Laptop purchase question(s). FAQ questionnaire used w/ feedback on answer's.

[Roll Tide Hack]

Hey yall, so been browsing and researching through the forums. Figured I was ready to post my question. I tired my best to follow some FAQ stuff, so not to simply try and post,"Hey what gaming laptop should i get for $500?". So here goes the questionnaire with answer's and some feedback to the answer's.

1. What is your budget?
$1,900, might be able to nudge up but no leaping haha

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15.5+ (15 is the smallest but willing to get bigger even if it’s a little bulky)

3. What screen resolution do you want?
1920x1080

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Not replacing, already have gaming desktop. Need a laptop as I am in the military and I am gone from home a lot and tend to spend times TDY at hotels/AOR etc.

5. How much battery life do you need?
Eh, couple hours plus, but mostly plugged in.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low, Medium or High)?
Yes, WoW, LoL, and randomly other MMORPGs. No first person shooters really. Maybe some civilization builders. High setting is preferred.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Some web page design, Photoshop a little, web surfing, movies, and random videos

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
Please see below comments in regards to storage.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
There are others, but don’t want to have a massive list. Best to say is google.com and search custom gaming laptop and I probably went there. Notable ones i remember,
www.sagernotebook.com/
www.newegg.com/
www.xoticpc.com/
www.ibuypower.com/
www.cyberpowerpc.com/
www.originpc.com/

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
4-6years. Clocking will come into play here and up-gradable internals as well.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer, Blu-ray ROM/Writer, Etc.?
Basic DVD ROM/Writer

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
Likes:
Asus, done me right in the desktop world.
NVidia, it’s my go to GPU.
Microsoft ® 8.1, I dig the it lol
Don’ts:
Alienware, always felt that I was paying for more for the brand than internals.
AMD GPU, not saying it’s bad but I prefer NV over it.
Microsoft ® 7, I am used to my 8.1 so I just prefer it over the 7
Off brand, meaning I would rather pay a little higher for quality than try and pinch a buck for something I might have to replace in the near future. Not to contradict my Alienware comment, but i am more referring to internals more than anything.

13. What country do you live in?
US

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

I have it somewhat narrowed down to some basics I am looking at;
Screen: 15.5 (That’s as low as I want to go, but don’t have a problem with the bigger/bulkier ones)
GPU: NVidia 970m+ (970 is the lowest I want to go) SLI, don’t think I will be seeing that in the $1,900 range lol
OS: Windows 8.1 STD 64bit (don’t hate, I like it LOL)
CPU: 4th Gen i7-4710+ (4710 lowest I will go)
Memory: 16gb (Might do 8gb and just upgrade later on)
Network Card: Meh, Killer or Intel
Storage: The problem I am running into is the drives. I am at a crossroad, options below.
Option 1: (No Raid)128GB Samsung XP941 M.2 PCIe SSD OS Drive + (HDD Raid 1)SATA 120gb Samsung 840EVO + SATA 120gb Samsung 840EVO
Option 2: (Raid 1) 128GB Crucial M550 M.2 SSD OS Drive + 128GB Crucial M550 M.2 SSD + 1TB SATA2 HDD 7200rpm
Option 3: 500TB Samsung 850 EVO SATA3 SSD
Option 4: 128GB Samsung XP941 M.2 PCIe SSD OS Drive + 1tb SATA2 HDD 7200rpm
Option 5: 128GB Samsung XP941 M.2 PCIe SSD OS Drive + 1TB 5400rpm SATA3 Hybrid Hard Drive with 8GB SSD
Option 6: (Raid1) 120GB Samsung 840 EVO Series mSATA3 SSD + 120GB Samsung 840 EVO Series mSATA3 SSD + 1TB 7200rpm SATA2 Hard Drive
Option 7: (Raid1) 120GB Samsung 840 EVO Series mSATA3 SSD + 120GB Samsung 840 EVO Series mSATA3 SSD +1TB 5400rpm SATA3 Hybrid Hard Drive with 8GB SSD

Also kind of alternate questions,
Alt 1. Upgrade Thermal compound,worth it?
I have researched and it seems to be a 50/50 for the most part.

Alt 2. Intel® H97 or Z97 chipsets?
My research has led me to believe Z97 is the only way to go as H97 isn't overclock-able. Not sure if this is a moot point if all higher performance laptops don't even have the H97 as an option.


Please feel free to share ideas or opinions, very welcomed.
Please note, please refrain from statements of, "don't waste your money and get a portable desktop". I love the one i have and just want to venture into a gaming laptop as well.

Thanks for taking the time to read through and look forward to responses.

 

[psycrow395]

hello there i didnt read everything but got the jist of things and may i recommend the laptop i am currently using?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152711
that one is a new 2015 model it comes with a 1tb but you can add 3 m.2 drives at raid0 for your OS it has a gtx 965m its a 15 inch very portable and not too bulky has a steel series backlit keyboard.

another alternative would be the MSI GT60 which is the high end gaming laptops MSI makes anything with a GT in front is high end anything with a GE is a mid range if your wandering why i havent recommended a laptop with a gtx 970m i made a post about it in the general laptop area but here is why i say stay away from the high end gtx 970m

http://www.pcper.com/news/Graphics-Cards/Amazon-Newegg-and-others-offering-partial-refunds-GTX-970-purchases

hope this helps good luck on your search

 

[Roll Tide Hack]

Thanks psycrow395. I was also reading up on that recently. Still trying to understand it and if my level of use would honeslty show up in the 970m use, Good information on it though, thanks.
As for the MSI, its a nice laptop. I will look into some of the custom sites to see if can change the 1TB HDD only to something else or add onto it.

Thanks again.

 

[psycrow395]

your welcome and with the MSI ge62 you can use the 1tb hdd for storage like me and add a m.2 ssd for your OS just depends on if you want to do yourself or have someone do it for you i paid 1,430$ for my laptop and the m.2 ssd and will be putting in myself and will try to make a video about it to put ion my youtube channel

 

[Roll Tide Hack]

Yea, that laptop is now in my list of possiabilites. Still doing more research and spreadsheets for what brand case I am going to go with and the best price including internals. I kind of like the asus case but not locked solely on it.

 

[Roll Tide Hack]

I'll be posting up some of the ones I'm interested with their links.