Hi guys, im looking for a new computer/laptop, im looking for something around 1200 bucks (can) with with great graphics. Im currently considering this guy,

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/hewlett-packard-hp-envy-14-5-intel-core-i5-460m-laptop-14-1150ca-silver-14-1150ca/10154538.aspx?path=a3fc836947f539eabadf488362d3437den02

If you have any better id appreciate it

This is what a friend of mine is getting

http://www.londondrugs.com/Cultures/en-US/Product+Detail/Computers.htm?BreadCrumbs=Computers;Computers;Computer%20Systems;Desktop%20Systems&ProductID=4447207&ProductTab=3

edit: Holy [censored], that laptop is beastly

A desktop would be better bang for your buck. Just pointing that out.

you may want to try buying refurbished, you can get a 1200 pc for nearly half if not better. but if you do, YOU MUST spend a little more for the warranty because chances are good that it will break down, if you get the warranty and it does break down they'll replace it (depending on the warranty, get a legit warranty and not one of the ones that give you the lowered standard versions if it breaks)

Check the online outlets (Lenovo or Dell) -- you get get a nice system with a similar video card for around 1000 (or less).

I just REALLY hope that my computer can run this game on max (well) because we all know how oblivion went haha, but its being developed on consoles that should help, right?

You're so much better off buying a computer, you can buy a very good one for around ￡800. Don't know why people think gaming laptops are better than gaming computers. :unsure2:

Why waste graphics on a laptop? If you want to game, I strongly recommend a desktop.

I built a custom desktop PC for around 650-700$ after rebates and it runs any game I want it to pretty much flawlessly.

Got all my stuff from newegg.

For your own sake don't buy laptop. Buy desktop from reliable company that gives good warranty or buy parts from newegg and make one yourself. I got a sweet rig currently for $1.1k or so. Bought all parts from newegg except junk like dvd rom and hard drives because I still had my old ones that are quite sufficient for the task.

Also, laptops overheat and go bye bye and vga drivers are too unstable.


ps. Try to avoid Dell if you can. They custom build their junk and make things like motherboards non-upgradable for new components (cpus for example) because they want you to PAY them to UPGRADE whole system for you. My father has Gateway extreme gaming rig ( Idk wtf he got that for ) and its easily customizable in case feces hit the fan.

Hey OP, I have a laptop with nearly identical stats. It's a German build of the Acer 3820tg with an i5-450 and the same graphics card, the ATI 5650. It's a good rig, but check if it overheats. My laptop has no disk drive and two fans, but it's also only 13". That HP looks to be bigger so they might have been able to put a bigger fan in, but check anyways. Read up on a few user reviews, ask around on hardware forums.

I can play Mass Effect 2, New Vegas, most other fairly new games on high-ish graphics. I get around 30FPS on Fallout 3 with a whole bunch of mods installed.
So right now, given we don't know what the Skyrim requirements are, there's no way to know if it'll play. BUT, I would venture a guess that it should at least be able to handle low-medium graphics.

What the hell, I played Morrowind for 4 years on 8-12FPS and staring at the ground while running around. If Skyrim's half as good, it'll be worth it.

The main reason to get a laptop is portability. If you're going to be moving a lot, or can't afford to get a laptop and a desktop, go with this thing.

Why would anyone who is buying a new computer or laptop to play Skyrim buying one before even finding out what the specs are? To me that is stupid.

One: You don't know what the specs are and espically on a laptop you can't upgrade much.
Two: If you wait to buy that laptop in November, you will get something better for the same amount of money.
Three: You can be stuck with an expensive laptop that can't play Skyrim except on low stettings.

So wait till the official specs are announced at least and then double them to run Skyrim on max.

I actually started a very simular thread when FO3 was coming out, and the specs were not out yet. (first of all the OP may not even know wehter the specs have been announced yet or not) *the search function on thsi site is super baaaaaad* ultimately the op is probably just considering his or her options until the game comes out.

@OP, if you plan on building your own computer... be very careful, make sure your grounded from static electricity. no one on these forums warn people about this when they advize people to build their own computers. the slightest current of static from your fingers to your parts could short the board before you even put the screws in.

Whatever you do don't buy a prebuilt gaming computer, just build it yourself. It's not as hard as it sound plus you could save alot of money

The AMD 5650 card in the Envy 14 is not too bad, but http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5650.23697.0.html However it has pretty good battery life and it is great for a lot of tasks.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5650.23697.0.html

However the specific model you are looking at should be an absolute no go. Because the display is only 1366x768. There are versions of the Envy 14 with 1600x900, which is vastly superior for gaming and watching HD movies.

I have an Envy 15 with 1920x1080 display and a 1GB AMD 5830 card. This card is based on the desktop HD 5770 card, and it can deliver excellent frame rates on just about any recent game on highest detail settings, DX 11 at 1920x1080. It is night and day, trust me, at that resolution games many games look gorgeous. The particular model I have came with dual Intel SSDs in Raid0, 16GB RAM, USB 3.0, eSATA and i7-820QM and it is a lightning fast beast for creative suite tasks, video editing, etc., I have even done blu ray encoding with this laptop.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5830.24733.0.html


Unfortunately, the Envy 15 is no longer sold by HP and can only be purchased from some resellers or refurb models. The Envy 15 is the only thin (1.05", thinner than the Envy 14), portable laptop I am aware of that can play demanding games at 1920 x 1080.

The drawbacks with the Envy 15 are
- very little battery life (about 90 min with the quad core, a couple hours with the i5)
- no optical disc drive (that's why it is thin)
- since the case is metal it acts as a sort of heat sink, so it can get very hot on the bottom of the laptop near the power supply, if you are running demanding tasks or games while it is plugged in to AC power.

I use a Zalman NC 1000 laptop cooler, which does a great job of getting the underside to where it is cool to the touch. If I want to use it on my lap, I unplug from AC power first. I also purchased a 9-cell "slice" battery which fits like a shoe on the bottom of the case and effectively triples the battery life. It is extremely thin, so that with the slice battery attached, the laptop is still thinner than most other laptops.

Since you are looking at the Envy 14 and not an Alienware laptop, I imagine you may be more interested in a thin and sleek aesthetic, rather than the colored blinking disco space ship look in a laptop.

If that is the case I would suggest 4 options:

(1) Find an Envy 14 (or some other similar ATI 5650 laptop) with 1600x900 display
http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=m570&_nkw=envy+14+radiance


(2) Find an Envy 15 with 1920x1080 display
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-HP-ENVY-15-1067nr-i7-1-6GHz-500HDD-15-6-1920X1080-/370487347262?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item5642c4483e#ht_3329wt_1135
http://www.amazon.com/HP-15-1050NR-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Magnesium/dp/B002V3E1TK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1298616333&sr=8-1
http://cgi.ebay.com/HP-Envy-WR584UT-15-1155nr-Notebook-PC-Intel-Core-/390275974725?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item5ade42c645#ht_2338wt_1135


(3) There are a number of bulky, heavy gaming laptops on sites like http://www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-laptops-notebooks-gaming-laptops-ct-118_96_98.html get something with at least 1600x900 display, preferably 1920x1080 and one of the following cards:
AMD: 5830M, 6830M, 5850M, 6950M, 5870M, 6970M
NVIDIA: GT 360M, GT 445M, GT 450M, GTX 460M, GTX 480M or better


(4) Build a gaming desktop - much cheaper and a lot more powerful

Like everyone has said, get a desktop for gaming. Gaming laptops are a very, very poor choice in pretty much every situation.

As for a gaming laptop, take a look at this:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

And get a laptop with a good screen with the best graphics card you can afford. Skip looking at any that are Quadro or Firepro.

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220921

I have the earlier and more epensive model with the 5870 gpu, but this looks like it has a sligthly (10Ghz) higher cpu speed. Not sure if it's sandy bridge or not.
Mine also has 8Gb RAM and this has 4, but I know you can add more if you want.

Mine's awesome, so far I haven't had anything run bad on it. Metro 2033 runs on high with slight lagg at some points.

Although, as previously said, for gaming you should really go with a stationary. I got mine as a gift and because I now have to travel a lot.

I recently (yesterday!) got this:

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152204&cm_sp=ProductSpotlight-_-34-152-204-_-02162011

(Well, I guess it's technically going to be my fiancee's computer... I prefer desktops and still use my perfectly good 5-year-old system)

It's a laptop not without its quirks, like a low screen resolution - And it looks ridiculously dorky - but I think with the RAM and video card it's been given, it's up to the task of most PC games for the next couple years. Also, it doesn't say on the website, but the box claims that it actually has 2 hard drives in RAID 0 configuration. I think I'm going to try and remove that particular 'feature' in the future.

Both of those are good. The second is quite the catch at its price point even if that was US dollars, but of course it's sold out...

The laptop you linked seems to be an imrpoved version of mine I run the same graphics card but I'm missing 2gb of RAM and a little bit of processor speed

It should run anything that's going to come out in foreseeable future. I think you'll struggle to run tings on top settings but it's a good laptop. If you really want good performance for you money though, get a tower. I got mine extremely cheap thanks to government subsidy so I was happy enough:D

I would also recommand a desktop. Laptop become obsolete quite fast. I had my desktop for 6 years now... and the only original parts are the hard drive and disk drivers, and the case. You start good, then upgrade parts as your budget allows. Think next gen when you choose your mobo. You can find shops that will sell parts and build it for you if you're new to this. Plus, you will get to learn how that big box works. I learned so much this way in the past 10 years, I can't believe it myself!

As for the laptop you're looking at, maybe you can find a similar one with the i7 CPU instead, which is not that much more expensive, but has hyper-threading (like having 8 cores).
If you plan on building it yourself, this is a good http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/dynex-dynex-computer-tool-kit-dx-tolkitgs-dx-tolkitgs/10154267.aspx?path=ced70add7e65bdd663503e36570f8f74en02&lang=fr-CA&pcname=&sku=10154267. It has the anti-static thingy... this is not a professional kit, but, hey...

Edit: Newegg is a good place to shop, but although they have a canadian site, products come from the US, you need to think about customs. Mostly just federal and provincial taxes and handling fees. Maybe you won't get them either, it's random, really.