Sadly I am in need of a new laptop. My old laptop gave its last breath, and it cannot be fixed.

I need some advice as to what I should get. It needs to be under 1000 Australian dollars and able to run newish games.

This one looks alright, but I figured I'd ask around here before going ahead and buying it.

Help please!

 

Avoid Dell if at all possible. Some people have good experiences with them, a lot of people don't. Mine isn't terrible, but it has had a few really irritating issues, and friends of mine with the exact same laptop have had huge problems ranging from crappy batteries to screwed up screens.

In terms of brands, MSI and ASUS have made some pretty good laptops recently. I'm not very well-versed on Australian prices/computer parts websites, so I can't give you much help on which model to pick, but you can usually get a pretty good notebook for $500-$1000 US. Not sure what that translates to in AUS dollars though.

 

I have a similar one, although with a 512mb video cards from HP, and it's able to run most games I want to play so far, without any exagerations. And I pay around 1000 american dolars(A bit overpriced, but computers usualy are in Brazil.)

Just don't listen to all the Hp are crap or Dell Sux comments. Everyone has their own opinion.

 

Whatever you get, heed this advice: don't game.

I don't know what it is about gamers, but all of you, to a one, will have (a) the most religious use and maintenance regimen regarding laptop use, yet (b) burn through them like shredded paper in a furnace. It's uncanny.

 

I game on my laptop and I'm still on my first one (it's about 3.5 years old now). I only spend minimal amounts of time taking care of it.

/just sayin'

 

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Depends. My lappy never gets hot to the touch even when I've been gaming for 10+ hours.

And I don't really do anything to it other than clean the screen to get all those marks out.

Edit: Though someone recommended this to me even though it's a little over the range. (Or a lot. I'm not sure how AUS dollars and US dollars measure) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834146849

Also you might want to think about buying a cooling pad just in case.

 

Been gaming on my custom modded asus-G51 for 1.5 years now. It's trucking along just fine.

It did take quite a bit of work to get everything just right, but at the end I can happily say that it's fine.

If you do choose to game though, always use a cooling pad.

 

When industry reviews of HP and Dell rank them at the bottom, it becomes less about personal opinions and closer to a documented trend.

I've worked with HP and Dells for the last ten years in both personal use and enterprise environments. HP customer support these days is horrible even though they were putting out a marginally better product last two years.

If you must go with Dell, they haven't messed with Alienware, which is still getting good reviews for reliability. And I have seen a machine here at least in the U.S. by them which is under a grand, but I know things don't translate well into the Aussie market.

Definitely stay away from Dell and HP if you can.

Asus, Alienware, Sony are doing well.

 

Afaik, the only Alienwares under a grand are the m11x models (they start at $700 or $800 iirc), but those are basically souped-up netbooks. I've heard that they're great, but you still have to get past the 11 inch screen. Sonys have always been overpriced imo; it's hard to find a decent one for under a grand.

 

Sony has actually made their pricing more aggressive now. It used to be exactly like what you're saying but now you can buy good value under or right at a grand. That said, I haven't looked at them for a gaming laptop. One I recently got has an ATI 4550 512MB card, but despite its specs it's a 'low-end' card.

 

The appeal of the Dell laptop that I linked in the first post was that I could pay $10 a week for it.

Know of any other companies and provide that?

 

I just built an equivalent one on Sony for a little less: the 'EB' series. If you want an NVIDIA card instead of ATI you can look at the 'F' series. The latter will run you into a thousand though.

 

MSY in Cheltenham or Clayton (Clayton is their home office) are probably your best bet when it comes to finding a good price.

http://www.msy.com.au/Parts/notebook.pdf

The Acer 5740-524G64MN looks pretty good, though it is slightly above your range of $1000 (it's $1029).

CPU: Intel Core i5 520M
OS: Win 7 Pro + XP Pro
RAM: 4GB DDR3
HDD: 640GB SATA
Graphic: ATI HD 5650
1GB Dedicated
Screen: 15.6” WXGA Lcd
* 2yrs Warranty * DVD RW * 6 Cell Battery * 2.5Kg
* WiFi N * Multicard Reader * Web Cam

MSY are the cheapest you'll find in all of Victoria/Australia.

 

I can say from personal experience that Asus is great in terms of reliability.

If you want cheap, you could go with this. $650, which is better than I paid for it a year and a half ago ($1000). The only real downsides are:

1. It accumulates heat like a son of a bitch, so you need either a cooling pad, or something to elevate the laptop so that there's room between it and the desk/workspace.
2. The CPU is rather weak, a dual core 2.0 ghz really isn't much to brag about these days. It can be overclocked (though precisely how much depends on the chip. I had mine at 2.5 ghz stable). Or you can replace it (easy process) with a better CPU for only a little more. I bought a T9800 & overclocked it to 3.2 ghz stable.

It plays most games just fine, with Crysis being about 32 FPS on high.

 

FWIW, my Dell's have been bulletproof.

 

Bulletproof is all good and well (who doesn't need saving from a random bullet from time to time?), but if they don't function as a computer I might as well buy some Kevlar.



I know what you meant, but I thought I'd twist your word around. :awesome

 

I got my laptop from ibuypower.com and got to pick out all the little parts to make a laptop that was perfect for me.

So far I'm really happy about it except my cat ripped out the 5 key.

 

Go Sony. Don't know if there is Best Buy or an equivalent store there but I got my Sony from them. It was around $800. Plays all the games and works like a charm.

 

You guys make me feel like I got ripped off. :/