New Laptop Suggestions?

[quote=sirell]Since I moved countries, I gave my amazing desktop to a friend and my current laptop is basically running on fumes after having served me quite faithfully for 4-5 years. As such, in preparation for whatever may come in the future, I'm going to invest in a new laptop. I don't really have a price range, but let's assume £400-600 with a preferred price around £500-600 for something decent. Windows only. It should be primarily for work, but let's also assume the capacity to play some games :P. So, fire away![/quote]

[quote=Latest Legend]I always hear/read good things about ThinkPads, they really are primarily for non-graphical-intensive work though, none of them ship a dedicated video card AFAIK. But the latest Intel Graphics are decent enough for some casual gaming now and then in my experience. There are obviously more laptops around though. What do you use your laptop for? Is work the same as "some browsing and some word processing"? Because you don't even have to pay 400 pounds for that last time I checked. EDIT: Looks like ThinkPad is having a sale right now until the 26th. Bit early but I thought I'd mention it just in case. EDIT2: I lied, some have dedicated GPUs, and a quick look through the sale shows a few in your price range. There's a shitload of them in there, I would pick one with an SSD because that's what you're really looking for with your usage.[/quote]

[quote=sirell]Primarily it's meant to be intended for work (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc) as well as a helluva lot of browsing. That aside, I spend a lot of time watching videos and playing games (right now, I'm just playing Hearthstone cos this laptop is basically too shitty to run anything else I might play). Let's assume I want it to have the capacity to run LoL at medium to high graphics.[/quote]

[quote=mastrer1000]ok, so something along the lines of an i3 with pretty much any not too old dedicated gpu should be enough.[/quote]

[quote=Vynertje]I'd recommend buying a laptop for about 75 pounds below budget and manually add a solid state drive. Saves a lot of money and is great for work. Problem with a lot of laptops in that price category (at least here in The Netherlands) is that you can't get a SSD for that budget, so you have to add it yourself.[/quote]

[quote=sirell][quote=Vynertje]I'd recommend buying a laptop for about 75 pounds below budget and manually add a solid state drive. Saves a lot of money and is great for work. Problem with a lot of laptops in that price category (at least here in The Netherlands) is that you can't get a SSD for that budget, so you have to add it yourself.[/quote] Any specifics in mind or where to search? I don't know anything about computers, basically. and £300-400 price range might be more realistic but I'm flexible on this for the most part.[/quote]

[quote=mastrer1000][quote=sirell][quote=Vynertje]I'd recommend buying a laptop for about 75 pounds below budget and manually add a solid state drive. Saves a lot of money and is great for work. Problem with a lot of laptops in that price category (at least here in The Netherlands) is that you can't get a SSD for that budget, so you have to add it yourself.[/quote] Any specifics in mind or where to search? I don't know anything about computers, basically. and £300-400 price range might be more realistic but I'm flexible on this for the most part.[/quote] It will have to be a 2,5" drive. A Samsung Evo 850 would be a pretty good choice(75 pounds would get you 250gb according to amazon, but you can obviously opt for something bigger if you want to).[/quote]

[quote=sirell]What about the laptop component? That looks like a good SSD though; might not even need something that good.[/quote]

[quote=Vynertje]Crucial BX100 is a great and cheaper alternative[/quote]

[quote=sirell]Hm... currently looking at the ThinkPad L540 with an integrated 256gb SSD, costing just over £600. Intel Core i3-4100M Processor (3MB Cache, 2.50 GHz) Windows 8.1 64bit No Windows Office (got my own) 15.6" TFT HD (1366x768) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display WWAN Intel HD Graphics 4600 4GB PC3-12800 DDR3L SDRAM 1600MHz SODIMM 256GB Solid State Drive, OPAL SATA3 DVD Recordable 8x Max Dual Layer Intel Single Band Wireless 7260BN with Bluetooth 4.0 Integrated Mobile Broadband upgradable Thoughts?[/quote]