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Help me choose between these laptops.

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Hi guys,

I've been meaning to build a new computer for quite some time now, but I can only afford a new laptop.

In my country you can use your credit card to buy a laptop for 0% interest, and pay for it in monthly increments. Unfortunately, the same is not true for custom built PCs.

A $1000 build for a custom desktop will probably amount to $1,300-$1,400 if you're gonna use your credit card. I can only use my credit card because I have other priorities.

So I will buy a laptop first to replace my 6-year-old (i think) Core2Duo e7300.

I will be using this laptop mostly for work and some DOTA 2 and Diablo 3 action hopefully.

My work would require Skype, and about 10-15 tabs of Google Chrome, and iTunes for my background music.

Here are my choices and the site that I will get it from.

1.
MSI GP60 20D Intel Core i5-4200M 2.50GHz
http://www.villman.com/Product-Detail/MSI_GP60_20D_i5081

2.
HP PAVILION 15-N225TX (F7P94PA) MINERAL BLACK LAPTOP
http://pcx.com.ph/laptop/hp/hp-pavilion-15-n225tx-f7p94pa-mineral-black.html

3.
LENOVO Z510 (59391443) I7 WIN8 DARK CHOCOLATE LAPTOP
http://pcx.com.ph/laptop/lenovo/lenovo-z510-59391443-i7-win8-dark-chocolate.html

Will one of these be enough?
Which one would you get if you were to buy one of these?
And can I play Dota 2 and Diablo 3 at around 60 fps? I dont care if its not maxed out, I just want butter smooth frames.

Another choice is:

4.
MSI GE40 20L The latest 4th generation Intel® Core™ i5 4200M 2.5Ghz Processor
http://www.villman.com/Product-Detail/MSI_GE40_20L

I really need your help as I'm a little clueless when it comes to laptop specs specially the GPUs.

Thanks in advance!
 
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The HP and Lenovo have faster processors, but the GE40 has a one step up GPU, however it's a smaller screen size, so the keyboard would be smaller as well. Do you plan to use an external monitor at all?
 
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No. im ok with that 1600x900 resolution for the GE40 or with whatever resolution comes with what im going to buy. However, i have an option to plug to my 24" 1080p screen. Though that may be at very rare times.

Will the 740m play dota 2 and diablo 3 without hiccups?

My first choice was the GP60, but i thought it wouldnt hurt to ask TPU people on what you guys think.

Thanks for taking the time to respond man.
 
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I'm not well versed on mGPU's. I only have ever used a 7970m and only paid much attention to the higher end. Have you tried seeing if you can find some reviews with benchmarks for any of those systems?
 

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Did you look at any of the warranties?
 
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I'm not well versed on mGPU's. I only have ever used a 7970m and only paid much attention to the higher end. Have you tried seeing if you can find some reviews with benchmarks for any of those systems?

No, not yet, I was just able to see some benchamarks for the 740m, which is kinda confusing since you dont know the rest of the specs.

Did you look at any of the warranties?

It's pretty standard here that we get a year of warranty, and buy the extension to about 3 years.
 
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The 750M is just a re-branded 650M. Get the one with the 750M - you will never regret a faster GPU, unless you want to game on the battery, because I had a Lenovo with 2x650M's - you could not play any games while being unplugged, even with just one GPU enabled. (Heavy downclock) Something to look at, I was disappointed that I couldn't even play MC on the battery.
 

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So what is wrong with your current E7300? If you are only playing Diablo 3 and Dota 2 that chip should be able to handle fine. Maybe a graphics card update, but you definitely don't need a whole new system.
 
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Heres a good site for laptop GPUs, heres a link to the 740m page: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-740M.89900.0.html

It looks like it should do what you want

Thanks!

The 750M is just a re-branded 650M. Get the one with the 750M - you will never regret a faster GPU, unless you want to game on the battery, because I had a Lenovo with 2x650M's - you could not play any games while being unplugged, even with just one GPU enabled. (Heavy downclock) Something to look at, I was disappointed that I couldn't even play MC on the battery.

What's MC?

So what is wrong with your current E7300? If you are only playing Diablo 3 and Dota 2 that chip should be able to handle fine. Maybe a graphics card update, but you definitely don't need a whole new system.

What GPU is the max that I can get on my chip?

I knew someone is going to say that. Lets just say I want a laptop, to make things simple and stay on topic.
 
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MC stands for Minecraft.
 
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What GPU is the max that I can get on my chip?

Any. Look for used cards (if possible), here you can get used GTX560 and similar cards for about €50 (the past few weeks prices have dumbed like crazy, you can get a GTX 550Ti for like €30 now). If buying new, look for a Radeon 7770Ghz and up. 7790, 260x, 750Ti/non TI 650Ti Boost, 7790, 7850, whatever of them is cheapest really. The best bang for the buck here is probably the 260X and the 750Ti currently.
 
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Ok so 260x will be the highest i can go without being bottlenecked by my CPU and ram?


How about on the laptop choices on my 1st post, what would be your choice?
 
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I would pick that MSI GE40 too. It'll certainly do what you want
 
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ok thanks guys!
 
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Hi guys,
I've been meaning to build a new computer for quite some time now, but I can only afford a new laptop.
In my country you can use your credit card to buy a laptop for 0% interest, and pay for it in monthly increments. Unfortunately, the same is not true for custom built PCs.

Ok so 260x will be the highest i can go without being bottlenecked by my CPU and ram?


How about on the laptop choices on my 1st post, what would be your choice?

Even on your current rig, you'd get better performance in games by dropping in a video card. Even if you're bottlenecking it the end result from a 6850,/6870, 7770 range card would be significantly better than a laptop. The cards mentioned are so cheap second hand $80-90 USD, even if you have to pay interest on your credit card you'd be in a much better position for the price.

Edit:

Those laptops come with GT740M. How does it compare with AMD's Mobile APUs? - Generally speaking AMD has better gaming performance, I'm not sure if it applies to this situation but it might be worth looking into.
 
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What would be the best gpu i can get for my current system without bottlenecked by my cpu?
 
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What would be the best gpu i can get for my current system without bottlenecked by my cpu?

Without bottleneck you are looking at a 5770, 5750, 4890 range of card maximum.

But bottlenecking doesn't mean you won't still get a huge performance boost. A 5850 with bottlenecking would be much better than a 5770 without bottlenecking. I would get the fastest card available for under $100 USD.

I would go a step further. I would dedicate about 300 USD only to a second hand Q9xxx quad core, 8GB of RAM, and a 5850/6850/7770 tier card. The end result will be better or equivalent to those $1,000 laptops as far as gaming.

Maybe set aside only $600 and build a cheap AMD rig around an FX 83xxx and a 7850 or 270x!

600 USD with interest is better than 1000 USD with no interest for a better experience.
 
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a i3-4330 on a gigabyte h87n-wifi with a gtx680amp! gets the same graphics score as a i7-4770k on firestrike graphics test 1.
the graphics score 40fps for both, not total score 7375 (4770k) ; 6650 (4330)

having said that i would prefer a 4770k, but I have a i3-4330... strangely the FPS on the gtx680/4330 combo is fast on ultra, really fast on high. (crysis,crysis3,tomb raider, bioshock)

http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/2226236/fs/2212916

btw, the physics score is about half compared to a 4770k... so an i3-4330 is half of a 4770k...


LOL...what, you are not even considering a mac book?... LOL
 
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