The Sims is not a very graphics intense game, so you could play on the Asus N550JV-DB72T which has a much nicer IPS touchscreen than the TN screen on the Y510p. If you can wait until May, you could even get the Y510p's successor model, the Lenovo Y50. It should be more portable and only use one graphics card instead of the Y510p's SLI configuration. As such, it should generate less heat too.

ASUS N550JV (15.6")

---

Selling Points:

• Decent display (good image quality; good resolution for the size)
  
• Display is IPS (virtually no color distortion from off-axis viewing)
  
• Some models: Touchscreen
  
• NVIDIA GT 750M (DDR3 variant)
  
  

  Additional Notes:
  

  
  

• Matte/antiglare display (both touch and non-touch, though a reasonable assumption would be that the matte finish on the non-touch is less reflective)
  
• Weight: 5.9 lbs / 2.68 kg
  
  ---
  
  

  Buying:
  

  
  

  Buying in the USA
  

  
  

• Adorama, non-touch: http://www.adorama.com/ASN550JVDB71.html?gclid=CIaj5fvRlLkCFXRp7AodKEYAKQ
  
• PowerNotebooks, non-touch: http://powernotebooks.com/ASUS-N550JV-DB71-gaming-laptops-notebooks-sys-5740.html
  
• XoticPC, non-touch: http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-n550jvdb71-eta-midaugust-p-6115.html
  
• Note: Configuration options are XoticPC swapping out parts from a pre-configured base model. For some, it might be more worth it to perform the swaps yourself.
  
• BestBuy, non-touch: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/15.6%22+Touch-Screen+Laptop+-+8GB+Memory+-+1TB+Hard+Drive/9560052.p;jsessionid=650912A9E3E714D656E0E55711DBF8BD.bbolsp-app03-178?id=1219021959158&skuId=9560052&st=n550jv&cp=1&lp=1
  
• Amazon, touchscreen: http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-N550JV-DB72T-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-Laptop/dp/B00COQ4ETG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377298357&sr=8-1&keywords=n550jv
  
• TigerDirect, touchscreen: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=8229454&CatId=3998
  
• Adorama, touchscreen: http://www.adorama.com/ASN550JVDB72.html
  
• BHPhotoVideo, non-touch: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/983615-REG/asus_n550jv_db71_15_6_notebook_computer.html
  
• PowerNotebooks, touchscreen: http://powernotebooks.com/ASUS-N550JV-DB72-touchscreen-gaming-laptops-notebooks-sys-5950.html
  
• BestBuy, touchscreen: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/15.6%22+Touch-Screen+Laptop+-+8GB+Memory+-+1TB+Hard+Drive/9559948.p;jsessionid=650912A9E3E714D656E0E55711DBF8BD.bbolsp-app03-178?id=1219021958372&skuId=9559948&st=n550jv&cp=1&lp=2
  
• Microcenter, touchscreen: http://www.microcenter.com/product/415320/N550JV-DB72T_156_Laptop_Computer_-_Grey_Aluminum
  
• BHPhotoVideo, touchscreen: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=&sku=983616&is=REG&Q=&A=details
  
  
  

  Buying in Canada
  

  
  

• Newegg, non-touch: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231098CVF
  
• http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=710_577_369&item_id=061248
  
  
  

  Buying in the UK
  

  
  

• SaveOnLaptops, touchscreen: http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/ASUS_N550JV-CM067H_1385703.html
  
• PCWorld, touchscreen: http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/laptops-netbooks/laptops/laptops/asus-n550jv-cm067h-15-6-touchscreen-laptop-21490052-pdt.html

http://www.amazon.com/G750JS-DS71-17-3-inch-Gaming-GeForce-Graphics/dp/B00IEV85OU/ref=psdc1_t3_B00COQIKB4_B00IEV85OU

If you want to go a few hundred over $2000

http://www.amazon.com/G750JZ-DS71-17-3-inch-Gaming-GeForce-Graphics/dp/B00IAACWH6/ref=psdc1_t2_B00IEV85OU_B00IAACWH6

Major difference is the GPU..

I'll say what most people will say on here.. Just get a desktop and a cheap laptop. With that $2000, you can build a computer that will be 10 times better than the laptop.

I had a rough $2000 budget and I decided to do that.

Build:http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/210qze/build_complete_ps4_upgrade/

Laptop: http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-N550JV-DB72T-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-Laptop/dp/B00COQ4ETG/

Upgraded the HDD

The ASUS N550JV is what I would get if you want a balance of performance, quality, and battery life. It gets reasonable battery life and is definitely well made. It also has a really high quality touch display and the dedicated graphics are definitely not going to hurt you. It won't use the dedicated graphics while on battery anyways, Optimus technology automatically switches to the integrated graphics for that.

If you are looking at that Asus, I would HIGHLY suggest you take a serious look at this model instead:

ASUS N550JV-DB72T 15.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop

For an extra ~$100, you get much better hardware (Amazon's spec concerning the resolution is wrong - its actually 1920x1080). Its got a nVIDIA GT 750M GDDR3 (2.0GB) which is even better than the Vivobook you linked too, and has full HD resolution and a touch screen.

Going back to your original question, anything less than full HD is just too low. A 1366 x 768 display has HALF as many pixels as a full HD screen. That's a HUGE difference.


EDIT: I needed to update something. I called Amazon, and at least according to the lady I talk to, the one they are selling does in fact have a 1366 x 768 screen. It doesn't make sense from all the other specs that I have read. It should be a 1080 screen, but according to the info she had, its only 768. Because of that, I decided to order it from GenTechPC and hope to have it here in a week's time. According to both their website and a video they have posted on YouTube, the one they are selling is indeed 1080.

Its stupid that Asus wouldn't use different part numbers for differently-spec'ed machines.

Dell xps 15 is basically a MacBook pro equivalent for windows. Starting price for 15" is around 1500.

Surface pro 3 is great for portability and illustration (ntrig pen and tablet mode). This thing is a beast and looks beautiful at the same time. A decent spec would run you around 1100 I think. Visit r/surface for performance questions.

And check out things like this Asus with touch screen and an ips monitor on a nice resolution with an 840m dedicated gpu. This is not your choice if you want battery life.

I would suggest Lenovo laptops, but even though they have great hardware I can't praise their screens. Speaking from personal experience here.

DO NOT get the GT60. Battery life is meh and it is thick. More than 1.5 inch on the back.

The Dell Inspiron 15 7000 would be the best choice if you want something with great battery life. An alternative would be the Asus N550JV-DB72T:

• 15.6 inch, 1920x1080p touchscreen
  
• Intel i7-4700HQ + 8 GB of RAM
  
• 1 T HDD
  
• Nvidia GT750M with 2 GB of GDDR3 RAM
  
• Price: $980
  
  Though it doesn't have the battery life of the Inspiron, but you should get around 5 hours. And if you video projects aren't that big, you could get a Asus Q501LA:
  
  
• 15.6 inch, 1920x1080p touchscreen
  
• Intel i5-4500U + 8 GB of RAM
  
• 750 GB HDD
  
• Intel HD4400 graphics
  
• Price: $750

Great keyboard? No to much...everything else, not too bad.
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-N550JV-DB72T-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-Laptop/dp/B00COQ4ETG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377298357&sr=8-1&keywords=n550jv#productDetails

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-N550JV-DB72T-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-Laptop/dp/B00COQ4ETG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397912887&sr=8-1&keywords=N750JV

Not sure if exactly same specs. Best guess, Asus isn't selling direct. Not 100% sure though. I couldn't find how to purchase either.

Asus for $980
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00COQ4ETG/

I would reccomend the ASUS G550JK , when it gets released or newegg gets more stock in.

It boasts an i7 4710HQ (2.50GHZ), 8 gigs of ram, a beautiful 15.6 IPS 1080P screen, and the brand new Nvidia GTX 850M.

Nvidia just bumped up the *50M Series to GTX from GT, meaning that they wanted this particular series to be more cost-efficient and gaming oriented. It is more compareable to a 760M or 770M GPU than it was to a 750M (yada yada Its really good for the price). It will have no problem maxing out Dota 2 and TF2, and all the

ASUS generally has great build quality in their newer stuff, especially the ROG series. The laptop itself weighs 6 pounds and looks absolutely stunning in black/red.

Only bad thing is the meh battery life at around 4 hours, and the lack of an SSD.

Amazon will ship this out on July 20th if you want to get it from them.

If thats a bit out of your price range the ASUS N550JV (used/refurb).
It is similar to the ROG, same styling, similar processor, previous gen GPU. You can get a used one for $780 or a refurbished one for $860.
This model has a 15.6" touch screen 1080p display and will run Dota 2 and TF2 no problem at max settings, but it will have trouble with modern games. You should also consider switching the HDD on this thing, as a 1TB 5400rpm is big, but is by no means fast.

oh well cant find anything better for my budget:/
iv searched amazon as well can this do the trick
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-N550JV-DB72T-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-Laptop/dp/B00COQ4ETG/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1397405342&sr=1-1 ?

moreover what would u suggest tbh could u give me an example of what aspects can i play say tera/cs go/bioshock infinite in maybe mid settings?? thats what im generally looking for.thanks again

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00COQ4ETG

This seems to fit your needs well. My partner is a PhD student and this is what we got for her when she started. It has been great so far. Construction is solid and if you register it within 60 days of purchase it comes with 1 year of accidental damage warranty so you are covered against everything, even drops or water damage.

Specifications

Operating System: Windows 8 (64-bit)

Display: 15.6" FHD (1920x1080) with Touch Screen

Processor: Intel Core i7-4700HQ 2.4GHz

Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT 750 2G DDR3

Memory: 8GB DDR3

Storage: 1TB (5400 RPM ) + 32GB ASUS WebStorage2

Optical Drive: DVD Super-Multi

Wireless: 802.11 b/g/n; Bluetooth 4.0

Speakers: Stereo speakers with ASUS SonicMaster Lite technology

Camera: HD Camera

Card Reader: SD, MMC


Battery: 59Whrs, 4000MAH, 4S1P, 4-cell Li-ion polymer Battery Pack with up to 5.5 hours

Dimensions: 15.08" x 10.04" x 1.09" ~ 1.09"(W x D x H)

Weight: 5.9 lbs

Color: Gray

Input/ Output:

1 x Audio jack combo

1 x HDMI port

1 x VGA port

3 x USB 3.0 port

1 x RJ45 LAN

ASUS N550JV-DB72T 15.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop, about 1 year of use, no hard drive. No issues.

no, it doesn't. There aren't many good laptops with touchscreen. How much is it important to you?

I think the only option in your price range for a 15.6" gaming laptop with a touchscreen is the N550JV - it has several version and you need the one with 1080p IPS touchscreen which is this.

However, keep in mind that it is really slower for gaming than many of the other options since it only has a GT 750M DDR3

Whoa, where is this at? I just bought the i5 version and is definitely not as great as [my old one] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00COQ4ETG/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1), except for the graphics card.

Someone suggested the Asus N55JV. How do you think the Lenovo compares to it? Is there a site that will give me a side by side of these 2?

oh and also somebody suggested this:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00COQ4ETG/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00COQ4ETG&linkCode=as2&tag=gameaholicorg-20#productDetails

It says it has a 768p display, but a max resolution of 1080p. What does this mean?

This one

I added 4gb of ram, a 256gb ssd and windows 7 on mine. Great machine.

I've been looking at the Asus N550JV lately and I'm becoming more interested in this deal. Asus is by far my favorite laptop brand, but I might be biased being that they're all I've owned. This also comes with an optical drive if you want. There's a bit of a price difference, but ASUS also throws in 1 year of accidental damage protection which might be worth it.

I customized it here from XoticPC, but I didn't customize the processor.

I also see it on Amazon with the same processor, here.

http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-N550-15-Inch-Laptop-VERSION/dp/B00COQ4ETG

Hey just realized I forgot to link a product page. Here it is, and fixed in the post.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HIY96WO/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00HIY96WO&linkCode=as2&tag=cyberjecom-20

That is not what that link leads to.

This is the link to the Asus N550JV-DB72T:
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-N550JV-DB72T-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-Laptop/dp/B00COQ4ETG/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1396380985&sr=1-1&keywords=Asus+N550JV-DB72T

Here are some links for the product in the above comment for different countries:

Amazon Smile Link: Asus N550JV-DB72T


|Country|Link|Charity Links|
|:-----------|:------------|:------------|
|USA|smile.amazon.com|EFF|
|UK|www.amazon.co.uk|Macmillan|
|Spain|www.amazon.es||
|France|www.amazon.fr||
|Japan|www.amazon.co.jp||
|Canada|www.amazon.ca||
|Italy|www.amazon.it||




To help donate money to charity, please have a look at this thread.

This bot is currently in testing so let me know what you think by voting (or commenting). The thread for feature requests can be found here.

If the link is bringing up a stick of RAM for anyone else, here's the laptop he's talking about

What do you think of this?

The ASUS N550 has a bigger screen and an i7 for $50 more (still a touchscreen).

The Lenovo Y510P (albeit, manufacture refurbished) is cheaper and has dual 750Ms, a quad core i7, 16 gigs of ram, and a hybrid SSD (no touchscreen).

Both of these offer a LOT more bang for your buck than the Acer Aspire V7. I'd pick the Lenovo Y510P.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00COQ4ETG?ref_=pe_527950_34207380

Amazing laptop. Solid performance, decent discrete graphics card, sleek aluminum chassis with excellent build quality, full size backlit keyboard, Apple-style multitouch gesture track-pad, 1920x1080 resolution IPS display with high quality touch screen (not super useful but nice to have when you want it). Only negative is that it doesn't come with an SSD.

I disabled secure boot and have been running dual boot debian/win8(comes stock) without issue. Debian boots in about 8 seconds. I had to install xbacklight to adjust backlight settings in linux, but it worked without additional configuration. I booted into win8 once just to verify that grub was able to do it (the win8 netflix app isn't half bad).

This model seems identical, except for the fact that it is touchscreen. Would it be worth it to get that one instead? Also, if I'm going to be replacing the HDD, wouldn't it be worth it to get something larger and faster like a Samsung 840 Pro/EVO? And do you know if there is an mSATA port inside the laptop? Thanks.