New laptop question

**BerenTebogo** · 2010-07-12 22:29

What is a good general (preferably windows-less, since they seem to be cheaper - but not a mac, fuck macs) laptop for under $800 or $900?

Looking for possible gaming capabilities, but mainly watching TV / music / movies in HD / programs that I can run for physics and math that can run high permutations without lagging.

Really open to any advice at all. I'm laptop illiterate.

Obviously anything less than $800 is a mega bonus, I really don't want to go higher than $900 maximum.

**BerenTebogo** · 2010-07-12 23:14

Also, what does "refurbished" mean when applied to laptops?

I see this: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...-fkmr1&seller= for $829 refurbished from 2 companies. It seems like a good PC, but is it like buying a car with 200,000 miles?

**sruon** · 2010-07-12 23:15

Originally Posted by SathFenrir

What is a good general (preferably windows-less, since they seem to be cheaper - but not a mac, fuck macs) laptop for under $800 or $900?

Looking for possible gaming capabilities, but mainly watching TV / music / movies in HD / programs that I can run for physics and math that can run high permutations without lagging.

Really open to any advice at all. I'm laptop illiterate.

Obviously anything less than $800 is a mega bonus, I really don't want to go higher than $900 maximum.

If you remove possible gaming capabilities, well, about any laptop from $300 to $700 depending on your brand preferences will do just as fine. Paid my Core2Duo from Acer a year or two ago like $500 and it browses web, display HD like a boss, I have no idea what/how those physics/math programs work so no idea there...

If you add gaming capabilities to the equation AND restrict it to $900, this is pretty much the only laptop I could find on newegg that corresponds

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834114803

It /should/ (and I really mean /should/) do game fine long as you're not planning maxed settings on high resolution.

Edit: Refurbished can be a lot of things, most likely it's a laptop the customer sent back to manufacturer, manufacturer sent a new one to the customer (lenghty repairs for instance) and put it back on the market after replacing everything borked and being repackaged like brand new. Or it had a defect, or cancelled sales or it was lent to someone/shop for tests purpose etc... Most of the time it's #1

**BerenTebogo** · 2010-07-12 23:18

Originally Posted by sruon

If you remove possible gaming capabilities, well, about any laptop from $300 to $700 depending on your brand preferences will do just as fine. Paid my Core2Duo from Acer a year or two ago like $500 and it browses web, display HD like a boss, I have no idea what/how those physics/math programs work so no idea there...

If you add gaming capabilities to the equation AND restrict it to $900, this is pretty much the only laptop I could find on newegg that corresponds

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834114803

It /should/ (and I really mean /should/) do game fine long as you're not planning maxed settings on high resolution.

That laptop actually looks pretty beast, but it got a shit review on speakers

I'm really, really, really picky about the quality of my music. Although I suppose the argument can be made for just buying really good headphones?

Edit: So no way of telling if it's a perfectly fine PC or if it'll blow up on me? @refurbished

**sruon** · 2010-07-12 23:21

I'd guess so, but for the price I really doubt you'll find anything else brand new.
Usually gaming laptops range in the $1500-2000

Edit: No idea, if the manufacturer is somewhat serious (ASUS for instance, or Acer who I've had good customer service experience with) it should be fine.

**BerenTebogo** · 2010-07-12 23:22

Blah. I'm gonna have to dig into that refurbished business. A lot of money to spend without knowing whats up.

**OWS_Tonx** · 2010-07-12 23:24

If possible, don't buy software. Just get a machine with good hardware. It'll cut down on your price a lot. Just find a cracked version of Windows or whichever OS you want.

**sruon** · 2010-07-12 23:26

That sort of thing isn't really common with laptops, I'm not sure if it's enforced in America yet but in Europe you can send laptop after buying it and they'll remove stickers/windows and refund you from 30 to 100€

**BerenTebogo** · 2010-07-12 23:26

I'm on my mini-dell at the moment which runs Ubuntu default. Saved me a shit ton of money on buying this, but it seems impossible to find that option on the better computers? Or am I just blind?

**OWS_Tonx** · 2010-07-12 23:28

I had a friend buy a few in San Diego from a shop there that were blank. Got 'em dirt cheap. As for buying from Dell like that, I doubt it.

**OWS_Tonx** · 2010-07-12 23:31

Idk if there are any kind of shops like that where you are.

**BerenTebogo** · 2010-07-12 23:31

Looked at specs on that Toshiba:

Speaker Built-in harman/kardon stereo speakers

Reviewer must have either perfect pitch or be retarded. HK was the system that came in my old Lex and it was a-fucking-mazing and I would buy from them in a heartbeat.

This Toshiba may be the ticket.

**BerenTebogo** · 2010-07-12 23:31

I know nothing about comp places, really. I'm a tech dummy.

**BerenTebogo** · 2010-07-12 23:37

Which of these is better?

Memory Size 6GB DDR2
Hard Disk 500GB
Optical Drive DVD Super Multi
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M
Video Memory 1GB DDR3 VRAM
Communication Gigabit LAN and WLAN
Dimensions 16.14" x 11.77" x 1.75" - 2.04"
Weight 8.79 lbs.
CPU
CPU Type Intel Core 2 Duo
CPU Speed P8700(2.53GHz)
CPU FSB 1066MHz
CPU L2 Cache 3MB

or

Memory Size 4GB DDR3
Hard Disk 500GB
Optical Drive DVD Super Multi
Graphics Card NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M
Video Memory 1GB GDDR3
Communication Modem, LAN and WLAN
Card slot 1 x Express Card
Dimensions 15.10" x 10.20" x 1.44" - 1.61"
Weight 6.48 lbs.
CPU
CPU Type Intel Core i7
CPU Speed 720QM(1.60GHz)

**sruon** · 2010-07-12 23:42

GTX 260M > GT 330M (By about 30%, but that's limited to games)
but
i7 > Core 2 Duo (Can't really quantify but you're talking basically doubles for about everything)

=/

**OWS_Tonx** · 2010-07-12 23:45

If it were one or the other I would choose the 1st. Probably best to listen to Sruon though.

**sruon** · 2010-07-12 23:47

Either one you choose you'll find yourself confronted with a bottleneck but they're both fair choice for casual uses when it comes to gaming.

If you've got the money, this is basically the best/cheapest choice to have the best of both worlds. Still $1,200.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220700

**Metafox** · 2010-07-12 23:55

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you're looking into something that will run programs quickly then the cpu bottleneck will be your biggest concern. In this case, you'd be better off going with the good cpu and the iffy gpu.

**BerenTebogo** · 2010-07-13 00:08

So the i7 is the best choice for speed when it comes to programs? I think that both specs (CPU and GPU) along with the available memory are already better than my current desktop which cost like $700 3 years ago.

And that ran FFXI decently enough for me. 2 gigs of ram, etc.

**Metafox** · 2010-07-13 03:23

I'm not an expert at all, I'm just going by what seems logical. As far as I know, gpus are used to display graphics, so they wouldn't really do much good for non-graphic programs. Games, on the other hand, do display graphics, so their performance often depends more on your computer's ability to handle graphics than it's ability to run code. If you get the one with the weaker gpu, you probably won't be able to play many new games on it.

As far as the 720QM vs. the P8700, I can't find many solid benchmarks since they're laptop cpus. Here's what I did find:

http://www.pcgameshardware.com/scree...0923173606.png

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/common_cpus.html

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