Laptop suggestions please ?

[Who Am I ?]

Hello folks, I'm opening a thread here due to the dilemma I'm facing right now.

I'm a broke university student ( who needs the portability ) and really needs to buy a laptop right now ( after years of having tortured my hp dv5242 to the point its dead after 4 and half years )

Limits : 1000 euros max , looking for at least a core2quad ( as I know an i7 would be out off range for that much ) at 720p resolution(again fullhd would be more expensive ) with 1gb gfx , br drive and 4 gb odd ram . I know it is a high ask for that price. I live in Germany and hence can't buy those fancy laptops in the States online due to warranty issues and shipping problems.

I encode every now and then and play games like call off duty and fifa , nothing hard core like crisis etc .

I know the suggestion would be to just buy a cheap netbook/laptop for portability and build a desktop for that much but honestly right now I just need a laptop with a good enough config for as cheap as possible , knowing the sort off pc pulverizing community Doom9 is , I really expect some good advices.

http://bestellservice.saturn.de/articles/view/46/tab:techdetails

is what I have been able to find until now at Saturn, haven't been to Mediamarkt yet .

All suggestions are welcome :thanks:

[RickB]

What about a Medion Akoya E5411 laptop.

[rtjnyoface]

What you have meets all of your specs that you've asked for ( I suppose 17'' is fairly portable :)). It seems like it's a really great computer for a great price. I'm definitely fond of Acer and I'm surprised you got all that for the price you did. You might ask about any student discounts. I know here in the states University students can log on to certain websites such as Dell.com and get a discount for being a student.

[Who Am I ?]

Thanks for notifying me of Medion RickB, it is a dual core but the gfx are at least a gb (shared) , will have a look into other medions as well .

That's the thing rtjnyoface , seldom get discounts here in Germany :(

[RickB]

Medion are cheap in the UK. A mate of mine has one which is a Quad Core. The reviews if them in the UK are not bad too

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Do you really need a QuadCore in your Notebook? IMHO that is overkill for a mobile device :eek:

With your 1000€ budget you could get a nice Netbook for mobility at ~300€ and then you still have 700€ left for a decent Desktop machine:
* http://www.alternate.de/html/product/Notebooks_Intel(R)/Asus/EeePC_1005PE-BLK025S/387973/?showTecData=true&cmd=showTecData
* http://www.alternate.de/html/product/PC-Systeme_Komplettsysteme_Desktop_mit_Betriebssystem/Acer/Aspire_M5800/386521/?showTecData=true&cmd=showTecData

I think you really should consider that option :)

[rtjnyoface]

Do you really need a QuadCore in your Notebook? IMHO that is overkill for a mobile device

I kind of agree. You'll get very little battery life and if you play fps friendly games as you say, you will fair better with a duo core processor. The games will utilize them more than a quad core.

I agree with all of what Lord Mulder said. You get all of what you wanted from both worlds for the price you've told us. The only thing that you wouldn't be getting would be your bluray drive. You could get one online for about $70 (only 4x though). One that reads at 8x would be about $40 more. Sorry, I don't know what that is in Euros (it would be less though :)).

I think you really should consider that option

I truly second this notion. Besides, buying a pc (either desk or laptop) is really an investment. Maybe you could borrow (via school loan or family) a couple hundred more bucks for this one.

[Dark Shikari]

I recently got a Dell Studio XPS 16.

It's about $1250 base price and amazingly good overall for the price. 1080p screen, Core i7, good graphics card, and pretty good battery life.

I see absolutely no reason to have a desktop at this point. I have to have a laptop, and a desktop is more expensive and more hassle than the difference in price between a good and crappy laptop.

[rtjnyoface]

Yet another perspective. It's up to you to take all our ideas and converge them into a solution for yourself. Hope it goes well!

[LoRd_MuldeR]

I recently got a Dell Studio XPS 16.

It's about $1250 base price and amazingly good overall for the price. 1080p screen, Core i7, good graphics card, and pretty good battery life.

I see absolutely no reason to have a desktop at this point. I have to have a laptop, and a desktop is more expensive and more hassle than the difference in price between a good and crappy laptop.

That machine certainly is great (it's price also ^^), but in my definition it's more a "Desktop replacement" (3 kilogram, 16 inches, glossy screen) than a "mobile" device I'd want to carry around all day long.

And it is completely overkill for what I would do with a "mobile" device. But that of course highly depends on what you want to do with the Notebook and how much mobility you need...

[RickB]

Sorry. I forgot to type PC after Quadcore. I was not talking about a quadcore laptop but talking generally about Medion

[Dark Shikari]

That machine certainly is great (it's price also ^^), but in my definition it's more a "Desktop replacement" (3 kilogram, 16 inches, glossy screen) than a "mobile" device I'd want to carry around all day long.

And it is completely overkill for what I would do with a "mobile" device. But that of course highly depends on what you want to do with the Notebook and how much mobility you need...3kg is heavy? I've been using laptops for over a decade and I haven't seen anything significantly lighter at decent spec. Everything 2kg and below either has a tiny eye-cancer screen or looks like it's about to break in half like an Air.

More importantly, it's a "desktop replacement" that I can bring from place to place easily and stuff in a backpack. The problem with having a laptop + desktop is simply that syncing data and environment between them is incredibly annoying; it's far easier to just stuff things on one laptop and be done with it.

[Who Am I ?]

First of all folks pretty sorry to have replied so late , been really occupied with uni . Still looking around for one though .

Thing is that if I do get a laptop I can use my present laptop as a desktop ( which has a busted lcd and is connected to a monitor ), we're programming a lot these days at uni and I really need the portability , and being no.1 on the netbook haters list would just the way to describe me , already having weak eyesight I can't be bothered on such a small screen and its just miserable to type on netbooks , I could get a old 15.4" laptop but again , that is not why I need ( which I currently have )

I travel a lot as well and seldom am at home ( usually at uni and outside ) and I know that I wouldn't be using the desktop much if I had one , the present laptop should suffice as a back up at home.

I've already pondered a lot on this thing and the only solution I see is getting a good laptop , I know you folks mean well and the best but I can't use a desktop much right now .

@ DS , I totally agree to your notion , I've used c2q laptops with extremely good battery life as well so battery shouldn't be a problem , and I can live with a heavy laptop . How did you get such a high config xps 16 for that much ? does it have a bluray drive ?

I found this thing for 1200 euros though : http://us.acer.com/acer/productv.do?LanguageISOCtxParam=en&kcond61e.c2att101=69527&sp=page16e&ctx2.c2att1=25&link=ln438e&CountryISOCtxParam=US&ctx1g.c2att92=447&ctx1.att21k=1&CRC=2736066969

reviews : http://www.amazon.com/review/RX38W0Q6LYCMK/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#RX38W0Q6LYCMK

[Dark Shikari]

@ DS , I totally agree to your notion , I've used c2q laptops with extremely good battery life as well so battery shouldn't be a problem , and I can live with a heavy laptop . How did you get such a high config xps 16 for that much ? does it have a bluray drive ? That was the price on their website. And yes, it has a Blu-ray drive.

I paid about $150 extra though to get a better screen (proper 8-bit RGB instead of the dithered crap) but that's completely unnecessary for most people.

[Who Am I ?]

That was the price on their website. And yes, it has a Blu-ray drive.

I paid about $150 extra though to get a better screen (proper 8-bit RGB instead of the dithered crap) but that's completely unnecessary for most people.

Well that would be one advantage of staying in the states , I get no where near to your config & price for an XPS 16 here :(

http://www1.euro.dell.com/de/de/heimburo/Notebooks/laptop-studio-xps-16/pd.aspx?refid=laptop-studio-xps-16&s=dhs&cs=dedhs1&~ck=mn

suggestions people :confused:

[StainlessS]

On the subject of battery life,

Use the "Home/Office Desk" Power scheme in XP, do not use the badly named "Laptop" scheme.
"Laptop" scheme, runs at reduced CPU speed on both mains and battery. (Presumably so battery charges quicker).
"Home Office/Desk", uses dynamic speed control, when CPU is in low use, speed drops to that required, when
a greater demand is called for (eg starting up a USB TV) CPU will increase to maximum and when eg the USB TV
CPU consumption drops (after tuned in ok), then CPU will drop to that required to use the TV normally.
On mains, the CPU will be at maximum. :)