College Laptop ($1000-$1200 Budget)

[penguin1853]

Hi guys I'm looking around for a laptop mainly for my school work. Ideally It would be light thin and have a great battery life. MY budget is around $1000 and I'm willing to go up to $1200 if there's a reason too. I'm mainly using the laptop to just do school work but it would be nice to be able to play games like cs go or League or legends once in a while. As long as it is LIGHT AND THIN it will be satisfied. What laptops are out there that would satisfy my needs? 

[The Sloth]

 

[PeachyUwUSenpai]

11 minutes ago, penguin1853 said:

Hi guys I'm looking around for a laptop mainly for my school work. Ideally It would be light thin and have a great battery life. MY budget is around $1000 and I'm willing to go up to $1200 if there's a reason too. I'm mainly using the laptop to just do school work but it would be nice to be able to play games like cs go or League or legends once in a while. As long as it is LIGHT AND THIN it will be satisfied. What laptops are out there that would satisfy my needs? 

You can play league on a netbook same with csgo

[Droidbot]

lenovo t460p, 70p is coming soon

 

6th gen i7, 940m, ssd, for $1250. built like a tank and well engineered

 

alternatively go for something with a gtx card but it won't exactly sip power

csgo is CPU-bound whereas league can be run on a literal toaster

[MakeAMDGreatAgain]

Performance

 

Laptop

 

Pick one

[penguin1853]

XPS 13 vs Razer Blade Stealth? 

 

Which one would be better for gaming? School work? Overall Usability? 

[Droidbot]

2 minutes ago, penguin1853 said:

XPS 13 vs Razer Blade Stealth? 

 

Which one would be better for gaming? School work? Overall Usability? 

RBS is a piece of shit, like most of Razer's laptop line. 

It will casually hit 105c when pushing it under gaming loads. 

 

Literally anything is better. XPS13 especially. 

@Pendragon can vouch for this being true

[Equilibrium_FOOL]

9 minutes ago, penguin1853 said:

XPS 13 vs Razer Blade Stealth? 

 

Which one would be better for gaming? School work? Overall Usability? 

I use the XPS as my daily driver.  School, photo-editing, work.  I love it.  The battery (on battery saving mode) can last four days with moderate usage.  Photoshop and Audition run way smoother than I had thought, and the screen is great.

 

There are better notebooks for performance, but I took the hit to receive the XPS's whole package.

[Damascus]

2 minutes ago, penguin1853 said:

XPS 13 vs Razer Blade Stealth? 

 

Which one would be better for gaming? School work? Overall Usability? 

Razer has better keyboard and can use eGPU both have great high res touch screens.  XPS has much smaller bezels  on said screen and is apparently cooler.  RAM on stealth is way higher and it costs much less to get an i7 with a blade stealth.

 

TLDR

RAZER

has more RAM (16gb), better keyboard, easier to get i7s, starts with high res, touch but runs HOT

 

XPS 13

has less RAM (8gb), excellent screen bezels, costly to obtain i7 costs extra to get touch, 4k

 

Honestly, I'd say get a blade stealth with i7+ 16gb RAM, replace thermal paste and under-clock a bit.  Dave2D recently released a great how tot video on it. 

 

[Droidbot]

5 minutes ago, Damascus said:

-snip-

why the fuck would you recommend a machine that has many, many complaints where the machine will just freeze up and stop working, it thermal throttles really, really hard, and is backed up by a support team that makes their customers feel like criminals?

[Damascus]

 

7 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

why the fuck would you recommend a machine that has many, many complaints where the machine will just freeze up and stop working, it thermal throttles really, really hard, and is backed up by a support team that makes their customers feel like criminals?

A close friend owns a stealth and loves it, I did what I recommended (new paste and under volting)  He has had zero issues over the 8 months + of owning the device.  

 

Its about how you treat the machine, I helped show him what to worry about and  we took preventative measures rather than burning out the CPU.  RAZER has a reputation and they kinda deserve it but it was (for us) easy to fix.

[Damascus]

Actually, a possible alternative is the Venom book

 

 

[Droidbot]

1 minute ago, Damascus said:

 

A close friend owns a stealth and loves it, I did what I recommended (new paste and under volting)  He has had zero issues over the 8 months + of owning the device.  

 

Its about how you treat the machine, I helped show him what to worry about and  we took preventative measures rather than burning out the CPU.  RAZER has a reputation and they kinda deserve it but it was (for us) easy to fix.

My point is that he shouldn't need to do that. They should just have the device TDP-capped, undervolted, and with decent paste out of the box. 

The XPS 13 has decent thermals with a very decent heatsink configuration even considering the size. The Surface Pro 4, even with its flaws, has pretty decent cooling unless you put it in a shit case. 

[Damascus]

9 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

My point is that he shouldn't need to do that. They should just have the device TDP-capped, undervolted, and with decent paste out of the box. 

All true but in the arena of price the blade ins by a mile

 

$1250 blade stealth gets:

Aluminum Chassis i7, 16gb RAM 4k touch, a nice rgb keyboard, full thunderbolt 3 (xps tb3 is gimped with only 2 lanes) and 256gb ssd

 

a $1300 xps gets:

Aluminum Chassis, i5, 8gb RAM, bezeless 4k touch, Shockingly good touchpad and 256gb ssd

 

Blade stealth can get much better performance in this price bracket. 

Edited March 8, 2017 by Damascus
gets to can get

[Droidbot]

2 minutes ago, Damascus said:

All true but in the arena of price the blade ins by a mile

 

$1250 blade stealth gets:

Aluminum Chassis i7, 16gb RAM 4k touch, a nice rgb keyboard, full thunderbolt 3 (xps tb3 is gimped with only 2 lanes) and 256gb ssd

 

a $1300 xps gets:

Aluminum Chassis, i5, 8gb RAM, bezeless 4k touch, Shockingly good touchpad and 256gb ssd

 

Blade stealth gets much better performance in this price bracket. 

$1250, i7, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, 1080p InfinityEdge display (4k is a waste of time at <24" anyway, just a fucking battery sink) 

You can even get a Dell Outlet unit for less and still get a significantly better quality machine. 

$1329 gets you an i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, 3200x1800 screen, and still the same warranty as a regular machine. 

 

[Damascus]

Just now, Droidbot said:

$1250, i7, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, 1080p InfinityEdge display (4k is a waste of time at <24" anyway, just a fucking battery sink) 

You can even get a Dell Outlet unit for less and still get a significantly better quality machine. 

$1329 gets you an i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, 3200x1800 screen, and still the same warranty as a regular machine. 

 

I stand corrected.  I was looking at the limited Canadian options.  I took the US prices but not the expanded range of options.  My bad though Razer also has a depot but that $1329  both nice and over budget

[Droidbot]

1 minute ago, Damascus said:

I stand corrected.  I was looking at the limited Canadian options.  I took the US prices but not the expanded range of options.  My bad though Razer also has a depot but that $1329  both nice and over budget

Eh, there's a unit under $1000 with a similar config, but it only has 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD

[Damascus]

You could try getting a last gen gigabyte aero, XPS 15 or MSI GSXXX second hand

[Pendragon]

Nobody should be buying the XPS series at MSRP. Just check Dell Outlet for the FAR better prices.

 

Also ur friend voided the shit out of his warranty when he opened up the RBS. 

 

Also wtf, just get a X270 or X260. Better than both. If you want slimmer and sexy go for the E7470. 

[Damascus]

8 hours ago, Pendragon said:

Also ur friend voided the shit out of his warranty when he opened up the RBS. 

Surprisingly, it only voids warranty if there is damage and while neither of us had any experience it went off without a hitch.  We also threw in a 500gb ssd (ocz) a couple months ago lol

[ramo55]

14 hours ago, Droidbot said:

lenovo t460p, 70p is coming soon

 

6th gen i7, 940m, ssd, for $1250. built like a tank and well engineered

 

alternatively go for something with a gtx card but it won't exactly sip power

csgo is CPU-bound whereas league can be run on a literal toaster

 

I can vouch for this, all my team mates play on toasters which is why they are bad.

[ramo55]

12 hours ago, Pendragon said:

Nobody should be buying the XPS series at MSRP. Just check Dell Outlet for the FAR better prices.

 

Also ur friend voided the shit out of his warranty when he opened up the RBS. 

 

Also wtf, just get a X270 or X260. Better than both. If you want slimmer and sexy go for the E7470. 

 

Lol, that feeling when we in the uk get sold laptops at more than the MSRP of the same laptop in the us, feels bad man

[Damascus]

5 minutes ago, ramo55 said:

Lol, that feeling when we in the uk get sold laptops at more than the MSRP of the same laptop in the us, feels bad man

Same in Canada.  I can save 100's of $$$ buying from the states but shipping kills it a lot of the time

[ramo55]

1 minute ago, Damascus said:

Same in Canada.  I can save 100's of $$$ buying from the states but shipping kills it a lot of the time

Yep, Shipping and import duty

[Damascus]

1 minute ago, ramo55 said:

Yep, Shipping and import duty

Yeah, my fave laptop lineup is Aorus and they cost a fortune in Canada