Tax refund is in, help me select a new laptop.

[Holyground]

So I have around $1,500. to spend on a laptop. Honestly, I'd like to get it through best buy for a number of reasons, including having over $300 in giftcards, reward certs, etc.

Literally the only thing it will be doing in a taxing way is playing wow. otherwise netflix.

I want it to play wow really well, and also be as inexpensive as possible. I've been looking at some of the 1200 MSI, the one with the a10 and the 7970 or the i-7 and the 660m.

Any input will be greatly appreciated.

[Cyanotical]

honestly, having been there before, buying through best buy is probably the worst decision you could make, it's better to buy a laptop from a shady drug dealer on a street corner

as for a model, the Lenovo Y500 with dual GT650s in SLI is pretty good, and for the price is unbeatable in terms of performance and quality

[chazus]

You could always use the gift cards and stuff on accessories and peripherals that arent relevant to the laptop. Headphones, more ram, an SSD are options.

Or just sell the cards at 90% cost, and turn it to cash. You'd lose more than that just buying through best buy on markup.

[S31Ender]

I second the poster above in buying Lenovo. IBM builds a quality product.
While the ideapads with AMD processors and dual graphics cards (on on the CPU/mobo and the other a dedicated) seem like a great bang for buck, (and they are...to be honest. I've seen some of the 500 dollar versions kick the snot gaming-wise out of 800 dollar machines.) later on you'll run into the issue of driver support. Those cards MUST run on Lenovo's released drivers for the crossfire to work correctly. If Lenovo is slow to release their version of the videocard drivers, or stop supporting that model in 2 years or whatever, then it's bad luck for you since the AMD/ATI drivers won't allow the on/off crossfire to work properly and you'll get increased bluescreens and reduced performance.
Asus makes decent laptops but suffer from the new kid on the block issue. No-one knows them (except system builders, who know they make the motherboards for a lot of computers already) and so if one has a problem, they don't have an established reputation like Vaio or Lenovo does and people tend to think they're junk. They are usually decent bang for your buck as far as gaming goes though.



Price is important too. To be honest, if you're playing wow and streaming netflix and such, there's no reason to get a 1600 dollar laptop.
Some really decent 800-1000 dollar laptops are out there that will do everything you want. Get the best processor and videocard setup you can since those aren't changable. You can add more ram later if you need (although at 800-1k there should be 6-8gigs in there which is PLENTY for gaming) and you can always add a Solid State Drive.
I'm a huge fan of SSDs now but still find 'em expensive. However, they are awesome as your system drive and I highly recommend it. When you get into the 1k laptop range, they really become much more popular. Worst case though you can add a SSD on your own. At that price range though, I highly recommend it. The laptop will feel so much more snappy and responsive. Too often today people blow money on nice CPU's and Videocards, and then bog it down with a 5400 or 7200rpm drive. SSD is the way to go for system drive.

[Spectral]

For that pricepoint, the Lenovo linked above is pretty beast, it's hard to argue with it.

[Cyanotical]

I second the poster above in buying Lenovo. IBM builds a quality product.
While the ideapads with AMD processors and dual graphics cards (on on the CPU/mobo and the other a dedicated) seem like a great bang for buck, (and they are...to be honest. I've seen some of the 500 dollar versions kick the snot gaming-wise out of 800 dollar machines.) later on you'll run into the issue of driver support. Those cards MUST run on Lenovo's released drivers for the crossfire to work correctly. If Lenovo is slow to release their version of the videocard drivers, or stop supporting that model in 2 years or whatever, then it's bad luck for you since the AMD/ATI drivers won't allow the on/off crossfire to work properly and you'll get increased bluescreens and reduced performance.
Asus makes decent laptops but suffer from the new kid on the block issue. No-one knows them (except system builders, who know they make the motherboards for a lot of computers already) and so if one has a problem, they don't have an established reputation like Vaio or Lenovo does and people tend to think they're junk. They are usually decent bang for your buck as far as gaming goes though.

while i agree on issues with both AMD CPUS and them allowing proprietary OEM drivers, both the y400 and y500 from lenovo are intel cpus and Nvidia GPUs, the SLI support should come from Nvidia directly


the thing to keep in mind with both of those laptops is that while they perform great for the price (dual GT650s = GTX660M) you give up optical bay by default, which not every user is willing to do yet

there is also the Sager NP9150, this is what i have, its more of an enthusiasts notebook, you can open it up, take it apart and change parts without voiding the warranty, but the keyboard is not the best and the chassis is a bit cheap

i was gonna also suggest a 15" MBP but it seems Apple has upped the price on their notebooks for no reason, without the $900 entry level model they are not even worth considering

you could also consider a Dell, you would have to look around for one with a good GPU, but they have great laptop support

I'm avoiding both Asus and MSI for a reason, while they both have great laptop models, they have atrocious support, and quality support is worth more than any performance gain, flashy design, or brand reputation

[Dizey]

I second the poster above in buying Lenovo. IBM builds a quality product.

I'm guessing this was just a typo on your part, but Lenovo builds IBM, not the other way around. They bought IBM's PC division back around 2005.

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I'm not sure the OP should go with an SLi or Crossfire setup with WoW being his only gaming concern. I've yet to see anyone get good scaling from dual GPU setups in WoW.

[Cyanotical]

I'm guessing this was just a typo on your part, but Lenovo builds IBM, not the other way around. They bought IBM's PC division back around 2005.

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I'm not sure the OP should go with an SLi or Crossfire setup with WoW being his only gaming concern. I've yet to see anyone get good scaling from dual GPU setups in WoW.

Lenovo's laptop division was more of a splinter off from IBM



one thing i would like to iterate, SLI =/= Crossfire, they are not the same technology and to do not function the same, between the two, SLI is much more advanced and refined, think of it like a turbocharger vs a supercharger, both increase performance, but in fundamentally different ways and offering advantages in different areas

[S31Ender]

while i agree on issues with both AMD CPUS and them allowing proprietary OEM drivers, both the y400 and y500 from lenovo are intel cpus and Nvidia GPUs, the SLI support should come from Nvidia directly

I'm unaware how the Intel CPU/Nvidia GPU books work which is why I specified the AMD/ATI in my post.
As I understand it, for the AMD/ATI Lenovo notebooks, there are two cards, one that the system uses normally for reduced battery usage, and then when you need it, it kicks in the second card (the dedicated card, sometimes a similar level card, sometimes a more powerful card). Because of this on and off behavior, the Lenovo version of the ATI drivers are needed. When the normal ATI drivers are used, the notebook gets a bit confused and becomes fairly unstable.
So for right now it's not a problem since the notebook is fully supported by Lenovo, but in a couple years if they stop supporting new drivers for that model whenever ATI puts out new drivers, then he'll be stuck with out-dated drivers.

How the NVidia based units function from Lenovo I don't have any experience with. Are the NVidia based ones running both cards in SLI 100 percent of the time or do they turn on and off as needed too?

I'm guessing this was just a typo on your part, but Lenovo builds IBM, not the other way around. They bought IBM's PC division back around 2005.

Thanks Dizey, I remember years ago the IBM Lenovo notebooks and had just assumed that Lenovo was a subsidiary of IBM. I didn't know that Lenovo made the notebooks FOR IBM.
Either way, it's all the same in this particular context. The Lenovo's are good stuff!



But yeah OP, there are a bunch of nice Lenovo/Asus/MSI units out there for about a grand that are pretty rockin'. Save some cash, buy from Newegg or Amazon or whatever and you can use your best buy gift cards and such to pick up a Samsung 840 laptop SSD as some of them even support dual drives. Just do some fact-finding on individual models. Purchasing the whole unit from best buy is seriously going to eat into your buying power.

[Dizey]

Lenovo's laptop division was more of a splinter off from IBM

I know this is off topic, but eh, how so? Lenovo was already a big PC manufacturer in Asia when they bought the IBM PC division for global market expansion. They gained more than simply that, but that was the main purpose of the acquisition.

Anyhow my point was this. The line should read "Lenovo builds a quality product." IBM is nothing but a brand name in the PC market. Just like Alienware, Gateway, eMachines, Packard Bell, Compaq, etc.

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What you're describing S31Ender sounds and awful lot like AMD's Enduro and Nvidia's Optimus technology. Enduro has had the kind of issues you talked about for quite a while, but that had nothing to do with proprietary drivers. It was more of an issue that AMD had to fix.

[Cyanotical]

How the NVidia based units function from Lenovo I don't have any experience with. Are the NVidia based ones running both cards in SLI 100 percent of the time or do they turn on and off as needed too?

they use a technology called optimus that works pretty much the same, it uses the HD4000 graphics built into the CPU, and when the Nvidia drivers detect a game, they auto switch over to the discrete GPUs, and it can be manually overridden if you want, but this support comes in from nvidia

I know this is off topic, but eh, how so? Lenovo was already a big PC manufacturer in Asia when they bought the IBM PC division for global market expansion. They gained more than simply that, but that was the main purpose of the acquisition.

Anyhow my point was this. The line should read "Lenovo builds a quality product." IBM is nothing but a brand name in the PC market. Just like Alienware, Gateway, eMachines, Packard Bell, Compaq, etc.

IBM basically sold off their entire PC division to Lenovo a few years ago, so effectively the PC/Laptop division from IBM transferred directly to Lenovo, but they still keep the same high quality standards

but IBM is much more than a simple OEM, they are one of the lead developers of new technology, and are in a higher league than Intel and AMD combined, and among enterprise circles, IBM is pretty much the top end, a Power7 server (256 cores @ 4.25Ghz each) kicks the crap out of anything you can buy from AMD or Intel for the same rackspace

if you think of it this way, all the silicon valley companies are children compared to IBM, everyone knows it, that's why with all the patent BS going on, everyone leaves IBM alone, if IBM wanted to, they could crush almost every other tech company out of business

[Zeddicious]

honestly, having been there before, buying through best buy is probably the worst decision you could make, it's better to buy a laptop from a shady drug dealer on a street corner

as for a model, the Lenovo Y500 with dual GT650s in SLI is pretty good, and for the price is unbeatable in terms of performance and quality

Agree 100%

[Dizey]

IBM basically sold off their entire PC division to Lenovo a few years ago, so effectively the PC/Laptop division from IBM transferred directly to Lenovo, but they still keep the same high quality standards

but IBM is much more than a simple OEM, they are one of the lead developers of new technology, and are in a higher league than Intel and AMD combined, and among enterprise circles, IBM is pretty much the top end, a Power7 server (256 cores @ 4.25Ghz each) kicks the crap out of anything you can buy from AMD or Intel for the same rackspace

if you think of it this way, all the silicon valley companies are children compared to IBM, everyone knows it, that's why with all the patent BS going on, everyone leaves IBM alone, if IBM wanted to, they could crush almost every other tech company out of business

I'm well aware of the sale. I remember when it happened, and I already stated it in the comment you replied to. I'm also well aware of how big IBM is. That's really not relevant to the point though. Lenovo was already well established in the industry, and can hardly be attributed as a splinter from IBM. They continued to make IBM laptops, while also introducing their own to global markets, and I'm sure they picked up some nice tech from IBM along the way, but to say Lenovo quality is a result of IBM's high quality standards is giving IBM way, way, WAY, too much credit.

[stellvia]

The 7970m GPU is the best bang for the buck currently. It performs closely to the 680m, while being hundreds of dollars cheaper. Try to stick with the Intel CPU/7970m builds though, not the AMD CPUs. Their single-threaded performance is really bad in comparison. And the vast majority of games lean heavily onto a single thread.

The Lenovo Y500-series systems are pretty good for the money from a major brand. Otherwise look for custom chassis builds from Clevo/MSI. You get a lot more bang for your buck that way.

XoticPC and CyberpowerPC both offer Clevo/MSI customs for a good price. Could get a good 7970m system for $1200-1400.

[Deleted]

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