Decent laptops for £500 or less?

[xBlizzDevious]

Hi guys,

 

I'm buying an Asus G750JZ shortly for "mobile" and epic gaming, but my brother isn't so power needy, but also wants a laptop that he can casually game on.

 

His limit is around £500 but he could stretch a little more if there's a significant bonus in performance.

 

Mostly he'll be using it for general browsing and watching videos. But he'll also be wanting to play some MMOs and other games too. TERA, possibly Wildstar, Guild Wars 2 for starters. Possibly some non-MMO PC games too, including the good old C&C games (I think anything out these days will be able to play those) and probably some newer and slightly more demanding games too.

 

What laptops would you guys suggest for that use scenario?

 

Thanks

[Guest]

Get something with a very good CPU (i5, i7)

And graphics don't matter that much but don't get Intel HD graphics

[ZetZet]

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/lenovo-z50-70-15-6-laptop-white-10022700-pdt.html

Just make sure you get 1080p one. At 15.6inches 768p is awful.

 

http://skinflint.co.uk/eu/acer-aspire-v5-573g-54208g50aii-nx-mcceg-004-a964891.html Or try to find this baby with 1080p IPS panel. It has probably the best panel for the budget.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Acer-Aspire-V5-573G-54208G50aii-Notebook.99264.0.html

[ShadowCaptain]

Check out some of the laptops on PC Specilaist and Eurocom

 

You can spec them however you like

 

For example this laptop with a Pentium and 840m come in under £500 but you can choose like any configuration

 

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/cosmosII/

[xBlizzDevious]

Check out some of the laptops on PC Specilaist and Eurocom

 

You can spec them however you like

 

For example this laptop with a Pentium and 840m come in under £500 but you can choose like any configuration

 

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/cosmosII/

 

That's all very interesting. If I can get him to stretch to £600, he can get a pretty damn good laptop!

Specs below. Any recommendations of changes?

I'll need to ask him about the screen, though I doubt he really cares. Haha!

Chassis & Display

Cosmos Series: 15.6" Matte HD LED 16:9 Widescreen (1366x768)

Processor (CPU)

Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-4210M (2.60GHz) 3MB

Memory (RAM)

8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X IMPACT 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (1 x 8GB)

Graphics Card

NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 840M - 2.0GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

Memory - Hard Disk

1TB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD10JPVX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive

8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)

Memory Card Reader

Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)

Thermal Paste

ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)

Sound Card

Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack

Bluetooth & Wireless

GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH

USB Options

3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD

Battery

Cosmos Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (48.84WH)

Power Lead & Adaptor

1 x UK Power Lead & 90W AC Adaptor

Keyboard Language

COSMOS SERIES UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD

Operating System

NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED

Office Software

NO OFFICE SOFTWARE

Anti-Virus

NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Notebook Mouse

INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE

Webcam

INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM

Warranty

3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Dead Pixel Guarantee

1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)

Insurance

1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft

Delivery

SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS & UK OFFSHORE ISLANDS / N IRELAND (£12)

Build Time

Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days

 

 

For myself:

Having been unaware of this website before, I never looked, but I can actually configure more what I'd like here over the G750JZ.

- What's your opinion over the ASUS G750JZ-T4056H vs the Vortex IV 17" laptop from PC Specialist (specced similarly (below))?

- Are these laptops of high quality and will they last well?

- Is the 4910MQ worth the extra over the 4700HQ?

- Which has the best screen? Is either IPS? As far as I can tell, then Asus uses a TN, but when I used my friends' one, it seemed to be too good for a TN.

- Which would serve best as a complete over the top power user's desktop replacement? I'm contemplating the 32GB RAM as that's what my desktop has and I think I might struggle without that much.

 

I had a look at this config and it seems pretty good. I get double the HDD storage of the Asus as well as a (what seems to be) better CPU for only £100 more.

- Would it be worth getting the Seagate SSHDs and will they work in RAID 0? Other HDD recommendations?

- Any other recommendations on the other stuff either?

   

Chassis & Display

Vortex Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)

Processor (CPU)

Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-4910MQ (2.90GHz) 8MB

Memory (RAM)

16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X IMPACT 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 8GB)

Graphics Card

NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 880M - 8.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11 Free Item

Free Item

FREE £90 IN-GAME VOUCHER with GTX 650 / 750 /7000M / 8000M Series GPUs

Memory - Hard Disk

1TB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD10JPVX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)

2^nd Hard Disk

1TB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD10JPVX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400 rpm)

RAID

RAID 0 (STRIPED VOLUME - 2 x same size & model HDD / SSD) (£9)

2^nd mSATA SSD Drive

240GB Kingston SSDNow mS200 mSATA (upto 540MB/sR | 530MB/sW)

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive

8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)

Memory Card Reader

Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)

Thermal Paste

ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)

Sound Card

Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack

Bluetooth & Wireless

GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH

USB Options

3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD

Firewire

1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT

Battery

Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)

Power Lead & Adaptor

1 x UK Power Lead & 230W AC Adaptor

Keyboard Language

INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD

Operating System

NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED

Office Software

NO OFFICE SOFTWARE

Anti-Virus

NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Notebook Mouse

INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE

Webcam

INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM

Warranty

3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)

Dead Pixel Guarantee

1 Year Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£19)

Insurance

1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft

Delivery

SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS & UK OFFSHORE ISLANDS / N IRELAND (£12)

Build Time

Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days"

 

For both of these, is the warranty upgrade worth it? It's £24 for 1 year of collect and return and dead pixel guarantee, or for free, you get no dead pixel guarantee and 1 month only for collect and return (oops! Missed the warrant upgrade on my spec list). And also is the better thermal paste worth it? Again, any other recommendations you guys would recommend?

 

 

EDIT: Should probably mention that I haven't bought the G750JZ yet as I never EVER rush and buy things. Haha... Also, sorry to post those massive spoilers with the specs in them, but I can't see a "save quote for other people to see button" and I don't want to sign up to their website unless I have to.

[ShadowCaptain]

SNIP wow long post

 

That spec for him looks good, I think that is the best you will do for £600 total! (just bare in mind no OS is included as standard, you can get a copy of Windows 7 for abuot £30 on amazon though or a windows 8 key on G2A for about £20-£30)

 

 

 

For myself:

Having been unaware of this website before, I never looked, but I can actually configure more what I'd like here over the G750JZ.

- What's your opinion over the ASUS G750JZ-T4056H vs the Vortex IV 17" laptop from PC Specialist (specced similarly (below))?

- Are these laptops of high quality and will they last well?

- Is the 4910MQ worth the extra over the 4700HQ?

- Which has the best screen? Is either IPS? As far as I can tell, then Asus uses a TN, but when I used my friends' one, it seemed to be too good for a TN.

- Which would serve best as a complete over the top power user's desktop replacement? I'm contemplating the 32GB RAM as that's what my desktop has and I think I might struggle without that much.

 

I had a look at this config and it seems pretty good. I get double the HDD storage of the Asus as well as a (what seems to be) better CPU for only £100 more.

- Would it be worth getting the Seagate SSHDs and will they work in RAID 0? Other HDD recommendations?

- Any other recommendations on the other stuff either?

 

 

For both of these, is the warranty upgrade worth it? It's £24 for 1 year of collect and return and dead pixel guarantee, or for free, you get no dead pixel guarantee and 1 month only for collect and return (oops! Missed the warrant upgrade on my spec list). And also is the better thermal paste worth it? Again, any other recommendations you guys would recommend?

 

 

 

I am happy with my laptop from PC Spec and so are 3 of my friends who have ordered them too!

 

I have no specific experiance with that model but they are all clevo models, with a bit of digging you will see that 90% of custom laptop brands use these as a base!

 

Get the best CPU you can afford, laptop CPUs are weak, my alienware has a 3610qm i7  (the slowest) and it is a bit shitty tbh

 

Screen no comment as I have seen neither in real life, sorry

 

Also have a look into the Eurocom M4 as you can get a 3k ips display, if you want a kickass display that is

 

32gb? Not sure, never had that much ram, if you feel you need it, go for it, though you could always  upgrade later if you need that budget for better SSD/CPU/GPU

 

Personally if you want a true desktop replacement try and get an SLI or Crossfire laptop, an 880m is about the same as a 760/770 GTX which is decent I guess, but in another year for the money you spend you MIGHT want more power

 

The Crossfire 7970ms in my M18x are still almost top of the chain after 2 years!

 

Better thermal paste? sure I doubt you are going to want to dissasemble these things any time soon, why not get better cooling, something laptops need every advantage they can get

 

Warranty? up to you, personally I purchase the most expensive longest warranty I can afford, some people dont care, GPU MMX cards are INSANELY expensive, as are most laptop parts

 

 

Ask if I missed anything, its a very long post and I am at work so do not have that much time to sit and read it, or PM me

 

 

How much was your desktop replacement spec? I will have a look when I get time and see if I can find any better specs

[xBlizzDevious]

That spec for him looks good, I think that is the best you will do for £600 total! (just bare in mind no OS is included as standard, you can get a copy of Windows 7 for abuot £30 on amazon though or a windows 8 key on G2A for about £20-£30)

 

 

 

I am happy with my laptop from PC Spec and so are 3 of my friends who have ordered them too!

 

I have no specific experiance with that model but they are all clevo models, with a bit of digging you will see that 90% of custom laptop brands use these as a base!

 

Get the best CPU you can afford, laptop CPUs are weak, my alienware has a 3610qm i7  (the slowest) and it is a bit shitty tbh

 

Screen no comment as I have seen neither in real life, sorry

 

Also have a look into the Eurocom M4 as you can get a 3k ips display, if you want a kickass display that is

 

32gb? Not sure, never had that much ram, if you feel you need it, go for it, though you could always  upgrade later if you need that budget for better SSD/CPU/GPU

 

Personally if you want a true desktop replacement try and get an SLI or Crossfire laptop, an 880m is about the same as a 760/770 GTX which is decent I guess, but in another year for the money you spend you MIGHT want more power

 

The Crossfire 7970ms in my M18x are still almost top of the chain after 2 years!

 

Better thermal paste? sure I doubt you are going to want to dissasemble these things any time soon, why not get better cooling, something laptops need every advantage they can get

 

Warranty? up to you, personally I purchase the most expensive longest warranty I can afford, some people dont care, GPU MMX cards are INSANELY expensive, as are most laptop parts

 

 

Ask if I missed anything, its a very long post and I am at work so do not have that much time to sit and read it, or PM me

 

 

How much was your desktop replacement spec? I will have a look when I get time and see if I can find any better specs

 

 

The Asus I was going to get I can buy for £1649.99 and that PC Spec one was coming up at £1754 I think.

 

I'll check out the Eurocom M4 as I do like screen real estate. I will find the pixel density to be a little high though. I think for a laptop screen, 1080P is probably perfect.

 

I've got 3 7970s in this computer at the moment and as much power as they produce, with what I use them for, they're not worth it and the drivers cause more hassle than they're worth. For that reason, I'm steering clear of Crossfire/SLI at the moment. Plus, I do actually want to be able to use this as a laptop. Just a heavy one. Not one that will break my arm every time I lift it.

 

EDIT: The Eurocom M4 is only 13.3" which is way too small.

[ShadowCaptain]

I've got 3 7970s in this computer at the moment and as much power as they produce, with what I use them for, they're not worth it and the drivers cause more hassle than they're worth. For that reason, I'm steering clear of Crossfire/SLI at the moment. Plus, I do actually want to be able to use this as a laptop. Just a heavy one. Not one that will break my arm every time I lift it.

 

EDIT: The Eurocom M4 is only 13.3" which is way too small.

 

I thought it was bigger for some reason ><

 

I have always had trouble AMD drivers, though nvidia drivers and SLI seem 100x more stable

 

The only other laptop I can think of is the Aorus x7 but since that is SLI you might not like it

 

That PC specialist one is probably the best bet considering its price and specification