$700 Gaming Laptop

[ThunderBird2678]

Budget - $700 Canadian, maybe more for good deal.

Country - Buying it in Canada.

Screen Size - 14"+

Screen Res. - 1366x768+

Screen Type - Glossy, Matte, I don't know. What would you suggest?

Brands - I'm okay with everything other than Acer/Gateway and MSI.

Refurb?- If it's cheap and has at least a 30 day warranty.

What will I use it for? - Everythong the average student does along with lots of Gaming.

Mobility? - Don't really care that much.

Battery - Doesn't matter as much as other things.

How long lasting? - At least 4 years.

HDD - 500GB or more

CD/DVD Drive - Don't care.

Suggestions? Fell free to suggest laptops that cost more but are more worth it as there's a high chance they'll go on sale During back to school.

 

[DarkOutlaw]

If by 'gaming' you mean 'solitare' you should be able to get any laptop that has an i3 processor, 4GB RAM, 320-500GB hard drive, full keyboard. Just pick your favorite manufacturer and your good to go. I prefer toshiba.

If by 'gaming' you mean 'Latest FPS' then build a desktop...and uh...get a really big backpack...

 

[ThunderBird2678]

By "Gaming", I mean Star Wars the Force Unleashed, The Witcher 2, etc. I already have a decent desktop, nut I need a Laptop for the Mobility. I've seen Refurbished laptops that can do some decent gaming for around $650 before, but I can't find much now.

 

[DarkOutlaw]

Best advice I can give you is get the best laptop GPU listed on this list. It wont really matter because your FPS and quality will be horrid:

GPU Hierarchy

 

[photonboy]

You'd probably be best going to www.bestbuy.com and playing around.

A good APU would probably be the best gaming value. The CPU portion isn't nearly as powerful as a similarly priced Intel CPU laptop but the GPU portion is better and the overall result is a better laptop for gaming.

14"+
15.6" is your best choice.

I narrowed it down to four choices with your parameters. I didn't decide on HP from the start that's just the way it went.

*Which one?
For gaming, it would be which particular GPU gives the best performance:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

The HD7000 series is newer, and probably COOLER, but not necessarily FASTER at the same price so it may be a trade-off:

Laptops:
1) http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+15.6%26%2334%3B+Pavilion+Laptop+-+6GB+Memory+-+750GB+Hard+Drive+-+Midnight+Black/5689522.p?id=1218680081769&skuId=5689522#tabbed-customerreviews

2) http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+15.6%22Pavilion+Notebook+6+GB+Memory+-+500+GB+Hard+Drive/6248423.p?id=1218721463599&skuId=6248423

3) http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+15.6%26%2334%3B+ENVY+Laptop+-+4GB+Memory+-+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Midnight+Black/Red/5710878.p?id=1218684543002&skuId=5710878

4) http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+15.6%22ProBook+Notebook+4+GB+Memory+-+320+GB+Hard+Drive/3710957.p?id=1218428653836&skuId=3710957

There are OTHER differences such as hard drive size.

I'd probably get THIS laptop unless another GPU was significantly faster or there was another feature you wanted (note the low score is due to one guy and a power button issue. He bought the same laptop at a different score anyway.)
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+15.6%26%2334%3B+Pavilion+Laptop+-+6GB+Memory+-+750GB+Hard+Drive+-+Midnight+Black/5689522.p?id=1218680081769&skuId=5689522#tabbed-customerreviews

 

[photonboy]

Update:
Sorry, missed the CANADA part.

Maybe look at Bestbuy canada, Futureshop etc. and use my above guidelines (GPU most important part for gaming).

 

[photonboy]

More research...
Here are my top recommendations, in ORDER:

1) http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?CatIds=65%2C66%2C67,3191&webid=726133&affixedcode=WW

2) http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?CatIds=65%2C66%2C67,3191&webid=425140&affixedcode=WW

3) http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?CatIds=65%2C66%2C67,3191&webid=933875&affixedcode=WW

I definitely think that Asus is the best I could come up with that fit your parameters, and Asus is known for reliability and customer service.

 

[ThunderBird2678]

Wow! You did a lot of research! Thanks! I've seen the Asus and HP dv6 before and they're good deals, but I'm saving APUs as a last resort. I'm actually more intrested in Refurbished Asus ROG and Dell Alienware laptops. You can also suggest higher priced laptops since I'm waiting for Back to School sales to start before I buying.

P.S. I like the Intel + Nvidia combo (Ideapad y580)

 

[ThunderBird2678]

I found an Asus ROG for $739.99 on Amazon. Is Amazon trustworthy?

 

[Pyree]

Which one of the ROG?

 

[ThunderBird2678]

G74 - i7 Sandy Bridge, GTX560m, 8GB RAM

 

[Pyree]

Really good deal if you can get it for $739.99 but is it refurb?

 

[ThunderBird2678]

Yeah it was a refurb, but the deal's gone now anyways. I found a refurbished G73 for $639.99 on Cowboom.com that has an i7 Sandy Bridge, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD, GTX460M and a 30 day warranty. Would you suggest waiting for something else to come along during Back to School (Ideapad y580 with i7 Ivy Bridge and GTX660M is what I'm waiting for) or to get this now.

 

[Pyree]

If you don't need it yet, wait for it.

 

[ThunderBird2678]

I'll wait, as my mom just lowered my budget to $600.

 

[Pyree]

That's a big budget cut.

I doubt the Y580 will ever be $600.

May be get a job or something.

 

[ThunderBird2678]

First of all, I can't jest get a job as I'm only 13, and even if I somehow got one, my mom controls how II use my money (I have $450 but she won't let me add it to her budget). The Ideapad y580 is currently staying at a constant $849.99 so there's a slight chance for ut to drop to around $599.99 during Back to School (If not, there's always Boxing Day).

 

[Pyree]

Fingers cross. Improving grades and do house work to impress parent is the way to go.

 

[ThunderBird2678]

The only reason she agreed to buy me a laptop in the first place was because I passed the Gifted Testing, and she said that she will not raise the price higher unless it it a really good deal.

How much do you think the y580 will be during Back to School?

 

[Pyree]

It is already as cheap as it gets. There are no other laptop with same level of performance in that price range yet, so unless someone price a laptop with same performance for cheaper, I doubt the price will go down much.

How about your dad? Also grand parents, they are easier to persuade.

 

[ThunderBird2678]

Dad was going to give me $100 on top of my original $600 budget (Why I said $700 at first) but mom cut it back down. Grandparents are in living in China, and even if they knew and wanted to help, my mom has Authority.

Back to looking for refurbs then.!

By the way, do you or anyone else know if Lenovo does give you 10% off your next purchase if you sign up?( Top-left of Lenovo homepage)

 

[Pyree]

U Chinese background? Well, then you are out of luck. I understand how Chinese parents work (I am also Chinese). They absolutely won't give you financial freedom until you graduate from high school. :lol:

I am not sure if the 10% discount can be use in conjunction with the discount coupon.

I looked at your desktop rig config. It's a decent set up. How about getting a laptop at around $450 which is purely for school work and beef up the GPU so you can play games at decent settings.?

 

[ThunderBird2678]

Chinese too? U eat Rice?

I've considered it but my mom says she needs a new computer for herself (She's annoyed that I'm using roughly 450/500GB and the computer's set up my way) and she needed to give me a reward for passing the Gifted test. The deal is she'll give me a decent budget for MY laptop and I can't touch HER desktop.

 

[Pyree]

I think there is really no way out of it unless you want to build a desktop and it would be difficult as well considering the $600 will have to include monitor, keyboard, mouse and OS. Head off to system part of the forum if you decided to get a desktop.

For a laptop I think these are reasonable for games:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834256040CVF
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2008029&srkey=A180-156130&SRCCODE=LINKSHARE&cm_mmc_o=-ddCjC1bELltzywCjC-d2CjCdwwp&AffiliateID=TnL5HPStwNw-9Dbq4MwYe6D76g9thw3yJg
http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?CatIds=&webid=933874&affixedcode=WW <I would pick this out of the three

That leaves you $30 for some games.

 

[ThunderBird2678]

Well, as I stated above, I will be using the AMD APUs as a last resort. There probably are refurbs for less with better specs, and there's the Back to School sale (Hope I get Lucky).