$650 -$750 Laptop i7 8GB 14in+

ThatOneGuyWho

ThatOneGuyWho

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I brought the Best Buy Black Friday laptop HP Envy m4. The laptop performs greatly but I have two major issues with it.

For one, Beats Audio is great but it has horrible audio / volume swings. This wouldn't be a problem if I wasn't a computer DJ that needed the audio to be what it actually is volume wise. Whenever I play my songs on any other device that doesn't adjust the volume, vocals are extremely too high or low. Beats Audio adjust on the laptop and there is no way to turn it off. Uninstalling it does nothing either.

My other issue is that the laptop screen is too small. My first laptop was 17in and I thought that was too big but now I regret it. There is not enough screen space to do my multitasking and I would need a screen that is 14in or bigger this time around.

Anyways, I need an i7 with at least 8GB RAM and over 14in. I won't take anything Acer and prefer ASUS or Lenovo. My budget is $650 - $750. I plan on buying it in at least 2 weeks. I will be selling this laptop after I get a new one too. These go on eBay for $500+ so I won't have to spend much more on another laptop.

Anyways TL;DR, if there are any deals, please help. Thank you!
 
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i7 and $650-$750? Good luck with that one.

Why do you need an i7 versus a quad-core i5? Are you running any apps where 4 cores / 8 threads versus 4 cores / 4 threads would make a difference?
 
[quote name='shrike4242']i7 and $650-$750? Good luck with that one.
[/QUOTE]

I was thinking the same thing, and doesn't want the "cheapy" brands. I want a moon base and my own island, but that's not happening either. :lol:
 
You don't need an i7 for gaming. You also don't really need 8GB memory. An i5 and 6GB is fine for any game available as far as I know. The thing you need to worry about is the graphics card. Now if you need that extra memory for your DJ stuff that's another thing and I know nothing about how much memory you need for that.

You could always buy something with 6gb and upgrade it to 8gb if you really feel it's necessary.

Having said that I don't know how easy it is to find something with an i5, 6 or 8GB, and a good graphics card. The best bang for the buck laptop right now imo is the Lenovo y580 (about $850 at the cheapest).

What are the specs on your current laptop? What games are you wanting to play? From what I see you've got a HD 4000 graphics card in your current laptop? If so that is pretty low end for gaming. You need something better.

If you absolutely cannot spend that kind of money, you can get a lowish end but not terrible video card like the GT 640M in you price range. Here's one example at Newegg though it is an Acer. I don't know why you don't like Acer but their V3 series is actually very good and relatively affordable. Personally I wouldn't get that one though, I'd spend the extra and get at least a 650M. A 660M would be even better (which is the reason I recommend the Lenovo Y580). Again that's just me and maybe you don't necessarily want to play the latest and greatest games, or you're fine playing them on low settings.

This site is good for letting you know what kind of performance you can get out of your video card http://www.notebookcheck.net. Just go to the search bar and type in the name of a video card (GT 640M for example) and click on the link and read the review. Scroll down and it gives examples of games and what kind of FPS you can expect to get.

Here is some good info if you're looking into laptop gaming

Also for Beats Audio have you tried this?


And one last thing, have you considered hooking your computer up to your TV? You may want to particularly if you're into gaming on it. Hook that shit up, buy an Xbox controller and it's like playing a next gen console now.
 
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He probably has that system all bogged down, you need to turn some of your services off and make sure they are not running in the back round.
 
Also one more thing on the i5 vs i7:

[quote name='Yigytugd']Mostly for my gaming side. Runs much better than my last i5 that I have compared to the i7 I have now w/ similar specs.[/QUOTE]

You probably had a terrible graphics card in your last computer (if you're referring to gaming). Regardless of the issue I highly highly doubt it was the i5 vs i7. Though it's kind of a moot point since you can get an i7 in your price range if you look. Just remember that for gaming it should absolutely not be a priority for you. Get as good of a graphics card as you can and you'll be fine.

[quote name='skiizim']He probably has that system all bogged down, you need to turn some of your services off and make sure they are not running in the back round.[/QUOTE]
Also this. The normal services aren't going to make or break it but obviously the less shit running the better for your performance. You always want to make sure you're not using a bunch of garbage you don't need. One easy thing to do is go to start menu, type in "msconfig", go to the start up tab and uncheck anything you do not want starting up when your computer starts. I uncheck everything always. There is no need for it starting up. Obviously if you feel the need to have a certain program running at start up then leave that box checked. Make sure to restart after unchecking all the shit.
 
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[quote name='ShockandAww']You don't need an i7 for gaming. You also don't really need 8GB memory. An i5 and 6GB is fine for any game available as far as I know. The thing you need to worry about is the graphics card. Now if you need that extra memory for your DJ stuff that's another thing and I know nothing about how much memory you need for that.

You could always buy something with 6gb and upgrade it to 8gb if you really feel it's necessary.

Having said that I don't know how easy it is to find something with an i5, 6 or 8GB, and a good graphics card. The best bang for the buck laptop right now imo is the Lenovo y580 (about $850 at the cheapest).

What are the specs on your current laptop? What games are you wanting to play? From what I see you've got a HD 4000 graphics card in your current laptop? If so that is pretty low end for gaming. You need something better.

If you absolutely cannot spend that kind of money, you can get a lowish end but not terrible video card like the GT 640M in you price range. Here's one example at Newegg though it is an Acer. I don't know why you don't like Acer but their V3 series is actually very good and relatively affordable. Personally I wouldn't get that one though, I'd spend the extra and get at least a 650M. A 660M would be even better (which is the reason I recommend the Lenovo Y580). Again that's just me and maybe you don't necessarily want to play the latest and greatest games, or you're fine playing them on low settings.

This site is good for letting you know what kind of performance you can get out of your video card http://www.notebookcheck.net. Just go to the search bar and type in the name of a video card (GT 640M for example) and click on the link and read the review. Scroll down and it gives examples of games and what kind of FPS you can expect to get.

Here is some good info if you're looking into laptop gaming

Also for Beats Audio have you tried this?


And one last thing, have you considered hooking your computer up to your TV? You may want to particularly if you're into gaming on it. Hook that shit up, buy an Xbox controller and it's like playing a next gen console now.[/QUOTE]

It's also for my gaming and a multitude of other things including my multitasking. When I'm running 5 powerful DJing programs at once as well as heavy video editing and photo making programs, its nice to have everything run smoothly. My i7 8GB right now runs much smoother (w/ no lag at all) than my i5 8GB (upgraded) RAM I had before. It's no pain at all for me to get another i7 8GB+ laptop or just 4GB and upgrade.

Gaming is mostly a side thing when it comes to my laptop and not my top reason to buy one. If I ever need to do any gaming on a PC it will be on my desktop, having an i7 laptop for gaming is just a side bonus for when I'm at school and feel like playing Crysis but its mostly for my DJing and the various programs I need to mix music.

I've had multiple Acer laptops in the past from the low end to the high end (at the time) laptops. My last laptop was a Acer Aspire 7741G (i5, 4GB RAM, 2.66GHz, 750GB HDD, etc.). It performed greatly for a few months than the hard drive failed, the computer blue screen constantly before and after installing a new harddrive, it started to fall apart, etc. It's not like I know nothing about computers or taking care of my stuff. It literally became unusable after about a year. I rather just not deal with Acer especially when they are not the top tier of laptops right now.

For gaming, that is what I do most of the time. Have my gaming set up to where my laptop / desktop is almost always plugged into my TV to watch movies, ainme and play certain games. Playing Metro 2033 on my TV, beautiful!

Also, there is "somewhat" of a fix for Beats Audio that I found but it doesn't work on Windows 8. I don't plan on downgrading either since Windows 8 is actually much better for my overall computer use. The fix is also hit and miss too so rather not deal with that trouble.

It really is just easier for me to sell this laptop for $500+ and buy a new laptop that doesn't have Beats Audio (so it can't be an HP laptop) with the same / similar specs.
 
[quote name='ShockandAww']Also one more thing on the i5 vs i7:



You probably had a terrible graphics card in your last computer (if you're referring to gaming). Regardless of the issue I highly highly doubt it was the i5 vs i7. Though it's kind of a moot point since you can get an i7 in your price range if you look. Just remember that for gaming it should absolutely not be a priority for you. Get as good of a graphics card as you can and you'll be fine.


Also this. The normal services aren't going to make or break it but obviously the less shit running the better for your performance. You always want to make sure you're not using a bunch of garbage you don't need. One easy thing to do is go to start menu, type in "msconfig", go to the start up tab and uncheck anything you do not want starting up when your computer starts. I uncheck everything always. There is no need for it starting up. Obviously if you feel the need to have a certain program running at start up then leave that box checked. Make sure to restart after unchecking all the shit.[/QUOTE]

My last laptop wasn't great for gaming though it could run most of the latest games on high. But it isn't the main reason why I want a laptop as I game mostly on my desktop that can run everything.

In this situation, I could care less about gaming, I need a new laptop for my DJing and Beats Audio in HP Laptops are killing it for me. Seriously makes DJing impossible with its current settings that can't easily be disabled without another issue coming up.

Also, I am running a clean install of Windows 8 and only installed programs I needed. No programs automatically start up apart from Beats Audio and Steam. Uninstalling Beats Audio can be done and I've done it before but the audio quality decreases to a point where it sounds like I'm listening to music through a microwave.

I know it sounds like I'm being difficult when it comes to this and I am open to you guys ideas as I do need this problem to be solved but there are reasons why I picked these specs for my new set up. Understand that the only true issue with my current laptop is Beats Audio and its next to impossible fix. All I need is a laptop with the same / similar specs as my HP Envy m4 that isn't an Acer or HP (as it will have Beats in it). Gaming is a side bonus that I would never put first when picking a laptop, what I need to put first is all my programs running at the same time running without any issue like it does now on the HP I have.

Anyways, thanks for helping guys, your opinions are helping me narrow down my choice! Thanks!
 
Ok then yep you definitely want that 8GB memory and not just 6. Hopefully you got that Beats Audio problem fixed! Definitely sounds annoying. If that doesn't work I have a second laptop with beats audio I can mess around with to see if I can get it disabled.
 
Weird... I was in the market for a laptop in August and there was a Lenovo 17", i7, 8GB ram for $650 @ Newegg but I can't find it anymore. I guess that was a clearance model or something.
 
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