Am I Getting a Good Deal??????? Please Help Me!!!!!

Mr Dude65

Mr Dude65

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UPDATE!!!

Configured this at Dell site. Is this a good deal? Need help!!!! Here's link:
https://ecomm2.dell.com/dellstore/b...=CFG&oid=75f18b73-9f65-4dea-82a4-0acabc0b94d5

Let me know quick!!!!!!!

Hello all! I just graduated, and will soon be heading off to college (at the University of Minnesota, in case you want to know), and need to purchase a laptop computer. I have absolutely no idea what I should get, however! I have some general knowledge about computers, but really not enough to make an educated decision and get a good deal. I'd like to get it fairly soon, but could wait if I had to. And now is the part where the CAG community comes in! I know that there are a ton of people who know a lot about this stuff, and I would love if they could share their knowledge with me. Point me to a deal, give me a little advice, or even just let me know a brand you think is the best. All of it will help me!

So here are some things that will help you help me!

Things I need to have:
- Ability to play most games relatively well (things like portal 2, starcraft 2, newer stuff, etc.)
- Good-sized hard drive
- Preferably at least 6GB of RAM
- Dedicated graphics card
- 1080 resolution
- Optical drive (Blu-Ray, if possible)
- Portability
- Microsoft Office
- Windows 7

Things I DONT want:
- A Mac!
- External optical drive
- To spend more than $1500
- Unnecessary crap

So, if you think you can help me, post away!!! Or, if you have suggestions for other things I should look for in a computer, let me know! Remember, though, that in the spirit of being a CAG, I want to get a good deal on whatever I end up with! And even if it's half off, I probably won't buy anything about $1500. Thanks in advance for the help! Can't wait to hear what you guys have to say!
 
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Wasn't Dell having a deal where if you bought a computer ($699 or up) you get a free Xbox 360 Slim? It's in the deals forum somewhere. I'd check into that.
 
You're getting Windows 7 pretty much by default at this point, and with 6GB of RAM or more, you'd be getting Windows 7 64-bit edition. Most likely Home Premium unless you spring for the extra money on Professional or Ultimate, which will likely be more than you need. Your school might require Windows 7 Professional, so you may want to check with your school to see if you need it.

A Blu-Ray reader will add about $100 - $150 to the cost of the system than just having a DVD-RW drive. A BD-ROM drive will read and write CDs and DVDs, though just read Blu-Ray discs.

Very few 15.6" or 16" display laptops do 1920 x 1080 resolution, there are a number of 17" or 18" display laptops that do it.

Microsoft Office is likely to be a cheap purchase through your college's bookstore, so I'd look into that before tossing out the money to an OEM or a retailer for it. Microsoft offers Office 2010 Professional Academic Edition for $80, directly from them:

http://www.microsoft.com/student/en/us/office/default.aspx

You may have to wait until you get your college/university .edu email address before you can get it, from what I was reading on the "Am I eligible?" link at the above URL.

Your school may also have a cheaper purchase program for certain computer brands if you go with a name-brand system like HP or Dell. Also worth checking with the school as a possible money savings.
 
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Just some additional advice, not to undermine Hybrid but I would never buy any refurbished or open box equipment, especially if you can afford not to.

For refurbished equipment, its safe to assume there's a reason why it had to be refurbished (dead on arrival, some parts malfunctioned, etc), and I don't like have to deal with that burden down the road.

Open box may be a bit safer, but I don't have any experience with that.

I prefer Toshiba, Sony or Lenovo for laptops, as Dell laptops that I've seen haven't been too hot. I'd say $1000 is a good place to aim, but when I was looking for a Lenovo gaming laptop a little while ago, I found one on slickdeals that was $600 - $700 and had some pretty impressive specs for the time (4GB RAM, dedicated video card, HDMI, pretty nice screen res, etc).

Instead I decided to build my own custom PC for gaming, and to get a laptop for more casual purposes / work.

Just my two cents.
 
Thank you all for the help!!!! This is why I love the CAG community!

I was looking solely for a laptop, as I need to be able to take this to class and such. I will definitely look into what you guys have said, and hopefully I can find something nice for a good price.

And if you have anything else, you think could help, post away. I need all of the help I can get here...
 
Also, what are you guys' opinions on sites like ibuypower? Any good, or something to stay away from? I'd really like to know, because it looks like I can get quite a bit for my money on that site.
 
I used Ibuypower for my desktop and it was great another site I have friends use is powernotebooks.com this site lets you customize preconfigured laptops as well as ones from scratch definitely give these sites some looks. If you want to play games on the laptop stay with the gtx 460 graphic card or higher.
 
It just depends on what games you play if its warcraft and less graphical games that would work good but if you want battlefield or call of duty then you need at least the gtx 460 cards, but i love Asus style and brand
 
So the GT540M is less powerful than the GTX 460? Interesting...

I always thought that the names went with the level of item, like something that is the 400 series would be less powerful than the 500 series. Will have to see if I can find one with the GTX 460. Too bad asus doesn't let you customize on their site.
 
[quote name='Mr Dude65']So the GT540M is less powerful than the GTX 460? Interesting...

I always thought that the names went with the level of item, like something that is the 400 series would be less powerful than the 500 series. Will have to see if I can find one with the GTX 460. Too bad asus doesn't let you customize on their site.[/QUOTE]

the GTX is more powerful then the GT series so you have to take that into consideration. Use this site as a tool http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-460M.33612.0.html They list all marks for most games on here this goes directly to the gtx 460 but you can look at the right to pick one and compare
 
[quote name='jaroth2']the GTX is more powerful then the GT series so you have to take that into consideration. Use this site as a tool http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-460M.33612.0.html They list all marks for most games on here this goes directly to the gtx 460 but you can look at the right to pick one and compare[/QUOTE]

Wow. There is way more to this stuff than I thought! Definitely gonna have to do some research...
 
[quote name='Mr Dude65']Also, what are you guys' opinions on sites like ibuypower? Any good, or something to stay away from? I'd really like to know, because it looks like I can get quite a bit for my money on that site.[/QUOTE]

Several years back (5 or 6) my roommate at the time ordered two computers from ibuypower. Both computers showed up in non working order and they wanted him to pay to ship them back. This was when I lived in AK and anyone that has ever lived or shipped anything to there knows how expensive it can be to ship an item that heavy. It only took me a couple of hours but I had to reformat both the computers and reconfigure a bunch of the bios settings to actually get the things to run correctly. They offered him something ridiculous like $20 off his next order more then $100 to compensate for the "inconvenience".
Obviously this was several years ago so they may have learned and gotten better but I wouldn't buy anything from them unless others can state more recent positive experiences.
 
[quote name='mrright4you4now']Several years back (5 or 6) my roommate at the time ordered two computers from ibuypower. Both computers showed up in non working order and they wanted him to pay to ship them back. This was when I lived in AK and anyone that has ever lived or shipped anything to there knows how expensive it can be to ship an item that heavy. It only took me a couple of hours but I had to reformat both the computers and reconfigure a bunch of the bios settings to actually get the things to run correctly. They offered him something ridiculous like $20 off his next order more then $100 to compensate for the "inconvenience".
Obviously this was several years ago so they may have learned and gotten better but I wouldn't buy anything from them unless others can state more recent positive experiences.[/QUOTE]

That stinks. Thanks for the story, though. I'll have to be careful of places like that!
 
So it's apparently impossible to find a laptop around $1200 that includes the GeForce GTX 460M GPU and a Blu-Ray player. I. Need. Help!
 
Please? I can't find a nice laptop for a price that works for me!!! I'd really like some suggestions! Anything, really. Just want to be able to play most games on it fairly well.
 
My honest advice? Ask yourself how often you plan on doing serious gaming not at your dorm/apartment. Don't get a powerful laptop unless your major mandates a powerful laptop (Computer Science, Architecture, etc). Spend $400 or less and get one that'll run powerpoint/word/firefox/whatever else you need, and value portability over power. If you're lugging this laptop to class, you're going to be lugging it around a lot. If you're getting a screen large enough for viewing BluRay discs to not be (mostly) a waste of money, your laptop will end up weighing quite a bit. Then, spend whatever's left on a PC...one that you build yourself. It's a lot easier to buy and upgrade a gaming PC than a gaming laptop.
 
+1 to Salamando's advice. A 15.6" laptop weighs 10-14 lbs. You might not think that's a lot, but combine that with all the books your carrying and your back is going to hate you. I know carrying my huge laptop around made a difference back when I had it. If you're going for a laptop, you should be aiming for portability and nothing else. Get a 13" laptop for $300-$400 and then use the remaining $800-$900 to build a PC. I built mine for about $950 last year and I can play any game on high settings without a problem. Laptops will just get way too hot to get decent performance after an hour or more of gaming.
 
Check out dell.com/outlet. I have purchased many desktops and laptops for myself, friends, and family. Only had a problem with one system, a desktop, and they went above and beyond to take care of the problem. Everything in the outlet carries the same warranty as new systems but much cheaper. If you want to go high-end 15" I saw an Alienware M15x with i7-740QM, 8GB DDR3, BD, and 1.5GB 460M for $1489. Not exactly cheap, but it meets your requests. Dell Outlet often has coupons floating around that will get you 15-20% off, I think I have a $150 off coupon in my email. Inventory changes all the time, so this system may not be available by the time you see this, but they may have something better.
 
[quote name='bmsdaddy']Check out dell.com/outlet. I have purchased many desktops and laptops for myself, friends, and family. Only had a problem with one system, a desktop, and they went above and beyond to take care of the problem. Everything in the outlet carries the same warranty as new systems but much cheaper. If you want to go high-end 15" I saw an Alienware M15x with i7-740QM, 8GB DDR3, BD, and 1.5GB 460M for $1489. Not exactly cheap, but it meets your requests. Dell Outlet often has coupons floating around that will get you 15-20% off, I think I have a $150 off coupon in my email. Inventory changes all the time, so this system may not be available by the time you see this, but they may have something better.[/QUOTE]

I hope I am able to find this.

Also, I realize that a desktop would be the preferred choice to do gaming on, but I need to conserve space in my dorm, and having to put a computer desk in to accommodate it isn't something that will help me do that. Also, from my research, I think you guys are a little off on your figures. The heaviest laptop that I've seen was a Qosimo that did EVERYTHING and was meant to be a desktop replacement, and it weighed 10.1 pounds with an 18.4" screen. I only want to have to get one computer, and be able to use it for everything. Once again, I thank all of you for the advice on the desktop, but that isn't what I want at the moment.
 
Can I get by with a core i5 processor if my GPU is powerful enough? I'm thinking of something with a core i5 and a GT 555M GPU. Will that be enough to run most games smoothly?
 
[quote name='Mr Dude65']Can I get by with a core i5 processor if my GPU is powerful enough? I'm thinking of something with a core i5 and a GT 555M GPU. Will that be enough to run most games smoothly?[/QUOTE]

Yes. The i5 is great; the i7 is just crazy-good.
 
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