Buying a Laptop- Require Help [Gaming/Misc]

[Gtb93]

First of all, I'd like to say digit is wonderful! I'm not a regular poster, but I do keep reading the topics, frequently

Anyway, I was like for a laptop, now that my old CQ40-415AU has passed away

Here's the questionnaire as required to be filled out

1) What is your budget? (INR or USD)
Less than or equal to 40k.


2) What size & weight consideration (if any) would you prefer?
Gaming and movies etc is my priority.
anything 14" + is okay for me


3) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
Not really. I have friends using a lot of diff brands, all doing okay as of now. Not preferring compaq much though.


4) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?
Gaming. Movies and the usual media multitasking.


5) What screen resolution(s) & type (glossy/matte) would you prefer?
Nothing preferred as of now. Glossy/matte both would be fine for me. As I said, gaming and media being a priority.


6) Anything else you would like to say? (eg: local purchase, ASS,matte/glossy finish)
Purchase would be mostly via Vijay Sales/Croma or the usual tech-shops. Might also go for flipkart/infibeam etc. I don't get much time to go-out and buy lazily, as I have sems coming up.


Other note:
I had been checking out the HP2005ax, the trinity model. liked it from the reviews. However I dislike the arrow-keys size in the model.I like the good old big arrow-key setup, but it's not really that big of a deal. I would be using this "laptop" on my "lap" so I wouldn't really prefer a laptop that heats up too much. Looking for a good lappy that is future-proof

Thanks in advance to all those checking/replying to the thread.
Regards!

 

[har]

How abt new inspirons ? 3rd gen proccy,hd7670 etc .Its pretty nive. Also look at new HP G series.

 

[vkl]

HP Pavilion G6-2006TX at 41k is also an option.
It has the same gpu as hp g62005ax.

HP G620005AX is a better option as it costs around 31-32k in local market
which is around 10k cheaper than HP Pavilion G6-2006TX.

 

[coderunknown]

You have a nice budget. Buy the 2006TX. At least you can live tension free for a longer period.

 

[Gtb93]

HP Pavilion G6-2006TX at 41k is also an option.
It has the same gpu as hp g62005ax.

HP G620005AX is a better option as it costs around 31-32k in local market
which is around 10k cheaper than HP Pavilion G6-2006TX.

I'll check it out. Thanks

You have a nice budget. Buy the 2006TX. At least you can live tension free for a longer period.

What major difference does the 2006tx have over 05'ax that it costs about 8-9k more? I'll certainly check it out though, thanks. And as I said, 41 would be a stretched budget. I'm certain I might end up in the 35-38 margin.

How abt new inspirons ? 3rd gen proccy,hd7670 etc .Its pretty nive. Also look at new HP G series.

Checking all of them out. Thanks

 

[aroraanant]

Even I suggest you to have a look at the new inspirons.

 

[coderunknown]

What major difference does the 2006tx have over 05'ax that it costs about 8-9k more? I'll certainly check it out though, thanks. And as I said, 41 would be a stretched budget. I'm certain I might end up in the 35-38 margin.

i5 2450 is better than A8 4500M is everything but the margin of advantage depends on how well you use it. Check locally. You may find it for 40k.

this is why you the i5 cost 8-9k more: AMD Trinity General Performance

4500M (2nd gen APU) will offer same or slightly better performance than A8 3500M (1st gen APU) or say 10% less performance than Trinity's top of the line 4600M. And the 2450 will offer 5% more performance than 2410. So its a big gap in performance. And that makes the 2006TX excellent VFM as it beats 4500M is everything and that also by a good margin most of the time.

 

[Gtb93]

Sam, thank you for the link, gives me a better understanding of the situation. And definitely the laptop is pretty good.

Regarding people who suggested dell, is it a good brand? I mean it's famous and considered very good, but just an hour back, 2 of my friends said their service isn't very good overall.

Meanwhile, I was hunting a few laptops in Flipkart, came across these:
Samsung NP300E5Z-S08IN 2 Gen Ci5/4GB/750GB/1GB graphics/DOS - 35k
This one is a stretch on the already stretched budget- Lenovo IdeaPad Z Series Z570 (59-315960) Laptop 2nd Gen Ci5/4GB/750GB/ DOS/2GB Graphics (43k)

Asus K53SM-SX010D / 2nd Gen Ci5/4 GB/750 GB/2GB graphics DOS
(39k)

Most of the inspirons I checked end up with 'Intel HD graphics'. HD3000 and HD4000. I'm not very good at this, so can someone clarify the 3000 and 4000's stats and it's performance?

Sorry for the long posts, I'm just very confused

 

[vkl]

HD3000 isn't good enough for gaming.
HD4000 is ok for some casual gaming.It is better than HD3000 but overall
it is not good enough because of poor performance in some games and in
some games it crashes.

 

[coderunknown]

Regarding people who suggested dell, is it a good brand? I mean it's famous and considered very good, but just an hour back, 2 of my friends said their service isn't very good overall.

Overall dell is good but most of their laptops are overpriced.

Meanwhile, I was hunting a few laptops in Flipkart, came across these:
Samsung NP300E5Z-S08IN 2 Gen Ci5/4GB/750GB/1GB graphics/DOS - 35k
This one is a stretch on the already stretched budget- Lenovo IdeaPad Z Series Z570 (59-315960) Laptop 2nd Gen Ci5/4GB/750GB/ DOS/2GB Graphics (43k)

520MX <<< HD4000
540 = 630 < 7670M & i5 2430 < i5 2450. So why go for something less powerful paying more.

Asus K53SM-SX010D / 2nd Gen Ci5/4 GB/750 GB/2GB graphics DOS
(39k)

2006TX with better GPU + Windows 7 preloaded for 2k is much better. Also free bag.

Most of the inspirons I checked end up with 'Intel HD graphics'. HD3000 and HD4000. I'm not very good at this, so can someone clarify the 3000 and 4000's stats and it's performance?

HD3000 << HD4000 <<< GT540/630 < 7670

even with HD4000, you can't run latest games properly. Only old games.

HD3000 isn't good enough for gaming.
HD4000 is ok for some casual gaming.It is better than HD3000 but overall
it is not good enough because of poor performance in some games and in
some games it crashes.

HD4000 is pretty capable as it has beaten GT520 easily and matches 525 in some games. Problem lies with Intel graphics driver. AMD or Nvidia releases drivers that not only fixes crashes but increases the general performance of a game sometimes by 25%. All Intel does is release driver once that fixes a few crashes leaving the majority untouched and absolutely no performance increase in games. Maybe cause until HD3000, Intel Graphics was termed as the worst integrated graphics only with HD4000 has Intel came back strongly so HD3000 will suck no matter what one tries. HD4000 raised hopes but lack of driver updates crashed those hopes.

 

[vkl]

Originally posted by Sam
HD4000 is pretty capable as it has beaten GT520 easily and matches 525 in some games. Problem lies with Intel graphics driver. AMD or Nvidia releases drivers that not only fixes crashes but increases the general performance of a game sometimes by 25%. All Intel does is release driver once that fixes a few crashes leaving the majority untouched and absolutely no performance increase in games. Maybe cause until HD3000, Intel Graphics was termed as the worst integrated graphics only with HD4000 has Intel came back strongly so HD3000 will suck no matter what one tries. HD4000 raised hopes but lack of driver updates crashed those hopes.

Agree with you somewhat.
I know hd4000 is near about gt525m in gaming performance
,but gt525 itself is not considered a gaming card.
Add to that intel drivers....HD4000 becomes a big no for gaming.
Moreover hd4000 in the 3rd gen i7s have the highest performance
among all hd4000 series IGPs.
Things for 3rd gen i5 are even worse.

 

[Gtb93]

Overall dell is good but most of their laptops are overpriced.



520MX <<< HD4000
540 = 630 < 7670M & i5 2430 < i5 2450. So why go for something less powerful paying more.



2006TX with better GPU + Windows 7 preloaded for 2k is much better. Also free bag.



HD3000 << HD4000 <<< GT540/630 < 7670

even with HD4000, you can't run latest games properly. Only old games.



HD4000 is pretty capable as it has beaten GT520 easily and matches 525 in some games. Problem lies with Intel graphics driver. AMD or Nvidia releases drivers that not only fixes crashes but increases the general performance of a game sometimes by 25%. All Intel does is release driver once that fixes a few crashes leaving the majority untouched and absolutely no performance increase in games. Maybe cause until HD3000, Intel Graphics was termed as the worst integrated graphics only with HD4000 has Intel came back strongly so HD3000 will suck no matter what one tries. HD4000 raised hopes but lack of driver updates crashed those hopes.

Firstly, Sam, thanks again for the help man, you've been great!

I see the 2006TX is a clear winner from the discussions, but I'm just not sure about the budget, if I'm capable of stretching it till there, but let's hope for the best
I'm planning against going for the HD3000/4000 based laptops, doesn't seem right to me. The earlier one I had was a 256mb HD3200 mobility, it ran most current games for me on low, including the likes of CODMW3, Fifa 12(not very intensive on the GPU anyway) etc, on very low-low settings.

I think the 32k one, the HP 2005 I guess, fits in my comfortable range, and offers a decent gaming experience right? I don't play A VERY huge amount of games, and I'm not a very eye-candy loving kind of gamer. Just should be smooth, that's all I require. I play mostly FPS, like COD/GhostRec/BF and football/tennis when it comes to sports.

I would like to ask if there are any acer laptops that also fall in the 30-40(+/- 1) budget range?

Some more stuff, the 2gb graphics that come in a 40-45k laptop is just a marketing gimmick right? I mean yeah it's 2gb and stuff, but the card need not be the very good? and as far as the trinity goes I did a lot of reading, and I think sam, you said, in some thread out here, that if you want processing speed, intel is better, and while gaming is concerned amd gives good perfo? When we're talking about the processing, it's not THAT big of a sacrifice is it?
Plus, I was reading about the 2005HP on flipkart, the GHz count for the lappy was around 1.9 whereas all others ranged near 2.5ish. Is this a cause of concern?

EDIT: Acer stuff I was looking at. Just added the specs.
Acer 5755-W7B : Core i5(2g) 3gbddr3, 15.6" Variant:2430M, 3hzclock, 3MBCache, Mobile Intel HM65 Express Chipset(??) 64bitwin7hb HEAVYletdown being HD3000 :/ (36-38k)

Aspire5560 : ATI Radeon HD 6520G, 4gbddr3, QuadcoreA6, clock near 1.4ghz(??) 3400M (30k)

(Pushed Budget-lowchance) Acer Aspire V3-571G (2g-i5) 2450M , 3.1Ghz, 3mbcachel3 4b 15.6" GT630M 2gb. (44.5k)

Acer 5755-G (slightlypushedbudget) (42k) i5 2g 2450m 2.4ghz, 3mbsmartcache, 4gig, 1gb GT540M

5755-G (ci3) 2330M, 4gb 2.2ghz, again GT540M @36

Sorry again for a long post, but I'm going to have to hold on to this lappy for about 3-4 years minimum as far as I know, so this choice needs to be firm.

Regards.


vkl thanks for your inputs too! might just opt out from going for any Intel HD graphic related laptops

 

[vkl]

^^Not a big concern.A8's turbo core is upto 2.8GHz.
It's performance is comparable to i3 processors.

Maybe graphic performance would be drastically improved
from intel's side in 2013 with Haswell based processors.

 

[Gtb93]

thankyou for that clarification. That ghz part kinda got me thinking
any views on the acer lappies I provided above?

 

[vkl]

^^
Acer 5755-W7B: graphics is not good enough for you.

Aspire5560: processor and graphics are inferior to to HP G62005AX.

Acer Aspire V3-571G:HP Pavilion G6-2006TX is better than this(better graphics
at lower budget)

Acer 5755-G: HP Pavilion G6-2006TX is better than this(better graphics
at lower budget)

5755-G (ci3): hd7670m is a better GPU than gt540/630m.


So pick up HP G62005AX.
Or if you are extending your budget then pick up HP Pavilion G6-2006TX.

 

[Gtb93]

^^
Acer 5755-W7B: graphics is not good enough for you.

Aspire5560: processor and graphics are inferior to to HP G62005AX.

Acer Aspire V3-571G:HP Pavilion G6-2006TX is better than this(better graphics
at lower budget)

Acer 5755-G: HP Pavilion G6-2006TX is better than this(better graphics
at lower budget)

5755-G (ci3): hd7670m is a better GPU than gt540/630m.


So pick up HP G62005AX.
Or if you are extending your budget then pick up HP Pavilion G6-2006TX.

Sweet review man! Thanks a lot for that

 

[coderunknown]

Firstly, Sam, thanks again for the help man, you've been great!

my pleasure

I see the 2006TX is a clear winner from the discussions, but I'm just not sure about the budget, if I'm capable of stretching it till there, but let's hope for the best
I'm planning against going for the HD3000/4000 based laptops, doesn't seem right to me. The earlier one I had was a 256mb HD3200 mobility, it ran most current games for me on low, including the likes of CODMW3, Fifa 12(not very intensive on the GPU anyway) etc, on very low-low settings.

I think the 32k one, the HP 2005 I guess, fits in my comfortable range, and offers a decent gaming experience right? I don't play A VERY huge amount of games, and I'm not a very eye-candy loving kind of gamer. Just should be smooth, that's all I require. I play mostly FPS, like COD/GhostRec/BF and football/tennis when it comes to sports.

HD3200 (or HD4290 in desktop) was the best IGP till last year. APU changed the game. BF3 was completely unplayable in desktop with HD4250 (rebranded HD3200).

Its upto you to decide if 2005AX is sufficient or not. For gaming at cheap theres nothing better than 2005AX for now. And general day to day performance is same as other laptops but once you start doing extreme multitasking things will start to slow down. I am planning to get the same and later stick an SSD when price gets a bit lower. Performance will get boosted in a huge way.

Some more stuff, the 2gb graphics that come in a 40-45k laptop is just a marketing gimmick right? I mean yeah it's 2gb and stuff, but the card need not be the very good? and as far as the trinity goes I did a lot of reading, and I think sam, you said, in some thread out here, that if you want processing speed, intel is better, and while gaming is concerned amd gives good perfo? When we're talking about the processing, it's not THAT big of a sacrifice is it?

Yup. graphics memory has been turned into a marketing tool now. 1/2GB graphics memory is all i can read in most reviews or product description. some even skip the AMD/Nvidia branding. i doubt 7670 can use the 1GB memory at the low resolution but GDDR5 memory would have really helped.

in games the performance is mainly dependent on the graphics processor. at 1366X768 resolution only few games will actually take advantage of Intel turbo boost cause if you try maxing out (which on the processor side demands more power) the GPU will always be the limiting factor. At Full HD resolution and a fast GPU like 7970M, APU will start to act as the bottleneck and a second laptop with Core i5 with rest everything same will take a huge lead. But thats cause 1080p requires ton of GPU & processing power. So in games, on a budget laptop AMD or Intel, both will perform almost same.

Plus, I was reading about the 2005HP on flipkart, the GHz count for the lappy was around 1.9 whereas all others ranged near 2.5ish. Is this a cause of concern?

1.9Ghz on 4 core and can turbo to 2.8Ghz on a single core but in real life it stays more like 2.3Ghz on two core and ~500-800Mhz on the other two. Thats why performance wise it just matches Core i3 only.

EDIT: Acer stuff I was looking at. Just added the specs.
Acer 5755-W7B : Core i5(2g) 3gbddr3, 15.6" Variant:2430M, 3hzclock, 3MBCache, Mobile Intel HM65 Express Chipset(??) 64bitwin7hb HEAVYletdown being HD3000 :/ (36-38k)

Aspire5560 : ATI Radeon HD 6520G, 4gbddr3, QuadcoreA6, clock near 1.4ghz(??) 3400M (30k)

(Pushed Budget-lowchance) Acer Aspire V3-571G (2g-i5) 2450M , 3.1Ghz, 3mbcachel3 4b 15.6" GT630M 2gb. (44.5k)

Acer 5755-G (slightlypushedbudget) (42k) i5 2g 2450m 2.4ghz, 3mbsmartcache, 4gig, 1gb GT540M

5755-G (ci3) 2330M, 4gb 2.2ghz, again GT540M @36

Sorry again for a long post, but I'm going to have to hold on to this lappy for about 3-4 years minimum as far as I know, so this choice needs to be firm.

BTW why are you looking for Acer. Acer's main problem is their build quality. Only a few laptops have build that can match the bigger group and the biggest fail of all is their screen. Washed away kind of display.

 

[Gtb93]

I checked acer cause three of my friends have it. One recent purchase of 44k, was the 2gb one, with i5 on it..working good, the build is decent-ish and the screen was pretty good too. Another model was bought last year, again 2gbgraphics per-se and it's working good until now too. That's why I Thought I'll check acer too.

 

[Gtb93]

Uhm, one more thing. I have 5 more days to decide my final choice, so I was thinking P) what about the other HP pavilions? like 2007tx, 2008, '09, 10, 04 etc? I mean they all are like priced 1k/500rs apart with some holding a 2gb variant of 7670M while some have the 1gb.. any opinions?

 

[Gtb93]

One last bump! Will buy within this week :3
Just saw a new acer out courtesy sam. Can we expect such releases?