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best laptop based on performance, €1000-€1300? (next week vacation in New York)

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Blondie21

Blondie21

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Feb 22, 2015
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I live in the Netherlands/Holland but I live close to Germany and Belgium. Next week I'm going to New York on vacation for about a week. So, I have the option to buy a laptop in 4 countries. My father destroyed my previous laptop, accidently, by letting it fall + my birthday is coming up + I just graduated. Therefore, my parents want to give me a laptop with a price tag of at least €1000 and not a lot more I believe, I didn't ask the exact amount because I don't want to be impolite but I'm willing to invest a bit too. Therefore, I want the best performing laptop for €1000-1300, which is $1100-1500 ($1138-1480).
I forgot that I need to add a tax/vat of 21% on Best Buy producs due to import.
Therefore, my limit for non-EU laptops is $941-$1223. Sorry for any inconvenience.
I want to become a trader/stock investor so I probably need a very high performance laptop. To make it more difficult, I also want that my next laptop is able to play above average with all games.

I know all the basics of hardware, (e.g. Intel i7>i5>i3, AMD cpu is too difficult for me too understand atm, ssd outperforms hdd, but it's relatively more expensive...more RAM is better, new laptops around my price tag tend to have at least 8 gb)

So far, my current winner is this toshiba: TOSHIBA Satellite P70-B-102: http://www.mediamarkt.nl/mcs/product/TOSHIBA-Satellite-P70-B-102,10259,482723,1615483.html?langId=-11

€1108, $1261, 21% tax included, Radeon R9 M265X with 4 gb, RAM of 16 gb, 2,5 GHz, i7 4710HQ, 2 TB 5400 rpm (some have 7200 rpm around my price tag but are worse at other aspects)

Shop Mediamarkt is like Best Buy.

I'm planning to use a ssd as the primair processor and a tb hdd as as the secondary processor but I probably don't need to buy a hybrid because some shops could turn a laptop with only 1 tb hdd into a laptop with 1 ssd and 1 hdd by removing the cd player) + I want to keep using windows, so I don't prefer a macbook + I prefer a 17.3 inch


My biggest knowledge problem is that some people (on youtube) say..for example..that a specific AMD with 8 cores tend to underperform an Intel quad core i5. I love to learn new stuff about hardware and I want to make the best decision for my new future laptop.

Kind regards,

Inge
 
Solution
Blondie21
I just read a few articles of 2013 which state that AMD graphics had problems with running some games while Nvidia (geforce) didn't, for example with Age of empires,,,,hopefully the new AMD cards don't have a problem with some games.....
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I just read a few articles of 2013 which state that AMD graphics had problems with running some games while Nvidia (geforce) didn't, for example with Age of empires,,,,hopefully the new AMD cards don't have a problem with some games.....
 
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Solution
Without a doubt:
http://www.amazon.com/MSI-GT70-DOMINATOR-2293-9S7-1763A2-2293-17-3-Inch/dp/B00O4ORQ3C

Better CPU than the Toshiba
This one supports a high end i7-4810MQ @2.8GHz-3.8GHz
A better graphics card than the Toshiba
(nVidia GTX970M) Definitely can go 1080p and play games at high settings (Very Above Average!)
and its $1499
It only has 8gb ram and a 1TB HDD but thats still more than enough for gaming and storage

I would not buy the Toshiba compared to the MSI
I have never really heard of AMD Graphic cards in Laptops so I would not really know about AMD performance for gaming in laptops
Nvidia is way more well known in the Laptop gaming Community
Good Luck!
 
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According to your Amazon.com website, the MSI cpu has 2.5 GHz instead of 2.8 GHz (maybe you included the risk free overclock)
However, Thank you very much for your suggestion nkhaira
By the way, in my country MSI is very unknown. Is it as good as Asus, Toshiba etc. ?
I could only find that MSI are gaming laptops, but I could be incorrect about that.
 
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Hmm.
Thats weird that it says 2.5GHz now but It might come with a better CPU when you get it. Thats what happened to me Newegg said i was going to recieve a 4800MQ but actually got a 4810MQ its happens commonly I believe (if they run out of stock they just send you a higher end CPU)
Still the 4710MQ is very very powerful it turbos up to 3.5GHz
In My experience I have loved my MSI alot
No problems and i have had it for about a year
ASUS and MSI are one of the two biggest gaming laptop manufacturers and they are pretty similar though i have noticed ASUS's tend to be more expensive

You can read online reviews about MSI but they are a very big and In my opinion a very respectable and reliable Company
Yah they also have regular laptops as well too:
http://us.msi.com/product/nb/S12T.html#hero-overview
http://us.msi.com/product/nb/CX61-2PC.html#hero-overview

But the laptop I recommended is very nice for the price compared to what others like ASUS are charging for the same specs

 
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Thank you again for your reply. However, the laptop you recommend is a MSI with a
Intel Core i7-4710MQ (2.5GHz, 6MB Cache)
7200 RPM
RAM of 8 GB
NVIDIA Geforce GTX970M with 3GB


Compared with my current winner: Toshiba i7 4710HQ, 2 TB 5400 rpm, RAM of 16 gb, 2,5 GHz,AMD Radeon R9 M265X 4 GB... And it's 500 euros cheaper...I believe that the Toshiba is better so that Toshiba remains my current winner even though your recommend laptop has a great 7200 RPM ...I don't have enough knowledge yet to know if the extra 1800 RPM is better than the extra 8 GB RAM, especially considering the fact that I'll use a SSD as the primair drive and remove the CD player to implement the TB HDD. TB HDD as the secondary drive.


 
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8GB is enough for gaming
You can always add a Terabyte down the road to your storage
and that M265X is not going to be satisfactory enough I believe for "above average" gaming
Thing is you could always upgrade ram and storage down the road easily for laptops
these 2 laptops have the same CPUs
But in terms of gaming you will get way more power from the MSI, because of the powerful nvidia GTX970m
In this day in age the 5400RPM is not really suitable especially in a laptop which you expect good gaming, it will give you slower load times than the 7200RPM
 
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Thank you for the clarification. You're probably right, however, it would be impossible to get a laptop for 1600 euros after tax because my father wouldn't allow that. I just asked that. After your first reply, he told me about the import tax. I totally forgot that and I edited that just before your second post. I apologize for any inconvenience.

Hopefully you and others have more great suggestions for me :)
 
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Here this is last gen's model of this Computer
http://www.amazon.com/MSI-GT70-Dominator-895-9S7-1763A2-895-17-3-Inch/dp/B00IMTQ6I6
This comes with the "apparent" i7-4800MQ 2.7 GHZ Turbo 3.7GHz
This is what I have and as I said before mines came with a 4810MQ
comes with a Nvidia GTX870m 3GB
(GTX 870m still beats R9 M265X by a long shot)
source: http://gpuboss.com/gpus/Radeon-R9-M265X-vs-GeForce-GTX-870M

All Taxes should probably fit into your price range as this laptop is USD$300 Cheaper

If laptop is still out of Budget, I can look for others
 
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Thank you for the great recommendation, so far your chosen laptop is the best for my price tag :)

Current winner: http://www.amazon.com/MSI-GT70-Dominator-895-9S7-1763A2-895-17-3-Inch/dp/B00IMTQ6I6#productDetails

However, I've got 3 questions....

-Could I increase the RAM from the current 8 GB to 12 or more GB?
-Is it possible to use a 256 SSD as the primair/boot drive and use the current 1 TB HDD as the secondary drive?
-Is 1 of these sellers, who sell the new laptop, trustworthy becaus I don't know any of them and I would like to have a warranty: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00IMTQ6I6/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new

The only great laptop manufacturer I know, is ASUS, never heard about MSI before a few days ago, so I hope that it's trustworthy enough to keep using the laptop for at least 3 years without major problems.
 
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Maybe this ASUS is even better than your recommend MSI, even though the MSI has better graphics, because ASUS tends to be the most trustworthy, tends to have the least major laptop problems

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-17-3-laptop-intel-core-i7-12gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-black/9826132.p?id=1219438695427&skuId=9826132

I would really like to read your point of view and the opinions of other people. I'm planning to use the new laptop for at least 5 years.

(My old ASUS lasted 6 years,,until my father dropped it...without my knowledge about heat, it would have been a few years less...in the last month of the ASUS I needed to underclock it a bit, because it was reaching 90+ Celcius even with a cooling thing underneath it and with cleaning the dust in a computershop)
 
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I would definitely agree with you ASUS seems more trustworthy than MSI.
MSI laptops come with 2 year warranty which I believe also includes a one year accidental warranty
The ASUS laptop that you sent is great, but keep in mind you are downgrading to a i7-4710 CPU and also downgrading the graphics card to a GTX860M
There is some what of a difference in terms of graphic power between 870 and 860
(http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-870M-vs-GeForce-GTX-860M)

The MSI laptop you can definitely upgrade the ram and even the SSD
I have heard people say that it has 2 bay slots for HDD and SSD (Might want to contact MSI to confirm)
You can definitely upgrade RAM (Might want to contact MSI for more information)

The first seller for the laptop ($1195) seems trustworthy and fine
You can also just order the Laptop from Newegg for $1199
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152554

The ASUS one is not bad but keep in mind for $30 more dollars you can have a better CPU and better GPU (More important in the long run) than ram because you can always easily upgrade ram

You can always buy extended warranty from MSI or Newegg or Amazon for more than the standard 2 years
I feel you can trust MSI they are a well known Manufacturer and are well known for their Motherboards for desktops graphic cards for desktops and such

There customer service is not bad either (8-9/10)
 
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I don't live in the USA, I live in a small country (Netherlands/Holland) in Europe, so I don't know if the warranty of 2 years also would count for me and I'm afraid that I won't even get a 1 year warranty, which is my minimum requirement, especially if I need to buy it from a very untrustworthy shop. Does anyone know the companies who sell the laptop, recommended by NKHAIRA, on Amazon.com

I'll contact MSI to confirm, even though that's probably very expensive considering that I live in Europe and my New York vacation is already in 4 days (Friday). So, I would have to call due to the fact that I can only let the Amazon laptops ship in the USA and not to my country, sending an e-mail would probably not get a fast reply.

On Newegg, it also wasn't possible to add SSD or extra RAM in the extra option window at the right side,,,,,so how can you be so sure that it's probably possible after all? I hope that you're correct :) that would be awesome 😉
 
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MSI laptops tend to produce a lot more heat compared with ASUS, so the MSI laptop probably wouldn't last longer than 3 years considering that you would use the MSI TB HDD (7200 RPM) as the secondary drive....maybe an experienced MSI-user could tell you more about that.

http://www.mediamarkt.nl/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/MultiChannelCatalogEntryComparison?storeId=10259&langId=-11

I used the website of Mediamarkt to compare an ASUS (€1399) and the Toshiba (€1108) you considered with another more basic ASUS laptop (€1033). The only differences between the 2 ASUS laptops is one 256 GB SSD & one 8 GB RAM. You could buy 1 of the best SSDs for €129 (Samsung EVO 256 GB) and a 8 GB RAM for about €75 depending on the pre-installed RAM of the cheap ASUS model. I can't tell which type that is and the new RAM must be the same. Professionally installing a RAM and SSD cost €60 at Mediamarkt -> total cost would be 1033+129+75+60= €1297 ($1474) The improved ASUS would have the exact same specs as the ASUS of 1399 (both graphic card of GTX850) and you would save €102

Your own ASUS recommendation on Best Buy would cost a total of €1474 to have 16 GB RAM (4 GB RAM of €40) and the 256 GB Samsung SSD. It's €177 more expensive than my recommendation but it will give you a graphic card of GTX860 > 850, 2nd drive 7200 RPM > 5400 ...at the moment NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 2 GB GDDR5 costs €250 after 6 months it might be 200

The MSI would cost you 1195 + 21% tax= $1446 (€1272) but then you would still need to add the costs for adding the SDD + 8 GB extra RAM -> + €60 + €129 + €75= €1536 ($1745)

I hope for you that someone has a better recommendation because even though my recommendation is/seems a lot better than Nkhairas, you would still have a very bad GeForce GTX 850 in the ASUS because it's DDR3L and only 2 GB so it wouldn't be a bit future proof unlike Nkhairas MSI laptop with GTX870M 3GB GDDR5 VRAM (and 7200 RPM HDD as the 2nd drive instead of the ASUS 5400 RPM...but my recommendation is €239 cheaper)
 
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Important facts to Consider I guess
I have heard that MSI laptops do produce more heat than the ASUS (I usually have my Cooler Boost 2) Option set and it has fans running at 4500RPM
The ASUS is nice that Walter ICT recommended but like he said you have to consider that there is only a GTX850M which in laptop terms is a Midrange card
Heres a little comparison:
http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-870M-vs-GeForce-GTX-850M

As for the adding SSD and Ram I meant that you could buy it seperately and have someone or yourself even install it. I havent even opened my laptop yet but I have heard there are 2 Bay slots (One taken up by HDD and one Free) and you obviously add RAM as well
 
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Thank you for the replies.

The MSI is too pricey based on the calculations of Walter and based on my new current winner which seems even better than the ASUS....I like the ASUS of 1300 euros because ASUS is a very trustworthy/reliable brand/company and I can buy it in my own country like my current winner and unlike the MSI.

The current winner is a custom build laptop of Xnotebook....the Turbine...however it seems a lot less reliable than ASUS because I've never heard about that company.

These are 2 pictures about the laptop

The specifications chosen by me: http://i.imgur.com/XsaS04W.png

The general options to build the laptop: http://www.xnotebooks.nl/17-inch-18-inch-configure-custom-build-compose-gaming-laptops-notebooks-zelf-samenstellen-op-maat/turbine-hw17-17inch-gaming-laptop-notebook-gtx860-hd4600-optimus-w370ss.html

In short, compared with the upgraded ASUS suggestion of Walter, the only advantage of the ASUS would be an extra 1 TB HDD and a better company. the Xnotebook has 4810 MQ > 4710 HQ, GTX 860 > 850 ...however, if you look good at the first picture...the company says the 860 is a GDDR5 in the left part of the picture/photo and only DDR5 at the right side....the right side is the place where I build the laptop and where it says that the Xnotebook would cost $1323 (including a free Laptop backpack/sleeve worth €56 according to them and optional thermal compound paste called Freeze for €25. It's cheaper everywhere else, but it's sold out everywhere in Europe).

Is the better Xnotebook laptop worth the risk? Should I buy the thermal paste for €25? Do you know if it will be a DDR5 or GDDR5? Do you know a better laptop for about the same price....about max 1250 dollars pre-tax

Anyone please help :)
 
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gddr5 and ddr5 is exactly the same just a misprint but the 860 has GDDR5
as for the gpu are you able to get a more powerful one as the 860 is ok but not too good.
with that laptop are you able to get a 128GB drive and a second 500GB or 1TB drive as 128GB is more than enough for the OS and drivers with around 60GB to spare 8 GB of ram should be enough and can always be upgrades if needs to be so 8GB should be plenty to start and use than money to try and get an 870M or a 970M
 
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Yah I agree with Baumy15
I would go for the 870M or 970M because they will give you longer life
I mean the 860M will last but I couldnt really see it going real above average in games, as its a midrange card, but in some games it definitely could
 
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Thank you for the advice!

750 gb 7200 RPM 16 mb cache as a second drive would cost an extra €115 or 750 GB hybrid, 16 mb cache, 16 gb ssd as the second drive would cost an extra €139.....I can easily survive at least 2 years with only the 250 GB ssd as the 1st and only drive
I expect that the prices of HDD would have dropped a lot in 2017 because of the increased SSD popularity.

Besides that, on a site like Amazon.com I just saw that I could buy an internal 1 TB HDD drive, 64 mb cache for about €65. Does it involve risk to just build in a random brand/company HDD as the second drive?
http://www.hardeschijfstore.nl/category/183881/interne-harde-schijven.html?881=13520&2677=16579&sort=price&dir=a&page=1&items=12

gtx970m, 6 gb GDDR5 would cost 400 euros more ....so that's too far out of my budget 🙁 would it be possible to buy and use that gpu after 2 years for like 200 euros? Or is it extremely expensive/impossible to change a gpu after 1-2 years or so?
I haven't started to play high demanding gpu games yet, but I'm planning to play Diablo (the latest version) and try BF4. If the 860 works decent for those games and above average for older games, then I'm happy :) even though I still think about Walters upgraded ASUS because I'm afraid that this custom build laptop will get heat problems even though I would use high-end thermal paste and a cooling pad.

If I would become a die-hard Diablo or BF4 player, I would like to be able to switch the gpu for a better 1 like you 2 suggested.

What would you buy if you were in my situation and if you would to choose between the Xnotebook and Walters recommended upgraded ASUS?
As you know by now, the Xnotebook has a better cpu and gpu and the ASUS has an extra 1 TB HDD as the 2nd drive and is a more reliable company based on things like heat and chance of bankruptcy
 
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I believe the GTX860 can definitely get 60FPS 1920x1080 on medium to even high settings and I think its definitely capable of that

And According to this:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/geforce-gtx-860m-opinions.757543/
the GTX860M can get 80-100 FPS on Diablo 3 on Single player
But may dip down to 40fps (change settings alittle bit at this point) in Multiplayer

So all in all I'd say the GTX860M is capable but over the years you may have to lower down resolution and game settings a bit to achieve a playable FPS
I would definitely not go below a GTX860M unless you were going with something like (780M,770M, or 680MX)
 
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as long as you but a trusted HDD brand it will be fine and if its $65 that's great but are there any other gpus you can get and what are you using the 256GB drive for?

update: been reading other posts the MSI GT70 dominator is well worth it 7200RPM is heaps faster than a 5400RPM as for other hardware a 128GB boot drive should be more than enough 8 GB ram is a gaming standard as for the cpu stick to the i7 4800 series never go with a U series as they are useless for everything (got one in current laptop) and try and find a laptop that supports upgrades don't get one customish built.

other: read above you saying about the AMD 8 core chips being outperformed that's because they use an old architecture (32NM) and use modules so its 4 cores with 4 integer units where intels quad cores are 4 actual cores but any task that is very multi-threaded AMD usually turn out better but for gaming intel usually win (by a lot)

need confirmation: can someone tell me if amd a10 mobile chips are good as ive found a few that might suit Blondie21's requirements its the A10 5750
 
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I wouldnt rely on AMD Mobile Chips for gaming they tend to be better for low-end productivity.
Intel is more prominently known in the mobile gaming community and trusted alot more at this point, I would stick with Intel
 
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thank you I havnt had much to do with the mobile AMD side bought my mum a laptop with an A6 5200 and thought it was great for $600 (AUS) just didn't have any idea on the gaming side.

 
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Thank you for the advice, especially about the U series, however, the 4810 is a MQ like the 4800 😛
I want to be more future proof and therefore I still have the custom build laptop as the current winner, it's a lot cheaper than the MSI and the ASUS has a 4710 HQ with a worse gpu.

According to cpuboss the 4800 and 4810 are as good as equal and without any discounts the 4800 would have saved me €100, so thank you very much for that advice, however, there's a discount period/offer for the custom build laptop

Choosing 4800 MQ + 16 GB RAM would cost a total of €379
Choosing 4810 MQ + 16 GB RAM costs €369 (Some kind of combination offer)

I decided to choose 16 GB RAM instead of 8 because I might need it after a few years, depending on my future job in the financial sector.

About the 250 GB SSD instead of the 120 GB, it's very good advice as well and therefore I calculated if I should do that or not.

I would choose 120 GB SSD as the boot drive and as the second drive 750 GB 7200rpm WD Scorpio Black­ S-ATA 16Mb cache (5 year factoray guarantee) IF that cheapest 2nd drive option wouldn't cost €115 ....on the Internet I found a internal 1 TB HDD of Seagate for only €65 and an external for even less than 50..... however that custom laptop company highly likely wouldn't build in a 1 TB HDD I bought online as the 2nd drive....using another laptop company to build in a HDD as the 2nd drive would cost additional money of at least 30 euros and probably would destroy the warranty of the custom build laptop............ and getting a 240 GB SSD costs only €70 more

By the way, do you know if a Chimei Gamut 72% colour anti-glare screen would be any good? Some seem to argue that Chimei is bad
 
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