Wanting a new laptop

[Texas42]

I'm want to do a little gaming (think world of tanks, starcraft III), not huge, and not breaking the bank. Mostly stream, and some work.

Any ideas? Black friday specials a plus.

If you haven' figured out, I'm not a computer person. Would like to get a good deal. I'm not a mac person (my wife is).

 

[TX69]

Without a doubt get a Dell. Toshita is crap as they are prone to some serious failures no matter which model. We had two in our home go bad and the MIL's Toshita took a crap too. Been happy with the Dell I have

 

[shortround]

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd?ref=PD_OC

 

[dalto]

How big of a screen do you want? Do you care if it is a touch screen or not?

 

[Texas42]

15" ish. Don't really care if it its a touchscreen.

 

[karlac]

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd?ref=PD_OC

Have a four+ year old Dell XPS 15 I've been trying to kill for the better part of a year just so I could upgrade.
Can't make it roll over por nada ...
I did replace the keyboard with a backlit one about two years ago.

 

[Davetex]

I've bought Dell off-lease laptops for years. I've never had a problem with them. You can find good deals here.

https://www.dellrefurbished.com/laptops

 

[BigBoss0311]

Get a laptop with the best video card and processor (at least a skylake - intel i7 6000 series) you can. RAM and hard drive can be upgraded by yourself if needed. Dell XPS would be fine. Lenovo has a few good ones as well. MSI or ASUS would be better.

A price range would really help narrow down options.

 

[dsgrey]

I've bought many Dells over the years including refurbs that lasted a long time without issue. Currently using a 4 yo Toshiba and work computer is a Lenovo without issue. All are made in China now and the only brand I'd definitely avoid would be an HP. If you're into gaming, why get a laptop? Laptops are limited to upgrading hardware and most gamers use desktops. You could spend the same amount of money and purchase better hardware with a desktop. When the next release of a game comes out and you need to upgrade hardware then you can do it piece by piece if needed.

 

[Texas42]

Trying to keep under 1300

 

[rman]

I've bought 4 or 5 dells over the past 15 years and thinking back, have had issues with each one. Usually they are minor but I did have one shit the bed, motherboard went over voltage and took out a 32gb SSD and 1TB HDD. Lost a year or so of kids pics.

My company just switched to dell and I can't type on the damn thing without the mouse jumping around and inserting the cursor everywhere. No amount of palm guard, device adjustments, touchpad settings, etc. will fix it. A few of us have this issue.

If it weren't for the hard drive failure, I would continue to buy them for despite the issues.

What I do/did:
Get the biggest, baddest refurb model, fully loaded, within your budget.
Wait/search for a 15-20% coupon code
Add 3 years of warranty/accident protection

You can literally drop your laptop off a cliff into liquid hot magma on the last day of warranty, and get it replaced.

Got can hands down get the most powerful machine for the best price this way. My last laptop cost me a few bucks under $1000 fully loaded. The same Mac (smaller, slower processor) was $2700.
I think I got a 17" i7 4gb ram 32gbSSD 1TBhdd and whatever was the best video card at the time. It's really good with Facebook.
I don't play games, never have. But I know the top gaming laptop will usually last me a few years and handle anything I throw at it

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

 

[karlac]

My company just switched to dell and I can't type on the damn thing without the mouse jumping around and inserting the cursor everywhere. No amount of palm guard, device adjustments, touchpad settings, etc. will fix it. A few of us have this issue.

IME, 99% of the time that behavior on a Dell is a driver issue/conflict.

 

[rman]

IME, 99% of the time that behavior on a Dell is a driver issue/conflict.

i might give it a go again. I have tried the dell drivers, the synaptics drivers, etc.... maybe i have both loaded, I'll have to check

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G935A using Tapatalk

 

[karlac]

i might give it a go again. I have tried the dell drivers, the synaptics drivers, etc.... maybe i have both loaded, I'll have to check

Experienced that aggravating behavior a few of times with Dells in years past, and again suddenly in the last week or so when I hooked up a Dell laptop to an additional display to do some CAD work. Strangely enough a 3dConexxion SpaceNavigator driver update, which I use for 3D modeling, fixed the problem.

Although it was a counter intuitive fix, past experience lead me to the solution. Worth a shot ...

 

[TX69]

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd?ref=PD_OC

For us the next machines will NEVER have Windows products OS's in them regardless of the limiting factors. It is the biggest POS OS EVAR installed into a free society's computer system. Avoid that at all costs.

 

[BigBoss0311]

So get back on topic for the OP's sake, you can definitely get something that will run the games you plan to play in that price range. You say 15" is fine, but you don't mention weight. I am going to assume going through Best Buy or Fry's is easiest as you will most likely get to see some of these in store.

Here are a couple options you might like (in no particular order):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834321437&ignorebbr=1
http://www.frys.com/product/8711431#detailed
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/msi-15-...-drive-aluminum-black/5219400.p?skuId=5219400
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-in...e-1tb-hard-drive-gray/4890500.p?skuId=4890500
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-ro...-state-drive-metallic/4637108.p?skuId=4637108


Went on the MicroCenter website, they actually have the MSI listed above for a much lower price than Best Buy, putting it into good deal territory. I linked it below along with an Asus that is worth checking out. Although the Asus is a 17" screen and only comes a single 1TB HDD, it does have a Nvidia 1060 graphics card, making it worth a look. The HDD can always be switched over to an SSD pretty easily and the prices are much cheaper now.

http://www.microcenter.com/search/s...match&N=4294967288+4294863140+45&myStore=true

 

[wllmwallace]

Our oldest son saved for months and just got that Asus ROG from Microcenter - IT IS A BEAST. He plays everything I do and has not had ONE hiccup, it performs almost as well as my desktop (no slouch - upgraded this summer to GTX1080, 32GB DDR, etc). Plus, if VR is in your future, you are ready with the GTX 1060 card in there, easily should last another 3-4 years before needing any type of upgrade.

List of games he plays/has played with ZERO issues:
Mad Max
World of Warcraft
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Star Citizen
DayZ
Elite Dangerous
Forza 6 and Horizon 3
Sniper Elite 3
Tom Clancy's The Division
Fallout 4

His biggest complaint? The finish on the laptop shows fingerprints easily so he constantly has to clean it.

 

[Texas42]

Really seriously considering. This.
http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/Laptops/hp-spectre-x360-convertible-laptop---15t-t6t12ua-aba

 

[BigBoss0311]

2 in 1 or convertible is a whole other ballgame. That HP will certainly do everything you want, but for the money, there is MUCH better out there. Processor and graphics card aren't all that good. But if that is what you want, then go for it.

 

[dalto]

Really seriously considering. This.
http://store.hp.com/us/en/pdp/Laptops/hp-spectre-x360-convertible-laptop---15t-t6t12ua-aba

That is a terrible price. Those go on sale all the time for substantially less than that.

Also, do you want to pay the premium for a 2-in-1?

I would be keeping an eye out for what pops up this week. I am expecting pretty good deals on laptops.

I usually watch this: https://slickdeals.net/newsearch.ph...]=54&forumid[]=8&forumid[]=13&src=SearchBarV2