In need of a new laptop

[DualZone]

I recently got a new office job and I am in need of a new laptop. I have wanted one for many many years and I will finally have the means to do so. I also attend college and I am also a frequent gamer going to many LAN partys. I have many criteria.  First I want it to be under $1200 I know for what I want out of the laptop that it is going to be around this much. I want it to be thin enough that i can pack it into a backpack and use it at school and also carry it around wiht me where ever i need to go. But the other thing is that I want it to be powerful enough to play modern games. I would prefer the pascal era of GPUs and I would like to have a sky lake or above i5 or i7. I also would like it to have at least 8GB of RAM. As far as speed, I would prefer an ssd of at least 250 GB but i could live with a hard drive for a little while until i have the money to upgrade. I know a lot about computers and their value I just don't know who the leading brand in Windows laptops are right now. That's the other thing, obviously I want Windows for the gaming aspect of my list. Thanks for any responses, hopefully a laptop like this actually exists.

[owluitar]

1100 could get you an i7-7700HQ, 16GB of DDR4, an M.2 SSD (probably between 120 and 256GB) with a 1TB HDD, and a GTX 1050Ti. Possibly even a GTX1060 if you look for a great deal or go closer to 1200.

 

For example, a Sager http://www.sagernotebook.com/customize.php?productid=1306

[DualZone]

Just now, owluitar said:

1100 could get you an i7-7700HQ, 16GB of DDR4, an M.2 SSD (probably between 120 and 256GB) with a 1TB HDD, and a GTX 1050Ti. Possibly even a GTX1060 if you look for a great deal or go closer to 1200.

That's what i found also but i would like to be referred to some specific brands

[owluitar]

HP has great build quality, and good customer service.
I would personally stay away from everything Dell.... and Lenovo has been increasingly good the past couple of years. 

How long do you want this laptop to last? That'll be a big deciding factor in who to pick.

[mthoward]

I have been shopping around and have a similar use case. I decided on the below XPS 15 but haven't saved the money yet. It is 100 over your budget but I think it is worth it.

 

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/xps-15/spd/xps-15-9560-laptop/dncwxb1641sv2

[DualZone]

3 minutes ago, owluitar said:

HP has great build quality, and good customer service.
I would personally stay away from everything Dell.... and Lenovo has been increasingly good the past couple of years. 

How long do you want this laptop to last? That'll be a big deciding factor in who to pick.

I was looking at the lenovo legion y720, I would like it to last for at least 6-8 years, thats why i dont want to buy just some clearance sale laptop from staples, ive had a few of those and so have my parents and they dont last long at all.

[owluitar]

Just now, mthoward said:

I have been shopping around and have a similar use case. I decided on the below XPS 15 but haven't saved the money yet. It is 100 over your budget but I think it is worth it.

 

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/xps-15/spd/xps-15-9560-laptop/dncwxb1641sv2

Oh yeah, beautiful laptop, nice and thin, and great battery life. 

[DualZone]

I also had a Dell desktop before I built my current PC and it is still running great, with a few windows resets that is.

 

1 hour ago, owluitar said:

Oh yeah, beautiful laptop, nice and thin, and great battery life. 

 

1 hour ago, mthoward said:

I have been shopping around and have a similar use case. I decided on the below XPS 15 but haven't saved the money yet. It is 100 over your budget but I think it is worth it.

 

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/xps-15/spd/xps-15-9560-laptop/dncwxb1641sv2

I think that an i5 would be perfectly fine for what I need it for, I put an i7 in my current build only because i run servers off of it but i wouldn't be doing that with this laptop.

[owluitar]

 

2 minutes ago, DualZone said:

 

I think that an i5 would be perfectly fine for what I need it for, I put an i7 in my current build only because i run servers off of it but i wouldn't be doing that with this laptop.

If you're looking for 6-8 years, though, I'd honestly go with the i7-7700HQ for great battery life with great performance, especially above the 1000 dollar mark.

[DualZone]

1 hour ago, mthoward said:

I have been shopping around and have a similar use case. I decided on the below XPS 15 but haven't saved the money yet. It is 100 over your budget but I think it is worth it.

 

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/xps-15/spd/xps-15-9560-laptop/dncwxb1641sv2

I really like it except for 2 things, the graphics card is a little underwhelming, my friend has a gtx 960 in his desktop and you can see that it is starting to show its age. The other thing that i dont like is the storage, if im going to be using it for gaming i would like to have a hard drive and an ssd or at least a bigger hard drive.

 

What about this one?

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/inspiron-15-5000-gaming/spd/inspiron-15-5577-gaming-laptop/fncwpi404h

 

1 hour ago, owluitar said:

 

If you're looking for 6-8 years, though, I'd honestly go with the i7-7700HQ for great battery life with great performance, especially above the 1000 dollar mark.

Thats true. the i7 will stay relevant for longer.

[owluitar]

1 minute ago, DualZone said:

 

What about this one?

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/inspiron-15-5000-gaming/spd/inspiron-15-5577-gaming-laptop/fncwpi404h

I'm really impressed with that price for a 4GB 1050... 

[DualZone]

2 minutes ago, owluitar said:

I'm really impressed with that price for a 4GB 1050... 

ya i thought that there had to be a catch somewhere, but it meets every one of my requirements

 

[owluitar]

That and if you ever need a greater GPU, you could just go external.

[DualZone]

1 hour ago, owluitar said:

That and if you ever need a greater GPU, you could just go external.

ya, but i think i would be fine for a couple of years at least

 

Heres is one with a 1050ti, i lose the ssd but get a bigger harddrive

plus i could upgrade that to an ssd in the future

 

[Imglidinhere]

For $1,100 you can strive for a 1060... o_o There are a couple options at that range, the newer Dell Inspiron 7577 comes loaded with a 7300HQ and a 1060 Max-Q for $950... which is perfect for any gamer. The Max-Q does about as well in games as an older 980M, which is plenty fast for any mainstream gamer from what I can tell.

[genexis_x]

4 hours ago, owluitar said:

HP has great build quality, and good customer service.
I would personally stay away from everything Dell.... and Lenovo has been increasingly good the past couple of years. 

False judgement of brands, every brand have good and bad laptops

4 hours ago, owluitar said:

1100 could get you an i7-7700HQ, 16GB of DDR4, an M.2 SSD (probably between 120 and 256GB) with a 1TB HDD, and a GTX 1050Ti. Possibly even a GTX1060 if you look for a great deal or go closer to 1200.

1100 can get Dell 7577, Acer Helios 300 and possibly Lenovo Y720, all with GTX 1060 (Dell 7577 features Max-Q version)

4 hours ago, DualZone said:

lenovo legion y720

Well-built laptop, a little heavy though

4 hours ago, DualZone said:

What about this one?

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/inspiron-15-5000-gaming/spd/inspiron-15-5577-gaming-laptop/fncwpi404h

Poor screen and battery life, OKish input devices, otherwise build quality and cooling are good

[Imglidinhere]

6 hours ago, owluitar said:

HP has great build quality, and good customer service.
I would personally stay away from everything Dell.... and Lenovo has been increasingly good the past couple of years. 

How long do you want this laptop to last? That'll be a big deciding factor in who to pick.

If you weren't so quick to accuse and have some actual sources backing this claim, also the fact that you just said HP has a better build quality overall compared to DELL... LOL, I'd be more inclined to support your statement. Just sayin.

 

My Inspiron 7559 has been going strong for nearly two years. Not one issue.