New Laptop

Hello Guru Techies! I am looking to buy a new computer, this one is currently on its last leg. I use this computer mainly for surfing the internet, watching videos, video editing (a bit), playing games, music and some work.

I would like a computer with at least 6GB of RAM and a nice size hard drive (500GB at least). I also want a pretty good graphics card that can run most games (such as GW2 when it comes out). I do multi-task a lot, usually I have Microsoft Word or PowerPoint running with music or a movie and the internet in the background. So a dual or quad core is pretty much a must for the processor.

If you have any suggestions on Brands to look at, besides the normal Dell and HP, please let me know. I want to be able to customize the laptop and I am trying to keep it around the $1000 mark ($1200 is the highest I would go). Any advice is welcome and very much appreciated!

Do you need a laptop, or is a desktop an option? As you may already know, you can get a much more powerful desktop for less than the cost of a half way decent laptop, esp. when it comes to gaming. Unless you need a laptop for school or work, a desktop is the hands down best option for the pc gamer. On the other hand, if you do need a laptop, I would suggest looking at this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220921

Powerful enough to play GW2 at high settings, as well as multi-task to your heart's content. The only issue with this laptop, is that the 1080p screen will make it difficult to read text at the native resolution on such a small screen. I would either look for a larger laptop (17 or 18") or a lower resolution (1600 x 900 or less). This does offer some nice bang for the buck though, and you won't find a much more powerful laptop for under $1200.

I want a laptop, I'm not huge on gaming, I only really have GW, Halo 1 and Flight Simulator for my computer. I will be traveling between my gf's place and mine during weekends and such so I need a portable computer so I can still get work done. And thanks for the post, pretty nice computer but I'm going to keep looking.

Any reason it has to be exactly 6GB that's a pretty odd number!

If it's your only PC I guess you are looking for something in the desktop-replacement category which usually means a big laptop (not ultra portable).

Something like this
http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/vo...id=vostro-3750 / http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...id=vostro-3750

http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-l702x/pd.aspx / http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...l_id=xps-l702x

Read this if you want a good idea of laptops and what you'll need for decent performance with GW2: http://www.guildwars2guru.com/forum/...ng-t15972.html

Anyways, i'll go with the asus G73/53 series like elder suggested or the MSI G series (If you can still find a GX660 somewhere). Oh and you can save some cash by getting the Best Buy version of the G73 too, the warranty is the usual BB crap though.

EDIT: If you plan on playing the latest Flight Simulator, you should know that it's a real resource hog. It will literally raise your CPU usage through the roof on top of your GPU usage.

Yes 6GB was an odd number but it was right between 4GB and 8GB on most of the customizable charts. So I went with it. And I don't really tax my system with games that much. The one I have now is an old 15.4 inch Dell Inspiron E1505 that has worked great for what I needed it for for the past 5 years. Thanks for the links.

Trust me, I know that. I installed it on this computer before I found out it was too much for it.

You basically are going to want a (Dell) Alienware, Asus, or MSI laptop with decent graphics card. Notebook Check is a great site to compare mobile graphic cards. I would think anything that can run StarCraft 2 well, should be able to handle GW2 fairly well with moderate settings or better.

As far as CPU goes, you'll want something with a Core i5 processor or better. I believe the Core i5s for notebooks are dual-core, not sure if that's the same for the Core i7s... but when matching the number of cores there's not much difference in performance between a Core i5 and Core i7 in current games.

Personally, I'm thinking about getting a very light and portable notebook, and for me that would be the Alienware M11x. A friend of my has an MSI 17" notebook, and it's really great. He does all of his gaming on it, and it runs everything very well.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-...ist.844.0.html

Anyway, good luck!

He got a Dell.