Boards›[ARCHIVED] Miscellaneous

Laptop Recommendations

Vilgax·7/26/2017, 8:48:20 PM·1 votes·473 views

Hi friends!

As I am heading to college in the upcoming month, I am looking forward to purchasing a new laptop because the one I'm using right now is crap. I wanted to ask you guys for some good recommendations for me :)

I am a very minimalistic person and plan on majoring in engineering. I want something that has good performance and battery life. I really don't care for visual quality, size, or thinness, in fact, I prefer a thick(er) laptop so it doesn't feel flimsy and fragile. I just want a decent laptop that can get a good amount of work done, I'm not looking for a high end device, nor a crap machine like the one I'm using right now. I am mainly looking for a laptop that can perform well with light work and some gaming (obviously League of Legends) as well as some programming and coding without getting too hot or making a lot of noise. I would also like to have 2-3 USB ports as well as an HDMI port. My budget is around $1000-1500. I'm not too good with tech so I don't know a lot about numbers and specs so any help would be greatly appreciated :) (And also NO MACBOOKS!!!!!)

3 Comments

TouchpadExpert7/27/2017, 3:30:26 AM1 votes

I was in the same boat as you 3 months ago. I ended up getting myself an Acer Predator 15 gtx 1060. It's almost identical to what is reviewed in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPmzynninPg

Overall I am pleased with what I got. It runs every game I send its way, it comes equipped with the latest version of Microsoft office and its more than enough to run league of legends. I bought this particular one because it was way cheaper than what it was competing against (it cost me $1240 and was competing with laptops in the $2100 price range) and because the thermal cooling was one of the best on the market. Your investment would be wasted if the insides melted from extreme heat so I liked not having the worry about that happening so much.

If you do want the same laptop as me you will have to shell out more cash than I did. I bought my laptop in a buyer's market 3 months ago. Now with the back to school shopping sprees starting up they jacked up the prices on laptops. $1400 is what you will pay if you buy it from Newegg tonight. But since this is a seller's market they generally plan their new releases right now. You may be able to snag one of the top-of-the-line laptops that just got released if you don't mind paying a little bit extra. Here's a fairly recent list of the top 10 gaming laptops on the market right now:

http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/laptops/best-gaming-laptops-top-5-gaming-notebooks-reviewed-1258471

That list only includes gaming laptops so don't base your decision solely on what info I provided. Do some of your own research into it. And you mention you want good performance and good battery life. Gaming laptops have very good performance but very bad battery life. Out of the box my laptop gave me about 4 hours of use before needing a charge. But if I was gaming the battery life got cut that time in half. The non-gaming laptops will still be able to play the current generation games but will tend to run hot and running hot could spell problems for the internal hardware. If you don't plan on playing games like DOOM, Fallout 4 or Farcry a gaming laptop may not be necessary if League of Legends is the most intensive game you plan to play.

I don't know the current market real well but I can point you in the direction of some youtube channels who may be able to give you some insightful reviews on the current market:

Dave Lee Matthew Moniz MobileTech Review Linus Tech Tips DailyTekk

And this is the latest video I found for the best gaming laptop in today's market:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6CHUjjkcP0