[Help] Laptop - 50% school/50% Gaming- ~$1000

[Forsedar]

I've done some of my own research in regards to this but I felt that I also had to get some aid from MMOC.


My girlfriend is finishing up her Aerospace Engineering degree at Georgia Tech and needs something capable of running AutoCAD and various other programs. Of course, she also games (and by games I mean does quests in WoW). Her current laptop is absolutely horrible and doesn't allow her to get more than 5-6 FPS inside of LFR. We want to get her something pretty nice with a budget of around $1,000 but definitely not more than $1,500. We figured with a budget like that we could get something rather nice that will not only get her through 2 more years of college but still be viable years down the road.


I appreciate any and all help, so thank you in advance!

[Fluttershy]

get the 4810mq/860m maxwell clevo laptop off of xoticpc for a grand.

[Deleted]

By default laptop is not an optimal choice for any gaming or resource intensive tasks. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834198037

[Deleted]

How important is the battery life?

What about screen size, if you want it to be portable and fit in a backpack you should probably look at nothing more than ~15"

You'll probably want an SSD as well as some storage so account for that in the budget and expendability.

[Forsedar]

@Samthing

A desktop is out of the question as she will be on the go a lot. GT specifically said that a laptop was needed for in-class. A lot of current students seem to go with MSI, but I thought I'd ask here.

@Notarget

Battery life is supposed to be around 4 hours. When I worked selling computers it seemed most offered that lifespan anyways. I was interested in finding her a 15.6" laptop so that would be fine. Had not considered that it would be nice to fit in a backpack.

[Deleted]

4 hour battery life probably means ultrabook - and that won't be great for gaming or CAD.

[Deleted]

MSI GE60 Apache Pro ~$1,212

Customize as you want, it comes with a 7200RPM HDD so it's not slow though I would still recommend adding an SSD. It's just not a must like when it sports a slow 5400RPM drive. RAM too if needed.

If you're looking to get it as cheap as possible You could take a look at this:

msi-gp60-leopard009 $970 + whatever you decide to expend with

The 840M is lower end card but it'll be fine for lower end games, WoW questing etc.

NVIDIA GeForce 840M performance numbers

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M performance numbers

I'll assume external power for gaming or other demanding tasks.

[Forsedar]

My laptop was an ASUS with ~ 4hours or more and it played a lot of games on Ultra, so I wouldn't classify 4 hours as Ultrabook only. It was a 17.3".


Also thanks for the links! I'll run them by her and see what she thinks whenever she gets home! I probably will be back either way.

[Deleted]

Video review of the GE60 Pro:



Short article on TechPowerUp about the GP60:

http://www.techpowerup.com/199091/ms...notebooks.html