Student Looking for sub 700 laptop for gaming

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qzyxya

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Hi guys, this is my first post here on tomshardware, so sorry if I mess anything up. :p
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I'm looking for a laptop for school that I can also use for gaming and video/photo editing with adobe after effects/premiere pro and photoshop. At the moment, I play TF2 mostly on my desktop along with a bit of battlefield and some assassin's creed and portal.

Budget: under $700 but i can extend it to $8-900 if its worth it

I'll definitely need a dedicated GPU and a moderately fast GPU. The screen size should be 14-15 inches, so that I can fit it in a backpack everyday for school. I also need good build quality (preferably not plastic) since slamming it in a backpack with heavy textbooks is not exactly gentle.

Here are a few different models I've picked out. I'd like some feedback on what you guys think would be good or bad, or for you to suggest another model or something

HP DV6z with A10 or A8 and 7730m

HP DV6z with A8/A10 and 7670m crossfire

Acer V3 571g with 3rd gen i3 and GT630m

Acer V3 561g with 3rd gen i5 and GT630m

Lenovo Y480 with 3rd gen quad i7 and GT640m LE. I've heard a lot of bad about this one. The gpu supposedly is underclocked and has only 96 shaders versus 364 or 398 or whatever. This is supposed to be a cheap reskin of the old gt555m.

Lenovo z585 with A8 and integrated 7660m (supposed to preform moderately well, best of the integrated gpus) very good build quality so i hear. extremely cheap $500 with a10 and 7660m

Lenovo Y580 with 3rd gen i7 and GTx660m - most expensive and i don't know if its worth it. Will it be that much of an upgrade? I might play games like skyrim or other graphics intensive games in the future

Acer M5 ultrabook 3rd gen i5 and gt640m (actual 300+ shader version so i hear)
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Is it worth it to get intel i5 versus i3 in the Acer V3?
Is the 7730 or 7670m crossfire better for general use and gaming (the games i listed earlier)?
Is the A10 worth it over the A8?
How do the GT630m in the acer V3 and the GT640m le in the lenovo y480 and the acer M5 compare?
How far behind does the integrated 7660 by itself trail?
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I'm inclined to get the Y480 since its only 599.99 at newegg right now, but Im discouraged by the negative talk of the GPU. Could someone clarify if its that bad? Like would it be worse than the others in the price range? The i7 i assume will be very good for rendering in after effects and premiere, but if the graphics are worse than say the 630m or the 7670 then I won't get it.

Please just give me a recommendation of whats the best deal with good build quality in my price range.
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EDIT:
I've read a couple other posts about the 7730m vs the 7670m and the a8 vs a10 but I'd like for someone to tell me how these will affect the gameplay (of my games, TF2 and BF3 mostly mayby skyrim) and everyday performance
 
Solution
thor220
You many be right junky77, because certain OEMs cheap out on certain parts. This creates a lesser part or bottleneck, so I would not be surprised if the GT 640m could reach those speeds. But also note that AMD's new trinity just came out not to long ago and has excellent power management and is built on piledriver. According to Tom's, it translates into good overclocking.

source: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/a10-5800k-trinity-efficiency,3315-4.html

Also I would go with the A10 lenovo. It's integrated graphics are about on par with the HP's discrete one, and it does so using less power. Although I do have a thing against HP laptops. I have had to repair so many already in college, it's crazy. Not to mention, I was annoyed...
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Wisecracker

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Do you have an OEM copy of Win7 available ?

Snag a HP Pavilion dv6z-7000 with the AMD Quad-Core A10-4600M Accelerated Processor & 1GB AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7670M discreet graphics for $600

Pop a 128GB SSD in that sucker and reinstall the OS using the HP laptop key -- put the original laptop HDD inside an external Vantec USB3 enclosure.

You're jammin' for less than $700, total.

 
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Q

qzyxya

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For 700-800$ you'll get these advantages:
1. Higher performance
2. good fhd screen - better than the 768p ones:
http://www.gaminglaptopsjunky.com/768p-vs-1080p-screens-what-do-i-care/

But you have to decide if you want the performance and / or the fhd screen.

For 600$ you'll also get higher performance, but no fhd.
For 700$ you can get the dv6z-7000 with good matte fhd screen and good performance (but better wait for another coupon)
For 800$ you can get the QAL51-HD and if you can install Windows from your own copy and pay cash it will be perfrect under 800$

For medium settings on BF3, for example, , you don't need 800$, but 600$. So it's your choice
Click to expand...

okay thanks i think i'll go to a store and try out fhd vs the 768 vs 1600x900. Maybe on a 14 inch scren the 768 resolution would be better. I think 1080p 15 inch might be overkill for me, but i'll see. thanks.
 
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Q

qzyxya

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actually could someone tell me how the GT640m LE in the 599.99 Y480 will preform? I really like that one's size and build quality (768x1336 14 inch is pretty good resolution and its also lightweight)
 
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thor220

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The Lenovo you picked a few posts back was a great deal at the price, why not get that?
http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-261729U-15-6-Inch-Laptop/dp/B0082PS2IM/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1349926595&sr=1-1&keywords=lenovo+z585+a10-4600

Of course your going to get a few perks by paying $100 to $200 more but the graphics on that laptop are great for the price and it's from a good company.

Also, the GT640m LE is slower than the a10 on the lenovo.

source: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-640M-LE.72199.0.html
 
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qzyxya

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Wow really the 96 shader 640m is worse than the 7660m? Should i get that lenovo with the A10 for $512 or the HP DV6z with a better gpu like the 7670m?
Actually that makes sense, cause the notebookcheck page says its got like 300 shaders. :D

however, it might be more heavy and it is a 15.6 vs the 14 inch.
 
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thor220

thor220

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You many be right junky77, because certain OEMs cheap out on certain parts. This creates a lesser part or bottleneck, so I would not be surprised if the GT 640m could reach those speeds. But also note that AMD's new trinity just came out not to long ago and has excellent power management and is built on piledriver. According to Tom's, it translates into good overclocking.

source: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/a10-5800k-trinity-efficiency,3315-4.html

Also I would go with the A10 lenovo. It's integrated graphics are about on par with the HP's discrete one, and it does so using less power. Although I do have a thing against HP laptops. I have had to repair so many already in college, it's crazy. Not to mention, I was annoyed by all the bloatware that popped up during start-up. Just my two cents
 
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Solution
palladin9479

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Go with the HP DV6z-7000 model. I have a HP DV6z with the Llano GPU (3550MX) and a 7690M, absolutely amazing notebook for it's price. And yes the 1920x1080 screen is amazing though it raises the cost of the notebook by $150 USD. I personally feel the cost is worth it. Also look into getting a 7200RPM drive as a minimum, HP's SSD's are way overpriced and if you want one you should add it later. Finially make absolutely sure you get 8GB (or more) of DDR3-1600 as 2 DIMMs, memory performance it critical to the APU's graphics ability.

On a side note. I used to hate HP's as they were constantly having issues stemming from cheap manufacture. In the past couple of years they've done a complete turn around and their current crop of laptops are amazing quality. I was very hesitant to purchase my first DV6z for the GF (1366x768 3530MX) but was absolutely shocked when I saw how nice it was. It convinced me to get one of my own (DV6z 1920x1080 3550MX) to replace my 19 inch Sony for traveling / working. I use this notebook primarily for when I have to travel to another city on work and live out of a hotel room. Its small enough that it's not killing my back anymore yet provides more then enough performance to game and do various tasks from the hotel room / airport / ect. As a student I think your looking for a cheap notebook that can do light to moderate gaming while being small due to space constraints. The HP DV6z should suit you perfectly.
 
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palladin9479

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Something I forgot to mention, be sure to check the memory interface on any dGPU you buy. Many of these dGPU's can use DDR3 or GDDR5 memory. STAY AWAY from the ones using DDR3 memory, that includes nearly every GT 640M. The 640M with DDR3 has absolute crap performance, same deal with the 7730M. The 7670 / 7690 both use GDDR5 so you should be set with those.
 
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palladin9479

palladin9479

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Let me do some research on the dGPU inside the HP DV6z, they might be doing something sneaky. 7670M can come with either DDR3 or GDDR5, where as my 7690M can only come with GDD5 memory. DDR3 for graphics memory is horrible even if it's at 900Mhz (1800 speed). In which case go with whatever configuration gives you a GDDR5 equiped dGPU.
 
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qzyxya

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Yeah on amazon the only cheap laptop with dedicated GDDR5 was the acer timeline u m5 which looks pretty good actually for $700. It's got a 14 inch screen, the gddr5 version of the 640m le, and an i5. Could someone else link me to a better laptop with GDDR5 if they find one? Also im still wondering if the HP without gddr5 will be good. thanks
 
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palladin9479

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I have a 3550MX with DDR3-1333 memory (stupid HP locking the BIOS options and memory bus to 533) that is crossfired with a 7690M that has 2GB of GDDR5 memory. Zero problems, just use the newer Catalyst drivers as HP's own are absolutely horrible.

Between the 7670M and 7730M I'd go with the 7670M as it can crossfire with the Trinity GPU. I do believe the ones HP are using are DDR3, it seems all the manufacturers are going cheap here, kinda sad.

SSD's are nice but they blow him way over budget, especially on laptops as there is no room for a 2nd disk. I ended up putting a 256GB Samsung 830 into mine, but that was only as later upgrade. This is a student with a limited budget, get a 7200 RPM drive ($20 USD more on the HP) and put the extra money towards a better processor / dGPU / screen.
 
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palladin9479

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The 640M LE is a stripped down budget 640M and can only use DDR3. That product info is incorrect, they don't have 1GB of GDDR5 memory as that chip couldn't use it.

Honestly there isn't too many offerings in that range with GDDR5, I got extremely lucky that HP offered the 7690M with the DV6's. They no longer do that and your only choices are the two budget GPU's, one is VLIW4 the other is GCN. The 2GB 7730M is the stronger pure GPU, but it's not capable of linking with the Trinity iGPU. The 7670M on the other hand is perfectly capable of linking with the trinity for boosted performance. With the newer catalyst drivers having built-in support for ACF it's most likely the better choice overall.
 
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qzyxya

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Okay thanks. With the trinity apus is the a8/a10 worth it over the a6? I think il get one of thsoe witha 7200rpm 750gb hdd and a 7670m. just should i get a6 a8 or a10?
 
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palladin9479

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Get an A10 if at all possible. It's two piledriver "modules", basically four "integer" cores and two large FPU's. The big difference is that the iGPU inside the A10 is really nice, the A6 and A8 aren't nearly as nice.
 
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qzyxya

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Alright then I'll get the lenovo z585 with the A10 or the DV6z with the A10 and 7670m. Thanks so much guys.
 
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nbelote

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7730m is about double the performance of the 7670m. You won't get double performance from having a 7670m Crossfired with a 7660g, I am very sorry. You would see some gain, but only in the games specifically optimized for AMD's Hybrid Crossfire laptop solution, and there are not many. Get a laptop with a 7730m and use Leshcat's Unified drivers: http://leshcatlabs.net/
 
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qzyxya

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lol
why are you on this site then?

Is the 7730 really 2x better than the crossfired 7670m? Also which games support the crossfire?
 
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nbelote

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There's no official list of games, it's run-and-gun, but yes, a 7730m is a much better GPU, it pretty much will thrash that CF solution. In CF mode, the 7670m+7660g may meet the 7730m in some comparisons but not many. The CF solution will also suffer from microstuttering, which may drive you nuts. The dedicated 7730m will not.

The 7700 mobility series is based on the desktop equivalents, just clocked lower, while the 7600 mobility series is based on the old 6XXX mobility and not nearly as good. Here:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7660G-HD-7670M-Dual-Graphics.81173.0.html
vs
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7730M.72678.0.html


Also, does the DV6 have a better resolution screen? If it does, you'll want that for sure. I know most people say that it doesn't matter at that size, but I call BS....
 
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