Friend needs Laptop

[Mkilbride]

Well, he joined the Air Force and is now that he has passed Basic, he is going to Tech school for Intergrated Systems(Jets / Helicopters / bombs, that kind of thing.)

Anyways, he couldn't bring his tower and stuff with him when he went, but he wants to get a Laptop. He's a gamer, but he will be using this for work, email, ect, light gaming.

His Budget is 300 to 900 dollars. He doesn't need something that can run Crysis, but you know, Half-Life 2 games, Source Engine, maybe Final Fantasy XIV(14).


So I don't know Laptops at all, and am looking around. Anyone have suggestions? Also he wants it to be Windows 7.

 

[Excalabur50]

See if you can get an MSI or Asus as they tend to be the most reliable

 

[Mkilbride]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H7PWRSY/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

So far, this is what I found. It's Windows 7. Very small selection of W7 Laptops, and almost none under 900 dollars have anything but Intel GPU...this + Amazon Basics mouse seems good.

I didn't even want the brushed Alum. 40$ over the non brushed alum one. But it has W7.

I mean, I can't even find a review of the GPU. I know there's like Intel HD4000, but it usually says that. This doesn't...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...inkCode=as2&tag=vglnk-c1001-20#productDetails

This has W8. However, it is at his limit exactly, but it has 755M SLI, which showed it can get over 60FPS in BF4 @ High

Which is VERY respectable...I mean he won't be playing games like that, so to bad they didn't have a 1 GPU version for 100$ less or something...but yeah. I'll try and pitch it to him.

He plans to keep it for at a minimum of 4 years he said, so yeah...why not get something to hold him over.

 

[Excalabur50]

If you can't afford to go any higher the Lenovo should see him out ok

 

[Mkilbride]

There's nothing on OEM PC's against wiping Windows and putting on your own is there? I've never owned a OEM Laptop...so yeah.

He could always just put W7 on it.

 

[Excalabur50]

I'd just leave 8.1 on it as its got a smaller footprint and runs faster than 7

 

[Mkilbride]

That wasn't the question.

 

[Excalabur50]

yes he can put 7 on it

 

[Feronix]

Well, that wasn't very friendly.

Anyway, no, OEM laptops don't have anything on them that prevents you from formatting the harddrive or installing a new OS. Honestly though, I purchased a laptop with Win8.1 last week and actually really like the integration with the touchpad (scrolling, panning, zooming, rotating, swiping in the menu from the left, etc.).


Just put Iobit Start on there to have the old start menu back and bypass the entire Metro thing on startup and you can easily use the computer without ever doing anything with the Metro interface.

 

[barnsley]

laptops that come with windows 8.1 tend to be much better suited for 8.1. Putting 7 on them can be a pain in the arse unless you know what drivers it'll need. The lenovo you linked won't have a disk drive either, as that space is taken up by the second 755. If you buy it from lenovo they also do a windows 7 version if 7 is really needed (clue, 8 is not bad anymore).
I'm a big fan of lenovo products and imo they're one of the best for windows laptops.

 

[SPS]

Well, that wasn't very friendly.

Anyway, no, OEM laptops don't have anything on them that prevents you from formatting the harddrive or installing a new OS. Honestly though, I purchased a laptop with Win8.1 last week and actually really like the integration with the touchpad (scrolling, panning, zooming, rotating, swiping in the menu from the left, etc.).


Just put Iobit Start on there to have the old start menu back and bypass the entire Metro thing on startup and you can easily use the computer without ever doing anything with the Metro interface.

There are some laptop firmwares that do not support win 7 if I remember correctly. My MSI GE60 Pro told me in red writing not to reinstall the OS; however, I don't know if that is to protect against incompetence or not.

 

[Mkilbride]

Yeah well, we just don't care for W8. We weren't asking for your opinions about is all.

But who knows, that Laptop is perfect for him, I heard it even has an upgradable GPU, which is rare for a Laptop. It's right at his limit, and capable of playing all the games he plays, most can keep above 60 FPS even on High, which is impressive for a 900$ Laptop, usually you got to pay 1400-1600$ for such a thing.