Need a cheaper laptop.

[ilikeberrypie]

So I've made threads about how I want to get a laptop for college stating my budget is around $1,500 but now that I made a spread sheet of all my costs this month I realized I will not be able to buy this laptop.

I want a laptop in the $900-$1100 range. Does anyone know of any laptops that are relatively close in performance to the one I picked before but in my current budgets price range? Any help will be appreciated.

 

[inanition02]

What are you looking to use the laptop for? Going down to that range, you're likely to give up some performance but the question is which areas to go down on.

Also, what are you majoring in and what university? Many schools (or programs within schools) have deals with major manufacturers and might help you snag a better price - but the laptops they offer are more likely to be tailored to your program (and not as gaming oriented as the one you link to).

 

[inanition02]

FYI, if you take the exact same laptop and drop to the 2GB 960M (instead of the 970M 3GB you picked) it drops to $999.99. That's a pretty big price cut to drop just one GPU series down.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152902&ignorebbr=1

I'd still think we might be able to get you something better if you answer the other questions.

 

[ilikeberrypie]

What are you looking to use the laptop for? Going down to that range, you're likely to give up some performance but the question is which areas to go down on.

Also, what are you majoring in and what university? Many schools (or programs within schools) have deals with major manufacturers and might help you snag a better price - but the laptops they offer are more likely to be tailored to your program (and not as gaming oriented as the one you link to).

I'm looking to use the laptop for school work and light gaming, but i would like to have a laptop that runs games in at least medium settings. At the moment I'm just getting my AA degree in a community college so I doubt there will be any deals for me.

I do like the idea of dropping down the video card, I doubt ill be using the video card to its full potential anyways.

 

[inanition02]

What games are you likely to be playing? And what are your thoughts on battery life? A beast like those is great if you're seated near a plug and not moving much - but a lighter PC with an SSD (and better battery life) might be a better purchase if it can handle your games.

Otherwise, go ahead with the one I linked to - the 960M should be just fine for "light" gaming.

 

[ilikeberrypie]

What games are you likely to be playing? And what are your thoughts on battery life? A beast like those is great if you're seated near a plug and not moving much - but a lighter PC with an SSD (and better battery life) might be a better purchase if it can handle your games.

Otherwise, go ahead with the one I linked to - the 960M should be just fine for "light" gaming.

I usually play Runescape, World of Warcraft, Tera, GTA 5, CoD, Minecraft, and CS:GO. I would want battery life to be long, I plan on only using this laptop if I'm out of state or in class. Considering most airplanes don't have outlets and I'm usually in and out of my classes every 45 minutes, the laptop will need to have a very long battery life. I have never used a computer that has an SSD so I can't tell you if I would like one or not since I do not know how much better the SSD will be compared to a normal HHD

 

[inanition02]

SSDs are much much better than HDDs for boot speed and generally better on battery life. I'm thinking we should look a bit differently given that you are play those sorts of games and want battery life. The PC you're going with would be overkill and wouldn't get the life you want.

 

[ilikeberrypie]

SSDs are much much better than HDDs for boot speed and generally better on battery life. I'm thinking we should look a bit differently given that you are play those sorts of games and want battery life. The PC you're going with would be overkill and wouldn't get the life you want.

I have the knowledge of a 7 year old when it comes to laptops so if you have any other laptops in mind, please tell me!

 

[inanition02]

$780 here (for the Win10 version) gets you an SSD for boot speed/efficiency and a battery the reviewers claim is top notch. It does drop down the screen size to 15" and goes down another GPU rung to the 950M..but might work better for what you want:

http://www.amazon.com/K501UX-15-inch-Gaming-Processor-Windows/dp/B0146DD02G/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8

 

[inanition02]

I should note that model also drops to a 256gb SSD over the 1TB HDD, so you would have less storage (though it would be much faster). It looks like you can add a second HDD if you need.

 

[ilikeberrypie]

I should note that model also drops to a 256gb SSD over the 1TB HDD, so you would have less storage (though it would be much faster). It looks like you can add a second HDD if you need.

I think I'm going to go with the MSI laptop with the 960M video card. Even though the battery life is almost 2 hours less than the Asus I could always buy a couple more batteries to swap them out once one is dying. If I did go with the Asus, I would need to buy an HHD which would bring me to almost the same price as the MSI.

(Even though it's a bit childish, I also really like the backlighting on the MSI)

Thank you very much for all your help! You saved me $300!

 

[inanition02]

No problem, glad to help. Hope you enjoy the laptop!