17 replies to this topic

[Darkthrone]

Ok so I'm in the market for a new laptop, it's basically going to be replacing my desktop and I'll mainly be using it for gaming/media. I know roughly what I want but I want to spend as little as possible (obviously).

My budget is anywhere between £600-£1000 but I want as much bang for my buck as I can get. This kind of rules out buying directly from places like Intel etc.

I'm just wondering if any of you guys know of places on the web with awesome prices/deals that ship to the UK or just recommend laptops I may have overlooked that are great VFM.

I'm also selling this laptop http://www.sony.co.u...eries/vpceh1l9e(brand new, sealed) and am wondering if there's an alternative to ebay where I could possibly get more than the ~£400 ebay going price for it as I'll be paying around £560 for it. (Free money the University give me to spend in their store which is overpriced, but still free money).

Edited by Darkthrone, 11 December 2011 - 07:28 AM.

[Therion]

If you want a gaming laptop, expect to spend quite a bit more than you would a gaming desktop.

I don't really have any advice on laptops, because I'm a very anti-laptop person. Just wanted to remind you that for gaming and media a desktop is going to be much better all around for what would probably result in a lower price. Hell, you might even be able to get a good desktop assembled from parts and a cheap notebook if you're just looking for the convenience of a portable computer and still come out better off than if you'd gone for a high-end gaming oriented laptop.

[Waser Lave]

Therion, on 11 December 2011 - 08:24 AM, said:

If you want a gaming laptop, expect to spend quite a bit more than you would a gaming desktop.

I don't really have any advice on laptops, because I'm a very anti-laptop person. Just wanted to remind you that for gaming and media a desktop is going to be much better all around for what would probably result in a lower price. Hell, you might even be able to get a good desktop assembled from parts and a cheap notebook if you're just looking for the convenience of a portable computer and still come out better off than if you'd gone for a high-end gaming oriented laptop.

My laptop could probably be considered a gaming laptop (1GB dedicated graphics, Intel i7 processor) and I got it for around £530 which is a pretty good price imo, you just need to get lucky and buy at the right time in the right place.

[Therion]

Waser Lave, on 11 December 2011 - 08:29 AM, said:

My laptop could probably be considered a gaming laptop (1GB dedicated graphics, Intel i7 processor) and I got it for around £530 which is a pretty good price imo, you just need to get lucky and buy at the right time in the right place.

What sort of heat does it put out though? I've seen laptops that look good on paper, but clearly wern't thought out well and when the hardware is put to use, you have about 30 minutes before the system locks up from heat buildup. This can be solved by adding things like external coolers, but if you're going to the hassle of using things like that the whole mobility advantage starts to slip away.

Not sure what things are like in the UK, but you might be able to find a good deal just after christmas with all the clearance sales. (There's usually massive sales here on boxing day, and usually last a week or so)

[Darkthrone]

Therion I think you missed the point of this topic.

[Therion]

I assumed you were looking for people to suggest laptops not just places to buy laptops?

If you want places to buy, I've heard people recommend http://www.novatech.co.uk/

I didn't miss the point, I just thought I'd advise you that for your desired purpose, a desktop would probably be the better option.

[Waser Lave]

Therion, on 11 December 2011 - 08:34 AM, said:

What sort of heat does it put out though? I've seen laptops that look good on paper, but clearly wern't thought out well and when the hardware is put to use, you have about 30 minutes before the system locks up from heat buildup. This can be solved by adding things like external coolers, but if you're going to the hassle of using things like that the whole mobility advantage starts to slip away.

Not sure what things are like in the UK, but you might be able to find a good deal just after christmas with all the clearance sales. (There's usually massive sales here on boxing day, and usually last a week or so)

I haven't noticed any heat issues at all and no part of the case or keyboards gets hot to the touch (my old laptop used to get hot enough that it was uncomfortable to use the touchpad when playing games) but I use a laptop cooler anyway so that probably helps. I choose a laptop because, although I only really use it at home and don't need to carry it around with me much, I prefer to have the choice to use it anywhere in the home rather than just being stuck to a desk and when I do travel I have the choice to take it with me too so there's additional flexibility there with no additional cost over a desktop and only slightly less performance.

Yeah, Christmas Day/Boxing Day is a good time to get clearance stuff and it extends into January too.

[Scot]

Speed a little more and invest in a Razer Blade

[Darkthrone]

I'll check that place out and yeah I plan on checking out the sales but I never seem to find anything great in stores, plus store bought PC's come bundled with a lot of crap I don't need.

@Therion - As someone who's been building rigs for a while now I found the 'advice' quite patronizing. I know exactly what the pros are of desktops but my current rig is enormous and weighs a back breaking amount. I've been moving around so much lately it's just not practical anymore and I'm looking for something more portable and I don't want to have to compromise too much on power.

(I'm not the biggest laptop fan either.)

Edited by Darkthrone, 11 December 2011 - 08:51 AM.

[Waser Lave]

Darkthrone, on 11 December 2011 - 08:49 AM, said:

I'll check that place out and yeah I plan on checking out the sales but I never seem to find anything great in stores, plus store bought PC's come bundled with a lot of crap I don't need.

You know you can just uninstall it, right?

Novatech is pretty good, I've bought memory from them before but not a laptop. I think they have a selection of gaming laptops now and come with clean OS installs rather than all the crap you don't like.

[Darkthrone]

Scot, on 11 December 2011 - 08:44 AM, said:

Speed a little more and invest in a Razer Blade

That looks awesome, Really liking the touchscreen pad as well. Sadly I couldn't justify dropping near 2k on a laptop (Though if I had the 2k I would in a second xD).

Waser Lave, on 11 December 2011 - 08:54 AM, said:

You know you can just uninstall it, right?

True, though I'm sure they include some of it in the price at least w/e OS they've chosen.

[Therion]

Darkthrone, on 11 December 2011 - 08:49 AM, said:

I'll check that place out and yeah I plan on checking out the sales but I never seem to find anything great in stores, plus store bought PC's come bundled with a lot of crap I don't need.

@Therion - As someone who's been building rigs for a while now I found the 'advice' quite patronizing. I know exactly what the pros are of desktops but my current rig is enormous and weighs a back breaking amount. I've been moving around so much lately it's just not practical anymore and I'm looking for something more portable and I don't want to have to compromise too much on power.

(I'm not the biggest laptop fan either.)

My apologies. Wasn't meant to be condescending or patronising. I was just hoping to save you some cash, I know how popular laptops are with uni students and many of them don't have a clue about the machinery inside.

If by crap you don't need, you mean hardware they offer a build your own laptop system, so you're not paying for an ungodly processor alongside a very strong GPU if you don't want to. If you mean software, you can try asking them to give you a clean copy of the OS with no added software. One company here offers that service if it's requested.

Scot, on 11 December 2011 - 08:44 AM, said:

Speed a little more and invest in a Razer Blade

That does look like a really nice laptop. Though looking at the specs, that 320GB HDD seems out of place.

Edited by Therion, 11 December 2011 - 09:11 AM.

[Scot]

Therion, on 11 December 2011 - 09:07 AM, said:

That does look like a really nice laptop. Though looking at the specs, that 320GB HDD seems out of place.

They dropped the 320GB HDD and replaced it with a 256GB SSD without changing the price.

[FreedomPenguin]

Waser Lave, on 11 December 2011 - 08:43 AM, said:

I haven't noticed any heat issues at all and no part of the case or keyboards gets hot to the touch (my old laptop used to get hot enough that it was uncomfortable to use the touchpad when playing games) but I use a laptop cooler anyway so that probably helps. I choose a laptop because, although I only really use it at home and don't need to carry it around with me much, I prefer to have the choice to use it anywhere in the home rather than just being stuck to a desk and when I do travel I have the choice to take it with me too so there's additional flexibility there with no additional cost over a desktop and only slightly less performance.

Yeah, Christmas Day/Boxing Day is a good time to get clearance stuff and it extends into January too.

im not sure if mines a real good pc for gaming or not.

i7-2630qm, 8gb ddr3, 750gb hdd, gt540m nvidia/optimus blu ray etc, i picked mine up for $750 USD new at best buy with 2 free xbox's this summer. i didnt want to spend that much, but i did. and yeah. when i use it with hundredsof things going at once, barely ANY heat, like 40c but if i game on my lap, it'll get into the 60c -68c which is luke warm to me. im going to take it apart and put new thermal glue on the pieces and see how it effects it,


that laptop skrilex put up, looks sick as hell (i just like the mouse part) but at that price, nah. i couldnt do that, laptops especially out date every year to drop THAT much coin into. Ivybridge is coming soon, might be worth a wait.

[Skrillex]

SorrowNightshade, on 20 December 2011 - 04:20 AM, said:

im not sure if mines a real good pc for gaming or not.

i7-2630qm, 8gb ddr3, 750gb hdd, gt540m nvidia/optimus blu ray etc, i picked mine up for $750 USD new at best buy with 2 free xbox's this summer. i didnt want to spend that much, but i did. and yeah. when i use it with hundredsof things going at once, barely ANY heat, like 40c but if i game on my lap, it'll get into the 60c -68c which is luke warm to me. im going to take it apart and put new thermal glue on the pieces and see how it effects it,


that laptop skrilex put up, looks sick as hell (i just like the mouse part) but at that price, nah. i couldnt do that, laptops especially out date every year to drop THAT much coin into. Ivybridge is coming soon, might be worth a wait.

Lolwut, I didn't post anything in this thread.



I did manage to find this though:
Not really sure on the build of their products, however.

http://www.novatech....ackedition.html

Processor: Intel Core i7-2760QM 2.4Ghz Processor

Memory:2 x 4GB (8GB) DDR3 PC3-10600 1333Mhz SO DIMM Module

Harddrive:Samsung M8 1TB 8MB Cache SATA Hard Drive

Optical Drives:SATA DVD Writer

Graphics:NVIDIA GT 555M 2GB DDR3 Graphics

Chassis:15.6" (16:9) HD LED Backlight


Total System Price:£818.70 inc vat

[Waser Lave]

Skrillex, on 20 December 2011 - 04:32 AM, said:

Not really sure on the build of their products, however.

Novatech build all of their stuff themselves in the UK I think so it should be a decent quality build.

[FreedomPenguin]

Sorry I meant scot. I'm going to bed night

[davidh93]

the alienware mx-11 is a really good laptop for the price and size especially if you want something that can play games