I cannot comment on the build quality of the laptops you listed, having not owned either of them.

However, on paper, the Lenovo looks like the better value buy.

That SSD should be compatible as long as there are no warranty stickers on the chassis of either laptop preventing you from meddling with their innards

I'll concur that Acer has been improving steadily over the years. But IMHO, most of the distrust of the brand stems from their poor products from over a decade ago. My first computer was an Acer desktop purchased about 15 years ago and it was a continuous fountain of grief. Still, as you said, the durability of consumer electronics has as much to do with blind luck as with quality components. Though the better the latter, the less the former becomes a factor.

I'm not entirely sure how it is here in Malaysia, but in the US, warranty backing on refurbished products usually differ by manufacturer. For instance Dell offers a 100 day warranty whereas Apple stands by their refurbished products with a one year warranty. Though from my admittedly limited experience, 90 days seems to be the default warranty period for most refurbished laptops in the States.

That statement is kind of misleading. UHD is mainly detrimental to gaming because of the amount of processing power required to run games at that resolution. Since laptop parts are generally weaker in comparison to their desktop counterparts, FHD still is the best sweet spot for gaming performance vs display quality. That being said, if you have the hardware necessary to support it, UHD is just a matter of resolution scaling and hence is supported by the majority of games.

One point of note however, is that UHD screens tend to consume more power than their FHD counterparts and thus can lead to shorter battery life in laptops.

Arguments are not necessarily bad, especially if backed by solid facts. I'm always up for a good debate

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the Lenovo U41 feature an integrated GPU?

From your list of options, the Asus X55 seems your best bet IMHO

This post has been edited by Loki[D.d.G]: Jul 25 2015, 12:27 AM

Where exactly will you be working overseas? AFAIK, Illegear has a service partner in the US, so getting your laptop fixed there will not be too much of an issue.

I would recommend the GTX 970M now and upgrade the RAM and SSD on your own volition later. As pointed out by Illegear's rep, the GPU is soldered on and cannot be changed. This means that getting the better GPU would result in a better future proof rig as there is no telling if you're gonna get hooked on a more demanding game... Or if you end up hooking your laptop to a 4k monitor

Also, its usually cheaper to buy an equivalent RAM and/or SSD upgrade from an IT shop and install it yourself than taking it as an upgrade direct from the notebook manufacturer, which means that you would technically save yourself a few bucks in the long run.

This post has been edited by Loki[D.d.G]: Aug 3 2015, 05:52 PM

If you're using an original version of Windows 8.1 Core or Pro versions AND upgrade within a year, then yes.

If it were me, I'd get Windows 8.1 and upgrade sometime around Q2 of next year, before the upgrade option expires. Microsoft should have ironed out most of the bugs by then. Even if they haven't and you decide to stick to Windows 8.1, it wont be too much of a loss since it's a good OS by itself

Nope, unless its OEM and came pre-installed originally as that would mean it's bound to your notebook's motherboard. Even so, there are grey-ish (legally speaking) ways around that such as calling Microsoft directly and asking them to reactivate the key. With a valid excuse, they'll reactivate the key and you'll be able to use it on a different notebook.

However, if you buy/bought a separate version of Windows then you can reuse that key however many times you want on different machines. Of course only one machine will be able to activate the key at a time, but you will be able to transfer the OS installation to your next notebook should need to do so.

Generally yes. SSDs tend to make your system feel extremely responsive and boost loading times greatly when compared to old school HDDs. This is mainly due to their exceptional random read/write performance that is unparalleled by mechanical parts.

So, keeping games on a HDD is perfectly acceptable as you wont see much of a gain in performance if you installed it on your SSD. At best you'll load games quicker, but not enough to warrant using up your SSD's precious space. Keep other stuff, such as your web browser and commonly used programs on the SSD instead and you can expect your notebook to be usable under 15 seconds (or less) from a cold boot.

Hope that helped

I'm not too sure, but I think you'll run into problems accessing full functionality. That being said, you can extend the trial period with a simple command line prompt a few times. All in all, it's just a stopgap solution and you'll be wanting a legit copy of Windows sooner or later

I'm not too sure about this. Theoretically, you could pay for a Windows 7 key then perform the free upgrade to Windows 10 before the promotion window (no pun intended) closes. That would probably be a cheaper method than buying a Windows 10 key direct. However, due diligence is required to ensure that method would actually work.

I don't want to be responsible for you wasting money unnecessarily...

This I can't answer as I don't have actual experience with Windows 10

Yeah, that's a fair point. I suppose getting keys will be increasingly hard since Windows 7 is getting pretty close to its EOL period. So, cheap Windows 8.1 key then? I think there are some for sale in the Garage Sales section of the forums. Not sure if they're OEM copies though.

I think the Windows 8 trial version is limited to the Enterprise edition and is valid for only 90 days. Also, note that that is one of the few editions not eligible for the free upgrade to Windows 10.