Silkroad Online Forums

We are havin smth like blck friday tomorrow and i will buy a laptop. Which of these would be the best for college mostly and dota2.
cheapest to most expensive

Lenovo G580AM 59353493 375EUROS
SAMSUNG NP530U3C-A02BG 500EUROS
TOSHIBA U840-10Q 500EUROS
LWNOVO Z500AP 59360306 550EUROS
TOSHIBA U840W-107 600EUROS
SAMSUNG NP900X3A-B01BG 600EUROS

Looking for best quality price ratio. I dont have experience with buying laptops.so not.realy familkar with each brand.
Thx in advance.

First, throw the Toshibas out of the list and make your pick from the remaining 4. Some of them are quite old models so finding full specs is a bit hard.

375€ Lenovo is old, has a low end processor and no dedicated GPU. I wouldn't pick it.

500€ Samsung seems to have a newer i3 3xxx processor and the integrated GPU is able to run games but the screen is only 13.3". Personally, I wouldn't play games on an under 15.6" sized screen. Alltough a smaller laptop is better if you need to move it around. When buying Samsung, you pay a noticeable amount just for the brand.

550€ Lenovo has a newer i5 3xxx processor which beats the 500€ Samsung easily. I can't find its full specs but it has a standard 15.6" screen and if it has a dedicated GPU (higher than GT 610m), it would make it a lot better option (gaming-wise) than the 500€ Samsung. It's nowhere near being too big to be moved around either. Lenovos usually have good quality.

600€ Samsung is just costly because it probably has a SSD as storage but I think the processor is an older 2xxx model with shitty integrated GPU. Also it's 13.3".

If you have a external screen to connect to ur laptop (assuming you wil play games at a desk) I would go for the Samsung.

DISPLAY 15.6" (39.6 CM) HD LED 1366X768, ANTI GLARE
CPU INTEL CORE I5-3230M UP TO 3.20 GHZ
RAM 6 GB DDR3
HDD 1 ТB SATA 5400RPM
VIDEO NVIDIA GEFORCE GT645M 2G
DVD RW SUPERMULTI DL
1.0M HD WEBCAM, VGA, HDMI
WIRELESS 802.11 B/G/N, 2 X USB3.0. 2XUSB2.0
OS WINDOWS 8 64 BIT
4 CELL BATTERY
2.2 KG

Thats the Lenovo. I know these are old models and thats why they are that cheap. Still, can't find anything similar to this for such price. The battery is the only thing that concerns me...

Anything but Asus or Apple is total crap. I suggest you take an Asus N-series or a Macbook pro.

You guys are posting such useful posts. As you can see, there is no Asus or Apple(Apple? Are you kidding...) in the list. Every laptop manufacturer has shitty laptops and good ones, some just have more of the good ones. Lenovo for example, is one of them. There are manufacturers like HP who put out laptops that look like they're made of the cheapest chinese plastic whereas most Lenovos have metal and slim, solid look.

Don't listen to these nabs.

Looks good, take it. That GPU is enough to run any modern games. Skyrim would work with high settings and crysis 3 with low-med. Pretty amazing for a 550€ laptop. You can upgrade the battery later if it doesn't last long enough. Also make sure to read a guide about battery care, there's some stuff that not many are aware of.

Btw, if all those parts were in an Apple, it would cost like 1500€.

never buy samsung.
And make sure you don't buy one with a glossy screen.

As you said you're not very experienced with comparing laptops and so, I could share my view and past experiences about the laptop brands and different things to take into consideration.

• Firstly, what kind of usage will the laptop be, so do you need more processing power than graphical performance, vice versa, or both?
• Does the laptop have to be easy to take with you when you're on the go (If so, don't even look at the 16-17 inch models).
• What kind of Battery Life are you expecting? Usually the more performance the laptop has or the smaller the laptop itself, it's Battery life is not going to be much to brag about.
• Would you like a touch screen or do you just despise the fact of touching the screen at all?

About manufacturers and some of their laptops, I don't know what the prices will, so I won't list the prices.

Samsung

Overall, not too bad, and the prices are often alright. But if you'e looking for something like an ultrabook (Ultrabook = Intel processor + fast SSD Storage, usually 13 inches in size, and very slim) samsungs are worth to take a look at. If you're looking for good GPU, you might want to try other manufacturers

Lenovo

My personal favorite manufacturer. Prices are often good. If you do a lot of writing, lenovo's laptops have simply the best laptop keyboards I have ever used. My sister has a Lenovo IdeaPad 15.6" (Model: P500 - 59345704) And it is good all around, however, it doesn't have dedicated GPU which is something you want to have for gaming, you can still run some light games on it (Silkroad works, [sarcasm]Yippee![/sarcasm].

Asus

Now we're talking about good performance, quality and great design. Of course, prices are a bit higher but still not Apple's 4 digit numbers that start with a 2. If you want a very good performance laptop, Asus is the way to go, they also make some great ultrabooks (such as Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A, which can be either touch screen or without). Great quality price ratio, you won't regret.

Apple

Don't, just don't. While something like 15 inch MacBook Pro (with Retina display)might have impressive and polished look and great specs for an ultrabook (by ultrabook standards, these are not really gaming machines) it's not going to be cheap, unless you have 2 500€ lying around in your pockets.

Toshiba

I do not like them, the quality is not all that good, and they are often low on performance. However, they tend to be cheap. Money shouldn't be too much of an issue when it comes to sales. Oh and warning: I find Toshiba laptops have springy keyboards.

There are a lt more manufacturers, such as Acer, HP and Dell, but I don't have a lot of experience from them so not going to comment on it.


While most of the people don't consider glossy screen as an asset, matte displays can be hard to find (especially if you're looking for an ultrabook), and it is really a matter of personal taste. But I don't really like them either.

Phew that was a long post...I deserve a drink.

Edit: Oh, if you're intrsted in ultrabooks, check these out, great reviews:

Asus Zenbook Prime UX31A Touch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b33HtvwBgz8
Dell XPS 13: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odAWVEadCZw
Samsung Series 7 Ultra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEj2j-U67XQ

I know Asus isnt't listed, but I'm giving you the best advice. I've had almost all brands and when I bought my first Asus, I punched myself right in the face for being so stupid to never have bought an Asus before. It is by far the best manufacturer of laptops. And I mentioned Apple because their laptops are great; excellent design, quality and performance. They are ofcourse VERY expensive, so I would never get one myself. But if Asus ever starts making crappy laptops I will switch to Apple, because the rest is just garbage.

^Apple's laptops really have a nice design, but their performance isn't on par with their cost.

I wouldn't generalize like that.


Yea, I don't see why most laptops are glossy. On sunny days it's fucking annoying. Though I find the glossy screen to be easier to clean. I couldn't get the shit off my old desktop screen very easy.

However, Apple laptops have only 1 year warranty, as most of the other laptops I have seen have 2 year or even 3 years (Of course you can extend apple's warranty, but it's going to cost you more, for MacBook Pro w Retina it going to be $349). And usually when something has that short warranty, it does refer to the fact that it might not last so long, and if I bought a two-thousand € laptop, I certainly couldn't afford buying a new one after a year or two max.

Oh and about Apple's Macbooks, yes they are pretty neat and all (but don't they have glossy screens also?) that, but I would either buy an Asus ultrabook (cheaper, but still great design and good specs for the price) or a professional laptop if I need the performance and not so much the mobility. If you want a gaming laptop, you could try something like Lenovo Y500, but then again, might be bit out of your budget.