New computer - Laptop

Hope you can help me again.

I am looking to buy a laptop for about 400 - 500 dollars to play occasionally casual or adventure games.
Mostly it is for family tree research with lots of files and downloads. I still have my desktop xp computer which I will have offline. I would like a big screen and not to heavy to carry.

Which models and brands do you recommend??

Thank you for the help

Go to a shop that has laptops on display and choose one that has a screen the size you want and a keyboard that feels reasonably good to type on. You're not likely to get good adventure gaming in that price range, though most casual games will probably work.

What price range are we looking at?

Here is what I found at Fry's Electronics in California
Dell Inspiron i15RV-6146BLK, Intel Core i3-3227U, 15.6" Display, Notebook with 6gb memory, 500gb hard drive, Windows 8.1
448.00

Didn't you say $400 - $500? The one you mention will do what Jenny says. It would probably play very low end adventure games, but that's it. The graphics is the important thing for gamers and this one has low end graphics integrated into the Core i3 processor.

Thank you

I edited while you were responding!

I bought two laptops from Toshiba direct and am happy with both of them. I took a look to see if they had anything on sale. Drac is quite correct you are not likely to get a graphics card on a laptop for $500 or less. Toshiba has a deal going where they are knocking off $150 from a $700 dollar machine. Check the link they will allow you to customize adding this Nvidia card.

2GB DDR3 NVIDIA ® GeForce® GT 740M with Optimus™ Technology

The 15 1/2 inch screen laptop is reduced from $700 to $549 And for $75.00 you can add the graphics card. That makes it $624. They shipped my two free. I did not check to see the shipping details. If nothing else this gives you something to compare to.

What do you think about the card Drac? I know nothing about laptop cards. I use mine for spread sheets, budgeting and like that. It never goes on the internet. Not sure what my wife does with hers. I really like my Toshiba.

Toshiba Sale

I suspected the one I mention was a low end computer. I will raise my budget to. I like a Toshiba and a Dell. I have never had a laptop before.
I was worried about the heat from the laptop and graphics card. I will be using a mouse for this one.

This one is for the occasional adventure game - like Raven and casual Big Fish Games. Mostly for downloading and family tree research.

Thank you for the direction to go to.

You are quite welcome. As I said we bought two Toshiba Satellite laptops. I bought mine about a year and a half ago. Then when my wife's Dell was about to kick the bucket we bought the second one from Toshiba Direct because. We have had great luck with them. I had Windows 7 installed they were one of the very few who would still provide 7.

Whichever way you go compare the video cards they offer. Graphics cards are not equal. I found HP was charging an arm and a leg for low end video cards. Almost twice what you would pay at places like New Egg.

I don't know a lot about mobile cards, but I did notice this one has Optimus technology which is supposed to be able to switch between your on-board graphics and the dedicated graphic. As I remember, it didn't always work the way people expected it to. Those issues may have been resolved though. Jenny or Inland will know more than I do.

If you are concerned about cooling, there are great laptop coolers available. Some have quiet fans and even offer extra USB ports.

If you plan on doing any adventure gaming at all, I would definitely recommend increasing your budget.

Optimus switching to low end graphics and giving poor performance during games is still an ongoing problem. It works properly for some games but not all of them.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/215530/discussions/0/828939978612481991/?l=spanish
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/9951445256
http://eu.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/9952285244

There are workarounds for some laptops -- like disabling Optimus in the BIOS and reinstalling the drivers as described here
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/Hardware/D...ll/td-p/4363279
Not all laptops have that option in the BIOS. With some laptops the only option is to disable switching to the more powerful graphics, leaving you with low end graphics all the time. That's fine for users whose main concern is with battery life, but it won't help with games.

Since this is my first laptop, does the screen size matter? 15 or 17?? I will using a mouse on this one.
I can go up to 1,000

I think I will be running family tree research that involves downloading pictures and documents. Some casual games like world riddles and royal envoy series.

I will be leaving the Myst (adventure)games and hidden object games to my desktop. It has a bigger screen- 22" Never was into RPG games.

Thank you

Your stated usage is the same as mine when I bought my Satellite. I don't remember what I spent, somewhere in the five hundred dollar range. Toshiba was having a sale on 17 inch. I think it was a six hundred plus for five hundred.

I bought an AMD processor instead of Intel because I heard graphics are better than Intel. I stuck with my plan and once in awhile I regret not being able to play Adventure games. I have not tried so maybe I could.

What I have done with AMD graphics is watch a few streaming live baseball games on the net. Usually if it is too hot at night and the deck looks inviting. With the AMD graphics I get a picture as good as what my flat screen gives me and very little if any streaming issues.

If you can stick with your resolve regarding usage by all means forget the graphics card. Perhaps someone else can speak to the difference between AMD and Intel integrated graphics. I know the AMD on my lap top looks better than any Intel graphics I've seen on desktops.

Of course it matters. Go to a store that has laptops on display and see which screen size and resolution you're the most comfortable with. You don't have to buy one there, but you can get an idea of what you'll be looking at.

What do you think of MSI GP60 Leopard-010 15.6 screen(never heard of this company)? for 850.00

Model 957-16h212-003, Intel i5-4200M, HD-750GB, Level 3 Cache-3mb, Dual Core, Memory Speed-8 gb DDR3L-1600 RAM
CPU - 2.5 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GT-840M, Super Multi DVD drive, Secure Digital Media Card Reader, Battery Life-4 hours

Thank you for the help.

MSI is a very good company - especially for gaming laptops. The battery life is a littly puny, but then it's a pretty powerful computer! If battery life isn't a big concern, then that is a very good laptop.

I couldn't find a review for it at Notebook Review, but users at other places rated it quite highly.

What is the average battery life? It would be plugged into an outlet mostly.
It seems like the weight of it is heavy - 10 lbs

Thank you for the comments

Battery life depends on the hardware in the computer and what it's being used for. Higher end hardware sucks up more battery life. It also weighs more. If either of these two are issues for you, then maybe look for something in between.

The Notebook Review website is a pretty good source of information. Plus you can always ask the community there about recommendations.

Thank you all for the comments and recommendations. I have reached out to John on computer shopper and you have all agreed that the MSI GP60 Leopard-010 15.6" laptop is a good gaming/work computer and good features for the low price of 850.00

Dradvr - yes - I will probably use it for more gaming later on. Why not upgrade it now. Thank you.

Thank you to all !!

Those specs sound good to me.The price sounds good too.The only thing that could make it better would be a 17.3" screen. Amazon has it with a 17.3" screen for $899.