Buying a new laptop, need some tips

[MisterHentai]

That's £668.74 for me as of the current exchange rate.

[Vonman]

there will be a day when we can have custom made laptop... someday

[iheartibuki]

Alright guys, I found some more leads. It's down to the wire between IBuyPower, Samsung and Lenovo:

* IBuyPower Battalion 101 P151EM1

PROS: Very powerful even at the starting price.
Doesn't scream "I'm a gaming laptop" with it's rather simplistic aesthetics for something at the top end

CONS: Very expensive at the set up I want ($ 2400) but at least it's better than the Origin quote
A lot of testimonials complain about the amount of time it takes to get the units built and shipped
I also read tons of bad reviews of the company (as in parts dislodging inside the units when they get shipped and no stress tests conducted on them prior to shipping)

* Lenovo IdeaPad Y580

PROS: Bang for the buck (I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the price)
Saw a vid of a guy playing Crisis 3 at 1080P and he claims he gets around 30 fps without video recording
Very nice looking case, not over the top like the ones from Alienware or Origin.

CONS: It says on the website you can customize these but I couldn't. Would like to have a Bluray player at the very least
Guy playing Crisis 3 complained about excessive heat but that's to be expected of any gaming rigs ain't it?
Reviews say this machine specs are at the low end of the gaming laptop spectrum. Would like something in the middle.

* Samsung Series 7 15.6" Notebook

PROS: Good battery life according to reviews (around 7 hours, though I'm assuming it could only be true when you're not playing games with ultra high requirements)
I like the slim profile of the laptop.
Considered to be right in the middle of the gaming laptop spectrum

CONS: Doesn't look like the battery is "easily" replaceable, due to the slim profile
Not sure what the quality of Samsung laptops is like.


Anyway, decisions decisions! I'm partial to the ibuypower PC but seeing the price of the Lenovo makes me want to go for it. I believe the Y580 is a 2012 model, maybe I should wait for the 2013 models to come out so I can customize a little bit?

[Runa]

I don't know about the brand, I would say NO to the Acer one had bad experiences with an Acer computer. But it looks like you didn't list it, so it's fine.

If you want a PC to play games mostly, you of course need a very good graphic card, but also be sure that the processor is powerful enough. I mean, don't just rush buying a laptop for its wonderful Nvidia or Radeon card when the processor is just 2.00 GHz. Would be nice, but there are many heavy games out there. Maybe 2.50 GHz is enough. My laptop should be like that and games run nice... although some of them are still a bit slow in some points, especially if I keep all the graphics settings on the maximum level.

But yeah... I'm not an expert, so I could be wrong

[MisterHentai]

If you want a true beast of a laptop, they will unfortunately have to be the huge heavy not-so-portable expensive kind. Laptops are always quite limiting no matter how good technology is progressing these days.

The problem is with laptop graphics cards is their model numbers in equivalence to their big brother desktop counterpart. They are never the same. The laptop version is generally a generation behind in terms of their actual performance, but uses the latest model number of the current big desktop series. It's annoying and they really need to stop doing that.

[iheartibuki]

Thanks for the comments, folks! I eventually decided to go with the 1st machine I listed. It's kind of a crapshoot since I haven't dealt with this company before and don't know anybody who's done the same. But a lot of testimonials both on their site and out convinced me that they're pretty legit, plus they've updated me once since I've processed the order. They're supposed to keep me posted as to where things are at, which I think is a good thing especially with a fairly hefty investment like this. It did say on the site that estimated ship date is on the 29th, which is next week, though judging by some of the testimonials I'll be lowering my expectations since a few mentioned that their machines took a while to ship out, though in the end all of them seemed very pleased with the built and feel of their machines. So wish me luck guys/gals!

[MisterHentai]

Hope all goes well then.

The only thing I don't like about laptops, especially ones with decent spec and built for gaming is any sort of shoddy build quality, whether it's the actual chips themselves too.

Bad electricals and faulty chip design (Nvidia I'm looking at you!), overheating on even the simpliest of things is always a problem.

[iheartibuki]

Thanks. Ya I'm crossing my fingers too that I don't end with a lemon. I do have 1 year warranty on parts, but still though, it'd be a hassle if I have to send the machine back to them to fix if ever. We'll see whether this is the first of many PCs I'll buy from them or the first and last.