Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540

Operating System: Windows 7 Pro 64-bit
Display: 15.6-inch LED, 1920 x 1080. Matte finish
Processor: Intel i7-4702MQ (Haswell, 4-core) 2.2 GHz. Cache Memory 6 MB
Memory: 8 GB DDR3L (two memory slots, one of which is vacant. Max Supported Qty 16 GB)
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M 2 GB
Optical Drive: DVD-Writer
Hard Drive: 1 TB SATA 5400 RPM + 16 GB mSATA
Networking features: Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth 4.0
2 x USB 3.0, USB 2.0, docking connector, VGA, HDMI, LAN, headphone / microphone combo jack
Battery: 6-cell
Dimensions: 37.7 x 25 x 2.96 cm
Weight: 2.46 kg
Other: ENERGY STAR Qualified, fingerprint reader, comes with Windows 8 Pro license / media

Price: 999,90 €

Additional Kingston 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 SODIMM memorymodule: 95,90€

I need a new laptop to replace my old one. Also considering wether or not this could replace my desktop as well (10+ peripherals I have might be a problem, will need additional usb hub). Either that or I need to upgrade both which would mean additional 1000+ €.

There isn't much choise in Win7 laptops unfortunately and promissed new HP win7 laptops are taking their sweet time begoming available. Win8/8.1 is out of the question.

Any other suggestions?

The NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M is way to weak for 1920 x 1080. The GT 740M is capable of handling, at most, 1366 X 768 with minimal shadows and 2x antialising enabled.

Also i think you would be paying way too much for a processor that will never get used, unless you do a lot of video encoding or need to use Photoshop intensively.

i completely agree with more RAM.

I would recommend looking at some Clevo builders/resellers and see what you could get for the same money. They're extremely customisable so you can mostly do away with things you don't want.

I ended up buying an A503 from mysn.co.uk. They're a German company but if you look around you might find a local company assembling the same models (with different names though).

A display with matte finish? That's beyond awesome if you plan to use the laptop on the go.

I just can't figure why do people choose 15' laptops for gaming purposes. 17 inches is a must! :>

Unfortunately I don't know any store that assembles notebooks in Finland and neither A503 nor Clevo bought any hits in finnish so... Some do offer upgrades but pretty much only for memory and HDD/SDD. Well, primary purpose would be having portable computer that I can sometimes play GOG games with. The internals tend to be lot worse for 17 inchers or the price way too high. And as I said, it has to have Win7, so my choises are really limited. I'm actually bit cocerned wether or not the resolution is too big for such small display to begin with :-/. I have no qualms lowering the resolution for games as I rarely play full res (1920x1200 on 24") even on my desktop (that has Radeon 7770 1GB). I rarely use antialising to begin with. So what kind of mobile graphics processor should I be looking if I wanted to play games? It'd would have to fit my ~1000€ budged thought.

I've got a 1366 x 768 laptop that I mostly use for studying, and the resolution is hugely annoying even then because cramming two or three documents side-by-side requires much more effort than I am willing to put up with on a regular basis. Yes, I could plug it into an external display at home, but I've got a desktop as well.

By the way, I did consider buying a Win 7 system, but eventually decided that I was limiting myself too much. 8 does come with some annoying oddities, but Classic Shell sorts the worst of it out in one fell blow.

My current laptop has same resolution and is 15" and reading documents with it is hugely anoying. I wish I could turn the display so that the 1366 was height and 768 was the width. Would make reading documents lot easier. Shame there's no 16:10 or 4:3 aspect ratio laptop displays... I still curse that my 1600x1200 res monitor broke last year and had to setle on 1920x1200 widescreen.

As for Win8, if MS pays me 10€ per hour for suffering it, I'll reconsider. Vista for all it's faults at least had proper desktop and startmenu.

There is a shortcut for that. Something like Shift + Alt + Arrow key or something. I discovered this when a small dog ran over the keyboard and I had to undo whatever the fuck it had managed to press. There is a desktop in Win 8. The Metro Screen gets a lot of shit, but you don't have to use it. Classic Shell is an unofficial mod that introduces what amounts to a Start Menu, thereby making Win 8.1 function almost as well as 7. I am more annoyed with the limitations of the hardware of my Win 8.1 laptop than the software, to be honest.

The current generation of laptops, usually have:
Nvidia 740M or ATI 8850M, which will allow you to play most games with 2x antialising and minimal shadows at 1366 X 768.
Nvidia 750M or ATI 8870M, which will allow you to play most games with 2x antialising and minimal shadows at 1600 x 900.

I recommend that you buy a laptop with a graphics card that allows you to play games at the default screen resolution, or the image will lack sharpness.

If you wouldn't

As far as your worries about the resolution being to high for the screen size, I have no idea, but as a personal preference I would never buy anything below 17'. Also the laptop you linked weighs 2.46 kg which is exactly what a 17' laptop usually weighs.

Well I did say they'd have a different name. ;)

However, it looks like there isn't one in Finland. There are ones in Sweden and Estonia though!