Buying a laptop budget $600 ~ $800

[EQTitan]

1. What YOUR PC will be used for. That means what types of tasks you'll be performing.
- Basic web browsing, music appreciation, lite photo editing, Movie streaming, WoW, Battlefield 3

2. What YOUR budget is. A price range is acceptable as long as it's not more than a 20% spread
- $600 to $800

3. What country YOU will be buying YOUR parts from.
- United States

4. IF YOU have a brand preference. That means, are you an Intel-Fanboy, AMD-Fanboy, ATI-Fanboy, nVidia-Fanboy, Seagate-Fanboy, WD-Fanboy, etc.
- No preference

5. If YOU intend on using any of YOUR current parts, and if so, what those parts are.
- Nope

7. IF YOU plan on overclocking or run the system at default speeds.
- Nope

8. What resolution will you be using?
- Depends

9. WHEN do you plan to build it?
- ASAP

X. Do you need to purchase any software to go with the system, such as Windows or Blu Ray playback software?
- No.

 

[Ken g6]

Let me just say up front that a good gaming laptop is hard to find - and harder to pay for. The rest of the applications are easy by comparison. Further, BF3 - especially in multiplayer games - is harder to run well than WoW.

From what I can see, this Acer laptop might barely meet the minimum requirements for BF3.

Now, you haven't mentioned some things that people like in laptops. Like battery life. The laptop above won't have much. You can also expect it to get hot while gaming. If you want to avoid these problems, you'll probably have to give up gaming (or maybe raise your budget.)

 

[EQTitan]

Let me just say up front that a good gaming laptop is hard to find - and harder to pay for. The rest of the applications are easy by comparison. Further, BF3 - especially in multiplayer games - is harder to run well than WoW.

From what I can see, this Acer laptop might barely meet the minimum requirements for BF3.

Now, you haven't mentioned some things that people like in laptops. Like battery life. The laptop above won't have much. You can also expect it to get hot while gaming. If you want to avoid these problems, you'll probably have to give up gaming (or maybe raise your budget.)

Don't care to much for battery life as it will be plugged in 90% of the time. Prefer full sized keyboard (with numpad) gamers are expected to get warm/hot. I can raise the budget some if someone would buy my darn i5 3570k rig already lol =)

 

[mfenn]

I think Ken pretty much nail it with his choice. The overriding concern in a gaming laptop in this price range is the GPU. You really just have to get the best one that you can while ignoring all other specs, they will have to be "good enough".

It looks like you can save $50 by going with this very similar Acer for $749. The only difference I could see is that the HDD is 500GB instead of 1TB.

 

[ther00kie16]

Extend your budget a little and treat yourself to a y580. When it's on sale, you can get one at $850 configured with i7 quad, 660m, 1080p, blu-ray. I'm guessing there'll be a similar sale by black friday.

 

[EQTitan]

I picked up a Dell Inspirion 7720 ($950 after tax) but thinking about taking it back/ or installing Windows 7

i7-3630QM
8GB DDR3 (1600mhz)
1TB SeaGate Drive
17.3" LED
Gigabit
DVDRW
GT 650m 2GB
HD4000 IGP
+

 

[T_Yamamoto]

What about a Trinity based laptop.

 

[ther00kie16]

I picked up a Dell Inspirion 7720 ($950 after tax) but thinking about taking it back/ or installing Windows 7

i7-3630QM
8GB DDR3 (1600mhz)
1TB SeaGate Drive
17.3" LED
Gigabit
DVDRW
GT 650m 2GB
HD4000 IGP
+

If you don't need a 17", get the Lenovo Y580. It has a GTX 660m (10-20% faster), 32GB SSD caching, blu-ray, 1080p at $900 at Costco's.

http://www.costco.com/Lenovo-IdeaPa...Hz-Blu-Ray-Combo-Drive.product.100012257.html

 

[mfenn]

I picked up a Dell Inspirion 7720 ($950 after tax) but thinking about taking it back/ or installing Windows 7

i7-3630QM
8GB DDR3 (1600mhz)
1TB SeaGate Drive
17.3" LED
Gigabit
DVDRW
GT 650m 2GB
HD4000 IGP
+

Can you elaborate on why you're thinking of taking it back?

 

[frozentundra123456]

If you don't need a 17", get the Lenovo Y580. It has a GTX 660m (10-20% faster), 32GB SSD caching, blu-ray, 1080p at $900 at Costco's.

http://www.costco.com/Lenovo-IdeaPa...Hz-Blu-Ray-Combo-Drive.product.100012257.html

I saw that laptop a few weeks ago, and wished that I could buy it. I think it is no longer available now.

 

[ther00kie16]

I saw that laptop a few weeks ago, and wished that I could buy it. I think it is no longer available now.

Interesting, was still available online when I linked it. There may still be some in stores.

If you can wait, I'm sure Lenovo (or another store) will have a deal by Black Friday. Cheapest it's been in the past was $850 after a $100 rebate from Lenovo. I can see a similar deal involving a rebate.

 

[superjim]

Everything was going great until I read "BF3". That just upped the cost to the 800+ range. WoW can play on any modern laptop, dedicated GPU or integrated, doesn't matter.

The Y580 is easily the best bang for the buck, 1080p gaming laptop right now if you can swing it. I recently purchased a Toshiba 17", 900p laptop for my cousin with a Trinity A8-4500m (7640 graphics), 6GB DDR3 1600 for light gaming on a budget of $400 or less (it was $400 AR, reg $600). It'll handle WoW but BF3 is another story.

 

[ther00kie16]

here have some choice for you if you wanna buy a gaming laptop,and the price ie pretty good.Acer Aspire V3-771G-6851,HP Pavilion dv7-7010us,ASUS A55VD-AB71,Toshiba Satellite L875D-S7343,Acer Aspire V3-771G-9809,maybe you can choose one of these items,just for your reference

http://www.costco.com/Lenovo-IdeaPa...Hz-Blu-Ray-Combo-Drive.product.100012257.html

back and easily the best deal unless you want to wait in line on black friday. or maybe lenovo will have an online deal