Laptop For College(Computer Science)

[Utkarsh2008]

If OP still hasn't pulled the trigger or for future reference to many others I would like to suggest Y50-70 from the US, lenovo.com the online lenovo store.
SSD can be added but at the expensive of the removal of the SSHD which it comes with.
Its good to have some power under the hood.
Get depot only warranty for 3yrs, lenovo has intl. warranty (non-accidental) in India for Y50.
So, three year coverage in India will be quite a deal with all that power at that price.

People travelling intl. (USA to India in this case) can carry two (2) laptops- 1. Personal 2. Official. Both need to be outside the carton they came in.


I have the Y500 (gt750m) model from the US for college (CSE only) and Lenovo India treats it like a baby when it comes to intl. warranty. My laptop is fully covered for anything apart from accidental damages.

 

[G.Ashwinkumar]

Go for Asus . And are you totally sure about the international warranty?

Yes i'm sure about the Asus Warranty Part.

If OP still hasn't pulled the trigger or for future reference to many others I would like to suggest Y50-70 from the US, lenovo.com the online lenovo store.
SSD can be added but at the expensive of the removal of the SSHD which it comes with.
Its good to have some power under the hood.
Get depot only warranty for 3yrs, lenovo has intl. warranty (non-accidental) in India for Y50.
So, three year coverage in India will be quite a deal with all that power at that price.

People travelling intl. (USA to India in this case) can carry two (2) laptops- 1. Personal 2. Official. Both need to be outside the carton they came in.


I have the Y500 (gt750m) model from the US for college (CSE only) and Lenovo India treats it like a baby when it comes to intl. warranty. My laptop is fully covered for anything apart from accidental damages.

I've not pulled the trigger yet as the relative is coming a bit late to be exact on September 5 so i would have to confirm what laptop he should get for me probably August first week so he can make the purchase do some test runs and pack it safely.

 

[Utkarsh2008]

Y50-70 is a good laptop get it with extended warranty (entire 3yrs depot service). It will be useful in India too.
Get it from lenovo.com only and ask him to get rid of the carton. Two laptops can be carried person duty free in international travel.
Make sure you order by 2-3aug as lenovo itself takes a long time to ship.

 

[G.Ashwinkumar]

I've done some decent searching('ve put in a lot of time) and have now got more confused.. So many options everything with some compromise or the other.
I've got the MSI GE62 Apache-082 or 276[1099$],MSI GE72 Apache-027 or 078 or 235,[1199$], Lenovo Y50(4 gig 960m,16gb ram)[1099$], Asus Rog GL551JW-DS71[1050$],Asus Rog GL551JW-DS74[1150$],Asus Rog G751JL-DS71[1200$], Acer Aspire V15 and v17.

I'm just totally confused now. In terms of cooling nothing here comes close to Asus Rog G751JL-DS71 also it has the 965m which is good but it has a non removable battery,a crappy speaker,also sata 2 2nd drive. The MSI ones look pretty neat but not soo good build quality compared to the Asus,loud fans,and pretty bad looks(not a major issue),Acer seems to have wifi issues and i've been told to keep away from them considering after sales support,the Lenovo seems a pretty good offer nothing major against it except the stupid sshd and not having the option to install a second drive.

So please advice which one is the best option all around? Have i missed some contender ?Let me know.

 

[Utkarsh2008]

Lenovo can get you very good warranty (3yrs in India) which WILL be very good in the long run. These powerful laptops can go bonkers without a rhyme or reason and burn a crater in your pocket.
Agreed that lenovo comes with a super crappy hdd but you can replace it with an ssd. They are getting cheaper by the day.

As far different brands go I guess Acer will offer 1 yr warranty which is a risky business.

I am not sure about MSI.

Update:
500GB SSD 850EVO will cost you 180ish usd.
You can sell the SSHD for at least 4-5k.

My personal opinion is that 17.3" laptops are just too bulky for college students.

'2' GB vram will hold the otherwise powerful gtx965m.

 

[$hadow]

At 17 inch you are talking about a desktop replacement not a portable laptop.

 

[G.Ashwinkumar]

Lenovo can get you very good warranty (3yrs in India) which WILL be very good in the long run. These powerful laptops can go bonkers without a rhyme or reason and burn a crater in your pocket.
Agreed that lenovo comes with a super crappy hdd but you can replace it with an ssd. They are getting cheaper by the day.

As far different brands go I guess Acer will offer 1 yr warranty which is a risky business.

I am not sure about MSI.

Update:
500GB SSD 850EVO will cost you 180ish usd.
You can sell the SSHD for at least 4-5k.

My personal opinion is that 17.3" laptops are just too bulky for college students.

'2' GB vram will hold the otherwise powerful gtx965m.

The 17.3" will give a decent real estate for coding. Attaching an external monitor to the laptop wouldn't be an option initially at least considering the whole this one is burning in my pocket. And also i don't want to buy anything that is non portable and keep it in the dorm due to certain reasons. So getting a 17.3" might hurt my back due to portability but provide some relief when coding.

My budget is 1200$ so when i get the Lenovo Y50 (1099$ in the official site) i wont have enough money to get the ssd in USA. Also it seemes lenovo comes with 1 year default international warranty. And if you want to upgrade the warranty in USA you have to pay 175$ for 3 years in home + accidental damage protection but in India depot only warranty is available. So i'm not sure if i'll be able to upgrade the warranty in India(The same 3 year depot only costs 5k here).

At 17 inch you are talking about a desktop replacement not a portable laptop.

I explained about it in the previous reply.

- - - Updated - - -

A small update about warranty guys:
MSI: Provides 2 years warranty by default, but only the first year is international second year is USA only so to be clear i'll get 1 year international warranty.
Asus: 1 year international warranty by default
Lenovo: 1 year international warranty by default(They call it IWS) and there is an option to extend it to 3 years which costs 175$ in USA i have to confirm them if i'll be able to extend my warranty in India(Here it costs 5k for the extended warranty).
Acer: Yet to get the reply.

 

[Utkarsh2008]

17.3" being good for coding is pretty vague, I also code and 15.6" 1080p works like a charm. People even manage serious coding (Professionals, let alone college "CODING") at 15.6" 1366x768.

Lenovo does offer 1yr warranty and its international, hence valid in India as Y50 is released here too.
If you want to upgrade after purchasing then you can surely place an online order any time before your 1yr base warranty expires. You would need a US credit/debit card for that.

You can go for Lenovo "Depot only" warranty for 79.20usd (5100ish inr) taking the taxable(9.8ish % for most part of USA) total to (1099+79.20)usd for Y50-70 4gB gtx960m with 16gB RAM and a total of 3yr warranty from purchase date, yes the 3yr upgrade is actually 2yrs only, so its like 1+2 (base+upgrade) years from date of purchase.

-----
UPDATE:
Lenovo can even convert your country from USA to India if you ask them to.
Buying warranty with the laptop or before the 1yr base warranty deadline is one and the same thing. You can buy from India but that would require a US D/C card if the country in USA and if you get it changed to India then an Indian card would work fine.

PS: Lenovo is strong with warranty and the config on offer for the price.
They are weak on the SSD front as no slot is available. SSD on y50 means you have to remove the mech. HDD and use external HDDs for large data(which isn't as cumbersome as it sounds)

PPS: Google for lenovo barnes and noble discount, it is a surefire way to get around 100usd off easily just by creating an account by spending a minute or two.

----------
UPDATE 2:
After Lenovo barnes and noble scheme, the y50 with 4gB 960m, 16gB RAM and 3yr depot only warranty can be had for $1,088.10+taxes

----------
UPDATE 3:
*i.imgur.com/J2rFqgr.png?1

 

[G.Ashwinkumar]

Hey thanks for your reply and extremely thanks for the 100$ off link.

I've zeroed in on 3 models.
1. Lenovo Y50(15.6" screen,16gig,960m with 4gb vram,3 years warranty)(1088$)
2. Msi Ge72 Apache-027(17.6" screen,16 gig, 965m 2 gig, 1 year warranty)(1190$)( A free SteelSeries Gift - Siberia V2 Headset-MSI Gaming Edition)
3. Asus Rog G751JL-DS71(17.3" screen,16 gig,965m 2 gig,1 year warranty)(1190$)

Even though the Lenovo Y50 has a smaller screen and less powerful gpu and no expansion slots for ssd it makes up for it with the price and warranty.This laptops seems to have a solid everything else(Keyboard, Sound ,etc)
Even though I did check the Msi Ge62 series but it seems that they have a lot of heating issues(fan running crazily and stuff) so the 17.3" version with good cooling, 3 m2 slots for ssd, and with a headphone seems to be a very good offer.
The Asus almost same in every aspect with the MSI Ge72 one except one expansion slot and supporting up to 32gig ram expansion(Ge 72 is 16 gig max) (But i don't think i'll need anything more than 16 gigs..). It Seems asus support is better and beats the MSI in build quality, cooling.

So its like a tie between these three.Should i opt for a longer warranty or for higher specs and bigger and better display? If so the Asus or MSI?

But the 3 year warranty makes me look back at the Lenovo again! Help me!

 

[SaiyanGoku]

^ I'd pick Asus over MSI as asus has international warranty by default.

 

[Utkarsh2008]

17" will be bulky.
GTX965m is simply more powerful than the GTX960m, 2gB of VRAM maybe a problem with many games at FHD.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 965M - NotebookCheck.net Tech
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M - NotebookCheck.net Tech

Check out the game benchmarks for both to get the idea about the difference in perf.

Having an option to upgrade to an SSD without losing the mech. HDD is a boon.
Not having a long enough warranty can burn holes in your pockets in the longer run.

About 8-10% taxes are levied on purchases across the country depending on the place.

^^
Consider the above and pull the trigger.

 

[Minion]

@OP Since you are a college student get laptop which is lightest and portable I mean get 15''.

 

[PTonga]

Lenovo is good for me, but I like Ausu many more reasons, including experience using it. And insurance services for Ausu considered valid as ever.