Need Notebook Advice

[DSandyGuy]

Hi all, long time reader, first time poster here.

I'm in the market for a new laptop. I plan on using it for some gaming (my desktop is my main machine, but I definitely don't want a "bad" laptop for gaming), videos, web browsing, and other school functions. Battery life is always a plus, BUT I'm never really too far to plug it in.

My price range is around $1000, but cheaper is always better. Now, I did buy a Lenovo Ideapad Y560p ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-006-_-Product ) earlier in January, but since then got a refund due to the Intel chipset flaw, so I'm back on the market.

Right now I've got my eye on this Acer ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...15002&Tpk=7632 ) because it seems like a decent machine for the price, but there's not much I can find on that CPU, and I am not sure how well Acers are built. What caught my eye is the GPU in it. Would that be pretty good for what I need?

Just for reference, the games I play are World of Warcraft, Starcraft II, League of Legends, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, and Minecraft. I would like to play some newer games decently on it when released such as Battlefield 3 and Dragon Age 2. And I would love for Minecraft to run absolutely perfect since it takes the most of my time lol.

Thanks for any opinions and thoughts!

 

[Anonemous]

In the closer to $600 range is the Acer-AS5552G-7632 at $629. It has a dual core 3.0GHz Phenom II, one of the few AMD CPUs which is about as fast as the slowest regular voltage i3 330M CPU. Which is plenty for most games, but may not be in two years or so. OTOH, it has the ATI 6650 which is a slightly higher core count / MHz version of the 5650. It's a solid performing machine, but don't expect long battery life from it. There's a version with the n830 triple core AMD which is a little bit faster than the dual core n660.

Sager makes a couple of nice machines in the $1000 range that are pretty good, with GT540M GPUs, and they'll be out as soon as they and Intel figure out the whole Sandybridge problem.

Near the higher end of your range is the Asus G73 or G53, but it looks like the stocks are depleting as they get ready for the next gen machines, which are on hold for sandybrige. Other machines to consider would the MSI GX660 which is just out of your range. both of these machines (Asus and MSI) have the very powerfule 5870 ATI GPU which can handle ANY game you're likely to throw at it any time soon.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/wha...-need-suggestions-new-laptop.html#post7155136