Looking for laptop recommendations

Hello all,

I'm looking for some laptop recommendations to replace my girlfriend's dying HP AIO.

A few things I'm looking for:
Screen size should be 15"+ and matte, not glossy if possible
Resolution should be 1080p minimum. I don't think she really needs 4K to be honest.
SSD would be nice, but I can always replace that aftermarket
I prefer Intel and nVidia as far as CPU/GPU goes

Usage - she does some light gaming. Mostly indie Steam games like Don't Starve or maybe the Trine series. Nothing *too* intense. Other than that, she mainly uses it for web browsing and email.

Battery life doesn't matter all that much since she'll usually be around an outlet while using it.

I am totally okay with a spartan/plain looking laptop, so Clevo/Sager or any OEM is fine. She said she can put stickers all over it if she thinks it's ugly. Yes, she's a grown woman. LOL

I live in the US, so it would need to be a manufacturer that sells in the US.

Oh, budget. I'm looking for cheap. I'll be buying this for her and I'm not rich. I'm trying to keep it around the $750 range or so. I'd consider a bit more, want much less, but you do have to spend money for these things, so I'm open to any reasonable suggestions.

I guess that's it. Let me know if I missed anything. Thanks [H]!

Upgrading after purchase is a dying option my lenovo z51-70 has no provisions for me to change anything inside the hard drive has a warranty sticker over the 4th screw the ram would not accept an upgrade I had bsod with known good ram. And the wifi is white listed and the battery is non removable.

This was a pretty common sight when I was looking at better systems...

my next laptop is likely going to be an msi or sager.

Basically, when spending money on a laptop, spend it on the things you CANNOT upgrade.

CPU: Get the fastest one that fits your budget
Monitor: Get the nicest one that fits your budget.
Graphics Options: Get the nicest option that fits your budget.
Warranty

Skimp on the things you CAN upgrade later.

Memory
HDD/SSD

Look at something like a ThinkPad E550.
Bump the CPU to an i5-5200U
Bump the screen to a 1920x1080
Intel Graphics are fine for light gaming

$722 plus tax/shipping
I'd spend for at least an extra year's warranty.

@Lunas - Lenovo is infamous for that. MSI as well as HP too. I'd like to avoid those brands. But isn't Sager, ASUS, and Acer still okay to upgrade?

@Chas - You're absolutely right and that's why I was asking for suggestions. I know most CPU's and GPU's are soldered in and not replaceable and obviously the panel is set.

Isn't the i5-5200U severely underpowered, though? I thought all the U lines were Ultra Low Power, meaning no horsepower at all, but good for battery life. As she will almost always be near an outlet, wouldn't an HQ processor be better?

I also don't know if I really agree that the Intel HD Graphics are fine for light gaming. Not that she would necessarily be playing things on Ultra, but she should at least be able to play new (simpler) games on High. I've found that you get terrible frames on Intel unless you really turn everything off.

LittleMike said:

@Lunas - Lenovo is infamous for that. MSI as well as HP too. I'd like to avoid those brands. But isn't Sager, ASUS, and Acer still okay to upgrade?

@Chas - You're absolutely right and that's why I was asking for suggestions. I know most CPU's and GPU's are soldered in and not replaceable and obviously the panel is set.

Isn't the i5-5200U severely underpowered, though? I thought all the U lines were Ultra Low Power, meaning no horsepower at all, but good for battery life. As she will almost always be near an outlet, wouldn't an HQ processor be better?

I also don't know if I really agree that the Intel HD Graphics are fine for light gaming. Not that she would necessarily be playing things on Ultra, but she should at least be able to play new (simpler) games on High. I've found that you get terrible frames on Intel unless you really turn everything off.

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yes the U line is more aimed at low power but my i7 5500U doesnt seem to be that under powered... the HQ will be thicker run hotter and have no real battery life to speak of but they will have power to spare... the benches i looked at placed my i7 at about as fast as a AMD x4 945 which is close to the performance of a AMD A10-7850k

And i have gamed on my older ivy bridge celeron laptop and with the base intel hd graphics it pulled decent frame rates in Team fortress 2 and Skyrim and Neverwinter

My Z51-70 has a dgpu i don't exactly know what i expected from it but it does only a bit better i would say not quite as good as a r7 260x... But it gets blazing hot and the top of my laptop under the wasd keys gets way hotter than lenovo should have let it... I mean if the battery is going to be non removable why is it cylindrical and why is it towards the back when they could have ran the cooling out the back and used a flat battery pack under the front like they did on the y50.

A laptop with intel 4000 gpu is good for light gaming and by light gaming we mean solitaire minesweeper flash games and older direct x 9c

Lunas said:

yes the U line is more aimed at low power but my i7 5500U doesnt seem to be that under powered... the HQ will be thicker run hotter and have no real battery life to speak of but they will have power to spare... the benches i looked at placed my i7 at about as fast as a AMD x4 945 which is close to the performance of a AMD A10-7850k

And i have gamed on my older ivy bridge celeron laptop and with the base intel hd graphics it pulled decent frame rates in Team fortress 2 and Skyrim and Neverwinter

My Z51-70 has a dgpu i don't exactly know what i expected from it but it does only a bit better i would say not quite as good as a r7 260x... But it gets blazing hot and the top of my laptop under the wasd keys gets way hotter than lenovo should have let it... I mean if the battery is going to be non removable why is it cylindrical and why is it towards the back when they could have ran the cooling out the back and used a flat battery pack under the front like they did on the y50.

A laptop with intel 4000 gpu is good for light gaming and by light gaming we mean solitaire minesweeper flash games and older direct x 9c

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Hmm, that's what I thought. Also, just as a matter of preference, I would rather go with nVidia over AMD. So really the debate for me is do I plunk down the cash for a laptop with an 840M or higher. Anything in that price range that meets my specs that's not from a manufacturer who completely locks everything down? LOL

LittleMike said:

Hmm, that's what I thought. Also, just as a matter of preference, I would rather go with nVidia over AMD. So really the debate for me is do I plunk down the cash for a laptop with an 840M or higher. Anything in that price range that meets my specs that's not from a manufacturer who completely locks everything down? LOL

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i was reading about how both handled a dgpu and igpu in the same and it seems both implementations are balls and my m375 is about as fast as the 840m i wish i had gone with the msi gaming laptop i was eyeing before this lenovo

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TI6TAB2...TF8&colid=1GBC5M5KMHREZ&coliid=I1RSI7ESKTC1VS

Lunas said:

i was reading about how both handled a dgpu and igpu in the same and it seems both implementations are balls and my m375 is about as fast as the 840m i wish i had gone with the msi gaming laptop i was eyeing before this lenovo

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00TI6TAB2...TF8&colid=1GBC5M5KMHREZ&coliid=I1RSI7ESKTC1VS

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I basically came to the same conclusion. If doing anything other than web browsing, the dGPU will kick on, making the iGPU basically useless. And as far as the iGPU, it's only really good for movies, but not much more than that. Plus it only works on AMD, etc, etc... I got a headache at that point researching. Haha.

That MSI isn't bad. I heard good things about the Leopard. I *thought* I heard that MSI now puts a warranty sticker over the hard drive now. Is that right?

LittleMike said:

I basically came to the same conclusion. If doing anything other than web browsing, the dGPU will kick on, making the iGPU basically useless. And as far as the iGPU, it's only really good for movies, but not much more than that. Plus it only works on AMD, etc, etc... I got a headache at that point researching. Haha.

That MSI isn't bad. I heard good things about the Leopard. I *thought* I heard that MSI now puts a warranty sticker over the hard drive now. Is that right?

Click to expand...

my thoughts are on those stickers you can buy a sheet of them and put a new one on it was 2.50 for a sheet of lenovo stickers.

And day 1 with my laptop i opened it tried replacing the ram only to find it bsod with 2133mhz ram and i swapped the hd for my ssd.

Lunas said:

my thoughts are on those stickers you can buy a sheet of them and put a new one on it was 2.50 for a sheet of lenovo stickers.

And day 1 with my laptop i opened it tried replacing the ram only to find it bsod with 2133mhz ram and i swapped the hd for my ssd.

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I didn't even know they sold warranty stickers. Sneaky! Haha.

So that MSI looks good, though a little more than I want to spend. I also saw this SAGER NP7155 for around the same price. I have some thinking to do.

LittleMike said:

I didn't even know they sold warranty stickers. Sneaky! Haha.

So that MSI looks good, though a little more than I want to spend. I also saw this SAGER NP7155 for around the same price. I have some thinking to do.

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sager does not come with windows that is 80 more... which makes the sager way over the budget but the cpu and gpu is way faster...

also look more i found this http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Computer-...f=sr_1_28?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1436163201&sr=1-28

better gpu smaller hdd smaller price

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-GE60-APAC...F8&qid=1436163584&sr=1-63&refinements=p_4:MSI

better cpu back to the 800 series gpu

Lunas said:

sager does not come with windows that is 80 more... which makes the sager way over the budget but the cpu and gpu is way faster...

also look more i found this http://www.amazon.com/MSI-Computer-...f=sr_1_28?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1436163201&sr=1-28

better gpu smaller hdd smaller price

http://www.amazon.com/MSI-GE60-APAC...F8&qid=1436163584&sr=1-63&refinements=p_4:MSI

better cpu back to the 800 series gpu

Click to expand...

Oh cool, good finds. I can swap out hard drive and RAM on an MSI, correct?

LittleMike said:

Oh cool, good finds. I can swap out hard drive and RAM on an MSI, correct?

Click to expand...

From what I saw you might have a warranty sticker preventing the hard drive but like I already stated it was 2.50 for a sheet of them and all I would need to do to have my warranty is return the insides to how it was before.

Lunas said:

From what I saw you might have a warranty sticker preventing the hard drive but like I already stated it was 2.50 for a sheet of them and all I would need to do to have my warranty is return the insides to how it was before.

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That's good news. MSI may be the way to go, then. Awesome!

Wait wait - what kind of games? refurbished too? used too? OS included?

The Lenovo Y50-70 in my sig can be had from the outlet for $650-700; I can't think of a better option for price/performance. I ordered mine with a SSHD and TN panel and easily upgraded both to SSD and AHVA/IPS, respectively for little more after selling the replaced components. You need to be patient and get lucky to grab one of the high end skus, but it can be done easily enough.