The Laptop Guide - Post here for questions, deals, etc.

[Eldoras]

Funny part is the Asus G73 uses an ATI so yea, they use both companies. As far as standard gaming laptops go, Asus brings the biggest and best specs for the price and value. You can grab them roughly $1,100-1,400 with price varying on refurb'ed or not and retailer. It'll come in with 2GB more RAM and a full gig instead of a half gig on the dedicated graphics vs. the Toshiba A665S series. As far as Asus go, they're about one of the best companies out there but I'd prefer building a desktop if your not moving around giving in the end nothing competes with it and you get a longer lifespan typically. You could easily build a quad or 6-core AMD desktop for roughly the same price as the Asus and would obviously perform better.

As far as laptops coming down in price. most of the retailers online will probably bring the G73 down closer to $1,000 but not below that; they want the revenue but loose a good amount of profitability selling it less than $1,100. Only time it might dip lower than that for a new one is in January/February as a clearance model where Asus would want to replace it. That's a risky one given your gambling on it being in stock or not.I know Tiger Direct and Best Buy would probably give it for under $1k if it hit clearance (sometimes but not always). But I guess that's your call in the end; wait and possibly save $100-200 or buy now.

[lathia]

Thanks for the response, I'll probably just wait and sit it out until Christmas.

[Zanz L. Barre The 3rd]

Hey all, I was looking for a small, fast, and reliable laptop for browsing for my little brother. As far as I know, he doesn't do much besides go on youtube and play a few select browser games, so graphics won't be a priority. Reliability is definitely a big factor but I'm hoping for something between $300-$400. I've done a small bit of research but wasn't satisfied with the results... Anything input would be great, thanks!

[Zalius]

1. i dont know shit about laptops.
2. i need to use a laptop for work purposes.
3. i trust you.

going to be doing a lot of site management/updating and i want it to double for recording purposes (electric guitar, standard USB input, going in clean and all tonal mods will be done with software). looking for something medium weighted with sex for RAM and a decent+ battery life. don't want a standard vid card, i got fire in my fingers that can only be put out with proper scrub sacrifices.

guide me, elders

[trinironnie]

Im currently on a navy base going to school for training, and im in need for a laptop. The store here (NEX) sells laptops and I'm looking for a good laptop, the best laptop they have so far is a HP laptop with i5 processor 4GB Ddr3 of ram, 2.87 ghz ( I think) 640Gb of memory, 1 Gig dedicated to video memory and A ati mobility raedon video card. I'm not a big fan of HP but is this a good laptop? Also it's 899 with no tax since military store.

[azagarth]

How would this work for ffxi, and soon to be ff14? I may not end up playing ff14, but I would like a laptop that could handle it, does not have be to be the best, just decent.

http://www.buy.com/prod/asus-k72jr-x...216885054.html

curious about this one too? I got to looking more and it really seems nice for the cost. Would I have any issues running ffxi on it?

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Samsung+...1418914&loc=01

[Boyiee]

Is the m11x still a good buy for a small/mobile laptop that can also be used for gaming like cod/wow/fallout?

[Daemonxel]

Anyone know of some killer laptop deals for xmas? Not looking for a gaming laptop, but one for my daughter and wife..just above netbook specs...but lowend laptops

[Ace-o-fire]

Anyone know any killer cyber Monday deals on laptops of net-books under 200$ there is on on tiger fore 230

here are the specs

Asus Eee PC 1005HAB-RBLK003X Refurbished Netbook - Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz, 1GB DDR2, 160GB HDD, 10.1" WSVGA, Windows XP Home

worth it. I'm just going to rip windows 7 on it.

[Draylo]

Trying to buy a hard drive reader to attach to my desktop or new laptop from my old laptop. It broke so I bought a new one but I wanna see if I can still transfer the files, any suggestions?

[Cephius]

Anyone know any killer cyber Monday deals on laptops of net-books under 200$ there is on on tiger fore 230

here are the specs

Asus Eee PC 1005HAB-RBLK003X Refurbished Netbook - Intel Atom N270 1.6GHz, 1GB DDR2, 160GB HDD, 10.1" WSVGA, Windows XP Home

worth it. I'm just going to rip windows 7 on it.

I bet that nettop runs Win7 like shit, to be honest

Trying to buy a hard drive reader to attach to my desktop or new laptop from my old laptop. It broke so I bought a new one but I wanna see if I can still transfer the files, any suggestions?

Any cheap hard drive enclosure or SATA/IDE to USB bridge would do the job. Handy thing to have around anyway. Search those terms on newegg, they're not expensive at all.

[azagarth]

So there is a good $200 off coupon right now for HP comps and $982.09 for this after tax in my state. Seems good deal for a laptop at 1k mark. Should I go for something like this or shell out the $1400 for an Asus with similar specs? Needs to play ff14 and games like it without a flaw, but I am also poor lol.... I do hate HP but this just seems unbeatable for the price.

HP Pavilion dv7t

Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-720QM Quad Core processor (1.6GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.8 GHz
1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5650 Graphics [HDMI, VGA] - For Quad Core Processors
8GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
17.3" diagonal HD+ High-Definition HP LED BrightView Widescreen Display (1600 x 900)

[winterwinter]

$200 off coupon ? sounds great for sure.

[Howard Roark]

Gonna be getting a new laptop, and I want to be able to 2box ffxi, and maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe (prob not) play ff14

I'm assuming the following should be fine for ffxi?

Acer Aspire TimelineX AS3820TG-7360, Notebook (Brushed Aluminum, Black) - Intel Core i3-370M, 13.3" HD, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, ATI RADEON HD 5650, Wireless N, Webcam, HDMI, Windows 7 Home Premium

not as concerned but could it handle ff14?

[Cephius]

Gonna be getting a new laptop, and I want to be able to 2box ffxi, and maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe (prob not) play ff14

I'm assuming the following should be fine for ffxi?

Acer Aspire TimelineX AS3820TG-7360, Notebook (Brushed Aluminum, Black) - Intel Core i3-370M, 13.3" HD, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, ATI RADEON HD 5650, Wireless N, Webcam, HDMI, Windows 7 Home Premium

not as concerned but could it handle ff14?

Should be fine though I'm not a fan of the i3 processor. Find something with an i5 if you can. No idea how FFXI handles newer tech these days, may want to google the video card to see if there are any known issues as graphic card incompatibility is usually the most common problem. Should be OK to run FF14 at medium settings.

[Kimiko]

Thinking about this setup for a budget gaming rig/desktop replacement. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834115864

Any suggestions, looking at a max budget at around 700-800 at most.

[Goldencarnage]

Hi I'm a student looking for a not too expensive laptop for school. Main uses internet, music, movies, and writing papers. I've been threw 2 computers before... HP Pavilion and Compaq so I'd rather not get one of those again. Main brand I'm in interested in is a Sony Vaio. I hear they are great laptops. That is what i'm mainly gunning for but I'm willing to buy another brand. I'd like to spend like $300-$500 on a laptop but I'll willing to spend $600-$700 at most. I hope to not spend so much money on this computer since I plan on buying an Ipad2 in March/April. Please Help! Thanks!

Edit: Also I've been browsing on sites like New Egg too for deals so if anyone has any other good sites let me know. Thanks!

[Ayn]

Hello friends:

I'm looking at a laptop that I'll be using for work, but I'd also like to be able to run half-decent games on it (nothing extensive like Crysis or other FPS, but maybe something like Dragon Age.

I was looking at this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220755

It's an Asus, seems like a good deal, but I idly wonder if the price might drop even more soon, as I'm in no rush.

Thoughts? I've received good advice here in the past on other tech matters, so thought I'd give it a stab here.

[Gorki]

How does this look for an overall gaming laptop? Any feed back appreciated. Also if anyone has suggestions on other laptops in the $1,500-$2,200 price range I'm open for ideas.

DELL XPS:

COLORS Silver Anodized Aluminum 15.6" HD (720p) WLED Display with 2.0 MP webcam edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ i7-740QM (1.73GHz, 8 threads, turbo boost up to 2.93GHz, 6M cache)
VIDEO CARD NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 435M 2GB graphics
MEMORY 6GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
HARD DRIVE 640GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
BATTERY OPTIONS 92 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE 8X Tray Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
WIRELESS CARDS Intel© Centrino© Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250 802.11 a/g/n
KEYBOARD Backlit Keyboard - English

[Wetticus]

After fiddling with my desktop for weeks to no avail, I'm ready to move in a different direction. That shit's going to a shop and if it comes out okay, great. If not, I still want something new. Also I realize I really miss my old laptop.

Looking for something in the $1k-ish range. Wouldn't be adverse to swinging over or under that if the bang-for-the-buck is there though. Screen size is a bit of a concern but I can work with smaller. My old laptop was a m9700 beast so I'd really like something with a 17" if possible, but if it's cost-prohibitive to the point of making it totally not worth it then so be it. I can totally work with a 15". Nothing super tiny though.

No real brand preference. Heard good things about Asus and I've looked at bit into those. Alienwares seem to be on sale right now. Mainly it'll be used for WoW, maybe some older games but nothing too terribly taxing, and (possibly if I don't get a new desktop in the next year) Diablo 3.