Help selecting a laptop, light coding and gaming

August 5, 2013 2:59 PM

So, I know there have been variations on this theme but could use some advice on a laptop purchase. I mainly use a mac for work but would like a windows machine for light gaming (current games like Assasin's Creed, etc), but also for coding (LAMP stack) and running a Linux VM.

Right now on DealNews I've seen the following come up at what looks like decent prices:

Lenovo Haswell i7 Quad 14" Laptop w/ 2GB GPU for $769
Intel Core i7-4700MQ 2.4GHz Haswell quad-core processor, 14" 1366x768 LED-backlit LCD, 8GB RAM, 1TB hard drive, DVD burner, NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2GB graphics, 802.11n wireless, Bluetooth 4.0, webcam, 6-cell battery, and Windows 8 64-bit.

Dell Inspiron Ivy Bridge i7 Quad 16" Laptop w/2GB GPU for $900
Intel Core i7-3632QM 2.2GHz Ivy Bridge quad-core processor, 15.6" 1920x1080 (1080p) LED-backlit LCD, 8GB RAM, 1TB hard drive, DVD burner, AMD Radeon HD 7730M 2GB graphics, 802.11n wireless, Bluetooth, 6-cell battery, and Windows 8 64-bit.

I'm interested in opinions on the two but also open to other suggestions.

posted by evilelf to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

Gaming would be better on the bigger screen, but I think the Haswell chipset is where to put the money. Supposedly, battery life comparisons are outrageous... like 50% better in some cases with a Haswell chipset. Of course, the clock speed is higher, so that may negate it a little... but you'll also have a faster processor.

The Lenovo sounds nicer and is cheaper. I suspect you're paying for the screen real estate (both size and resolution) on the Dell, which might be a concern for gaming. If you can find a similarly specced Lenovo with a 15.6" screen and 1080p.... that might be worth the price bump, depending on budget.
posted by papayaninja at 3:24 PM on August 5, 2013

Lenovo based on personal experience. I have owned 4 Dells, all purchased at the same time. Paid for extended warranties on all of them. They were all dead by year three, for one reason or another.
posted by brownrd at 3:35 PM on August 5, 2013

Buy this instead.

Dual 650m cards, 16gb of ram, 16ssd boot drive. $870

But most importantly, it has a 1080p screen. You will HATE coding on a 720p screen, or doing any serious work. They also are generally very low quality panels.

If you absolutely must get a new machine scroll through here. The one i linked is far and away the awesome-est deal i could find though.

I'd also absolutely not be squicked out by it being a refurb. Lenovo stands behind their stuff, and it's often built like a tank anyways.(i'm aware these aren't thinkpads, but even the little netbooks i've played around with were well above average quality)

That one also has the side effect of being able to crush any game on the market somewhere between "high" and "maximum" on the graphics settings.
posted by emptythought at 4:24 PM on August 5, 2013