<p>I posted this in the engineering forum, forgetting CC has a computer forum. Though I'm somewhat sure of what I'll pick, I'd like some more input.</p>
<p>All three are essentially the same price (820ish before taxes). A 15.6" laptop. They come with 6GB (extra 2 gigs are free) ram, 500-640GB 7200rpm HDD, Blu-ray (free), a Radeon 6770m graphics card, and Windows 7.</p>
<p>I'm a casual gamer. Would like to play Starcraft 2, Bioshock 2, Skyrim, and similar games on the laptop. Watch some movies (maybe utilize that blu-ray player) and surf the web as well. I will also be an ECE major with concentration in software at Carnegie Mellon in the fall, so I'd like it to last me all four years (and then some maybe? lol).</p>
<p>Any suggestions would be nice. </p>
<p>If you are wondering, these are variations of the dv6 series from HP.</p>
<p>I don't want to spend the extra 100 to get the i7 with the 1080p screen.</p>
<p>I would suggest getting an HP Envy. Though HP may have a low reliability scores, The Envy is a premium laptop and one of HP’s highest ranking laptops . It has a 1gb graphics card for gaming and comes with a standard 2 year warranty. I have one and I love it.</p>
<p>I was actually hoping for a 15-16inch laptop. The only reason I’m not considering a 17 inch is portability. I’m not sure if a 14 will be too small for my liking.</p>
<p>Do not get an Envy. They have been having problems recently and the dv6 series is better for the money. The AMD CPU up there is one of the new Llanos and they have been having trouble with the drivers but that may be worked out. Intel CPUs are still better for pure processing power, but if you can sacrifice some of that for better gaming capability, the Llano is a good choice. My personal recommendation would be your first option with the 6770m.</p>
<p>Well no, but you shouldn’t need to. I5 dual cores use something called hyper threading where each of the 2 cores virtually processes two cores, so that you virtually have 4 cores. Unless you want very heavy gaming you’ll be fine with the lowest end Sandy Bridge i5.</p>
<p>Samsung NP-RF711-S02US Notebook PC - Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM quad-core processor which has Turbo Boost, 4GB DDR3, 750GB HDD, DVDRW, Bluetooth 3.0, 17.3" Display, NVIDIA GeForce GT540M, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, With 1GB of dedicated graphics memory with the NVIDIA® Optimus™ GeForce GT 540M graphics engine, USB 3.0, Black $899.99</p>
<p>gojack, I see you are trying to help so I’ll give you everything I’m specifically looking for.</p>
<p>Under $830 before taxes. (I live in NY, taxes are atrocious)
A higher resolution screen than 133x768. Preferably 1920x1080 but no necessary.
A good graphics card like the 540m/6770m.
i5/i7 processor.</p>
<p>HP is getting on my nerves about a previous order and I don’t think I want to buy what I wanted to buy from them. (Plus it would take another month just to create, and another week to ship)</p>
<p>CompUSA (Post #11 above) does not charge sales tax in NY,
Does that computer meets your needs?
(NY sales tax 9%? So total budget is $900?)
-540M
-1600 x 900
-i7</p>