What laptop for £1000

James306

James306

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Not really sure where to post this, but it's equipment!!

So my Dell XPS is doing my head in with a GPU issue, so in January I will be getting a new laptop! Budget is £1000, will be used for light gaming, needs to be relatively portable as work away at sea (ideally under 15")

What would you guys suggest? I'm so out of touch with what's out there spec wise as I've been too busy with uni to keep up....
 
Compatibility issues I have suffered in the past, added to the fact I'm just anti-anything apple! I don't like there products because of how much they limit what you can do with them. I have an iBook G4, appreciate they make good quality products, I just don't like their OS's.
 
Any interest in this ?
Screen is 15.6" so maybe a little big ?

MSI GE60
 
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Certainly an impressive bit of kit for the money, but on the larger side of what I'm after.
 
I thought that it might be. Alienware M14x ? It starts at £899 here but you'd want to put the CPU upto the 3630, so that'd bring it to your £1k budget. :)

Bear in mind I'm also suggesting these as they'd be suited to gaming as well. :)
 
The M14x is what I had priced up before, I was originally going to get the M11x but they stopped making them due to them cooking mobos quite a lot! You get a lot higher spec with the MSI for the same price!
 
I use a Dell XPS....what GPU issue are you having?
 
stu.artd said:
Any interest in this ?
Screen is 15.6" so maybe a little big ?

MSI GE60
Click to expand...


I'm looking at a desktop replacement laptop currently and that MSI looks very nice for the money. I've never met anyone that has owned an MSI before so no idea what they are like for reliability?
 
Also just noticed the MSI GE60 is £911.99 this week too, hmmm decision time :thinking:

Scratch that Stuart's link above is for a higher spec with SSD and bluray
 
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domino1999 said:
I use a Dell XPS....what GPU issue are you having?
Click to expand...

It's a common fault with the M1530, the Nvidea units in them were from a series of faulty ones. Basically it's the same fault you get on the PS3 to YLOD. Every time I turn my laptop off, or it restarts, if it has done anything more graphically intense than MS paint I have to strip the laptop down and heat the GPU with a heat gun. It's ridiculous!

Current uptime is 45:07:27:49!!!

Dell were doing a repair service for them for a while, but this was long before the fault became evident on mine and they no longer do it as it's well out of warranty period. I'm sure I could fight for a repair, but it's about time I go for something that handle games made after 2010!
 
James306 said:
It's a common fault with the M1530, the Nvidea units in them were from a series of faulty ones. Basically it's the same fault you get on the PS3 to YLOD. Every time I turn my laptop off, or it restarts, if it has done anything more graphically intense than MS paint I have to strip the laptop down and heat the GPU with a heat gun. It's ridiculous!

Current uptime is 45:07:27:49!!!

Dell were doing a repair service for them for a while, but this was long before the fault became evident on mine and they no longer do it as it's well out of warranty period. I'm sure I could fight for a repair, but it's about time I go for something that handle games made after 2010!
Click to expand...

The fault is not with the GPS chips but with the soldered connections. Ball grid array chips and lead free solder is a bad combination and very difficult to screen out, even with x-ray. Unfortunately lead free solder is a rohs legal requirement and the amount of io now required on CPU chips means bag is the only way to go.
 
I know it's a fault with the soldered connection to the board, but it was only a certain run of the GPU's that were effected. They changed the unit used after a period of time and they didn't run as hot and solved the issue.

Either way it's nothing I can solve short of changing the mobo, which I really can't warrent for what the laptop is now worth...
 
Sirmol said:
Any Apple!!
Click to expand...

Won't fit the bill as they are almost all above budget...

I would suggest an Ultrabook however you'll have to check if they are powerful enough for your idea of light gaming, and whether they are within budget.

The Asus UX31, and Samsung series 9 are both very capable ultrabook style machines, along with the 13" macbook air (which will be over budget unfortunately). Small and light but powerful enough for general photo editing. The Asus and Samsung have stunning screens as well, the MBA also has a good screen.
 
I had a Dell XPS and it gave me nothing but trouble, finally bit the bullet and bought a Samsung Gamer 17", I know it's bigger than your after but the screen and gaming is excellent, runs like a dream compared to my 17" XPS.
As mentioned earlier the Series 9 is also a excellent range.
 
I recently bought a Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 13.

I got the 8GB Ram, 256GB SSD and i7 model, though there is a cheaper i5 version. It's a brilliant bit of kit, great screen, genuinely useful as a touchscreen device when you fold it into different configurations, and as thin and light as a macbook pro.

Oh and the RAM is 2-minute job to upgrade....but best of all is the fact that there is a spare 1.8" SATA port inside as well, so you can just pop in an extra SSD if you want more space.
 
Any interests in Lenovo IdeaPad Y580?
15.6-Inch 1920 x 1080
Intel Core i7-3630QM(2.3GHz)
750GB 5400RPM 16GB SSD
Nvidia GT 660M (2G DDR3 VRAM)
 
Or you can have a look at these
MSI GE60 0NC-006US
HP Pavilion dv6-7014nr
ASUS N56VM-AB71 Laptop
All are in 15.6-inch
 
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Just as an update I went for the MSI GE60 in the end, it's one hell of a machine for the money! Everything I have thrown at it so far it has handled with absolutely zero lag!! Only thing I dislike about it is the compatibility issues I'm having with Windows 8 so I may go dual boot with windows 7 at some point.
 
James306 said:
Compatibility issues I have suffered in the past, added to the fact I'm just anti-anything apple! I don't like there products because of how much they limit what you can do with them. I have an iBook G4, appreciate they make good quality products, I just don't like their OS's.
Click to expand...

Their stuff has certainly moved a long way forward since the old days, but you still have full unix shell should you need it. Oh and it can run the evil stuff (windows) too.

That or a samsung that looks more or less like macbook air clone.
 
Get yourself an Acer aspire V5-571. It is an I5 processor, up to 8gb of RAM and has a Nvidia GT 620m 1gb dedicated graphics! 15.6" screen! only £500...

You can then spend the rest of the money super boosting it with a SSD...

EDIT: Damn, just read he bought the MSI...
 
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