Help Picking a New Laptop, plz!!! XD

[Bastrophian]

Hello yall XD ! Thanks to my sis helping me with my taxes, im super close to getting myself a new laptop! But im still super dumb about the finer details when it comes to this....so anyway, may i get some sugestions from you all .

Here is what im looking at getting (and i do understand that this is probably not likely)

My budget it 500-550.... (i doubt it...but if cheaper is possible, that would be great!)

Something with 8 ram, or i'll settle for 6 ram if its "expandable". 500- and up hard drive.

With a 15-17" screen.

I have had a good experience with my present Toshiba Satellite, since i bought, i think back in 2012. But im willing to try different brands.

Lastly, and this isint important, of course....but id really love it if i could find one that could run Skyrim on low to medium. (im not super big on graphics.)

Anyway, i will be using it for RMVX Ace and for making pixel art, as well as some gaming other than Skyrim, weather or not it can run it.

Here is the one im eyeing right now:

   http://www.walmart.com/ip/Toshiba-Jet-Black-17.3-Satellite-C75D-B7215-Laptop-PC-with-AMD-A8-6410-Quad-Core-Processor-8GB-Memory-1TB-Hard-Drive-and-Windows-8.1/36998831

It meets all the above, and has good reviews, but if a you might be able to suggest something you think would be better, or dont think this is a very good laptop, i would really appreciate it .

Thank you all very much for reading and for you time and help.  

 

[Helladen]

Laptops cannot be upgraded except disk space and battery. I wouldn't buy something from Wal-mart, go to Newegg or Ebay.

 

[Neon Black]

RAM can also be upgraded on laptops that aren't already maxed out.  And look for a nice video card, not Intel integrated graphics crap.  You probably won't find a great one in your price range, but hey, I bought my beast for 700$ and at the time the only better ones were Alienware.

Also, I second Newegg.  That's where I've gotten all mine.  Tiger Direct sometimes has some good deals too IIRC.

And be sure to look at the reviews.  I'd avoid anything with sparse reviews.  And whatever looks nice, just go to the reviews and sort from worst to best.  If you see a recurring theme in the worst reviews, there's probably a reason (for example, blue screen or card issues).

 

[_Shadow_]

As Neon Black said, Ram can be upgraded if max capacity is not reached.

A good idea though is to buy a laptop with more initial ram, spending a little extra.

8 GB seems enough for nowadays.

Toshiba Satellite are nice, but I had a bad experience with the built in WI-FI (bad signal being trash) while a USB wi-fi does the job.

It might be a certain model, a certain piece, or a certain amount of a model having issues.

Same issue was met on a Lenovo a few months earlier (a friend of mine got it) and it seems that the wi-fi component could be from the same manufacturer, most of them are, so it isn't a laptop brand issue anyway. Still have to tell you that you must test wi-fi before buying if possible by using a sample laptop in the shop.

Try to get more of 1TB HDD. Keep in mind that mechanical HDDs are cheaper while SSD are more secure on a fall but more expensive too.

"Restore discs are not included (unless specified by supplier). We recommend you use the installed software to create your own restore and backup DVD the first week you use the computer."

You should do that or demand a resrtoration disk at no extra charge (if possible).

If you are experienced with such stuff, you can make resotre disks, but what about the average user?

Anyways...

It will probably run Skyrim no problem, my sister's Toshiba is worse than that and runs Diablo 3 smoothly if that helps.

Note also that AMDs run some software better than Intel CPUs, while Intel CPUs have also applications that run better on them.

This is more a programmer's issue, but it happens some software being smoother on one CPU than on another.

As for a review, you see feedback from an average user. Average use can be satisfied with even older laptops.

If your needs include gaming and your budget is near there, it seems nice to me.

Can not take the responsibility of your choice of course, just stating my opinion here.



Yeah it's ok go for it.

P.S. As Neon Black said, Alienware are the best gaming laptops at the moment.

Super powerful, A LOT of ventilation and heat sink,

swaggy design (LOL).

But it is far from $500 

Edit:

Oh!!! Not to mention that $500 is my opinion the best and optimal budget to buy a laptop.

More money means spoilage in my opinion, while less means you get something bad.

So 500 - 550 is a nice thought in my opinion.

 

[Bastrophian]

As for a review, you see feedback from an average user. Average use can be satisfied with even older laptops.

If your needs include gaming and your budget is near there, it seems nice to me.

Can not take the responsibility of your choice of course, just stating my opinion here.



Yeah it's ok go for it.

Hey dude! Thank you very much for all that information, its going to help me alot before i make my final decision! But if it cant play Skyrim, than thats just the way it is, lol. Im on a janitors budget, so I cant expect too much, lol. And no worries, im not here to pin anything on anyone. Just looking for some insight before i make my purchase. Thanks again .   

RAM can also be upgraded on laptops that aren't already maxed out.  And look for a nice video card, not Intel integrated graphics crap.  You probably won't find a great one in your price range, but hey, I bought my beast for 700$ and at the time the only better ones were Alienware.

Also, I second Newegg.  That's where I've gotten all mine.  Tiger Direct sometimes has some good deals too IIRC.

And be sure to look at the reviews.  I'd avoid anything with sparse reviews.  And whatever looks nice, just go to the reviews and sort from worst to best.  If you see a recurring theme in the worst reviews, there's probably a reason (for example, blue screen or card issues).

And @ Aeirex-

And thanks to you too . Newegg, and look for a good graphics card, avoid Intel Integrated stuff.  

 

[_Shadow_]

Well then...

Skyrim

minimum requirements:

CPU: Info CPU Speed: Dual Core 2.0 GHz or equivalent processor RAM: 2 GB OS: Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit) Video Card: DirectX 9.0c compliant video card with 512 MB of RAM - NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT & ATI Radeon X1800. Sound Card: Yes Free Disk Space:

6 GB

RECOMMENDED:

CPU: Quad-core Intel or AMD CPU CPU Speed: Info RAM: 4 GB OS: Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit) Video Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible NVIDIA or AMD ATI video card with 1 GB of RAM (NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 or higher; ATI Radeon HD 4890 or higher) Sound Card: Yes Free Disk Space: 6 GB

Source:

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/requirements/the-elder-scrolls-v-skyrim/11231/?p=r

It seems you will be able to play the game on higher quality after all....

 

[EternalShadow]

Skyrim is pretty low spec by the PS4/this generation's standards. I can run it on the lowest settings on a Toshiba laptop (with nothing running in the background) just fine. I can't remember how much RAM I have, but it's a 4-core. It'd fit easily into the $500 budget. By the way, buy with Windows 7 (or wait until 9? not sure when it's out...), not Win 8.

 

[_Shadow_]

Skyrim is pretty low spec by the PS4/this generation's standards. I can run it on the lowest settings on a Toshiba laptop (with nothing running in the background) just fine. I can't remember how much RAM I have, but it's a 4-core. It'd fit easily into the $500 budget. By the way, buy with Windows 7 (or wait until 9? not sure when it's out...), not Win 8.

Well why 7? 8.1 fixed all the Windows 8 issues. (By the way I don't like W8 much really so I am with you on that, but it won't be an issue really).

For your reference. Windows 9 will never be released, because they are now named it Windows 10 instead. Don't ask me why. Fart logic, that's why...

The fact is that all Windows 7 and Windows 8.x users will be able during the first Windows 10 release year to upgrade to Windows 10 for free, so no big deal anyway.

And yes, what Hotfirelegend says about Skyrim is right in my opinion.

 

[EternalShadow]

Yeah, windows 10 is what I meant. Very tired atm. They had to change it to 10 cos some registries were #9 which could've referred to Win 95, which was the earliest time those registries were made. There was no registry pre #9, so Win 8 didn't have that issue. Something like that.


By the way, yes - they can upgrade to 10 for free, but that essentially means a free OS whenever it is released, so it could be taken off the purchase price.


8.1 might be better in some regards, but interface and performance and compatability-wise, 7 is still far better.

 

[Bastrophian]

By the way, buy with Windows 7 (or wait until 9? not sure when it's out...), not Win 8.

Isint there a way to transfer my windows seven from my current lap top to another? Also, I thought only windows 8 people got 10 free...am I wrong?

 

[EternalShadow]

7 and 8 people get 10 free.


Transferring license, I don't know. I've never done it or had the need to.

 

[_Shadow_]

Isint there a way to transfer my windows seven from my current lap top to another? Also, I thought only windows 8 people got 10 free...am I wrong?

Legally not. Windows 7 comes to a laptop under a license bond with the hardware. Except if you bought a disc, so that would be a different issue.

You can ask MS though, if you can fully uninstall W7 including restore, from one pc and put them to another.

The bad news is that restore comes with dirvers for the SPECIFIC laptop. So I wouldn't recommend you doing that.

Contact MS for more info, they have EXCELLENT phone service.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

8 GB seems enough for nowadays.

I wonder when that would be the standard in our country... here most laptops are at 2-4GB... XD

 

[Dimitris]

@Deathswallow You can buy a very a very decent laptop with that budget. Make sure your laptop does not have an integrated graphics card like Neon Black said. You will face a lot of problems with games and programs where your pc will not recognize that you have a more powerfull card on it. If you want a reference for laptop, I bought mine 550 euro without windows, it has i7 cpu, 4GB ram, 1TB hard drive and a Radeon HD8700 graphics card. It's from Lenovo and it can play everything (at the moment I'm playing Dragon Age Inquisition and Shadow of Mordor). You can go lower than those specs and still play everything. Make sure you do a search before you buy anything.

@Hotfirelegend When I bought my laptop I had to install win 8.1 but with the add of Classic Shell it feels like using 7 and runs amazing. 

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

are intel integrated really that bad? my new laptop has an integrated intel card while my laptop before had an ATI card... And from what I experience, this runs better. I can play games like Skyrim in high settings without problems.

 

[Gothic Lolita]

I guess with that is a pretty good deal so far, the a-series of amd are the best solution, if you don't have a seperated graphiccard or graphicchip in a laptop.

For example a PC only with the Intel i7 4770K reaches 24 FPS on low settings in Battlefield 4 and the AMD A10 7850K reaches 56-67 FPS on medium settings in Battlefield 4.
Both where run 1080p and 8 GB of RAM. 

Spoiler

AMD A8-6410 @ 2,4 GHz => searched for seperated graphicchips laptop's but only found Intel HD 4600 graphics, which are super slow, so the best you can get for that budget.
8GB RAM                          => I run myself only a single channel 8GB RAM and never experienced any slow downs belonging to my 8 GB RAM PC I got before in dual channel. Also they should enough for every GAME.
1 TB HDD                          => Still got only 320 GB and are more then enough for 6 games with 48 GB. If you want a fast one, you need a SSD, but for that pricing it's impossible to get one.

Windows 8.1                      => Got it myself and can still run all of my games and editors. You only might need Fullscreen++ script for RPG Maker VX ACE.

So I would say yes to the Wallmart Laptop. (\s/)
If you want a really gaming laptop you need a budget of 750 - 1000$, some games need really astronomical system specifications. Especially MMO's. :/ /)

 

[Zalerinian]

For your reference. Windows 9 will never be released, because they are now named it Windows 10 instead. Don't ask me why. Fart logic, that's why...

The next Windows will be released as Windows 10 because a lot of old code that some companies may still need to use does something similar to the following code snippet:

if(WindowsVersion.starts_with("9"){ // Do stuff for Windows 95/98} else { // Do stuff for different Windows Versions}So it's for compatibility reasons. I'm sure some of the programs shipped with Windows also use a check similar to this, so they are doing this to ensure it does not break things.

8.1 might be better in some regards, but interface and performance and compatability-wise, 7 is still far better.

Windows 8/8.1 is actually better in performance than Windows 7. They spent a lot of time optimizing the operating system so that it performs better. Windows 8 also starts up faster because of changes they made to how it is shut down. On the interface, most people would definitely prefer that of Windows 7's, but if you take the time to get used to it, Windows 8's interface is not bad. The main reason everyone shot it down was because ti was so fundamentally different, with little option to go back. It's actually pretty good. I do agree, though, that it was designed for a touchscreen, but in the end it still works well with a keyboard and mouse.

There are also several huge improvements to typical programs you would use, like the file manager (Windows Explorer) and task manager. Windows Explorer got really good with Windows 8. It changed how files are copied, giving you less interruptions when file names are the same (though the way to keep both copies is a little weird in my opinion), and it has a nice graph showing you the speed at which the files were copied, and tells you the speed it's currently going. Task manager received such an amazing update. It was completely redesigned and gives more information than ever. The only complaint I have with Windows 8's task manager (and the reason my idiot brother doesn't like it, at least it's his only point when I ask him why Win8 is so bad) is that it falsely reports high disk usage. Take this screenshot, for example. It says I'musing 98% of my drive when reading/writing 3.3MB/s. This is not 98% of my drive. In this screenshot you can see that I am reading/writing (mostly writing) 9.7MB/s, and it only reports 12% usage. It is highly inaccurate.

Compatability-wise, I've had no problems with compatibility, really, but I haven't tried every program ever made, so, can't really speak too much on that one.

7 and 8 people get 10 free.

Transferring license, I don't know. I've never done it or had the need to.

Windows 10 will be free for Windows 7/8.1 users (8.1 update is required for win8 devices) who upgrade within a year of the OS' release. This gives you plenty of time to upgrade to the new version, and if you were so inclined to try it you can download one of Microsoft's development builds and try it out. They are freely available, but it is important to make sure you realize that those released are dev builds, and most likely have bugs. Microsoft is doing a great job, though, of listening to the community, so if you want to recommend a feature for the new OS, you could definitely do that.

As for transferring your Win7 install over, I haven't tried this, but this guide seems to be good. Some of steps are worded for people who have desktops switching out hard drives, but you should be able to do this with a laptop, though it may be more techy than you're willing to do yourself. It's up to you to try it, I haven't because I don't really have a windows install to move over, but it certainly sounds cool.

 

[Ralpf]

You'd probably be surprised about the performance you can get out of laptops with integrated graphics, I know I was.

I bought this: http://www.toshiba.com/us/computers/laptops/satellite/C70/C75D-B7300 a few months ago, and it will run Skyrim (you said you wanted to be able to run that) on "medium" settings. Specifically it auto set (and I played a little to make sure it didn't set it badly) 1600X900, 4x AA, Texture quality high, and shadow and decal quality medium. A lot of the view distances are pretty low so I would mess with it a little but it runs well and still looks good.

I have played Rome II:Total War on it also, I wouldn't recommend that, it can get sluggish, but it gets the job done at not the lowest settings, I will probably lower them if/when I try again on it.

 

[_Shadow_]

are intel integrated really that bad? my new laptop has an integrated intel card while my laptop before had an ATI card... And from what I experience, this runs better. I can play games like Skyrim in high settings without problems.

"Intel integrated" means it is a typical fundamental graphics card on the motherboard.

Imagine you buy a desktop PC with the standard mini tower.

Imagine now having a motherboard with a built in graphics card. It will be somewhat lame.

Meanwhile installing a graphics card into a PCI Express slot, that has 2GB RAM and a stronger GPU makes your PC stornger.

So imagine that the on board graphics cards is the INTEGRATED graphics card.

Yeah. It sucks. But the laptops is somewhat cheaper  that way.

But integrated graphics cards are stronger than graphics cards we had 5 years earlier.

You must compare that card with other alternatives of the present.

I am not surprised an integrated gcard can run Skyrim well.

 

[Engr. Adiktuzmiko]

yeah I know they aren't as strong as dedicated cards, but still it seems to at least not "suck".