
My faithful laptop has done its job for many years now, and it's time to find a new one. I'm a uni student where I do a fair amount of data processing (STATA, spreadsheets etc.), I do some basic video editing (Vegas, After Effects and the occasional 3D modelling programme) and I would want to have the possibility to play games as well (CS:GO, SC2, Battlefield) at decent graphics.
I have spent the last 2 days browsing all sites I can think of for a new laptop, and I'm a bit of a loss as to what to get.
For some reason I keep wanting an i7-4700 processor, and i also want a dedicated graphics card which can run the mentioned tasks at an acceptable level. RAM can always be upgraded, so can storage, so I have put less emphasis on that.
So,
1. Would buying an i7 justify the extra cash you would have to put up or is an i5 still more than enough? Should I look for a quad core, or would a dual core be good enough? I've seen dual and quad cores for both i5 and i7.
2. Are there any big differences between class 2 graphics cards (GeForce GT730M/740M/750M)? How much of a difference would getting an Intel HD integrated graphics be?
3. Is it better to get a decent PC overall, or would giving up some features for an i7 and an alright graphics card be better?
4. Does it matter what brand I get? I have found that the best bang for buck generally is found in Lenovo laptops. I have also looked at msi, Acer, Asus, Fujitsu and HP. Are there any I definitely should NOT get?
TL;DR
Basically I want to get the best possible laptop for general use (data processing, video editing and rendering and some games) for a maximum of £600.
Please help me
