Recommend a new Laptop please

[Andyrids]

I am not sure if this is an appropriate thread for this forum or not, if so my apologies and please delete, i figured you guys are more up to date than I am on such things.

Ok, my Sony laptop is getting old and I seriously need to think about a replacement... problem is there is 1000's of laptops on the market, the only ones I get to repair are like 4 years+ old so I have not had my dirty paws on anything "new" in a long time, I live out in a jungle / swamp (seriously) so just popping to the mall to have a browse about is not exactly easy.

Anyway could anyone recommend me one please ? my basic requirements would be:
Min 14in screen or bigger.
Nvidia graphics card.
8gb or more RAM.
A decent CPU of course.
I gather most come with an SSD these days size of that is not important, however the ability to either have or expansion to fit a standard SATA drive is essential.
A good keyboard is essential with a solid feel.
A decent battery life, say 4 hours+
Sound not to concerned about I use headphones anyway.
Must have an SD card slot... or enough USB slots to have one spare to plug in a converter.
price range around the $1500 USD mark.

My uses for the laptop would be, mostly programming, working with photoshop and a little gaming none of the heavy duty modern stuff in the past few years though.

Any suggestions please guys ?

 

[whs]

Best is if you go into a store and look at the various models. The feel of a keyboard or the quality of the screen for your eyes is not something you can read from books.

As far as the SSD goes, I would replace the standard HDD with an aftermerket SSD. That is usually cheaper than a native SSD in an off the shelf laptop, Plus you gain a HDD which you can use with an external enclosure.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
You're kind of in a different area than we are
This is a nice one here in the u.s.a. it's 1499.99
MSI GE 72 Apache Pro-070 17.3" Gaming Laptop Computer - Aluminum Black; Intel Core i7-6700HQ Processor 2.6GHz; Microsoft Windows 10; 16GB DDR4-2133 RAM; 1TB 7,200RPM Hard

[LIST]
[*]ntel Core i7-6700HQ Processor 2.6GHz
[*] Microsoft Windows 10
[*] 16GB DDR4-2133 RAM
[*] 1TB 7,200RPM Hard Drive
[*] 128GB Solid State Drive
[*] NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M 3GB GDDR5
[*] DVD Super Multi Drive
[*] Memory Card Reader
[*] Killer Gaming Network E2400
[*] Intel 3165 Stone Peak 1 (1x1)
[*] Bluetooth 4.0
[*] 17.3" Full HD eDP Display
[/LIST]

Cheaper on Amazon sold and shipped
Oops different model know wonder why
Amazon.com: MSI GE72 Apache Pro-003 17.3" GAMING NOTEBOOK LAPTOP i7-6700HQ NVIDIA Geforce GTX960M 16GB 1TB WINDOWS 10: Computers & Accessories

 

[ICIT2LOL]

If you want my two cents worth the laptop I am on right now is just about the best thing since sliced bread - an Asus P2520LA I bought this with the 7 downgrade and slipped a SSD in and upped the RAM to 8GB and it is greased lightning. It is also very thin and light and the graphics amazing

If you want the specs https://www.asus.com/au/Commercial-Notebooks/ASUSPRO-P2520LA/

Edit If you want the extra hard drive then have alook at the Asus ROG series.

 

[ThrashZone]

Narrr MSI all the way

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Never tried MSI Mike so cannot comment I have ha issues with Asus mainly support but this machine is just the ducks guts

 

[ThrashZone]

I'd trust you on that but the msi one is bitchen
Win-10 but dang it's nice for the price.

 

[Andyrids]

Thanks guys ! I shall take a look at them soon as I get chance (work to do atm).
I am actually living in the Philippines now not the UK but I have trusted friends in most country's so sending one of them the money and having them ship it to me is not a major problem.
I always liked the MSI motherboards back when I was building rig's for people I found them to be very reliable and not many compatibility problems unlike some others.

Anyway I shall take a look and get back to you both

 

[Andyrids]

I just had chance to check them out... I am liking both of them, slightly favour the MSI due to the backlit keyboard most useful in this country as the power often go's off without warning and I have to use a touch in order to type anything at night...

More suggestions are welcome please if any other of you guys have any...

 

[ThrashZone]

MSI has a lot of nice laptops
I was looking at a much more expensive one
But your location and what is available is still a tad of an issue for what is a viable suggestion :/

I'd just go to some sites and what MSI laptops are being sold near by and in your price range.

If you wanted to use win-7 make sure as stated it can have downgrade rights
Or look at slightly older models in the x99 mother board series

 

[ICIT2LOL]

I'd trust you on that but the msi one is bitchen

Yep agree with you Mike and for what it is worth Asus are just the same and just if the OP should want a ROG machine I would shop around for one that comes with a 7 downgrade but whatever brand is bought I think these should be installed ASAP unless it has to come with 10
set the updates to let me choose and untick the optionals
Upgrade to Windows 10 Update - Enable or Disable in Windows 7 or 8.1 - Windows 10 Forums < disable batch file
& this
Ultimate Outsider - Software Downloads

I do this with every fresh install I do now first priority.

 

[Andyrids]

Yes location is a bit of a problem the most readily available ones here seem to be Lenovo and Asus, the thought of being stuck with Win10 is scary ! so finding one with a downgrade to Win7 is possibly a must, thanks for pointing that factor out...

Another question though (might be a silly one) would all 2015-2016 laptops running Win10 be able to run Win7 ?

The reason I ask this is for example my 6yrd Sony that came with Win7 is unable to run to XP (well it can if you mess about with some 3rd party loader that adjusts the settings, so technically it can't without using that hack)

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Another question though (might be a silly one) would all 2015-2016 laptops running Win10 be able to run Win7 ?

Am not sure Andy the Asus ROG I bought for example it had to have the BIOS updated to take any drivers in 7. A scary experience when one spends that much money on a decent machine. This machine is the G750JM and I think from memory that option was only available on machines up the JW model - but I am not sure. One source to check would be EBay but you need to be very careful form there.

Having said that it is a very easy machine to work on as in slotting in a SSD and more RAM

 

[Andyrids]

Thanks for the feedback on that mate... I found an online store here in PH that has a good range of Asus and MSI OS's being either Win8.1 or Win10, I could live with 8.1 (just) and the chances of those models being able to downgrade is quite high I would imagine.

Ebay I have had just as many bad experiences as I have had good ones, met some "interesting" characters also to say the lest with the buyer / seller collects arrangements, got a few funny and also weird stories but probably not appropriate to relate here.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Andy now the 8 machines are far more likely to be "down-gradable than the 10 ones so I would go a for one those and it can be used with the Classic Shell software that gives you the 7 outlay/GUI - so can 10 or so they say but never tried it. Besides there are so many things I am not real sure about 10 with:sarc:

Classic Shell - Start menu and other Windows enhancements < you can change the Start icon / button with a bit of fiddling around but even so I would be trying dropping a SSD and more RAM in and then installing an OEM of 7. Again you would need to check to see if the BIOS has to be changed to accept 7 drivers.

An alternative would be say Linux Mint which I am trying to catch up on my older Toshiba and it comes bundled with office software and much more etc AS matter of fact you can run Linux Mint form a largish capacity stick (16GB up) if you want to even with Windows installed see this
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/287439-emergency-kit-save-your-files-dead-os.html

 

[ThrashZone]

I believe you can still pick up win-7 machines from the business sections of Dell/...
A win-8 machine you might have better luck downgrading it to 7 than a win-10 machine but there is always this
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...e-firmware-interface-install-windows-7-a.html

I'd disable fast start in win-8 or 10 first
Fast Startup - Turn On or Off in Windows 10 - Windows 10 Forums

Remove the ssd or hdd and install a new and see if you can install win-7 that way if it fails at least the original install is unaffected

 

[Andyrids]

Thanks for the tips and advice guys it is appreciated, I have used Win8.1 with the classic shell before and it was ok actually, so an 8.1 system I think (after looking at what is available and the speck) would be a more viable option than a Win7 one (there is only 2 I found in the MSI range anyway), as for Dell I have a pet hate for Dell going back what 10 years or so I had quite a few to repair and lets just say the restrictions placed on the systems at the time made repairs very awkward... dunno if that has change since then I never had one to repair since that time... ah apart from one that just needed a virus removed.

Yes removing the HDD or SSD to experiment is what I normally do anyway since I have spares lying about... I have never tried Linix Mint as yet but I do use Puppy Linux and run that from a flash drive loaded via the PenDrive menu loader software is it ? the drive boots into various essential tools and utilities the way I have it set up, it's pulled me out the brown stuff on a few occasions.

Anyway I am mulling through the list of what is available to me in this country and will post my short, short list so to speak once I find the time to compare them all, the damn budget has had to drop quite a bit though, the refrigerator died so had to buy a new one, got drunk and promised my step daughter a new push bike so that's 20,000 Peso less straight away *sigh*

 

[Andyrids]

Well after finding what looked to be a good range of MSI here it turns out it was just an affiliate site with the "Buy" buttons linking to various small retailers dotted around the islands that I wouldn't take the risk to trust... that left what was available to be very small... plus with MSI sold in the PH the warranty becomes void if you upgrade the HDD or RAM this only applies to the PH lol.

So looking back at Asus again now since they have over 100 official retailers here so it seems...

One problem is though it is not looking like I am going to get the spec I am looking for without it being a Win10 machine, yes could get a Win7 one and upgrade to SSD and up the RAM but the combination of other components like CPU and Graphics are not a match for what I am looking for ideally its either one or the other but not both...

Suppose I am going to have to read up a bit more about Win10, the biggest complaint seems to be the telemetry I gather that crap can be turned off though to an extent, so if that is the only major problem then I could cope with that.

Not keen on the Western world but it did have its advantages when you want to buy something specific unlike here... anyway the hunt continues but it's driving me nuts now (well more nuts than I am already) so going to leave it for a few days and let my brain cool off so to speak.

 

[ThrashZone]

Usually just opening the case voids the warranty in the u.s.
Most upgrades.... should be done after the warranty expires.

 

[mjf]

Thread getting old but still a common question I guess. Have a look here
The Best Notebook Displays As Reviewed By Notebookcheck - NotebookCheck.net Reviews
The MSI at the top of the list looks pretty good. But If you are into photography and Photoshop then I suggest an IPS screen.