GHz 3471

@ $614 - that's a pretty good deal for a laptop that can run games.
@ $630 - that dv6t dontqqnub suggested looks like a better value.

 

[Gman91]

HI, go with the dv6t
leave everything the same basically

Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 2nd generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2330M (2.2 GHz, 3MB L3 Cache)
• 1GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7690M GDDR5 Discrete Graphics(TM) [HDMI, VGA]
• FREE UPGRADE to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 640GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection

BUT CHANGE GRAPHICS to 7690m 1GB version.
2gb is marketing scam.

Total should be $629.99

Also you were probably look at the dv6z.
A better cpu can greatly increase fps.

Edit: it also has a fingerprint reader =p(other versions might as well)

With the upgraded graphics the dv6t is right around 650$

 

[Gman91]

Best answer selected by Gman91.