Before I buy ASUS i7 laptop

[clocand]

So my friend is in the market for a new "gaming" laptop and asks me for help before he buys, but idk a whole lot about the current laptop market.

Here's the link to the one he picked out on Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834230592

I asked him want he wants to do with it: "League of Legends and school for now, maybe more demanding games in the future."

I think he's overpaying for what he wants, that the CPU is a limiting factor for "more demanding games" and that the GPU is more than he needs for "league and school." he's a chem major, won't be using like artsy photoshop or anything for "school," maybe just some chem programs like Spartan chemistry computational software IF THAT.

But that's just me.

Any insight greatly appreciated.

 

[fralexandr]

The cpu isn't going to be too big of a limit.
the i7 3630qm turbos up to 3.4GHz.

the 670m is overkill for LoL, but if he wants to play "more demanding" games, the 670m is a good card for that.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-670M.72197.0.html

the only problem i have with the 17" is it's not portable and "only" has a 3 hour battery life.

If he's planning on taking it to class, I'd recommend looking at a lenovo y-410
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/
the 750m isn't going to be as fast as the 670m, but is still a good gaming card.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-750M.90245.0.html

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as you can see, the 670m will play many games at higher settings than the 750m, so if your friend cares more about gaming than portability, the asus isn't a bad notebook for more demanding games.

 

[Topweasel]

School should be the priority over gaming performance. So portability and battery life (4.5-5 hours minimum) should be primary concern and then GPU second. LoL can almost run well on HW integrated graphics. So really any mid level gaming GPU should run fine for any of his concerns. The most important thing to teach this person though is that not running games at max settings doesn't mean his laptop is to slow. People spend waay to much time on money chasing a 2-3% PQ difference.

Also if you step up to the Leveno Ideapad y-series 510 and maybe even the 410, you can get them with a single 750m in them now and get an ultrabay upgrade for a second 750m for a Dual GPU SLI setup (though with the previous series they stopped selling the 650, the second they were ready to start shipping the 510 and 410, which means you/ your friend can't wait forever). The 400 supported the ultrabay 650m, but I can't find any proof that the 410 can support a dGPU 750m.

 

[ImDonly1]

The laptop is 17" and according to cnet it weighs 8.7 lbs?

Good luck carrying that around. I have a feeling it will be on his desk and not moved anywhere (to class). Depends on what he wants, by linking that laptop it seems he cares more about performance/gaming than portability/taking it to class.