Buying a new laptop and looking for advice

Repo Man

So my main specs are decided but deciding between 2 upgrades (only have enough money for 1)

What's the better bang for the buck?

Intel® Core™ i7-740QM Mobile Processor 1.73 GHz 45nm 6M L3 Cache Intel Smart Cache PGA988

Vs.

Intel® Core™ i7-840QM Mobile Processor 1.86 GHz 45nm 8M L3 Cache Intel Smart Cache PGA988

or

500GB 7200RPM SATA300 Hard Drive

vs

128 GB Solid State Drive

Repo Man

Will be using to run multiple VM's for server exams and slight gaming.

cablegod

SSD all the way for your OS and programs. You can even fit a few small VM's on it. The performance of the SSD will be VERY useful with that as well as anything else you do. get yourself a 500gb+ external drive for data and other VM's.

ehnde

You didn't mention where you're getting it from. If this isn't a rush job (you can buy online) check out notebookreview.com

Check the reviews on the models you are considering. I also find good deals on there sometimes as well.

Repo Man

cablegod wrote: »

SSD all the way for your OS and programs. You can even fit a few small VM's on it. The performance of the SSD will be VERY useful with that as well as anything else you do. get yourself a 500gb+ external drive for data and other VM's.

Thanks for the advice. I was leaning towards the SSD and I have a few TB's in external storage but wasn't sure.

ehnde wrote: »

You didn't mention where you're getting it from. If this isn't a rush job (you can buy online) check out notebookreview.com

Check the reviews on the models you are considering. I also find good deals on there sometimes as well.

Buying it from Cyberpower:

Xplorer X6-5800 Notebook

Would come out to a little under $1500 for 8 gigs of ram, SSD Drive and the lesser of the 2 processors I listed above.

Hypntick

Repo Man wrote: »

Would come out to a little under $1500 for 8 gigs of ram, SSD Drive and the lesser of the 2 processors I listed above.

A little bit more than I would spend on a laptop but it should last you a while. I personally won't use SSDs yet, mostly due to the price per GB but they are pretty fast so you will notice a difference.

Repo Man

Hypntick wrote: »

A little bit more than I would spend on a laptop but it should last you a while. I personally won't use SSDs yet, mostly due to the price per GB but they are pretty fast so you will notice a difference.

I know I can get more with a desktop but I hate using them and don't want to have to remote into one with a laptop.

Wondering if anyone has seen any better deals a or think it's a good price for the setup.

SteveLord

nice deal

Refurb, but you can get coverage from Asus or Squaretrade. One of the hottest laptops out right now.

Hypntick

Repo Man wrote: »

I know I can get more with a desktop but I hate using them and don't want to have to remote into one with a laptop.

Wondering if anyone has seen any better deals a or think it's a good price for the setup.

I'm totally the opposite, I hate laptops lol. Mostly because I find that when I have a laptop, I dock it and use it as a desktop. Figure why am I spending so much money on something that i'm not really going to move anyways.

That one Stevelord posted is pretty nice for the price. I tend to prefer refurbs in general, i've had better luck with those as opposed to brand new hardware.

thehourman

I have my eyes on this laptop.
ASUS G53JW-A3 - ROG Republic of Gamers Laptop
This is a better laptop compare to the laptop from Cyberpower if you are going to ask me.
Also, this has a another bay for 2nd HDD, so you can put an SSD as a main drive for OS and drivers, then install 1TB HDD for the 2nd drive. Therefore, you don't have to carry another HDD with you. In addition, you can remove the optical drive bay, and make it another HDD bay.

For a little bit of gaming, man, this machine is a beast for under $1400.

SteveLord

I personally wouldn't spend more than $1000 on a laptop, as they depreciate twice as fast as desktops and are twice as likely to suffer from hardware failure. And aren't nearly as fast as one costing much less, no matter how much money you pour into one.

hypnotoad

When people ask me what kind of laptop to get, I tell them one you can tolerate the keyboard, mouse, and display on. Also noise and battery life.

dynamik

I buy all my laptops from: Gaming Laptops - XOTIC PC - Gaming Notebooks - Custom Laptops - Custom Notebooks

They allow more customization, and the components are the same that you'd get from anyone else (there's just no branding i.e. Dell, HP, etc.). I usually go with one of the Sager/Clevo models.

mrgreggie

If there is a major price difference, definitely go with the "slower" processor. Outside of gaming I'm finding my AMD quad core to be fantastic. I'd go with the SSD for sure, it's the one option I really wish I had gotten on my lappy.

TheSuperRuski

Ive seen some serious desktops(not sure about laptops) on Desktop Trading Computers . I repaired one of these and the lady that owned it had 6 monitors hooked up to it and it boot faster than a brand new dell laptop lol. Serious hardware.