New Laptop Help, Please.

[testudo]

Hello. I am looking for a new laptop for home, work and school. Here is a list, if it helps:

Budget?
Max - $1500, but I would not mind staying well below that, if at all possible for my needs.

Size?
15"

Resolution:
1920 x 1080

Desktop Relacement?
Both, really. I would like to use it in clamshell mode with external monitors, but take it out and use it at work (1 day in the office a week) and for school.

Battery life:
The more the better, but it will most likely be plugged in most of the time.

Gaming:
It would be nice, but certainly is not a deal breaker if it cannot.

Tasks:
Web/Graphic design and development. Running Adobe CC apps, multiple browsers, browser tabs, Netflix and streaming from local home network and mostly running simultaneously.

Hard Drive:
At least 500GB and SSD preferably.

Optical drive:
None

Country:
U.S.

I am looking for something that will run the tasks I wrote. I really need to know if I should pick one with a dedicated GPU or if I can get away with using an iGPU.

Thank you in advance for your help, advice and suggestions.

 

[MIRTAZAPINE]

Usually for school I would recommend something light, deskstop replacement and 15 inch are often very heavy to carry around the campus all day. You also have to take note of the weight of a power brick on top of a laptop. I do agree that 15 inch is good size to do all the things that you said.

I suggest you have a look at Sager laptops, you can customize the to your liking for the specs. Their powerful laptops but might be on the heavy side. http://www.sagernotebook.com/Gaming-Notebooks/

 

[SunnyK]

Hello. I am looking for a new laptop for home, work and school. Here is a list, if it helps:
I am looking for something that will run the tasks I wrote. I really need to know if I should pick one with a dedicated GPU or if I can get away with using an iGPU.
Thank you in advance for your help, advice and suggestions.

What about MSI GS60 or Lenovo Y50? THey are light, portable and powerful... also both are 15" and in your budget.

 

[testudo]

Usually for school I would recommend something light, deskstop replacement and 15 inch are often very heavy to carry around the campus all day. You also have to take note of the weight of a power brick on top of a laptop. I do agree that 15 inch is good size to do all the things that you said.

I suggest you have a look at Sager laptops, you can customize the to your liking for the specs. Their powerful laptops but might be on the heavy side. http://www.sagernotebook.com/Gaming-Notebooks/

What about MSI GS60 or Lenovo Y50? THey are light, portable and powerful... also both are 15" and in your budget.

Thank you for your responses and the suggestions. Let me ask this: Can I get away with using the integrated graphics on the newer Intel's, or should shoot for an dedicated GPU? Can I even get an i7 quad-core without a dedicated GPU? I don't know if they make laptops with quad cores without dedicated GPUs.

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

If you don't plan to game on it you can easily keep below $800. In fact there are quite a few decent gaming notebooks around the $1000 mark. There are a few laptops that have ~4710MQ without dGPU, but I would be rather hesitant to recommend them, the i5 dual cores are plenty fast as long as you keep them fed with a decent amount of RAM and a quick SSD.

 

[PLAfiller]

For the combo Full HD+ i7+ low end GPU+decent price tag I would look at Toshiba's offerings. Lately they have been doing this i7+GT820 thing for fantastic value. So take a peek at what they bring to table too.

 

[SunnyK]

Thank you for your responses and the suggestions. Let me ask this: Can I get away with using the integrated graphics on the newer Intel's, or should shoot for an dedicated GPU? Can I even get an i7 quad-core without a dedicated GPU? I don't know if they make laptops with quad cores without dedicated GPUs.

What about:

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=34-232-364

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=9SIA4P021N8678

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=9SIA7AB2JZ8200

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=34-314-820

http://m.newegg.com/Product/index?itemnumber=34-152-742

 

[OneMoar]

the acer is the fastest of the bunch
a 860M is faster then a 950M
and i would opt for the SSD
if you want performance then look over here
http://www.sagernotebook.com/home.php

 

[kiddagoat]

http://www.sagernotebook.com/Notebook-NP8651-S.html

I would take a look at this laptop.

It is thin and just under 6lbs.

I like that it has 4x RAM slots and has room for multiple hard drives.

It has 2x M.2 slots..... you can get 2x SATA drives in there but they have to be the slimmer 7.5mm drives if I recall right. This model has been out for awhile.

It will do everything you need it for and then some.