[Foxhound]

I will be using it for Internet (mostly) and probably some gaming, such as Football Manager and maybe Battlefield 3.

Due to budget constrains (I'm planning to pick it up via student loan), I need to decide with processor is best with my needs.

At the moment, I have my sight set on the Dell XPS 15z, which the i5 processor 2.30 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.90 GHz version, cost $1799,
and the i7 processor 2.70 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.40 GHz version, costs $2199

Here's the link if it's of any help.
i5 -- http://configure.ap.dell.com/dellsto...del_id=xps-15z

i7 -- http://configure.ap.dell.com/dellsto...del_id=xps-15z

So, which one suits my needs better?
Also, if you have any other suggestions for the laptop are welcomed too. The screen size has to be 13-15 inch and capable of Full HD resolution.

I'm not planning to get a Macbook Pro though.

[Appswah]

It's all up to you tbh. I mean if your going to play games on it definately get the higher spec laptop.

But personally I've never been a fan of Dell, many bad experiences with their PC's (crappy quality hardware that breaks within 6-12months, glueing components to the mobo etc). I've only ever had one dell laptop which did last a few years but had plenty of problems with screen and harddrive. However the XPS is a completely different beast.

Does it have to be a laptop? I know you said it would only occasionally be used to play games but you can get alot more for your money with a PC.

I don't have alot of knowledge when it comes to laptops, so hopefully someone else can help you out.

[Foxhound]

It does have to be a laptop because I also need it for Uni work, presentation and the lot.

I guess you have a bad luck with Dell. I've been using a Dell Inspiron 6000, bought in 2005, and the only problem I experienced was the battery

[Ziss]

Seems like an awful lot of $ for what you're getting.

Ask Tech Skill or Mick, they're both switched on when it comes to PCs.

[Nifty1Pound50]

Fucking hell. For those sort of prices, get a decent laptop.

I know the Dell XPS is the best Dell going, but it's still a Dell. Although they've got better, they are still liable to be a bit shit.

The prices you're talking about will get you a HP or a Sony.

http://www.dabs.com/products/sony-va...40000-54950000

The link above is to a Sony VAIO with an I5, 6gb of RAM and a massive hard drive; albeit the graphics card isn't amazing.

Look on www.dabs.com - they allow you to search by individual specs and it means you can narrow it down based on your own criteria. Good on price, too.

[Foxhound]

I should've mentioned that the prices are in Brunei Dollars.

So, $2199 is approximately 1,104 British Pounds.

By the way, what's your opinion on a full HD screen resolution on a 15-inch laptop? Is it really noticeable? Because I remember reading about HDTV, depending on the size, you need to sit at a certain distance to see the effect.

I've also been looking around, and found a cheaper alternative. Dell Inspiron 14r, which is about $1700, comes with i7 and 6 GB RAM, and also a HP Pavilion dv-6-6105tx, which is $1500, comes with i7, 4 GB RAM, and Beats audio technology.

[Tech_Skill]

I cant really offer you much advice on this, I'm actually a beginner with computers and have no idea about Hardware. Ill throw some ill informed guesses at you and let you decide if they are of any use.

In my opinion, the specs are actually not the be all and end all, the 1st thing you need to check before Anything, is build quality. If you are going to spend alot of money on a laptop you need to make sure that the outer casing can take a shock if needed, you need to make sure the cooling is adequate.

Cooling is very important imo, especially when you start dealing with high spec's and I7 chipsets with dedicated (not on board) graphics card, an example of this is a colleague of mine at work who got a Dell XPS with I7 chipset and a 3GB graphics card capable of 3D or some shit like that, the first thing I said to him to was to watch out for the cooling, they brushed it off......one week later they are searching for a laptop cooler.

in terms of I7 vs I5, I have seen discussions which say in terms of value vs performance i5 is probably the way to go, but to be honest, i'm clueless on hardware so you need to check the reviews and benchmark tests.

So the only advice I can give you, its to check the build quality and the quality of the components. I had a crappy hp pavilon once years ago, looked great on the outside, flashy case, had dual core cpu or about 2.2gz or summin and 3gb ram, perfect for surfing forms and trolling all day long right?

The fucking thing has a terrible design on the inside (yes, it does.. there are a million threads on for the overheating issue) whereby the case didn't allow enough airflow through the vent, which meant the thing was reaching 70 degrees fucking browsing, not even doing super shit, you could have cooked an egg on the fucker sunny side up. The thing sounded like jet planes over lybia cos the fan was trying to speed up to compensate. I actually opened the thing up (foolishly) to check for dust, and realized I paid for a flimsy plastic 'made in taiwan' case with some bits inside it..... thing was like a fucking kinder egg with no suprise.

So all i'm saying is, specs are part of the story....only a part.

I paid a few pounds for a Buisness grade laptop, im on I5 right now, could have gone I7 but this thing isnt for gaming or leisure, I paid for Build quality and after sales service, I could have got the same specs cheaper elsewhere but if you want something that will last you need to take that into consideration.

PS. football manager isn't graphically intensive is it? So you shouldn't need high specs for that no? Obviously battlefield is a different story tho.

Windows 7 home Premium- This fucks me off when companes are doing this, your spending top fucking wack but the OS is for kids, im no windows 7 expert, but if you wanna do I.T shit have full RDP capability, encrypt and create an image of the drive (without 3rd party programs) joining a fucking domain....you cant do that shit....you might not use it anyways, but its nice to get a professional license for that kind of money you know (before you download the illegal copy of windows 7 ultimate from Iso hunt lol)

I also see a shit load of bloatware on th I7 deal too, fucking skype...if I want that shit ill install it, companies are fags, taking free shit and making it part of the image and then charging you for it like they are doing you a favour.

Lastly if you want performance, make sure you get something with Solid State Drive Capabilities (it doesnt have to come with SSD, but should be able to be upgraded to one), a mate of mine is a proper IT guy, he reckons the hard drive is actually the biggest bottleneck in computers today, youtube a SSD enabled laptop booting into windows 7, rediculously fast and obviously the OS is going to run faster as the OS system files that are on hard disk are being read from a super speed drive, so your super duper i7 chipset can operate on files even faster.

[Hunter]

Just avoid Dell. At all costs. You'd be better off buying a phone and 50 writing pads as opposed to buying a Dell.

Never again will I buy one. Shit hardware, shit build (literally falls to pieces after months), high repair costs.

Just do not waste your money on a Dell, and follow Nifty's advice if you wish to save your sanity. I have a Dell laptop, albeit a few years old now, but it's literally no use whatsoever. Despite very good anti-virus software, and even having no viruses after multiple scans (this is many many months ago now since I've not touched it since), it would still take about 15 minutes to really boot up, 10 minutes more to then get the internet and any other things up such as Windows Messenger etc. So I'll be smashing it to pieces soon just for the sheer fun of it after the frustration it's caused over the years - and this is after two "repairs" as well. I wouldn't even give it to a charity shop, or give it away for free as it is literally incapable of doing it's job.

I'm now using my brother's laptop, which is a Samsung R710, which includes a Blu-ray player, a HD screen (not sure on the size, probably 17"+), and it's a really incredible piece of kit, albeit a little big - but that's expected of course when you have a fairly large screen size! It is maybe 2 years old now mind, but it was around £1000 upon release, so I imagine it'll be £700 or less now, and you'd be far far far better off than buying a Dell.

[Tech_Skill]

Originally Posted by Jesse James Hunter

Just avoid Dell. At all costs. You'd be better off buying a phone and 50 writing pads as opposed to buying a Dell.

Hold on hold on, I personally, I have the same opinion of dell BUT, the XPS's are said to be a different ballpark, I mean if you had to buy a dell, an XPS would be in the mix for real, its not the same as buying an inspirion or some shit.

Originally Posted by Jesse James Hunter

Just do not waste your money on a Dell, and follow Nifty's advice if you wish to save your sanity. I have a Dell laptop, albeit a few years old now, but it's literally no use whatsoever. Despite very good anti-virus software, and even having no viruses after multiple scans (this is many many months ago now since I've not touched it since), it would still take about 15 minutes to really boot up, 10 minutes more to then get the internet and any other things up such as Windows Messenger etc. So I'll be smashing it to pieces soon just for the sheer fun of it after the frustration it's caused over the years - and this is after two "repairs" as well. I wouldn't even give it to a charity shop, or give it away for free as it is literally incapable of doing it's job.

I'm now using my brother's laptop, which is a Samsung R710, which includes a Blu-ray player, a HD screen (not sure on the size, probably 17"+), and it's a really incredible piece of kit, albeit a little big - but that's expected of course when you have a fairly large screen size! It is maybe 2 years old now mind, but it was around £1000 upon release, so I imagine it'll be £700 or less now, and you'd be far far far better off than buying a Dell.

And this doesn't mean the HARDWARE is shit, this could purely be down to Operating system level issues, like shit loads of processes set to run at startup, or config issues, just saying, personal experiences shape alot of our opinions, but we need to be a little impartial when possible.

[Foxhound]

+ rep to Tech_Skill.

Noted on the cooling.


__
Seems like everyone has a bad luck with a particular brand. For me, it's Acer. Acer's hardware is probably fine now, but a few years ago, it's famous for being unreliable.

[Tech_Skill]

Originally Posted by Foxhound

+ rep to Tech_Skill.

Noted on the cooling.


__
Seems like everyone has a bad luck with a particular brand. For me, it's Acer. Acer's hardware is probably fine now, but a few years ago, it's famous for being unreliable.

No worries, listen, the choices out there of laptop are infinite.

You need to specify the following.

1) What are you dealbreakers/non negotiables?

For instance, mine was an i5 chipset at the minimum, I know sweet fuck all about cpu's but i wanted an above average one as I will start running virtual machines on my pc again at some stage, so needed to processing power.

64bit WINDOWS Operating system, had to be PROFESSIONAL at the minimum, but you wont need to worry about this too much. (decided not to go with the MAC OS)

4Gb ram Minimum, with Ability to expand to at least 8GB

BATTERY LIFE:......You dont wanna have to leave this thing hooked up to the mains all day long.

Minimal bloatware- I hate it when companies install tons of their own software on the machine, most of it free crap that isnt even needed.

Solid State Harddrive capabilty - DO NOT FORGET ABOUT THIS, watch this, only 1 min video. And dont forget that a super fast hard drive is very important for a fast PC because quite sizeable portion of the actual windows OS is kept on Hard disk (virtual memory) and so a faster hard disk is very important.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZnHM...eature=related

Cooling -explained already

Build Quality.

WARRANTY - I noticed that dell XPS i7 only had a one year warranty or some shit, ill re-read in a second

Tell us your non negotiables....and what you will likely be doing on this PC in years to come, this should help us help you. Dell XPS is for super gamers, but if you looking for something lightweight and portable because you will be taking it to classes and such and such or you be spending most time studying or browsing rather than gaming.....you may want to consider something else

[Foxhound]

Pretty much what you've listed, and possible brands;
-Acer, Dell, Sony

I've only seen a netbook version of HP or whatever it's called, and seems like there's no HP customer service from where I live.

The minimum of 500 GB hard drive, and maybe with 7200 RPM.

At least one USB 3.0 port
________________________
I'll spend majority of my time internet browsing, photo editing here & there, and some gaming.

From what I've read, for 15" laptop, most seem to agree that 1366x768 resolution is shite. What say you?

Backlit keyboard would be nice, but it's not a must.

Portability/Weight doesn't really matter because at the moment, I only bring my current laptop when it's presentation day.

[Bez]

I'm looking at purchasing a good laptop which is a decent price (£300-400) for when I start college.

I'd like a laptop which has good RAM and a good processor which would allow me to run many processes/programs simultaneously, not too fussed about the graphics card but I'd stick Football Manager on it so it needs to be good in order to run that. That's about it regarding PC games.

Done a bit of research myself and came across this:



LINK

Is this one of the best ones around for my price range? If there's any others that are worth consideration, help and/or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers lads, look forward to hearing from you.

Berry

[Bez]

...

[Cesc Fabregas]

I don't know much about computers but I highly recommend a Toshiba. Very durable but I don't know if they have a model to fit everything you want.