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Will this laptop actually get things done?
Hello, I'm currently running a few year old Lenovo thinkpad with Intel hd2000 shared graphics and 2.5ghz i3.
I'm looking to move forward with my laptop and get something bigger and better and most things were pushing me toward a Lenovo Y series with a GT 755m and i7 or an HP envy with GT 750 and an i7 until I saw this... for just a little more money.
Other than the HD space.. this seems like a way better ticket in terms of a low to mid-budget laptop that i'll be able to play some decent games on. What really has my head spinning is the GTX 760m. I cant find a laptop with a card like that in it anywhere for this sort of price. Not even close..
I guess my question is.. would this laptop be a wise choice if im looking to play current generation MMORPGs and still be able to chug along with new games in the coming year or so?
Also if anybody has any suggestion within the 900$ price range feel free to input. I'm pretty set on that though. Not much wiggle room for moving up.. i'll go lower all day though heh.
Comments
Which laptop you should get depends tremendously on what you're going to do with it. If you're going to keep it at home and use it like a desktop, then you're vastly better off getting a desktop. Even needing both a gaming device and a laptop doesn't automatically mean that a gaming laptop makes sense for you; they really only make sense for people who are going to take a laptop with them and play games on it away from home. Why do you want a gaming laptop, anyway?
If you do need a gaming laptop, that is a pretty good video card for that price range. But there are some catches that you should be aware of, as the hardware configuration is rather dumb.
First of all, they went with a 37 W version of the CPU rather than the usual 47 W version. That means it is clocked lower, which will hurt CPU performance. It will still be a fairly fast laptop CPU, but not as fast as the Core i7-4700MQ that is usually priced the same. Lower power CPUs make sense when you're trying to fit it into a smaller, thinner form factor, but that's pretty big as laptops go--and necessarily so when you're trying to fit a GTX 760M video card.
Second, 12 GB of memory means that they mismatched the memory channels, as 12 is not a power of 2. That hurts your memory bandwidth, but that's only that big of a deal if you were going to use integrated graphics. You're not, or at least, not for gaming. Still, it cost Acer more to give the laptop 12 GB than 8 GB (as two 4 GB modules), even though the latter is superior for nearly everything, so it's a completely stupid memory configuration.
Third, it's a 5400 RPM hard drive, which is slow. That's fine for bulk storage, but when it's your only drive, you have to run the OS and all programs off of it. That means that the laptop will generally be sluggish, though you'll still get good frame rates in games. Still, you're likely so used to slow hard drives that you won't know anything is wrong and not realize that computers aren't supposed to constantly make you sit there and wait anymore.
Thank you for the reply, my reasoning for wanting a laptop over a desktop is because over the next two or three years I will be bouncing around a lot in my living situation. Spending a few days at my mothers home, a few days at my fiances parents home and traveling a bit for work. So for the moment until we are able to buy our own house or condo i'm pretty set on a laptop. Other than gaming I don't do much other than browse the web and stream anime once in a while. My current laptop was a last ditch effort to getting any sort of computer after my gaming desktop royally got destroyed a few years ago and i'm looking to be able to play decent mmorpgs again other than the assembly line Aeria Games.
The information you just gave about the mismatched memory and lower end i7 were exactly the sort of feedback I was looking for as i'm not the most computer savvy person.
Still though, would those short comings make this a laptop to look away from? Is the graphics card itself the biggest redeeming quality? I wouldn't want to sink 900$ into a unit that cant keep up with itself.
On the other hand, could you give me an honest opinion of comparison to this : http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y-series/y510p/?sb=:000001C9:0000FCD6:#customize
Which would you say would be the better choice for me. My goals are simply portability and running mmorpgs.
I bought myself an: Acer Aspire V3-772G, i7 2.2 Ghz, 8GB RAM memory and a NVidia GTX 760M, and it allows me to play most MMOs on high settings, and only the most demanding games on medium. I am quite happy with the computer. Be sure to get the GTX760M and no lower card, though. Acer has a LOT of variants, and I can only speak for exactly this model.
A laptop is always more expensive, but I am glad I got this computer and truly enjoy it.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
If you are just going to be web surfing and mainly playing an MMO or two I would try and get one with an SSD and just not get a regular HDD.
The difference of a 5400 rpm drive VS a solid state drive is huge. Unless you need a ton of storage space then the SSD is the way to go IMO.
Depending on just how much you're going to move around, you may be better off with a small form factor desktop. For example, look at this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811163212
And more to the point, look at the size of it: 8.74" x 7.48" x 13.78" That will comfortably fit in an ordinary backpack. If you're going to move the computer every day, a small form factor desktop would be a hassle. But if you're going to move it once a month on average, that's no reason to get a laptop unless you won't use the computer very much at all.