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Laptop Recommendations?


Dupin

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No, SSD is still fairly expensive. Best I've seen is a 128GB for $100ish. Unless you really want top of the line, you shouldn't need much bigger than 128GB. You might even be able to make do with a 64GB.

 

In a nutshell, yes it is faster hard drive. Take a look at the table here. You wouldn't normally have just an SSD because you would be paying a fortune for 1TB of storage, so you would install your OS and your most commonly used apps on the SSD for the blazing speeds that it offers. Dump everything else on your normal HDD.

 

You could get an internal SSD, but not all laptops obviously have the space. Would be a pain to have an external drive to lug around. A few laptops that have been linked on this topic had multiple HDDs, so you would just rip one out and put an SSD there.

Working on max and completionist capes.

2435/2475

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The most expensive one is $50 less than the expensive Asus I listed, and it lists the 680M (better than the Asus), double the RAM, and double the hard drive. There must be a catch, and I'm guessing it's in the word "capable," meaning you have to upgrade it, increasing the price. I haven't heard much about this brand, does anyone have experience with them?

 

After some investigation, I've found they are custom builds and the price does rise significantly. However, it looks like there are some good options in there (internal SSD) so I'll keep playing with it.

 

E: Yep, the prices/performance definitely doesn't match that of the Asus after customizing.

 

I missed the Asus, although looking at the $1449 Sager, the only areas it's weaker in are RAM and HDD space. You can bump the HDD up to 750Gb for an extra $20, and the RAM to 16Gb for $80. I'd argue that 16Gb is unnecessary unless you have a specific need for that much, and would be better spent on an SSD though.

 

Either way, both are nice laptops. Personally I'd go with the Sager because of the chiclet keyboard on the Asus looks like it would be a pain to use.

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Alright, between the Asus and a Sager with similar specs, here's what I'm seeing:

 

Asus has 3GB vRAM (up from 1.5), 750GB HDD (up from 500), 16GB RAM (up from 8), and a price of $1529 (down from $1569), while Sager has a 40GB SSD (what's the "Intel series 310 msata" mean relative to the other SSD option listed?)

 

Question: With the Intel 3rd Gen Core i7-3610QM, Nvidia GTX 670M (3 or 1.5 GB), and 16 or 8GB RAM, where's the bottleneck?

 

[spoiler=Alternatively]

Asus: Intel 3gen i7-3610QM 2.3GHz, Nvidia GTX 670M 3GB, 16GB DDR3

Sager: Intel 3gen i7-3610QM 2.3GHz, Nvidia GTX 670M 1.5GB, 8GB DDR3, additional SSD

 

Where are the bottlenecks on each and which is more powerful in terms of future gaming?

 

 

 

Basically, if the processor will bottleneck the performance, I don't need to worry about gutting the RAM and video card. Alternatively, if upping the video card to 675M in the Sager (and dropping the SSD) would be more effective, I would consider that.

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- SSDs will make your computer very responsive and snappy. I have one and my PC turns on in no more than 15-20 seconds. When I click a program, it comes up instantly. However, a 40GB SSD will only be for your OS, so I would drop it completely since the only benefit you will get is a faster boot/reboot time. You need at least a 60GB SSD for it to be of any use (OS + Programs). My 120GB Crucial M4 has 20GB left, with only my OS and most-used programs.

 

- 16GB of RAM is overkill unless you plan on editing video or doing graphic/3D work. If you want to be doing these things, you should be getting a desktop.

 

- I don't know why you keep mentioning bottlenecks. A bottleneck will almost never occur when buying prebuilt. Only worry about bottlenecking if you're upgrading components, which you most likely will not be doing with a laptop anyway.

 

 

Here's my opinion on laptops. God-tier laptops are made by Alienware. Alienware computers a horribly overpriced, but their laptops are pretty fairly priced. However, Sager gives you the same options a Alienware laptop would give you, only cheaper and not as flashy (no blue laptop with a green backlit keyboard). Personally, if I were buying a laptop, I would get a Sager. They have a large price range to fit your needs, and the build quality is fantastic.

 

Sorry if this post is all over the place, it's getting pretty late.

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Asus has 3GB vRAM (up from 1.5), 750GB HDD (up from 500), 16GB RAM (up from 8), and a price of $1529 (down from $1569), while Sager has a 40GB SSD (what's the "Intel series 310 msata" mean relative to the other SSD option listed?)

 

Intel 310 series is an older SSD. The Intel 520 series is the newest from Intel. Both of these use a custom-built Intel controller, so reliability is terribly awesome.

 

However, the 310 is an additional $120, where the 520 is $100 for a 120GB drive. If you want a SSD, get the 120! You should also get a secondary, high-capacity hard drive.

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Here's my opinion on laptops. God-tier laptops are made by Alienware. Alienware computers a horribly overpriced, but their laptops are pretty fairly priced. However, Sager gives you the same options a Alienware laptop would give you, only cheaper and not as flashy (no blue laptop with a green backlit keyboard). Personally, if I were buying a laptop, I would get a Sager. They have a large price range to fit your needs, and the build quality is fantastic.

 

 

I don't mean to push my opinion on you, but from what I've seen, Alienware is overpriced and breaks very easily, and a lot of them also have overheating issues. I've seen it for myself. I know it's a very small sample, but out of the ~15 people I've seen with Alienware laptops, 10 of them had issues in the first 3 months of owning their laptops. 3 of them due to overheating, and the rest due to breaking parts (such as the screen dying, keyboard falling in pieces, laptop not powering on).

 

My opinion is that Asus stuff is the "god tier" stuff like you called it here, simply because of their quality and durability (which only excludes their republic of gamers laptops).

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Here's my opinion on laptops. God-tier laptops are made by Alienware. Alienware computers a horribly overpriced, but their laptops are pretty fairly priced. However, Sager gives you the same options a Alienware laptop would give you, only cheaper and not as flashy (no blue laptop with a green backlit keyboard). Personally, if I were buying a laptop, I would get a Sager. They have a large price range to fit your needs, and the build quality is fantastic.

 

 

I don't mean to push my opinion on you, but from what I've seen, Alienware is overpriced and breaks very easily, and a lot of them also have overheating issues. I've seen it for myself. I know it's a very small sample, but out of the ~15 people I've seen with Alienware laptops, 10 of them had issues in the first 3 months of owning their laptops. 3 of them due to overheating, and the rest due to breaking parts (such as the screen dying, keyboard falling in pieces, laptop not powering on).

 

My opinion is that Asus stuff is the "god tier" stuff like you called it here, simply because of their quality and durability (which only excludes their republic of gamers laptops).

 

That's another reason why I would go with Sager instead. Even if they do break, they have great customer service anyways.

 

http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/916373-pc/63527002

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Asus also has a great costumer service. I've had issues with my Republic of Gamers laptop and it took less than a week to have my laptop back and working (it wasn't turning on).

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I like this Asus, but I'll switch to Sager for the SSD if I can find a build I like.

- SSDs will make your computer very responsive and snappy. I have one and my PC turns on in no more than 15-20 seconds. When I click a program, it comes up instantly. However, a 40GB SSD will only be for your OS, so I would drop it completely since the only benefit you will get is a faster boot/reboot time. You need at least a 60GB SSD for it to be of any use (OS + Programs). My 120GB Crucial M4 has 20GB left, with only my OS and most-used programs.

 

- 16GB of RAM is overkill unless you plan on editing video or doing graphic/3D work. If you want to be doing these things, you should be getting a desktop.

 

- I don't know why you keep mentioning bottlenecks. A bottleneck will almost never occur when buying prebuilt. Only worry about bottlenecking if you're upgrading components, which you most likely will not be doing with a laptop anyway.

Alright, so with an SSD (as a secondary drive, not replacing the 500GB HDD) I'm looking at $1624, which is still a bit high, but we'll see.

 

To be clear on the RAM, having only 8GB will not effect gaming?

 

The reason I say "bottleneck" is that in my last custom build, I made the mistake of choosing a graphics card which wasn't on the same tier as the processor and RAM. This limited the games I could play. I'd like the components of the laptop to be consistent with each other so that one item will not be holding me back.

 

Side note: How will the reduced video RAM effect performance, and is the sound card part of the video card?

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Alright, so with an SSD (as a secondary drive, not replacing the 500GB HDD) I'm looking at $1624, which is still a bit high, but we'll see.

 

To be clear on the RAM, having only 8GB will not effect gaming?

 

The reason I say "bottleneck" is that in my last custom build, I made the mistake of choosing a graphics card which wasn't on the same tier as the processor and RAM. This limited the games I could play. I'd like the components of the laptop to be consistent with each other so that one item will not be holding me back.

 

Side note: How will the reduced video RAM effect performance, and is the sound card part of the video card?

 

- You want the SSD to be your primary drive. The primary drive is what will contain your OS + Programs. You use the secondary drive (in this case your 500GB HDD) for extra storage.

 

- 4 GB of DDR3 RAM is more than enough for gaming these days. You will only see a few frames difference, if that, with 8GB of DDR3.

 

- Some games require a lot of video RAM to play smoothly. Right now, I can't think of an example, but I'll tell you this. My graphics card has 1GB of VRAM and I run pretty much every recent game at 60 frames, with high settings. That being said, laptop graphics are not as good as desktop graphics, and I don't have enough experience with them to give you a valid opinion on them.

 

- Your motherboard takes care of the sound, not the graphics.

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Alright, I purchased the Asus at $1479. While the Sager was a great option, I figured the benefits of a more powerful machine outweigh those of an SSD. Basically, more power means the gaming will still be good many years down the road, while the SSD would only save me time - valuable time, but at the current prices, it's hard to justify. If I come across some money later, I'll definitely consider adding an SSD, and I'm sure the longer I wait the better the prices will get.

 

I really appreciate the help and expertise from all of you. Thanks.

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