It's new gaming laptop time. Asus G550JK vs X510JK or something else?

[jimykx]

Finally the time has come. After 6 years, this laptop is still running strong and hot, but I need to upgrade it since I haven't been able to play new games for the last 3 years. (I had the luck to use someone elses laptop for a while).

I have already been doing a lot of thinking. Here in Poland there is a laptop store with very cheap oportunities (outlet laptops (new) with slight damage (from factory) on them, and are way cheaper than normal price because of it), and you can check them out before buying them. [also I don't pay tax since I'm foreigner ]

Right now I'm in doubt between:

Asus R510JK (or X510JK)
680€
Core i7 4710HQ | LCD : 15.6" FHD | nVidia GTX850M 2GB | RAM: 8GB | HDD 750gb 7200rpm | Windows 8.1 (2 years guarantee) (or a SSD: 120GB + HDD: 750GB USB instead of the 750gb hdd)

(cheaper, SSD alternative, better processor, plastic casing, shitty webcam[dont care so much], not so great screen, noisy buttons and touchpad?)

and:

ASUS G550JK
750€
Core i7 4700HQ | LCD : 15.6" FHD | nVidia GTX850M 2GB | RAM: 8GB | HDD: 750GB 7200rpm | Windows 8.1 (2 years guarantee)

(more expensive, worse processor, aluminium casing, hd webcam, good screen, is labeled as "Gaming" therefore might have better cooling since it was built for it in mind?)

I added some of the cons/pros I've got from reviews and from my perspective. I don't know if the SSD alternative is worth it, since I like to have plenty of games installed and I assume it's not good to run games through an usb external hard drive and can impact performance? So it's better to just have a big HDD, right? I don't care about system boot up times that much.

I also had the:
Lenovo y50-70 677€.
Core i7 4710HQ | LCD: 15.6" | Nvidia GTX860M | RAM: 16GB | SSD: 240GB | Windows 8.1 64bit
Amazing price for what you are getting, but I have had Asus for all these years, my friends too, and never had any complaints with asus premium quality. SO i'd be afraid of buying something with cheap materials that in 2 years or less will have dead fans or dead pixels, or bad conections to the screen, or burnt graphics card or other similar problems.. And after reading some posts with issues with the computer I decided to put it aside.
I really love Asus. the computer I have right now Has 6 years (7 since manufactured) and the only problem I had was a dead fan (which I managed to replace by myself) and some overheating issues. Anyways the pc ran hot and heavy gaming during all these years and not a single different problem.

[CptainCrunch]

With USB 3.0 and a good external hard drive (Maybe SSD and it be in a 3.0 case) I dont think you would notice the difference.

I personally don't really like Lenovo. I feel they make their stuff a little too cheap and it doesnt seem to do well over time. That's just my own experience.

I am leaning more toward the R510 model myself. The only thing that is a "concern" is the 750GB hard drives come in a 5400RPM. So you will want to watch that. You have it as the 7200RPM version above for both models, so be sure that is what you are getting.

I dont think you will be going wrong with either of them. I feel its going to be down to what you like in the options each one has.

[jimykx]

jeez, I wrote such a long answer and my PC crashed.
In sum, I also don't like the lenovo and put it out of my choice list. If I do get the R510 model I will take it with the 750gb 7200rpm disk, but could you tell me why are you leaning towards this one? It has the better processor, and from the videos of gameplay I have seen on youtube they both seem to handle games very similarly (nearly the same FPS at the same settings). I'm just worried the general case of the G550(aluminium, better keys etc..) and the better screen might make it a better choice in the long run? I'm not entirely convinced yet.

[signa]

To be honest, I would ask here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/
they have a really knowledgeable user base, especially with gaming laptops.

[jimykx]

Thanks signa! I have been asking around in a couple of places. Reddit has been pretty helpful too

[Eagle101]

I wholeheartedly agree with Signa, that website helped me buy my first laptop when i first started uni, i would say go with the ASUS gaming version you psoted (second choice) but ask there first

[signa]

whatever you get, an SSD is a must have.

[CptainCrunch]

jeez, I wrote such a long answer and my PC crashed.
In sum, I also don't like the lenovo and put it out of my choice list. If I do get the R510 model I will take it with the 750gb 7200rpm disk, but could you tell me why are you leaning towards this one? It has the better processor, and from the videos of gameplay I have seen on youtube they both seem to handle games very similarly (nearly the same FPS at the same settings). I'm just worried the general case of the G550(aluminium, better keys etc..) and the better screen might make it a better choice in the long run? I'm not entirely convinced yet.

What you said. I didn't find anything that made it much different from the higher priced one. I think the difference is going to come down to the little extra features between it and the higher priced model.

[jimykx]

whatever you get, an SSD is a must have.

Why do you say so? There is an option for the R510 for an 128g SSD. But thats all, nothing else. I need to buy an external USB HDD to connect to it and to actually have some storage space. I dont really care about windows booting up times and the 128SSD can only fit windows and maybe a game. Is it worth it? I can also go with a 400gb SSD but it gets far too expensive

[walker]

I like to go with the Lenovo Y50, it runs great when I play games

[walker]

These gaming laptops have a similar price, check out http://pcgamerhome.com/best-gaming-l...r-800-dollars/

[jimykx]

Hey Walker! Actually I got the Asus G550Jk for just about 500€ because it was refurbished. . If you are interested you can check that link to know more about the story of getting that computer :).
I also took some pictures here

I went with the Asus because I really believe Asus computers are premium quality. The lenovo is really nicely specd for its price, however I wouldn't get the lenovo because of all the bad reviews I read due to it's problems with being built with cheap materials and not so great screen.

[Shawn Zipay]

Laptop tech is so weird and foreign to me. Just from the names and the numbers of your components, I expected your CPU and GPU to be better in that laptop than my desktop (i5-2500K and GTX770). Apparently the CPU is about dead even and my GPU is slightly better.

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-4700HQ-vs-Intel-Core-i5-2500K

http://gpuboss.com/gpus/GeForce-GTX-850M-vs-GeForce-GTX-770

[jimykx]

Yeah, it's funny that you made this comparison because I didn't know this website and at the time I was wondering how much a similar Desktop would have costed me. This happens pretty much because laptop tech is all so small and compact, it couldn't really compare to it's PC counterpart.

[signa]

Now to put linux on it.