Travel/School Laptop

[Mithos]

Hi guys, I'm looking for a laptop (like everyone else here it seems lol), so here's the relevant information:

Location: Canada (Calgary, Alberta) [Fancy US deals wont apply to me]
www.memoryexpress.com (really close to home and they price match to any canadian site!)
www.tigerdirect.ca
www.newegg.ca
www.

Laptop purpose: School (online text books + word processing), Travel (games when Im stuck in hotel or on plane)

Games I play: Team Fortress 2, WoW, Left4Dead2, BoarderLands

Size preference: I really cant decide between 14" and 15". (13 is too small for me)
Resolution preference: As good as I can get, but power and build quality matter more than this
Graphics: Preferrabliy dedicated graphics if it doesnt rape the price too bad.
Battery: Doesnt matter. I can plug it in anywhere I go if I plan it correctly
Weight: I dont want a behemoth. Light - normal.
Design: Remember wanting a flip phone as a kid? Id love to have a brushed metal finish laptop. Nothing cheap and plasticy (MSI, Dell and Acer - not for me. Asus and Lenovo look good though)

What matters most to me?: BUILD QUALITY/DURABILITY and keyboard.
My last 2 laptops met their demise by my own carelessness.
Laptop 1 - in the outside pocket of my carry on bag. It tipped off the airport inspection table. Screen busted.
Laptop 2 - Fell off table in cafeteria. Screen busted.
I know I have to be careful but seriously, these are falls of like 3 feet. Screen replacements cost nearly as much as the laptops themselves so i never bothered.

PRICE: I'd like to keep it below $1000, but the cheaper the better.

I am considering these laptops so far, but cannot decide:
Asus B43S-XH51 - $639 - heavily considering this laptop. Fast processor, discrete graphics, great design, supposedly durable - but not sure if the screen size + 'low' resolution will bother me.
Asus B53S-XH51 - $900 - Just like the B43S but one inch bigger.. for nearly 1.5x the cost! this is hard to justify. If it were $700 it would be perfect!
Asus P53E-XS51 - $650 - Similat to the B43S, but Intel HD3000 graphics and a slighly slower processor BUT a bigger screen. Honestly though, I think i'd be kicking myself for spending nearly $700 for a computer that has integrated intel graphics...

Thoughts?
(I'd like to buy my machine new and from a Canadian dealer. Shopbot.ca helps for shopping prices/dealers if you have a model in mind though)

 

[almalino]

For reliability I would recommend Lenovo T430 or T430s(more expensive) with dedicated graphic card from NVidia. Though I'm not sure how well it plays games. Check the reviewes.

 

[OrangeWolf]

Personally for a laptop that's going to be mobile I prefer at 14" to 15", but both would work.

I heartily second the recommendation to look at the T430 as an option (the T530 is the 15" version, usually listed at the same price). The build quality is excellent and it should last you a few years. The graphics card option you have there, the NVS 5400m, is apparently based on the Nvidia 630m. Here's some benchmarks for it. I gamed for years on a Nvidia Quadro FX 570m, which was a professional card instead of a gaming card, and had no issues. If you check these out then I suggest ordering directly from Lenovo - I think they have a Canadian site or the option to buy/order from there, and you can upgrade various parts with your budget (get a 1600x900 resolution screen, etc.).

As for the Asus options you mention... Stay away from Intel HD 3000. That came with the Sandy Bridge processors and isn't that great. The HD 4000, that come with the newer Ivy Bridge processors, aren't bad though. Still not as good as a discrete card but they do allow you to play newer games on low settings with decent fps.

The other two you list look good. The ones I saw had Sandy Bridge processors (i5-2520M), but since you're pairing it with a discrete card you don't have much reason to upgrade to Ivy Bridge. It's my understanding that the difference in the CPU between 2nd and 3rd gen iCore is minimal. The ones I looked up (to see the specs) had 8 GB of RAM listed, but if the ones you are looking at only have 4 GB you might consider upgrading that yourself later.

I like this memoryexpress website you linked -- the search function on it is fantastic. The IdeaPad U410 is one to consider, though for the price the discrete graphics card is a bit weak (I think? I've heard somewhere that the 610M isn't that great but I could be wrong - check benchmarks). It does have a 32GB SSD in it though, which will make the system feel blazing fast.

IdeaPad Y and Z series by Lenovo are also supposed to be pretty good. There's some on Newegg as well as the main Lenovo site.

I'm a Thinkpad person myself. I've had two of them and they've beaten everything else I've ever used, with only the MBP coming close to them in quality. The best series from Thinkpad are the X, T, and W series. The W-series may edge out of your price range, and the X series is smaller than what you're looking for, so I'd check out the T-series (as mentioned previously). My old T61p survived far more bumps than I should have let it endure, it had a fantastic keyboard, and never failed to perform any task I asked of it. I haven't used the IdeaPads but they tend to get reasonably good reviews.

Since you have a decent budget, you might also consider Sager. These are meant more to be gaming laptops than ones for school or work, but you could get a high resolution screen and discrete graphics. The NP3260 is probably the one to look at.

Hope that helped some, and best of luck finding what you're after!

 

[knight427]

If you are considering a business class machine t game on, you'd be better off with a Dell Precision M4600 with FirePro M5950 graphics. That card is roughly equal to Nvidia 635M. When you buy this from Dell's business outlet, you automatically get the 3yr NBD on-site warranty. I'm guessing Dell Canada should have similar deals. I found this on the US Dell Business Outlet.

$909
Processor: Intel Core i7-2620M Dual Core Processor (2.70GHz, 4MB cache)
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Professional
Precision Mobile Workstation M4600 Laptop
Hard Disk Drive 320 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
Memory 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)
Media Bay 8X DVD +/- RW Drive
Video AMD FirePro M5950 Mobility Pro Graphics with 1GB GDDR5
Laptop Screen 15.6 inch FHD (1920x1080) Wide View Anti-Glare LED with Premium Panel

Earlier this week it would have only been $773 after a 15% coupon code. You can upgrade the warranty to include accident protection, but that adds another $300. But given your track record, that might be worth it.