What Laptop to Buy?

[Dylanc431]

Hey all, I'm heading to my first year in college at the end of the summer, and I need a laptop, I do have a few requirements:

 

1. it has to have graphics that are capable of running some light games like CS:GO at a good framerate.

2. it has to have a backlit keyboard (even just white will do because it's purely so I can see what I'm typing in darker environments).

3. it has to look good in a setting where I'm surrounded by Macbooks and the like.

4. it can't be too big, I'll be carrying it quite a lot along with a guitar bag.

5. this is a major bonus but if it's durable it really helps, I'll be carrying it on busses/trains and walks to and from college so I don't really want it to break from some smaller bumps and knocks over time. 

 

my budget is under €1000 and if you can provide links to stores with the model you suggest it would be a bonus too! 

 

Thanks in advance! 

Dylan

[Zando_]

MacBook Pro with won10 boot camp for games? It'll fit in with other MacBooks. Or else, get an XPS 15 or one of the new Max-Q notebooks. And a thin, light, powerful laptop may be hard to find around that budget. How well does CS:GO run on an i7 iGPU?

[Dylanc431]

1 minute ago, Zando Bob said:

MacBook Pro with won10 boot camp for games? It'll fit in with other MacBooks. Or else, get an XPS 15 or one of the new Max-Q notebooks. And a thin, light, powerful laptop may be hard to find around that budget. How well does CS:GO run on an i7 iGPU?

to be honest, I couldn't tell you how well it runs on an i7, I know a friend of mine runs it at about 200fps on a 960m and an older gen i7 mobile chip

 

I also should have added that I really hate macs, I physically can't get my head around trying to use them, I tried for a month and just couldn't do it 

[jpfeif]

 Is there anything else you will be running like 3d modeling or machine learning stuff. If not I would recommend a lenovo P51 or P51s it has a quadro M500 or something like that and the legendary thinkpad toughness but it is a little out of your price range but it will do whatever you want and a little more and great battery life. It also dosent look like a pile of s*** http://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/Thinkpad-P51s/p/22TP2WPP51S?gclid=CjwKEAjwtJzLBRC7z43vr63nr3wSJABjJDgJCmAY1m54h8K5v5WwNDzC_4RK-UavOA31Gy-cxBPZXRoCXiTw_wcB&invsrc=sem_google&cid=us:sem|se|google|All_Products|NX_Lenovo_All_Products_DSA&ef_id=V6uySAAAATHuXzEy:20170714023704:s gotta luv long urls

[Dylanc431]

Just now, jpfeif said:

 Is there anything else you will be running like 3d modeling or machine learning stuff. If not I would recommend a lenovo P51 or P51s it has a quadro M500 or something like that and the legendary thinkpad toughness but it is a little out of your price range but it will do whatever you want and a little more and great battery life. http://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/Thinkpad-P51s/p/22TP2WPP51S?gclid=CjwKEAjwtJzLBRC7z43vr63nr3wSJABjJDgJCmAY1m54h8K5v5WwNDzC_4RK-UavOA31Gy-cxBPZXRoCXiTw_wcB&invsrc=sem_google&cid=us:sem|se|google|All_Products|NX_Lenovo_All_Products_DSA&ef_id=V6uySAAAATHuXzEy:20170714023704:s gotta luv long urls

that's one hell of a link... 

 

but hmm, nope, I think the toughest thing I'd be running on it is either audio related stuff like Amplitube/Audacity or games like CS or rocket league.

[Dylanc431]

3 minutes ago, jpfeif said:

 Is there anything else you will be running like 3d modeling or machine learning stuff. If not I would recommend a lenovo P51 or P51s it has a quadro M500 or something like that and the legendary thinkpad toughness but it is a little out of your price range but it will do whatever you want and a little more and great battery life. http://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/Thinkpad-P51s/p/22TP2WPP51S?gclid=CjwKEAjwtJzLBRC7z43vr63nr3wSJABjJDgJCmAY1m54h8K5v5WwNDzC_4RK-UavOA31Gy-cxBPZXRoCXiTw_wcB&invsrc=sem_google&cid=us:sem|se|google|All_Products|NX_Lenovo_All_Products_DSA&ef_id=V6uySAAAATHuXzEy:20170714023704:s gotta luv long urls

I won't lie, upon doing some digging I can't find any existence of that laptop over here apart from the high end ones that cost 3 grand

[Zando_]

6 minutes ago, Dylanc431 said:

to be honest, I couldn't tell you how well it runs on an i7, I know a friend of mine runs it at about 200fps on a 960m and an older gen i7 mobile chip

I'd look for a thinner ROG laptop from ASUS,] the, though they're a bit expensive. They do look quite nice, and would fit in with the college/MacBook crowd. 

[DrMacintosh]

8 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

MacBook Pro with won10 boot camp for games?

dont even need that for CS:GO, MacOS will do it fine. 

[Dylanc431]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

I'd look for a thinner ROG laptop from ASUS,] the, though they're a bit expensive. They do look w]quite nice, and would fit in with the college/MacBook crowd. 

I'm not really getting it to fit in, I want it to not have the "gamer" look to it if you get me?

[Zando_]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

dont even need that for CS:GO, MacOS will do it fine. 

Does CS:GO run on macOS? 

[jpfeif]

On 7/13/2017 at 7:39 PM, Dylanc431 said:

that's one hell of a link... 

 

but hmm, nope, I think the toughest thing I'd be running on it is either audio related stuff like Amplitube/Audacity or games like CS or rocket league.

Well than I would recommend a T470 because it doesn't look like s*** and it doesn't have a huge link and it should be plenty powerful and some good IO http://www3.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-t-series/T470/p/20HDCTO1WWENUS0/customize?

[DrMacintosh]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

Does CS:GO run on macOS? 

yep

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, Dylanc431 said:

I'm not really getting it to fit in, I want it to not have the "gamer" look to it if you get me?

Yeah, some of their laptops look pretty conservative, this why I recommended them. Main problem with most Laptops with good GPUs is terrible battery life. 

[Dylanc431]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

Does CS:GO run on macOS? 

yeah, there's a mac version of steam so of course they'd make one of their flagships compatible with it

[Zando_]

Just now, Dylanc431 said:

yeah, there's a mac version of steam so of course they'd make one of their flagships compatible with it

 

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

yep

Noice! I assumed it'd be Windows only, like most games. 

[DrMacintosh]

tbh if you want to fit in, mow a few lawns or take your Recycling in and buy a 13" MacBook Pro 

 

$300 more is all you need. 

[Dylanc431]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

tbh if you want to fit in, mow a few lawns or take your Recycling in and buy a 13" MacBook Pro 

but as I said above, I physically can't get my head around using a macbook, I have tried. 

 

and hopefully I'll get at least 1 of the many jobs I applied for so I can save a bit quicker  

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, Dylanc431 said:

I physically can't get my head around using a macbook, I have tried

How? There is hardly anything different about Macs. The biggest change is you close windows in the top left not the top right. 

 

Everything else can be configured. 

 

[Dylanc431]

Just now, DrMacintosh said:

How? There is hardly anything different about Macs. The biggest change is you close windows in the top left not the top right. 

 

I'll be honest, I really don't know myself, like, I tried an iMac, I tried 2 different generations of Macbook and I just couldn't work seamlessly with them, it could be that I'm just too ingrained in the windows ecosystem that my brain just can't deal with learning macOS 

[Shadestones]

I've heard great reviews on the Dell XPS 13. It will look fine in a Macbook-dominated environment thanks to its slim design and beautiful display. Intel HD 620 graphics is capable enough to play CS:GO on lowered settings to achieve higher frame rates (60-75). The keyboard is backlit.

 

Its shortcomings are with storage. the 128GB model comes with a 1920x1080 resolution, whereas the 256GB model and beyond comes with a QHD 4K display. This will make running games more difficult as the resolution is 4x larger.

I have linked both the Amazon and Dell listing for this laptop below:
 

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-XPS9360-4841SLV-Laptop-Generation-Silver/dp/B01LQTXED8/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1500001044&sr=1-3&keywords=dell%2Bxps%2B13&th=1

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-13-9360-laptop/fncwt5135hv2?selectionState=eyJGUHJpY2UiOjk5OS45OSwiT0MiOiJmbmN3dDUxMzVodjIiLCJRdHkiOjEsIk1vZHMiOlt7IklkIjo1NzIsIk9wdHMiOlt7IklkIjoiRkcwMDEwIn1dfV19

[Dylanc431]

2 minutes ago, Shadestones said:

I've heard great reviews on the Dell XPS 13. It will look fine in a Macbook-dominated environment thanks to its slim design and beautiful display. Intel HD 620 graphics is capable enough to play CS:GO on lowered settings to achieve higher frame rates (60-75). The keyboard is backlit.

 

It's shortcomings come with storage. the 128GB model comes with a 1920x1080 resolution, whereas the 256GB model and beyond comes with a QHD 4K display. This will make running games more difficult as the resolution is 4x bigger.

I have linked both the Amazon and Dell listing for this laptop below:
 

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-XPS9360-4841SLV-Laptop-Generation-Silver/dp/B01LQTXED8/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1500001044&sr=1-3&keywords=dell%2Bxps%2B13&th=1

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-13-9360-laptop/fncwt5135hv2?selectionState=eyJGUHJpY2UiOjk5OS45OSwiT0MiOiJmbmN3dDUxMzVodjIiLCJRdHkiOjEsIk1vZHMiOlt7IklkIjo1NzIsIk9wdHMiOlt7IklkIjoiRkcwMDEwIn1dfV19

well, the amazon link is all but useless to me unfortunately, but that seems like a worthy competitor  

[Mykie]

Check out this guy: 

 

He recommend a laptop in his video that can do what you want.

[Dylanc431]

12 minutes ago, Mykie said:

Check out this guy: 

 

He recommend a laptop in his video that can do what you want.

the chromebook? It's massively below what I'm looking for and it's not windows based. I already have a gaming capable desktop at home, the reason I want some light gaming performance from the laptop is because I'll be away from home for most of the week and still wanna play some games in my free time

[Mykie]

Just now, Dylanc431 said:

the chromebook? It's massively below what I'm looking for and it's not windows based. I already have a gaming capable desktop at home, the reason I want some light gaming performance from the laptop is because I'll be away from home for most of the week and still wanna play some games in my free time

Yeah, but I thought you would be interested in this since you can run windows on it, and also play some light games. Chromebook is capable of running multiple OS. But if you don't want to fiddle around that's alright. Just a suggestion.  

 

Not all Chromebook are capable but higher ends are. 

[Dylanc431]

Just now, Mykie said:

Yeah, but I thought you would be interested in this since you can run windows on it, and also play some light games. Chromebook is capable of running multiple OS. But if you don't want to fiddle around that's alright. Just a suggestion.  

 

Not all Chromebook are capable but higher ends are. 

yeah, I get what you mean, and thanks for the suggestion,I just heard the word "Celeron" and died a little inside because I remembered how awful my parents' dell laptop is. Basically I just want the laptop for school work and playing CS, that's it really tbh. Audio programs aren't really too taxing on a system and CS would probably run on integrated GPU on low settings