Spending that Sallie Mae money on a laptop

**Kalmado** · 2013-07-14 15:56

My wife is starting school in a few weeks and we'll be getting a new laptop for her with her aid money. I'd like to keep it around $500. Besides getting it for her school, I'm looking to have the machine be able to run games and be able to stream tv and movies to our tv.

We planned on buying it from best buy or ordering it from a maker(dell, hp, etc). What type of quality, specs, etc am I looking at for around $500 and where/brand should we look at?

**Buffy** · 2013-07-14 18:31

Originally Posted by Kalmado

My wife is starting school in a few weeks and we'll be getting a new laptop for her with her aid money. I'd like to keep it around $500. Besides getting it for her school, I'm looking to have the machine be able to run games and be able to stream tv and movies to our tv.

We planned on buying it from best buy or ordering it from a maker(dell, hp, etc). What type of quality, specs, etc am I looking at for around $500 and where/brand should we look at?

I wouldn't do Dell/Best Buy personally, but I can't recommend my Toshiba Satellite highly enough.

**Aylee** · 2013-07-14 20:13

Originally Posted by Kalmado

My wife is starting school in a few weeks and we'll be getting a new laptop for her with her aid money. I'd like to keep it around $500. Besides getting it for her school, I'm looking to have the machine be able to run games and be able to stream tv and movies to our tv.

We planned on buying it from best buy or ordering it from a maker(dell, hp, etc). What type of quality, specs, etc am I looking at for around $500 and where/brand should we look at?

personally I would go with a HP. They are a decent brand that wont break the bank. As for specs you wont really need much since it sounds like a purely school PC. So basically anything with 500GB storage at least 2GB of ram should be fine. That being said it leaves tons of options. This is a decent school pc that is about 50 bucks under budget after taxes.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Refurbi...ystem/22733648

That being said I spent a whole 30 seconds looking for one. Also cloud storage (dropbox.com) is the shit for school work!

**Kalmado** · 2013-07-14 20:59

Originally Posted by Aylee

personally I would go with a HP. They are a decent brand that wont break the bank. As for specs you wont really need much since it sounds like a purely school PC. So basically anything with 500GB storage at least 2GB of ram should be fine. That being said it leaves tons of options. This is a decent school pc that is about 50 bucks under budget after taxes.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Refurbi...ystem/22733648

That being said I spent a whole 30 seconds looking for one. Also cloud storage (dropbox.com) is the shit for school work!

That machine quoted should be able to run pc games at a decent frame rate?

**The Stig** · 2013-07-15 03:30

Brand is subjective, we all have our different preferences. As long as it's properly looked after, I've not really encountered any problems.

The quoted machine, the HP one from Walmart, is too weak to do anything. Your daily office task is fine, and maybe any game pre-2006, but that's about it (TV is fine too though). It'll play WoW on low settings, it'll play FFXI for sure. But other things, not quite, as it does not have a dedicated GPU (it relies on the Intel HD 3000). As it stands, I don't think $500 will get us a laptop with a dedicated graphics, so ....

Assuming Walmart is a good place to shop (I'm not sure where/how to shop in US) then ... looking around:

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Dell-Matte...ystem/25582166
It's a Dell (leave me alone! lol)
i5 CPU, although the ultra low voltage variant, but will still pack a punch
Intel HD 4000 ... a step up from 3000 but not all that much but better than nothing
6gb ram, 500gb

http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Sparkli...ystem/25139241
HP Pavilion
An AMD Quad Core CPU of the ultravoltage variant. I believe in a benchmark situation it'll never top an i5 or even an i3, they're not that good. However day to day use I'm somewhat confident it should be fine
The gold here is the GPU built in, which is an ATI Radeon 7600. Not the best of course, but semi-significantly better than Intel's offering

You may have heard down the grapevine that Haswell (Intel's newest generation CPU) is out, that has a minor upgrade to its GPU, called Intel HD 4600. I've yet to find/research on the benchmarks to see if it tops/matches AMD's offering but the benefits from 4000 to 4600 are as follows, if it means anything to you (it doesn't for me, lol):

The quickest existing Sandy Bridge version of Intel's HD Graphics tops out at 16 execution units and 1,150Mhz. With Haswell, that explodes to 40 units and 1,300MHz. Well over double the raw computational performance, in other words.

Sandy Bridge = HD4000

So you may or may not want to wait a tiny bit at the moment. It's up to you.

EDIT: It seems upon further research this 4th generation of Intel's CPUs have graphics in different flavours, confusing matters.... there's HD4400, 4600 and even HD5000 ... depending on CPU

No info on Intel's site (not without in depth searching, this was a 5 second search) that will bring me up a list of CPUs with Intel 4400/5000 etc

**Sonomaa** · 2013-07-15 08:33

first off what games, that can make or break your ideas of actually gaming on the thing
second off dont diss dell, quality has jumped up significantly in recent times, HP quality has jumped WAYYYYYY down, toshiba is good though
HD4000 graphics arent actually that bad, even I was surprised at how good they were
but yeah, what games, then we can actually make a suggestion or tell you to add another hundred or 2

**Kalmado** · 2013-07-15 08:42

Later last night I tried searching for good gaming laptops under 5-6 hundred and also what graphics card I should be looking to get. It's not nearly as simple as a desktop! After looking up the Intel 3000 that's listed in Aylee's link I had seen some reviews/tests suggesting it's just fine for gaming and others saying it's terrible. That's what makes this so confusing!

If I've gotta bump my limit up to around $700 that's ok. I want to make sure this laptop can at least play games at a decent setting. I'm very green when it comes to pc gaming which is why I need the help. I've tried to run games on my desktop, but they do not perform very well(4 yr old, AMD Q4 1.9ghz, 4gb ddr2, AMD Raedon 4830 512mb). To reiterate, I understand for my budget I'm not getting a great gaming laptop. I'd rather find out from BG why I should spend more for a better machine than pay $400-$500 and be severely disappointed.

If this will help, here are the games I own on Steam so far. Orange Box, Dead Space 1/2, Alan Wake, Fallout New Vegas.

**Sonomaa** · 2013-07-15 09:44

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834230988

599, solid laptop, Im not going to lie, I dont like AMD or their video cards and I think their CPUs are a detriment to laptops because of their performance vs speed vs thermal output. So I always pick intel if I absolutely can. The video card on this isnt a beast mode but it will accomplish what you want it to do, maybe even a little 14 turned down a bit. i5 CPU will handle the rest and I think it has optimus so itll turn off the main video card to save power. My brother has an asus and loves it

**Dominico** · 2013-07-15 09:50

As far as brands go, I'd say stay away from HP. As stated above, build quality has dropped alot in the last few years. Toshiba/Asus are apparently the best brands to go by these days from what I hear. Lenovo isn't bad either.

**Kalmado** · 2013-07-15 09:54

Originally Posted by Sonomaa

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834230988

599, solid laptop, Im not going to lie, I dont like AMD or their video cards and I think their CPUs are a detriment to laptops because of their performance vs speed vs thermal output. So I always pick intel if I absolutely can. The video card on this isnt a beast mode but it will accomplish what you want it to do, maybe even a little 14 turned down a bit. i5 CPU will handle the rest and I think it has optimus so itll turn off the main video card to save power. My brother has an asus and loves it

I'm laughing right now because I was just looking at that same exact link. A friend has an Asus and he loves it. For the price, that looks rock solid for what you get. Now with laptops, do I want to get any extra fans so the dedicated card does not overheat itself?

**The Stig** · 2013-07-15 10:28

I second Sono's choice (I was stuck in Walmart, didn't know where else to look). Superb CPU, some form of GPU, plentiful ram and disk space.

You can buy a laptop cooling pad (there's 10000s around). Get the laptop first, check which way the air flows (most if not all should suck air from below and blow it out). Then find a fan with the same flow and you're golden, and you should enhance the laptop's life with it.

**orinthia** · 2013-07-15 11:01

The dedicated card in sonomaa's link (nvidia 610) is very weak. It's not much better than intel's 4000 series. For gaming gfx, look for 640+/740+/840+ nvidia, or 66xx+/76xx+/86xx+ dedicated amd (the integrate versions are a bit weaker and generally denoted with a "g" marker in their names, like 6520g or so). These are generally midrange and get the job done well, but you won't be gaming at 1080p with all the bells/whistles (720p will be just fine in nearly all cases). Though ultimately it depends what you're actually playing for what would be acceptable to you or not.

May also want to look for a haswell laptop (intel's newest chip iteration), as it offers lower power consumption and its integrated gfx (5000 series) is actually on par with AMD's integrated offerings while having a much better cpu for this generation. They actually stepped up their integrated gfx game with this chip, so a laptop with it is actually quite good.

That said, here's one: http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/358485 Item will expire soon, and that site (techbargains) has some good finds every so often, not only for laptops but anything electronic in general.

If this was two years ago, I'd probably recommend an asus K53TA. Rare laptop that hit an amazing price point at the time: $450 for a laptop that performed like a $800-$900 one for the time. You could overclock the processor by +0.7-1ghz while undervolting the chip (yes, this works); mine still sits at +.7ghz overclocked/undervolted just fine two years later, but have to deal with an all plastic body and low res display (1366x768 sucks for coding projects or anything you'd have a lot of windows open at once for). I'm not sure what the "k53ta" of this generation would be, but keep looking for a while. Its amd 6650M gfx card is just nice enough for skyrim on medium settings, and gets a 4k score (720p, default settings) on the first ffxiv ARR benchmark if that means anything, so any laptop with newer/higher cpu/gpu will be much better.

You may want to ensure your what your wife cares to carry with her to school. Take a trip to a store and physically hold some laptops. Get a feel for their size, dimensions, weight. Maybe that 17" laptop you were looking at is too heavy or wide for her bag. Things like that. You may end up blowing your budget if she wants a much thinner, lighter laptop however, heh. The new haswell macbook airs are really great for their price now, but still have a high price.

Also, depending on what you'll accept, take a look at the outlet sites, like dell outlet, lenovo outlet, etc, for off-lease or refurbished laptops. Can sometimes find really great deals there, just you can't customize the machines and they'll have some use.

**Kalmado** · 2013-07-15 17:50

Compared to the Asus listed earlier, how do these stats compare?

Spoiler: show

We don't get our check for a few more weeks, but that deal seems incredible and I'd keep checking slickdeals.net for similar deals for that price.

**The Stig** · 2013-07-15 18:21

A more or less equivalent CPU, stronger GPU (I would classify it as somewhat below middle tier) and a mouthful of RAM. You lose the 1600x900 screen though.

What orinthia linked had a 1080p screen but no GPU. So it's a question if screen size is important for you.

**Anakron** · 2013-07-15 19:32

The HD 5000 isn't much worse than 630M (if at all), so on paper, the Toshiba is better. I'm not sure if the Haswell i5s have the same integrated GPUs as the i7s, though.

In my experience, Toshiba laptops have sub-par build quality. Try taking one, and flexing the lid or bottom slightly, or pressing around the middle of the keyboard and you'll see what I mean (they flex a lot).

You're probably going to end up having to chose between:
(1) Haswell i5 or i7, no dedicated GPU
(2) Sandy i7, low-end dedicated GPU

I think (1) is the better way to go, and I know you can get a Haswell i7, 15.6" 1080p for around $850 (after tax), which is slightly above your $700 (if you add tax on top). But with these purchases, it's very easy to just keep inching up, so it's really a matter of how firm your price is.

You may also want to go out and see how a 900p or 720p laptop looks in person to see if you're ok without 1080p. You'll get much better frame rates on lower resolution given the same GPU.

**orinthia** · 2013-07-16 00:55

Originally Posted by Kalmado

Compared to the Asus listed earlier, how do these stats compare?

Spoiler: show

We don't get our check for a few more weeks, but that deal seems incredible and I'd keep checking slickdeals.net for similar deals for that price.

That's a really good find. You won't be on max settings for most games of the last few years, but the price is great with an i7. If you can get her to treat that laptop gingerly, build quality might not be too much an issue.

What I linked before could be customized with an i7 for +$100 and had a discount code you needed to type in, though does not say what the integrated would be. I only assumed it would be a 5000 series due to i7. You found a nicer deal honestly, but she might not care for that screen resolution. It is very limiting depending on what you do.

**Mojo** · 2013-07-16 01:09

Haswell chipsets with Iris Pro might be worth waiting for. They're just around the corner and have good GPU performance (much better than Intel HD anything) and low power cost (so a really good battery life.) They're also removing a complete component from the technology stack. Don't get your hopes up though, the price will likely be too high for what they offer.

**The Stig** · 2013-07-16 02:11

I for one am interested in what it can offer. Been holding out on buying a laptop/tablet hybrid. If my estimates are correct, it should run FFXIV at low settings no prob given how people rave about that game's "scaling".

**Kalmado** · 2013-07-16 08:03

Regarding the make of chipset(haswell/sandy), I'm unsure of how to check that info on a sites general description of the product.

Found a few more out there in the $600 range that look real good. I think it's getting down to preference regarding brand, but I really value everyone's opinion here and I appreciate the feedback.

Here is a Dell, which per Sono, they are making decent machines again. I-7 2640-M 2.8ghz, 8gb ddr3 1333mhz, NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 525M 2GB, 750gb 7200rpm hdd, 15.6" FHD WLED Display (1080P). http://www.frys.com/product/6786975#detailed

Sony Vaio, Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM 2.2 ghz, 8gb ddr3 1333mhz, NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M 1GB, 640gb 7200rpm hdd, 16.4" 1920 x 1080 full hd
http://www.frys.com/product/6911827?...H:MAIN_RSLT_PG

**The Stig** · 2013-07-16 08:31

That sony!!! go go go go go!!!

It's a generation old, but you're getting middle tier GPU there for laptops, despite being also a generation old. Full HD screen and 8gb ram and not a bad size either. However it does look like it'll weigh approx 4kg, so be mindful if carrying to school.

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