(Gaming) Laptop Recommendations Please

Post by **Thebusofwoe** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 6:18 pm

Take a look at http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ see if there is anything on there any good. That's where I get all my hardware from.

LewisH · Post by **LewisH** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 6:26 pm

Dont get a HP laptop for the love of god. We are forever re-flowing the mainboards on those which still only last about 3 months more!

For gaming, look at asus, MSI, some toshiba's are also very nice spec'd

Post by **indigolemon** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 6:28 pm

Good to know ^

I only ever buy T Series Lenovo's - never really tried gaming on them though.

LewisH · Post by **LewisH** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 6:30 pm

Lenovo are good, but where i am we have a 90% return rate! its quite scary.

Some sony's are also very good. Samsung are fantastic if you can afford it!

That Sony you linked back there is very good, especially for the gaming aspect having a 1gb nvidia card onboard.

mercutio · Post by **mercutio** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 7:02 pm

LewisH wrote:Dont get a HP laptop for the love of god. We are forever re-flowing the mainboards on those which still only last about 3 months more!

For gaming, look at asus, MSI, some toshiba's are also very nice spec'd

wished i had known that before lol mine is in waiting for a motherboard

Shiny · Post by **Shiny** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 7:10 pm

Budget £450 chaps

My lad has had his current HP 3 maybe 4 years without problem. What is all this reflowing then?

Do you have any links to suitable alternatives within budget?

mercutio · Post by **mercutio** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 7:12 pm

apparently the graphics chip solder cracks or breaks due to no lead

LewisH · Post by **LewisH** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 7:15 pm

As merc said, its where the solder cracks and doesnt conduct no more - laptop then is no more use. There is a process named "re-balling" that will re-melt the solder but not a guruanteed fix ofc.

Post by **SPYDOR** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 7:28 pm

Hi Shiny.

Some good advice appearing in the boards for you. I would probably go for the Acer as their Aspire range comes highly rated and provides a good balance of performance and reliability in all the key areas, combined with one of the best battery lives out of all notebooks at this price bracket.

Some notes for you:
Minecraft is very CPU intensive as it runs in a Java environment, while Skyrim can really push the graphics card when the settings are turned up, meaning you ideally want a good mix of the two.

The HP comes out with the best specs but I share LewisH's concerns about HP's build quality and reliability compared with some of the better brands such as Sony and Samsung for example.

If you can manage it, take a trip to PC World with your son and get a feel for the different laptops, how the keyboards and touchpads feel for example. Certain styles I could not bear to use daily for work or gaming whereas others are very comfortable.

You could also pick up a copy of PC Advisor from a good news agents as they have a lot of review comparisons. Computer Shopper are good as well.

I would also advice looking at: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/ if you want to check out any other processors or a graphics cards, as it tends to give you a good indication of the performance of each item in relation to others on the market. I use this a lot when speccing systems for my clients.

I've done a little breakdown of the 3 laptops for you, with the benchmark ratings in brackets. Might be helpful:

Acer - i5 3230M (4,022) - 4GB RAM - Intel HD4000 (463)
Acer make well priced, reliable systems. You would ideally want 8GB RAM. While capabale the Intel HD4000 integrated graphics are not designed for anything too flashy or intensive games wise. Skyrim is very demanding graphically so would struggle with the higher settings.

HP - i5 3210M (3,807) - 8GB RAM - ATI Radeon HD7670M (838)
This has the best combination of processor, memory and graphics card for your needs but if it was my money HP would not be my first choice due to reliability concerns.

Sony - i5 3337U (3,261) - 4GB RAM - GeForce GT 740M (942)
Generally 1st class build quality and style from Sony Vaio notebooks. This is a flashy looking unit and is an 'Ultrabook' instead of a normal notebook, denoted by the 'U' on the processor rating. They are always less powerful than a corresponding laptop processor, so not as good for Minecraft for example. Shame as the graphics chip is fantastic.

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Acer Aspire E1-571 - i7 3632QM (7,084) - 4GB RAM (upto 8GB) - Intel HD4000
Best one I found, CPU is MILES more powerful and great price on eBuyer: Acer Aspire E1-571

Shiny · Post by **Shiny** » Mon Oct 07, 2013 8:08 pm

Top man Musashi!

Yeah I checked out the videocardbenchmark.net earlier.

Gave the lad all the details and he wasn't keen on the Sony due to processor speed.

The HP really fits the bill for him. It comes with a 12 month guarantee even as a refurb which is good. How likely is this graphic chips soldering problem and if it makes a year is it less likely to fail or could it happen at any time. I guess I could always extended guarantee although I'm not a fan of them.

Other suggestions, similar spec, similar price will be more than welcome.