Board 8 > Hey B8, help me find a new laptop for Black Friday

(+) Yeah! (+)

I think my current laptop is approaching five years old and I'm ready for an upgrade. There seems to be a lot of options out there and I'm having a hard time finding what's best for me. I've been gaming a bit more on my laptop lately, but I don't need a really high-end gaming laptop, I'm not gonna be playing AAA games or intense massive multiplayer games. I suppose it should have a NVIDIA or Radeon graphics card (that much is probably obvious), a better processor (my current is a 2.7 dual core), and at least 8 GB RAM (which seems a pretty standard minimum; my current is only 4 GB). But I don't need any fancy touchscreen or 2-in-1. Solid state drive is pretty sexy, but a built-in hard drive of at least 1 TB is a must. And my current laptop is 15.6", so I'd like the same size.

I guess the only other important thing is brand. I have trust issues with laptops from bad experiences. I can't really trust Lenovo, Acer, or Toshiba. Wigs tells me he's been having a lot of problems with his Asus. My HP has held up pretty well for the most part; it was having overheating issues after a couple years so I had to get an external fan and stop connecting a monitor to it, but since then it's been okay. I don't have much experience with Dell laptops, but I guess they're okay?

So then it comes to price, and I'm not sure how much I should expect to pay for what I want. A lot of the ones that are being advertised are 2-in-1, touchscreen, and/or have SSD with no HDD, which is excess stuff that I don't need inflating the price. I'd prefer to keep it under $800, but am I asking too much for that? I don't know.

I guess something like this could be good?
https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-i5577-5328BLK-PUS-Gaming-Laptop/dp/B06XFG7157/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8
(I don't like the red, but at this point, that's probably being too picky.)

Sorry if any of this was dumb or ignorant, but I appreciate the advice.
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DpObliVion posted...

I guess the only other important thing is brand. I have trust issues with laptops from bad experiences.

if this stopped me, I wouldn't be able to buy a laptop ever
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Yeah, the process of elimination thing is pretty bad.
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bump
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hi digi here i will be assisting you in a moment your support and patience is appreciated thanks for shopping digitech you are currently no. 2 in the queue
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https://www.amazon.com/PlayStation-4-Slim-1TB-Console/dp/B071CV8CG2
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look it even says dp in the link, this is can't miss.
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So, a couple things.

1. Gaming being a consideration at all means you want at least a GTX-1050, though if your budget is $800 and you don't mind being at or around that, a GTX-1060 would be very nice to have and future proof you to an extent. If you can find something with a 1060 and all your other must-haves, including budget, that's the way to go.

2. That said, the one you linked is a great deal for a good laptop. It's a good price and you won't find better than that (other than this same laptop being a bit cheaper a couple days ago on a lightning deal) with a 1050 in it.

3. Touchscreens suck on laptops. 2-in-1s mostly suck too. More things that can break.

4. Other specs to care about: you want a seventh-gen intel processor, 8GB of RAM like you said and an SSD is nice, but not super crucial to be honest. You're not paying much more to have these perks, that said.

5. Brand shouldn't concern you that much. Laptops are in a good place these days where most of the top brands are producing quality products. The only issue is that laptops have a lot of things that can break. Whatever you buy, you should buy new, you should keep a receipt, and you should keep both the box and packing material intact in the case of you ever needing to RMA.

For instance, I have an MSI gaming laptop. I have had to RMA it in the past and I would still have no trouble recommending an MSI laptop. The brand stuff is too complicated to really worry about. Check reviews for individual models, keep your packaging intact so you can replace it if you need to, and try to find a brand that offers more than a one-year warranty.
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Thanks, digi. Would recommend digitech to a friend.
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Tag
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Oh hey, that laptop is down to $669 on Amazon now. I should check some other places, but I'm tired and going to sleep. I wonder when I should pull the trigger on it.
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Oh man, now it's $629 on Amazon.
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WiggumFan267 posted...

https://www.amazon.com/PlayStation-4-Slim-1TB-Console/dp/B071CV8CG2

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So, I was almost ready to pull the trigger on it on Amazon, but I checked Newegg and they have it for $669. That comes out to about ten dollars cheaper on Newegg when you add in tax on Amazon. Now my only question is do I get greedy and see if Newegg also drops it down to $629.
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bump

any chromebooks worth looking into (no gaming, battery life is only consideration)?
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@digiiiiiiiii Follow-up question for digitech (or anyone else). I think I've figured out the answer but I'd feel more comfortable with some confirmation. I was getting confused by the processor speed because on Amazon it says "up to 3.5 GHz" but other places it says 2.5 GHz. So, this apparently has to do with Turbo Boost, which I hadn't heard of before. My current laptop has a 2.7 GHz AMD processor, and I can't imagine this Dell being a downgrade from that, but just wanted to make sure. Is it safe to be playing a game for a long period of time that requires speeds up to 3.5 GHz with the Turbo Boost? I'm just not sure how temporary that boost is supposed to be, or if it has no problems maintaining that speed when it needs to and then just goes back down when it doesn't need to.

I feel like I've pretty much answered my own question and determined that this is fine, but again, I'd just feel more comfortable to hear it. Thanks again and happy turkey day.
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It's fine. AMD processors have inflated GHz numbers that aren't accurate to gaming. You just want a current-generation Intel CPU.
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I was wondering if any of the doorbuster laptops were decent since I'm kinda hardware illiterate, I'm like the tc I'm not looking for something high end to play new games at max specs, just something midrange with no touch or 2 in 1 with decent compatibility to play what I've already got now and would last for a while since the crappy laptop I've been using for the past several years melted down back in february and I've been without a pc since then.
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Oh fuck me, I think Newegg might've sold out. Please come back.
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And Newegg says the Masterpass promotion is expired even though it says it lasts through the day.

Fuck this shit I'm leaving.
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So I'm looking at this one:

https://m.costco.com/Acer-Nitro-5-Laptop---Intel-Core-i5---4GB-NVIDIA-Graphics---1080p.product.100382523.html

If anyone has opinions on this, it would be appreciated.
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So, before I left, I pulled the trigger and ordered my laptop on Amazon at $629. Just got home and looked at the page again and it's up to $697. Whew.

Now I'm looking for an SSD drive to complement it. There's a 128GB on Amazon for $55, or a 256GB on Newegg for $80. I was hoping to get that $25 off with Masterpass on Newegg which would've made that a no-brainer. I'll still probably get the bigger one.
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whoops, forgot to tag this before.
you already went with the 1050 laptop, alright. not a bad choice, just budget dependent is all. this one's a weaker version that was technically $30 cheaper:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154734

but the difference of 2 and 4 VRAM is relevant, though not incredibly so as few games will capitalize on that with the other limits (GPU, 1080p). that newegg one is the same base as this one below that's an extra $130, though it exchanges the CPU for something better (hyper threading, higher clock) and adds an SSD. that said it ends up being $730 post rebate.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154733

Shaduln posted...

So I'm looking at this one:

https://m.costco.com/Acer-Nitro-5-Laptop---Intel-Core-i5---4GB-NVIDIA-Graphics---1080p.product.100382523.html

If anyone has opinions on this, it would be appreciated.

Costco's has the same 7300HQ found in the $650/600 laptop mentioned above but this one has 1) 4GB VRAM, 2) 256GB SSD as opposed to 1TB (surprisingly it's 7200 RPM, so pretty good). between those two it's probably worth the jump though not that great a difference as the SSD to 1TB tradeoff is pretty similar these days, price-wise.
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https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-inspiron-15-6-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-gtx-1050-ti-256gb-solid-state-drive-black/5872507.p?

current best is that one, i think, though it's also $700. that basically does mean ignore the higher priced newegg one really.

1050 Ti is an improvement over the 1050.
256GB SSD but again, that price point has plummeted pretty hard so keep that in mind. also keep in mind that with modern games being like 60GB you're probably not getting too many of those in one run.

it's the matter of the GPU there. at low levels it's a notable performance increase, at high levels it gets pretty small.

will look around for some 1060 deals...
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one 1060 deal found.

http://deals.dell.com/productdetail/ox6

so this laptop's $900 by default but there's a $150 rebate from slickdeals. i assume some promotion being run there:

https://slickdeals.4myrebate.com/?oc=SKD-10443&sdtid=10887803

net $750 for a GTX 1060 laptop.
but you do gotta have $900 to spend up front for it as opposed to the $600-700 for the 1050 or 1050 Ti machines. significant difference all around but that's - for now - the cheapest 1060 laptop out there.
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Okay, bought that 250GB M.2 SSD for $80 to go along with my new laptop. Ended up spending $35 more than I expected to before Newegg deals went away, but overall still happy. Would've been super pissed if I had missed out on the Amazon price, but I suppose there were some other options out there.
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Ugh, I bought such a worse laptop not that long ago.
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Wanglicious posted...

one 1060 deal found.

http://deals.dell.com/productdetail/ox6

so this laptop's $900 by default but there's a $150 rebate from slickdeals. i assume some promotion being run there:

https://slickdeals.4myrebate.com/?oc=SKD-10443&sdtid=10887803

net $750 for a GTX 1060 laptop.
but you do gotta have $900 to spend up front for it as opposed to the $600-700 for the 1050 or 1050 Ti machines. significant difference all around but that's - for now - the cheapest 1060 laptop out there.

Think I'll jump on this one. Really need a new laptop and this one looks really good.
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Wait, would that rebate even work? It says it's for Dell Home. Not sure if that includes laptops.
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works, yes.
https://slickdeals.net/f/10885807
Dell Home includes where you get this.

deal itself was on SD:

https://slickdeals.net/f/10887803

similar laptops were also posted about by people 10+ years. like this one, which legit may be better:
https://slickdeals.net/f/10908215

downside: 1050 Ti < 1060
upsides: 7700 > 7300 (especially if doing any video editing, hyper threading is in the 7700 and not the other), 16GB RAM > 8GB RAM

but when dealing with rebates i do always stick with being 1) very anal about it, and 2) if you aren't comfortable with it, don't do it. $50 or whatever i've done plenty of times, if i'm looking at a $150 rebate i'd document everything multiple times over, make 100% sure that i'm doing everything right, then make 100% sure i did that right 2-3 times. and i'd do that within 3 days to send it out within 5. obviously you don't have to but that's a good chunk of change to get back later and i wouldn't play with it.
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The laptop I got is back down to $629 on Amazon.
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Okay, I accepted that I had to pay an extra $10 because I ordered the laptop on Amazon after it had sold out on Newegg, even after Newegg restocked and their $669 w/o tax price returned. It's only $10, and I really would've flipped out if I hadn't ordered before Amazon's stock temporarily ran out as well, so I saved myself from some hassle there.

But now I'm pissed because afterwards I ordered the SSD drive and a PS4 controller from Newegg with their slow but free shipping on Thanksgiving evening, that said 4-7 business days, and IT JUST ARRIVED less than 48 hours after ordering. Meanwhile, Amazon's slow free shipping still says "Arriving November 30 - December 4."

Could've been playing with my new laptop already, damn it! Stupid Newegg shipping so quickly. :(
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yeah, newegg is stupid fast this year. i ordered my PS4 Monday, expected to get it this upcoming Tuesday, i got it the very next day.

was like wtf how.
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Ok so the Dell deal ended before I had the chance to make the purchase.

So Cyber Monday deals should be coming out now. Anything good for it?
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