Getting a new laptop

Technology and Gaming Help and Support
#1

So yeah, my old Acer lappy has died about a month ago after I believe would be 5 years of loyal service. I am planning to get a new laptop for my moderate gaming needs (playing Black Mesa of course) and probably some Source SDK stuff to do (in Valve time :3). So I found something that might be perfect, running on a 1k budget:

HP Envy (E0K89UA) 17.3" Laptop

Specifications:
Processor: Intel Core i7-4700MQ
Memory: 8GB (expandable to 16) DDR3
Hard Drive: 1TB @ 5400 rpm
Screen Size: 17.3" HD-LED backlit
Keyboard: Bilingual w/ numeric keypad; backlit
Network Card: 10/100/1000
Optical Drive: Blu-ray Player and SuperMulti DVD Burner
Speakers: Beats Audio quad speakers with two subwoofers <----big plus :jizz:
Dedicated graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M 2GB
Operating System: Windows 8

So what do you think guys? I’m pretty sure someone will scream “ASUS!” soon enough. :stuck_out_tongue:

#2

I had a chance to play around with the exact same laptop that you are trying to buy, it was a great laptop in terms of battery life and lightness (the older 1st gen i7 model has a 9cell battery while the haswell has a 6-cell) but a little bit disappointing considering the old HP DV7 4054ca (radeon hd5650 1gb) gets very similar performance in games (about 3FPS difference) Also the charging port was shrunk down to the size of a PSP charger, so it might break more easily than on older models.

#3

Ah, thanks sersoft. Is it kinda good enough for most games? I’m thinking the exception would be playing BF4 on high/ultra (duh, I want a desktop for that sh*t) and some very graphically demanding games. I keep hearing build quality issues and heating problems (but that’s for the pre-2013 line) so you got any other suggestions for a 1k budget?

#4

Well it can do Battlefield 4 and CoD Ghosts just fine, in fact it can run NFS The run with the GPU disabled and it still runs at ~45FPS on Ultra.

But for the settings, you’ll have to tweak them yourself for each game depending on your preferences. Even with the GPU overclocked to 1.06Ghz, BF4 was kinda laggy on High so most things had to be set to Medium.

#5

Oh cool, I’m getting it then. Thanks sersoft!

#6

No problem, enjoy!

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.