Looking for a mid-high range 17" laptop for gaming and everyday use (Dell preferred)

[zakman14]

Looking for a new desktop replacement machine to replace my 7-year old Dell Inspiron 9300. Need something that can keep up with recent games and has enough graphics oomph to last for the next couple (2-3) years.

What is your budget?
$1500

What country will you be buying this in?
USA

What size notebook do you prefer?
Desktop Replacement (17-inch + screen)

What brands do you like or dislike?
Like: Dell
Dislike: None

Would you consider a refurbished laptop?
No

What are the primary tasks you need this notebook for?
Web Surfing, Listening to Music, Movie Streaming and Viewing, Casual Gaming, Graphic Intense 3D Gaming

Games: BF3, WoW, Borderlands, Deus Ex: HR, Fallout 3, Warhammer 40k series

Where will you be using this laptop?
Mostly on my desk as a desktop replacement, but will be travelling with it occasionally (once or twice a month)

How many hours of battery life do you need?
2

Will you be buying online or in store?
Online

Which OS do you prefer?
Windows 7

List the screen resolutions that interest you:
Max Resolution (1920 x 1080)

Do you prefer a glossy or matte screen?
Matte is fine

Is the laptops design important to you?
Yes - don't want something insanely flashy like Alienware.

Approximately what date will you be buying this laptop?
August 2012

How long do you want this laptop to last?
3+ years

How much storage capacity do you need?
1 TB+

Are you interested in SSD for storage?
Maybe

Do you want a built-in optical drive, what type?
Blu-Ray

[Androyed]

Mid-high range means the GT 650M GDDR5 GPU for most, or maybe the GTX 660M. And if you prefer Dell and a 17" screen, I think the Inspiron 17R Special Edition is a really good choice. The only "problem" is, is that it's much lower than your budget. You can get it for like $1000 or even less with coupon codes and other discounts.

New Inspiron 17R Special Edition Laptop
There are several configurations, but this one costs $1099
3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM processor (6M Cache, up to 3.3 GHz)
Windows® 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-Bit, English
17.3" Full High Definition (1080p) LED Display with Anti-Glare
8GB3 Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
1TB 5400RPM SATA HDD + 32GB mSATA SSD w/ Intel Smart Response
8X Tray Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
Nvidia GeForce GT 650M 2GB
90 days Premium Phone Support + 1 Year In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis
7.23 lbs

You could pay more and go for a 3D screen, but I don't know if that's worth it. The fact that you can pay $1500 doesn't mean you should. You could spend the money on other things, like a monitor, or take your girlfriend out to dinner, I don't know

Don't know what you think of as good looks for a laptop, but I quite like the 17R SE's design. It looks professional, but it isn't boring. That's just my opinion.

You said you were interested in a SSD for storage. Right now this configuration has a 1TB HDD with 32GB mSATA SSD for caching. As you may know, this isn't the same as a full blown SSD, but it certainly is faster than just a 1TB HDD. Now, what I would suggest is the following. Since you aren't over your budget yet, you have some money to spend. Like I said, just because you can doesn't mean you should, but buying a SSD is a smart choice in my opinion. SSD's are already amazingly fast, and will be even faster with Windows 8. What I would suggest is buying a "small" 128GB or 256GB Samsung 830 SSD, that you can put in the remaining harddrive bay (one of the advantages of a 17" laptop!). Then you could install the OS and programs on there, and use the 1TB HDD with 32GB mSATA SSD for storage.

Tell me what you think.

[Euclid_Mpls]

I know you indicated no to refurbished systems but you might want to take a look at the Dell outlet for an m6600 precision. These all come with 3 year standard next business day onsite service. It is a little picked over now due to the current 20% coupon but you can score some amazing deals/specs if you are patient. Also, do not hesitate to call the outlet up - they have access to more inventory than is online and you can often haggle with them for additional discounts. I was able to score the following for under $1200 delivered:

i7-2860QM
1920x1080 touch screen
256 mg solid state drive
8 gig ram
m8900 fire pro graphics (same chip as 6970m)

After using Dell's business line of laptops, I don't think I could ever go back to the consumer side.

[zakman14]

Mid-high range means the GT 650M GDDR5 GPU for most, or maybe the GTX 660M. And if you prefer Dell and a 17" screen, I think the Inspiron 17R Special Edition is a really good choice. The only "problem" is, is that it's much lower than your budget. You can get it for like $1000 or even less with coupon codes and other discounts.

You know, I was about to buy that exact same model - the only thing really holding me back is that I can't get it from Dell with a 7200-rpm speed hard drive. I plan to be doing a decent amount of gaming on this machine, and would like it to be well-balanced all around, performance-wise. Do SSDs perform well with games?

I'm also a bit cautious about SSD drives, having never owned a system with one in the past. I've heard they don't last as long as regular hard drives. Is this true, or have they improved recently?

[Androyed]

You know, I was about to buy that exact same model - the only thing really holding me back is that I can't get it from Dell with a 7200-rpm speed hard drive. I plan to be doing a decent amount of gaming on this machine, and would like it to be well-balanced all around, performance-wise. Do SSDs perform well with games?

I'm also a bit cautious about SSD drives, having never owned a system with one in the past. I've heard they don't last as long as regular hard drives. Is this true, or have they improved recently?

The only reason to buy a HDD nowadays is because you pay a lot less per GB. To answer your questions:

SSD do perform well with games, but don't expect more FPS. Loading will be much faster though.

They last longer than HDDs, and will fail less often/almost never.

What most people do, is this: they buy a "small" 128GB or 256GB SSD (Samsung 830 or Crucial M4 is good), which usually costs like 100 dollar for 128GB, or less than 200 dollar for 256GB. Besides that, they just use the HDD that was delivered in the laptop. In this case, you need two harddrive bays, but most 17" laptops come with two bays (as does the Inspiron 17R SE). In this case, it doesn't really matter anymore if the HDD is 5400rpm or 7200rpm, because you will be using it as storage anyway. The OS, your games and your programs will be installed on the SSD.

I think a SSD is one of the best investments you can make nowadays. It won't improve your gaming performance, but your laptop will feel much, much smoother. You will need to reinstall Windows on your SSD though, but that isn't really difficult.

Oh, and by the way; in the case of the 17R SE we are talking about a 1TB HDD WITH 32GB mSATA SSD (not the same as full blown SSD), which will be much faster than a 7200rpm HDD.