Laptop for running WoW/School Programs $700 to $900 budget

[volkanik]

Friend needs a good laptop for school, and for playing WoW on in his spare time. He has a $700 to $900 budget. Any recommendations?

[Basemath]

Can recommend a few. Will go from lowest price to highest. These are all amazon links so checking a different retailer like ebay might yield slightly lower prices. However, I personally like how lax and flexible Amazon's return policy is.

ASUS K501UX 15 inch $789.99 - i7 6500U, 950m GPU, 256gb SSD. Weighs only 4.4 pounds.

Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK $809.99 - i5 6300HQ, 960m (4gb video memory), 256gb SSD. 8.7 pounds.

ASUS GL551 $978.68 - i7 4720HQ, 960m (2gb), 256gb SSD. 6 pounds. 2014 model, but its 2016 successor (GL552) which is close to it in price only has sharper exterior looks and lacks an SSD. Negligible improvement in performance.

Your friend will need to decide based on his needs. Might require a tiny bit of research. I chose all 15 inch because 17 inch + SSD takes us above the budget by a good bit. I think an SSD is a must for him because, 1- SSDs are amazing. 2- He's using it for school work mainly, with WoW in his spare time. Not for WoW mainly with school in spare time The speed of the SSD will come in handy in that regard.

The first ASUS I linked is the cheapest and most mobile, but I do not think its 6th gen CPU is better than the second laptop's 5th gen CPU or the 3rd laptop's 4th gen. In fact, I think the i7 4720HQ is the best between the 3 for his budget. The i5 6300HQ has perks he will never benefit from.

Both the first and last laptops have displays that I personally find better than the IPS display that comes with the Dell. So your friend will need to check the difference between IPS and Matte. IPS is quite glossy. If he likes that, maybe the Dell is a good option. Keep in mind the Dell is not very light. If he can squeeze an extra 80 bucks, I recommend the 3rd laptop.

The 3rd laptop has a version that sports a 5400 rpm 1 tb harddrive, instead of the SSD, which costs $899. This one. Good option also, but I still insist that the SSD is a must. Though perhaps he'll prefer to get this 899 one and buy an SSD for it later. Or perhaps he simply does not care for the speeds of SSD.

Good luck.

[Ghâzh]

ASUS K501UX 15 inch $789.99 - i7 6500U, 950m GPU, 256gb SSD. Weighs only 4.4 pounds.

Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK $809.99 - i5 6300HQ, 960m (4gb video memory), 256gb SSD. 8.7 pounds.

ASUS GL551 $978.68 - i7 4720HQ, 960m (2gb), 256gb SSD. 6 pounds. 2014 model, but its 2016 successor (GL552) which is close to it in price only has sharper exterior looks and lacks an SSD. Negligible improvement in performance.

Good picks, personally I'd leave that Asus K501UX out since it's only 20 bucks below the Dell with less powerful single core performance (important for WoW) and GPU. I'd only consider it if the weight is a problem since it's way lighter build (albeit twice smaller battery life).

That Asus GL551 is a good one as well but you pay slightly more for the ROG brand since the i7-4720HQ isn't that much more powerful compared to the i5-6300HQ on the Dell (HT is meaningless in most cases especially for WoW and light school work).