Best laptop for $1100?

[afineout]

I have $1100 for a new laptop. I would like at least a 960m in it and an SSD. Have any recommendations?

[don_svetlio]

Lenovo Y700
Asus G552VW
MSI GS60/GE62
Dell Inspiron 7559

In that order

[Djole123]

http://portablepicker.com/part/acer-laptop-vn7592g71zl

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, Djole123 said:

http://portablepicker.com/part/acer-laptop-vn7592g71zl

NOOOOOO - NO. That has ABYSMAL cooling. NO.

[SeanAngelo]

9 minutes ago, afineout said:

I have $1100 for a new laptop. I would like at least a 960m in it and an SSD. Have any recommendations?

take your pick

http://portablepicker.com/parts/laptop/#X=104073,650388&sort=a7&page=1&t=0&h=2,3&g=260

[don_svetlio]

2 minutes ago, SeanAngelo said:

take your pick

http://portablepicker.com/parts/laptop/#X=104073,650388&sort=a7&page=1&t=0&h=2,3&g=260

That is still in BETA - nearly half of the laptops available aren't in there and more than half the sellers are also missing

[Djole123]

5 minutes ago, don_svetlio said:

NOOOOOO - NO. That has ABYSMAL cooling. NO.

I guess the MSI laptop doesn't have abysmal cooling:

http://portablepicker.com/part/msi-laptop-pe606qe031us#viewImages

[don_svetlio]

1 minute ago, Djole123 said:

I guess the MSI laptop doesn't have abysmal cooling:

http://portablepicker.com/part/msi-laptop-pe606qe031us#viewImages

Recolor of the GE62 - the GPU has 3 heatpipes covering it and the CPU has it's own heatsink. It's a good design.

[_JohnB330ci]

I personally have the Inspiron 7559, and I can well recommend it, but I advise not ordering it straight from dell. But about the laptop, it has great performance for the price, stays relatively quiet, increasing noise during demanding tasks however, the default hard-drive is accelerated through Intel's smart HDD system, and it works incredibly well, running games no problem when on the go and away from my desktop PC. Things I would take note off, is the majority of heat rises through the keyboard, the trackpad isn't great and is often buggy in terms of tracking, but still functions fine for everyday tasks, and I assume if you was going to game on it, you'd use a standalone mouse anyway. The keyboard backlight is a nice calm brightness for night use and the matte display is exceptional for outside use being able to reach an acceptable brightness. Its a full extended UK keyboard (My version anyway) including the numpad. The battery life is about 6 hours when not gaming, but charges extremely fast, and gets a slight performance increase when plugged in.

 

I would well recommend this laptop as for the same price range it is hard to find another laptop that has the same specs, or anywhere close for the size of the laptop.

 

- SirAuthentic/SherifsDog22

[Jiang Guo Feng]

MSI have very tempting configs for okayish prices. Some of the higher end models have great build. But at your price point, I would suggest you avoid GE60/70 series. They aren't bad products per se, but they don't age well. I had mine for a couple years now, no regrets, but look out for a couple of things.

At 1100 build quality is make or break. Mine had a half aluminum half plastic shell. Great in theory but terrible in practice. In everyday use the metal would 'tear' into and damage the plastic underneath. Mine had cracks in the corners where the aluminum was starting to dig into the plastic bits due to dents, etc. Also it is incredibly inconvenient to have the metal burn your hand while you play and the bottom plastic not help much with reducing heat.

Dimensions, dimensions, dimensions. I thought I could just lug around this hunk of metal no problem since weight wasn't an issue for me but look out for how big the laptop is going to be.

Battery Life. I don't know about other MSI GE60 users but mine had terrible battery life. (2 hours web browsing) at this price point you can either have an incredibly bulky good speced laptop with decent battery life or a sleek looking SOAB with poor thermals and battery life. I'd imagine if you want a high speced laptop you also don't mind being a wall hugger. It's good practice to bring your cable everywhere if your battery doesn't last as long as a regular movie marathon. 

 

 

That being said I still recommend you check out their latest iteration (GE62/72). Nothing bad against MSI the laptop for my requirements is a beast, but I still wish I didn't overshoot and focused mainly on the raw specs and didn't look into the feel, everyday usage, etc.