Best $700-800 Gaming Laptop

[Mooshie123]

Currently I am looking for a $700-800 gaming laptop. I would consider a desktop, but I need something that I can at least play counter-strike with on the go, and splitting my budget would not make sense in that scenario. I did find this laptop:

https://www.pricefalls.com/product/dell-inspiron-15-7000-15-7559-156-touchscreen-intel-core-i7-i7-6700hq-quad-core-4-core-260-ghz-gray-refurbished-i7559-5/97623341

Its refurbished and after coupons about $700. Basic specs are:
-i7 6700hq
-960m 4gb
-4k Display (touchscreen)
-8gb Ram

It is not a perfect laptop though, considering it has ddr3l, a bad wireless card and a really really slow hardrive, but most of those things are upgrade able in the future.

My questions are, is this the best laptop at this price point and is buying a refurbished laptop from this website a bad idea in general

 

[drkatz42]

Similar specs but not a refurbished model

MSI 15.6" GL62 6QF-627 Intel Core i7 6700HQ (2.60 GHz) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M $749 after rebate
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154111

 

[photonboy]

There is nothing wrong with DDR3L.

Not sure what is "bad" about the wi-fi either as most I find similar. But as you said it's upgradeable (plenty of good USB, some "ac" compatible, dual-band etc if you have a good router).

Or replace the INTERNAL wi-fi unit if you find a compatible, better model.

*About above MSI comment:
The linked model looks pretty good (first comment). Main difference in spec is the SCREEN, but unless you can physically compare it's hard to comment. I'd go with the MSI model that is new rather than a refurbished model with 4K screen.

4K has its own problems with scaling as well.

 

[Mooshie123]

There is nothing wrong with DDR3L.

Not sure what is "bad" about the wi-fi either as most I find similar. But as you said it's upgradeable (plenty of good USB, some "ac" compatible, dual-band etc if you have a good router).

Or replace the INTERNAL wi-fi unit if you find a compatible, better model.

*About above MSI comment:
The linked model looks pretty good (first comment). Main difference in spec is the SCREEN, but unless you can physically compare it's hard to comment. I'd go with the MSI model that is new rather than a refurbished model with 4K screen.

4K has its own problems with scaling as well.

I only have a few concerns with the MSI model. Firstly, would a downgrade from 4k be noticeable? I realize I would not be gaming at 4k, but would lacking that extra resolution be noticeable? Secondly, the MSI model has a 2gb graphics card, while the Dell had a 4gb card. Will that affect performance? And lastly, how would the ddr4 ram in the MSI compare to the ddr3 in the Dell?

 

[photonboy]

1) 4K vs 1080p will look noticeably different, however there are other things going on than simply the number of pixels. Without actually comparing I can't say, but having a 4K screen on a laptop of this size does make me wonder if there are any issues related to response time or other.

*Anyway, I'm looking at a 1920x1080 laptop right now, and I find the resolution looks great for the viewing distance and screen size.

People with 20/20 vision supposedly can't observe benefits of 4K (aside from aliasing and other video processing techniques) if you aren't sitting closer than 1.5X the diagonal. For a 15.6" screen that means sitting closer than TWO FEET from your eyes to the screen. I guess that is possible.

2) 2GB graphics card.
a) first off, it's worded as "up to 2GB.." which is suspicious. I've seen on several occasions PC's list an amount higher than the physical VRAM because they add in the amount that can be addressed to the system memory (which totally is not the same thing as that has to be copied back to VRAM to use).

UPDATE: It does look like its true 4GB
https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Dell-Inspiron-15-i7559-5012GRY-Signature-Edition-Laptop/productID.333475500

b) Very few games benefit from more than 2GB if you have the settings properly tweaked (not cranking a demanding game to "ULTRA" and getting 20FPS). I just came from a desktop GTX680 2GB card and had no issues.

It's mostly future proofing which is fine (may help GTA5 though), but so far it's a choice between a refurbished and newer model so that's not enough to convince me to NOT buy the new laptop.

SUMMARY:
I honestly can't definitely choose between the two. I'd really have to see both next to each other in person. If not mentioned, you should also make sure the WARRANTY is good for the refurbished.

I see a 30-day return and it says "Manufacturer Warranty" down below with no details. You really want a 1-year warranty comparable to the new laptop if possible.

*So, if it looks like the 4K screen is good, and so is the Warranty, and no other obvious issues the DELL is worth considering.