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Hi everyone,
because of my less than ideal living situation (moving around between rural Ireland, Dublin, Dresden and rural Germany) a lot, I can't afford the luxury of a desktop computer.
I mean, I do have one at my parents' place, but I only get to use it for like 3 weeks a year, so I figured I might sell it.
Gaming isn't a high priority, but I do enjoy playing some titles from my steam library, notably Dark Souls 1+2.
At any rate, now I'm in the market for a laptop that has a GPU.
There are loads of gaming laptops out there, but they all seem to be gaming first and laptop second.
Most of them are enormous machines at around 3 kilos,
made out of cheap plastic and grossly designed with batteries that won't last for an episode of Seinfeld.
There's the Razer Blade, but that's complete overkill.
Here's what I'm looking for:
i5 Broadwell or Skylake
GTX 950m or 960m max
SSD (256, or 128 GB and second drive)
matte, full HD (not higher than that, please no touch)
good battery life and great keyboard
light and sturdy and well designed
So essentially I'm looking for something like a Macbook Pro with a GPU or a Razer Blade with way lesser specs.
Rant:
Who needs 4k on a 14" screen?
Does something like that exist in the real world?
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I think the 940m is a bit on the weak side.
Dell, for instance, offer a 960 and an i7 for just 30 € more.
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finding a second HDD in laptops is very rare.
Your specifications would be really similar to mine when searching for a laptop, however it all depends on the price range you're willing to go. I've found out that when you want a bit of everything, you will search endlessly, since every laptop somehow manages to reduce something else.
I.E. you find a laptop with 950m + i7, it will have 1 HDD only, etc..
Dell has the power, but not the comfort (your dell probably is 3+ KG right?)
Apple has the comfort, but not the prize
Acer has a bit of power and then a bit of comfort
Asus has a bit of comfort and then a bit of power
Lenovo has the power, but not the comfort.
I think you are looking for a needle in a haystack. Not an impossible one though, but one which requires to scroll through tens of laptops. With that I wish you very good luck 
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Dell has the XPS series which are more expensive then regular Dells, but they come close to macbook-level design and weight while offering all your specs:
http://www.dell.com/nl/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd?oc=cnx5501&model_id=xps-15-9550-laptop
Also, check out some of the "Frankenlaptop"sites, where you can combine all the components of your liking in a default body, no questions asked: http://www.laptopplus.nl, http://www.bto.eu, http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk. I'm not fond of the concept, but since you're looking for a niche device, it might be the way to go.
glgl!
Edit: I tried entering your specs in the uk site above, and they actually come up with quite a nice laptop for 900,- or so. Has a gtx 940m, but considering your low priority for gaming and your high priority for portability, the 940 seems the way to go.
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Those frankenlaptops look awful. My brother has one of those and it weighs about as much as my car.
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On November 30 2015 23:29 DickMcFanny wrote:
Those frankenlaptops look awful. My brother has one of those and it weighs about as much as my car.
Some of them are (I usually get those ) but they have sleek bodies too, less then 2kg, comparable to the slim Dells. Do check m out, I actually configured your specs (as edited in above) and it's really quite nice what they come up with.
+ Show Spoiler +
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I don't think I'd be happy with a 940.
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On November 30 2015 23:57 DickMcFanny wrote:
I don't think I'd be happy with a 940.
Then select a Gtx 950. All possible.
I just compared the performance specs of those 2 and I can see now why you wouldn't want a 940. The 950 doubles most stats, for modest additional costs.
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I don't know, I'm somehow very hesitant to get a laptop of which I couldn't read any reviews beforehand.
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Fair point. Then here's a link to the gtx 950m graphic card specs. Most of it is boring numbers, but in the bottom there is a list with commercially available laptops that contain that GPU, including their weight (for quick filtering), and links to reviews.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-950M.138026.0.html
Going through that list, the Asus K502LX-NB52 looks sweet for 800,-
![[image loading]](http://s.s-bol.com/imgbase0/imagebase3/extralarge/FC/4/3/6/2/9200000047822634_1.jpg)
edit: that ASUS below looks awesome as well! 4K screen pushes up the price, but other than that it's great.
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Laptops with a dedicated GPU, big screen and 2nd hard drive all have terrible battery life. What you're asking for basically doesn't exist.
I think your options look like this:
1- Get a laptop with a single SSD and carry a USB HD around.
2- Get a laptop with a single HDD, and replace the DVD drive with a SSD.
3- a) Buy a laptop with a shitty HDD, and replace it with a 480gb SSD as a single drive. These can be bought for ~120$ USD these days.
b) Buy a laptop with a single 250gb+ SSD, but pay a premium for it.
FWIW, even the macbook pro 15" weighs in at 2kg+. 3kg is pretty standard.
Imo, Asus has the best finish to their laptop, and they have a lot of options with the 950m or 960m. They feel more like a macbook than a Dell. MSI has good keyboards and decent quality as well, but they are heavy and do look a bit clunky.
Something like this is probably your best bet if you can afford it. There are other options in the Asus lineup, even though they aren't the easiest to find. If money isn't a problem, you might consider the Asus Zenbook. Some of them include a dedicated GPU. They meet all your criteria, but are expensive.
Edit: Alternatively, you can go the Hybrid Drive way.
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Ah, that last ASUS ROG would have been perfect, but they chose to cut out a third of the battery (60wh instead of 96 from the original) to accommodate a second drive.
Still by far the best solution I've seen so far, I might go for that. The European version foregoes the 4k display and is 600 Euro cheaper.
If I order it now, with student discount and a 10% Black Weekend Voucher, it's 15% off, or 1180 Euro for the i7/GTX 960/128 GB SSD/1 TB HDD/FullHD configuration.
I'm assuming the power adapter will be bigger than my Macbook Air one as well?
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On December 01 2015 01:54 Pwere wrote:Laptops with a dedicated GPU, big screen and 2nd hard drive all have terrible battery life. What you're asking for basically doesn't exist. I think your options look like this: 1- Get a laptop with a single SSD and carry a USB HD around. 2- Get a laptop with a single HDD, and replace the DVD drive with a SSD. 3- a) Buy a laptop with a shitty HDD, and replace it with a 480gb SSD as a single drive. These can be bought for ~120$ USD these days. b) Buy a laptop with a single 250gb+ SSD, but pay a premium for it. FWIW, even the macbook pro 15" weighs in at 2kg+. 3kg is pretty standard. Imo, Asus has the best finish to their laptop, and they have a lot of options with the 950m or 960m. They feel more like a macbook than a Dell. MSI has good keyboards and decent quality as well, but they are heavy and do look a bit clunky. Something like this is probably your best bet if you can afford it. There are other options in the Asus lineup, even though they aren't the easiest to find. If money isn't a problem, you might consider the Asus Zenbook. Some of them include a dedicated GPU. They meet all your criteria, but are expensive. Edit: Alternatively, you can go the Hybrid Drive way.
Have to agree with Pwere when it comes to Asus' chassis build quality. Even their F205XA (a €200 11" netbook) had an amazing finish you don't expect on laptops of that price category.
Then again, if you don't really care about design or bulk, get a Lenovo thinkpad or HP probook. In terms of battery life, however, you have to make a choice: ultrabooks are rather low on performance (though it's still plenty if you don't play games) but high on battery life. Performance laptops on the other hand barely last 2-3 hours on one charge, usually not even enough to survive a layover at an airport.
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I do care about design and bulk, so I'll keep my eye on the ASUS ones.
Perhaps I can find one that only has an i5/950 and one drive, that should be a bit sleeker whilst still being enough to play Dark Souls.
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On December 01 2015 20:40 DickMcFanny wrote:
I do care about design and bulk, so I'll keep my eye on the ASUS ones.
Perhaps I can find one that only has an i5/950 and one drive, that should be a bit sleeker whilst still being enough to play Dark Souls.
See my previous post, the image I added there is an Asus with gtx 950.
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Thanks for that, didn't mean to ignore it.
That one is 800 USD in the US and 1200 Euro in Germany, which I think is a horrid deal.
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On December 02 2015 00:49 DickMcFanny wrote:
Thanks for that, didn't mean to ignore it.
That one is 800 USD in the US and 1200 Euro in Germany, which I think is a horrid deal.
Weird. Bol.com offers it for 800,- in the Netherlands.
(I'm stuck at home with a horrible cold, that's why I'm stalking this thread )
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Can you link that, actually? I can't find it. And I appreciate the stalking.
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EPT![[image loading]](https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/images/products/8027/3_big.jpg)
