Looking into new laptops

[The Enquirer]

So I've got a desktop, however that is exclusively for games, and I've got a laptop, which is used for just about everything else and the occasional game if I'm on the go. I've had it for around 4 years now and after heavy daily use it's starting to run hot and not be as quick as it used to be. Most notably it is literally falling apart. So that brings me to needing a new laptop.

It'll mostly be for writing, watching Netflix and playing the occasional game on. I won't be running many games past Far Cry 3's level of graphics. For budget I'm looking to spend no more than a thousand but the less the better without sacrificing build quality. I've seen some MSI and Asus laptops in that price range but just wanted some other opinions. Thanks in advance!

 

[TotalerKrieger]

Oddly enough, before actually reading the last sentence of your post, I selected two models made by MSI and an ASUS. Both models have very similar specs and the exact same base price of $999 (they are both on sale right now however). You would need a larger budget if you wanted a laptop with a more powerful GPU than the GTX 960M. 8GB of RAM will be fine for mid-range gaming for another couple of years at the very least, and you have the option to easily upgrade later on (RAM is cheap). I would expect that both machines are quite capable of playing more recent games on medium to high settings.

The MSI model comes with one of the best laptop CPUs available, the i7 6700HQ, but lacks a SSD. It is currently on sale for $899.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154111&cm_re=6700hq-_-34-154-111-_-Product

The ASUS model has a slightly weaker processor, the i5 6300HQ, but makes up for this with a 128 GB SSD. Boot times should be considerably faster on this model. It is currently on sale for $799.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834890015&cm_re=6300_hq-_-34-890-015-_-Product

The ASUS model seems like a really good buy at $799. There is only about a 10-15% performance difference between the i5 and i7 processors in question. For gaming and everyday stuff, there is likely no need for an i7 6700HQ. The GTX 960M will cause a performance bottleneck in games well before an i5 6300HQ does.

The MSI laptop does have a thunderbolt port which could be used to connect a much more powerful external desktop GPU, but that stuff won't be on the market for another year or more so I wouldn't make the decision based on that factor alone.

 

[The Enquirer]

Oddly enough, before actually reading the last sentence of your post, I selected two models made by MSI and an ASUS. Both models have very similar specs and the exact same base price of $999 (they are both on sale right now however). You would need a larger budget if you wanted a laptop with a more powerful GPU than the GTX 960M. 8GB of RAM will be fine for mid-range gaming for another couple of years at the very least, and you have the option to easily upgrade later on (RAM is cheap). I would expect that both machines are quite capable of playing more recent games on medium to high settings.

The MSI model comes with one of the best laptop CPUs available, the i7 6700HQ, but lacks a SSD. It is currently on sale for $899.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154111&cm_re=6700hq-_-34-154-111-_-Product

The ASUS model has a slightly weaker processor, the i5 6300HQ, but makes up for this with a 128 GB SSD. Boot times should be considerably faster on this model. It is currently on sale for $799.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834890015&cm_re=6300_hq-_-34-890-015-_-Product

The ASUS model seems like a really good buy at $799. There is only about a 10-15% performance difference between the i5 and i7 processors in question. For gaming and everyday stuff, there is likely no need for an i7 6700HQ. The GTX 960M will cause a performance bottleneck in games well before an i5 6300HQ does.

The MSI laptop does have a thunderbolt port which could be used to connect a much more powerful external desktop GPU, but that stuff won't be on the market for another year or more so I wouldn't make the decision based on that factor alone.

Yea, I don't need anything super high end. Truthfully most of the games I'll end up running on it will be probably 7 years old at least. Anything more recent than that I'll be running on my desktop.

 

[TotalerKrieger]

If you want to cut down costs further by sacrificing GPU power and screen resolution, I like this MSI model at $699:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154113&cm_re=6300_HQ-_-34-154-113-_-Product

It's a really good value laptop, and would still be able to play many newer games at medium settings. It would eat through anything published more than 2-3 years ago.