TheVille

Hey all, I need some suggestions to get me started looking for a laptop.
I've never bought one before, but for my college classes it has pretty much become neccesary to have one with me at all times. But, if I get one, it needs to be strong enough to play all the current games. I also am currently studying engineering, and will also need the power to run some CAD and other taxing programs.

So what I'm asking for is a lead for some good rigs or a particular series that would work out well for me. Cost is a consideration, but I might splurge if it's a really good PC.

So what I'm Looking For:
-Battery Life
-Speedy Processing
-Handles Games
-Not Too Expensive

Anything come to mind?

Is this about what you are looking for?


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834246327

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834131260

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834157831

You're looking for a set of properties that are... perhaps not mutually exclusive, but certainly not bosom buddies. Laptops that handle real gaming tend to have short battery life (and are also frequently quite heavy - not great for class). Extra batteries seem to be the usual solution, though obviously they can't be hot swapped. There certainly are respectable miiddle-ground notebooks like Deslock posted, which ought to have reasonable performance in each field, though aren't likely to excel in any.

Speaking just to what it takes for gaming, if you're looking to really handle "all the current games," something equivalent to Toshiba's Qosmio line (example) may be what you're looking for, though you should be aware that battery life is short. My top-end Qosmio would run on battery for about 2h45 at the long end, about 2 hours if I was using an external drive (playing a movie off a USB HDD instead of transfering it), and probably less than that if gaming, though I never used it for that without a plug. It also weighed nearly 10 pounds, and I carried another 10 pounds of gear to be able to use it - power brick, cooling rack, etc, in an enormous padded backpack.

I bought mine from these guys http://www.ibuypower.com/. It worked fine and survived a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

If you want both battery life and gaming/CAD power (especially if you use any 3D CAD like solidworks) try for something with nVidia's Optimus technology (or something equivalent).
Essentially it turns off the laptop's discrete card when not needed and runs video off of an integrated card like the intel integrated chips in the newer CPUs.

As for price, you can get a smaller resolution screen for less, which will also shrink the laptop's size, however if you start trying for something too compact with power the price goes up again.
Take a look on Newegg at the ASUS offerings, their gaming laptops tend to have plenty of power at a good price, it's what I used when I was getting my Mech Engineering degree.

HP makes really good machines. I'd say Pavilion DV7T Quad edition if you want something with a decent amount of power for not a ridiculous price. Quad core processor and nice graphics, and from what I've seen you can get it for about $1200 with really nice specs.

Thanks for the ideas guys! And Alizee, I know it's a funky combination, but I would say that I would probably always have a plug when using a power hungry program... Things for notes or such in class, I just wanna last though the day.

So far I'm looking at a few HP models that look promising. I'll keep you guys posted.

Something like this (added upgrades for GT650M, 32GM SSD cache, 1920x1080 display, 9 cell battery):


With this coupon for the $100 off to bring it to $1069 seems like a fairly well-equipped laptop.
http://www.techbargains.com/news_displayItem.cfm/300673

Gator so far is the winner! That looks like a killer combo! I'll shop around a but more but that looks great. Thanks so much for the head's up!

Been reading reviews... lot of mixed stuff saying its got the monster specs but is a semi-weak build. On the fence with this one...

Almost the identical build I posted earlier (only differences I see is it has 6 cell instead of 9 cell battery, and a backlit keyboard instead of regular keyboard), about $100 cheaper. Can still modify it to add the 9 cell battery for another $20.

http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/75164/h ... win-7-prem