Laptop for virtulisation and bit of gaming under $1000.00

[DUAL]

Hi,

Looking for a laptop for some Windows Virtualisation (Vmworkstation) and bit of casual gaming, ideally 8GB of RAM and fast disk IO would be high on list.

USB 3.0 would be a must but not much else other then whats been mentioned is required, optical drive would be desirable.

Looking to pick one up soon so I can claim on tax so apologies if I've been vague.

Not overly fussed about screen


Thanks in advance

[Synjin]

Originally Posted by DUAL

Hi,

Looking for a laptop for some Windows Virtualisation (Vmworkstation) and bit of casual gaming, ideally 8GB of RAM and fast disk IO would be high on list.

USB 3.0 would be a must but not much else other then whats been mentioned is required, optical drive would be desirable.

Looking to pick one up soon so I can claim on tax so apologies if I've been vague.

Not overly fussed about screen


Thanks in advance

Any brand preference?

Dell Inspirion 15r $848. Spend the remaining to get the biggest SSD you can afford and use the 1TB in an external? Not sure if it has USB 3 or not but has a good cpu and 8gb of ram.


Processor 3rd Gen Intel® Core™ i7-3612QM Processor (6MB cache, up to 3.1 GHz)
Operating System Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit (English)
Display 15.6" HD WLED True-Life (1366x768)
Memory2 8GB2 DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
Hard Drive 1.0TB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Video Card AMD Radeon™ HD 7670M DDR3 1GB
Optical Drive 12.7" SATA Tray Load DVD+/-RW
Warranty 1Yr Carry-In Service after Remote Diagnosis
Advertised System Weight 2.74kg3

[bsbozzy]

Originally Posted by DUAL

Hi,

Looking for a laptop for some Windows Virtualisation (Vmworkstation) and bit of casual gaming, ideally 8GB of RAM and fast disk IO would be high on list.

USB 3.0 would be a must but not much else other then whats been mentioned is required, optical drive would be desirable.

Looking to pick one up soon so I can claim on tax so apologies if I've been vague.

Not overly fussed about screen


Thanks in advance

Pickup a refurb from here:

http://www.graysonline.com/search.aspx?q=i7+1080

1 year warranty.

I bought quite a few over the last year and all still going strong

Originally Posted by Synjin

Any brand preference?

Dell Inspirion 15r $848. Spend the remaining to get the biggest SSD you can afford and use the 1TB in an external? Not sure if it has USB 3 or not but has a good cpu and 8gb of ram.


Processor 3rd Gen Intel® Core™ i7-3612QM Processor (6MB cache, up to 3.1 GHz)
Operating System Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit (English)
Display 15.6" HD WLED True-Life (1366x768)
Memory2 8GB2 DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
Hard Drive 1.0TB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Video Card AMD Radeon™ HD 7670M DDR3 1GB
Optical Drive 12.7" SATA Tray Load DVD+/-RW
Warranty 1Yr Carry-In Service after Remote Diagnosis
Advertised System Weight 2.74kg3

1366x768 for gaming and virtualisation? eww.

[Synjin]

When im travelling about I am always in and out of virtual machines on the same resolution. Running a single screen is much more of a hinderance and is 'a bit of gaming' on a sub $1000 laptop is resolution really an issue?

Disk IO RAM and CPU in that order would be my main priority.

[koolio1234]

Go for the dell, I've heard lots of good about them regarding build quality and value for money. That CPU packs quite a punch from what I've seen, good value at <$900

[Mathuisella]

Originally Posted by Synjin

Any brand preference?

Dell Inspirion 15r $848. Spend the remaining to get the biggest SSD you can afford and use the 1TB in an external? Not sure if it has USB 3 or not but has a good cpu and 8gb of ram.


Processor 3rd Gen Intel® Core™ i7-3612QM Processor (6MB cache, up to 3.1 GHz)
Operating System Windows® 7 Home Premium 64bit (English)
Display 15.6" HD WLED True-Life (1366x768)
Memory2 8GB2 DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
Hard Drive 1.0TB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Video Card AMD Radeon™ HD 7670M DDR3 1GB
Optical Drive 12.7" SATA Tray Load DVD+/-RW
Warranty 1Yr Carry-In Service after Remote Diagnosis
Advertised System Weight 2.74kg3

that looks NICE, except for the screen size and resolution. is there a 17" model with 1080p ?

edit: vid card needs 2gig ram on it too ;(

[koolio1234]

The inspirion 15 comes in a special edition with upgraded 1080p screen. It was around $1100 mark, seems to be the cheapest you can get a 1080p screen in a laptop.

[SmolderinCorpse]

http://configure.ap.dell.com/dellsto...=dhs&cs=audhs1

$1,098.991

Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 2230, 802.11b/g/n + Bluetooth v4.0
mSATA SSD - 32GB (Intel® SRT enhancement)
Cyberlink PowerDVD Software for Blu-ray (For Win7 HP/UI/Pro)
8-in-1 Memory Card Reader: SD, SDXC, SDHC, MS, MS-Pro, MMC, MMC+, XD
Wireless Display (WIDI) Application & Driver
3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3612QM Processor (6MB cache, up to 3.1 GHz)
Microsoft® Office Starter 2010: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook
Inspiron 15R (7520) BTX Base
15.6" FHD Anti-glare (1920x1080)
8GB 2 DIMM (4GB x2) DDR3 1600Mhz
1.0TB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
1Year Dell Online Backup2GB
12.7" Tray Load Blu-ray (BD) Combo Drive (BD Read Only)
AMD Radeon™ HD 7730M DDR3 2GB
6-cell Lithium Ion (48WHr) Battery
Mobile Broadband Not Included
Dell™ Backlight Chiclet Keyboard with Multi-touch Touchpad (English)
OS Media Kit Not Included
Integrated 1.0 mega pixel widescreen HD (1280 x 720)

[newgen]

Good to note as well that some of the Dells can take more than the 8GB of memory stated as their maximum supported. We have Latitude E6420's and E6220's running 16GB.