22 replies to this topic

[Samus]

I'm looking to buy a new laptop as I enter into university this September.

I came across quite a few and was wondering if the geeks here could advise/suggest something for me.

A little background on me.

I do part time web development - mainly as a hobby, which I make decent money from. I'm mainly based in front end development but I do get backend work from time to time. So i'll need to be able to multi task large applications such as netbeans & photoshop at the same time.

I have a large stash of movies & music, so i'll need a good storage size too.

I'm also a casual gamer, the only games I really play are Call of Duty & Minecraft, so an average sized processor or something.

I'm also abit stylish so i'd like a laptop with a nice skin (favourite colour is red)

I saw this one:
http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-g6-1302ea-laptop-red-14272580-pdt.html?intcmpid=display~RR~~14272580
What do you think of the processor on this one?


I also saw this one:
http://configure.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=ni15ra5_ftxb_1e&model_id=inspiron-15r-5520&c=ca&l=en&s=dhs&cs=cappp1&
it comes with an xbox

What y'all think?

Oh & my budgets about £400 - £500, I wouldn't mind going to £600 if I know it can last me longer than my 4 years at Uni.

[Blade 619]

Avoid the HP. Notebook processor in a latop = not good idea.

I'd keep a relatively low internal storage maybe 500gb on a 7200rpm (for power consumption or even better an SSD) and use USB3 externals for films / music.
8gb ram will probably keep you sitting fairly pretty for a while.
If you can get your paws on a 3rd gen i-5 / i-7 Enjoy yourself.
Get a decent GPU as things are heading towards GPU processing you don't want to be stuck with a card incompatible with openCL / CUDA and some healthy cores / clock rates... especially as they're an absolute bitch to replace in a laptop.


If you need your own xbox at uni you are doing something very wrong.

EDIT: incase you didn't notice that is the Dell US site so if they even ship to the UK it'll cost a bomb.

[Samus]

Avoid the HP. Notebook processor in a latop = not good idea.

I'd keep a relatively low internal storage maybe 500gb on a 7200rpm (for power consumption or even better an SSD) and use USB3 externals for films / music.
8gb ram will probably keep you sitting fairly pretty for a while.
If you can get your paws on a 3rd gen i-5 / i-7 Enjoy yourself.
Get a decent GPU as things are heading towards GPU processing you don't want to be stuck with a card incompatible with openCL / CUDA and some healthy cores / clock rates... especially as they're an absolute bitch to replace in a laptop.


If you need your own xbox at uni you are doing something very wrong.

EDIT: incase you didn't notice that is the Dell US site so if they even ship to the UK it'll cost a bomb.

i'm currently in the US.

& sorry, think you could hook me up with some links?

i'll most likely go out and buy the first thing that looks nice

[Blade 619]

How long are you in the states for?

[Blade 619]

I would toy with something like this...
http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-17.3-Pavilion-DV7-7020US-Laptop-PC-with-Intel-Core-i5-3210M-Processor-and-Windows-7-Home-Premium/20975092#Product+Reviews

then pull the hard drive and either stick ir as an external or in the optical drive and replace it with a 64/128gb SSD and you'll get massively increased battery life, boot speeds etc. Thought i can't tell if this has USB 3.0 as walmart is ****ing useless in descriptions.

Be careful with purchases in the US... warrenties are often invalidated by removing the product from the US.

[Rand0m her0]

Fair warning, MInecraft actually requires a decent GPU. So careful with the integrated intel chips, they can have rather large range of clock speeds.

[Lorikz Kain]

For what you want, I would be hesitant to take anything that doesn't have a dedicated graphics card. They raise the price but I think you would find yourself needing it. If you must go integrated then find a second gen AMD A-series processor. They are looking better than Intel's current best.
I'm not a big fan of HP myself but that's more of a personal preference and I know of a handful of people that have used them for school work without much complaint.
As for Dell, I don't really do Dell...
Here are a couple of laptops I found in the 400-500 (US Dollars) range that all have dedicated graphics cards. Unfortunately I don't have enough time to narrow them down more. I suggest you make sure they have a USB 3.0 port and note that they only have 4GB or RAM which I recommend you add more for smoother experience (its easy to do). Also I second the suggestion of an external storage media. (I recently purchased a 2TB external for 100$)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246219
http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-129922U-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Metal/dp/B00519AFLO/ref=sr_1_31?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1344898946&sr=1-31
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Satellite-L755D-S5162-Laptop-Silver/dp/B006TI443G/ref=sr_1_47?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1344898946&sr=1-47
http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Lenovo-IdeaPad-U460S-1.2GHz-250GB-14-inch-Laptop/6167030/product.html
http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Lenovo-IdeaPad-V460-2.26GHz-320GB-14-inch-Laptop/6167028/product.html

I used to have a Lenovo Thinkpad I used for work and loved it and my current Toshiba has been working great so far (I've only had it for a couple weeks). I wish I found an ASUS that fit your needs but unfortunately that didn't happen.

Edited by Lorikz Kain, 13 August 2012 - 11:36 PM.

[Rand0m her0]

For what you want, I would be hesitant to take anything that doesn't have a dedicated graphics card. They raise the price but I think you would find yourself needing it. If you must go integrated then find a second gen AMD A-series processor. They are looking better than Intel's current best.
I'm not a big fan of HP myself but that's more of a personal preference and I know of a handful of people that have used them for school work without much complaint.
As for Dell, I don't really do Dell...
Here are a couple of laptops I found in the 400-500 (US Dollars) range that all have dedicated graphics cards. Unfortunately I don't have enough time to narrow them down more. I suggest you make sure they have a USB 3.0 port and note that they only have 4GB or RAM which I recommend you add more for smoother experience (its easy to do). Also I second the suggestion of an external storage media. (I recently purchased a 2TB external for 100$)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246219
http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-129922U-15-6-Inch-Laptop-Metal/dp/B00519AFLO/ref=sr_1_31?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1344898946&sr=1-31
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-Satellite-L755D-S5162-Laptop-Silver/dp/B006TI443G/ref=sr_1_47?m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1344898946&sr=1-47
http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Lenovo-IdeaPad-U460S-1.2GHz-250GB-14-inch-Laptop/6167030/product.html
http://www.overstock.com/Electronics/Lenovo-IdeaPad-V460-2.26GHz-320GB-14-inch-Laptop/6167028/product.html

I used to have a Lenovo Thinkpad I used for work and loved it and my current Toshiba has been working great so far (I've only had it for a couple weeks). I wish I found an ASUS that fit your needs but unfortunately that didn't happen.

So long the computer comes with a reasonable amount of RAM an integrated graphics card will suit his needs just fine. The only one of those that aren't completely sad and over priced, and will ship to him is the IdeaPad U400. Even then the battery life on it is just sad(less then 4 hours), and a 14 inch 1,366x768 screen is nothing to write home about.

The one blade linked it a little outside of his price range, but otherwise not half bad. Usb 3.0, The intel HD 4000 wont exactly be running things on ultra at 2560*1600, but should manage things like MW3 well enough, and promises 12 hours of battery life.

[Lorikz Kain]

So long the computer comes with a reasonable amount of RAM an integrated graphics card will suit his needs just fine. The only one of those that aren't completely sad and over priced, and will ship to him is the IdeaPad U400. Even then the battery life on it is just sad(less then 4 hours), and a 14 inch 1,366x768 screen is nothing to write home about.

The one blade linked it a little outside of his price range, but otherwise not half bad. Usb 3.0, The intel HD 4000 wont exactly be running things on ultra at 2560*1600, but should manage things like MW3 well enough, and promises 12 hours of battery life.

I disagree. A dedicated graphics card will be much more useful than integrated intel graphics. I seriously doubt intel's HD 4000 will be good enough to keep up with the demands of programs a couple years down the road (he wants a four year solution). If he plans casual gaming on it for the next 4 years the HD 4000 is gonna fall short. That being said, don't buy any of the laptops i suggested. I finished what I was working on and so went back over them. They don't fit what you want. I'll try again later.

Do you want to walk into a store and purchase a laptop? or do you want it to ship to you? if shipped where do you need it to ship to?

[Samus]

Do you want to walk into a store and purchase a laptop? or do you want it to ship to you? if shipped where do you need it to ship to?

Either I guess but most preferably I walk in & pick up. & shipping will go to London, UK.

[Rand0m her0]

I disagree. A dedicated graphics card will be much more useful than integrated intel graphics. I seriously doubt intel's HD 4000 will be good enough to keep up with the demands of programs a couple years down the road (he wants a four year solution). If he plans casual gaming on it for the next 4 years the HD 4000 is gonna fall short. That being said, don't buy any of the laptops i suggested. I finished what I was working on and so went back over them. They don't fit what you want. I'll try again later.

Do you want to walk into a store and purchase a laptop? or do you want it to ship to you? if shipped where do you need it to ship to?

Unless he gets very lucky anything under $700 with a dedicated card will have all kinds of other issues. If nothing else the battery will be a PoS, with a 4-5 hour life at best (A lithium ion battery will lose something between 15%-30% capacity a year depending on usage so he'll be looking at replacing it at least twice over 4 years.) The card itself wont exactly be high end and mobile graphics cards aren't easily found, don't come cheap and dedicated doesn't mean they haven't soldered the thing to the mobo or that the mobo doesn't use proprietary connections. Even then they probably stuck the cheapest PSU they could find in it.

Also a good chance the CPU will be a sub 2 Ghz dual core which wont be worth **** in a couple years anyways.


Edit: If the wants something to last in excess of 4 years he's looking at something like this http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230455 though even with an 8 cell battery I doubt it will do more then 5 hours. Only just outside of his price range at that.

Edited by Rand0m her0, 14 August 2012 - 03:40 AM.

[Lorikz Kain]

Unless he gets very lucky anything under $700 with a dedicated card will have all kinds of other issues. If nothing else the battery will be a PoS, with a 4-5 hour life at best (A lithium ion battery will lose something between 15%-30% capacity a year depending on usage so he'll be looking at replacing it at least twice over 4 years.) The card itself wont exactly be high end and mobile graphics cards aren't easily found, don't come cheap and dedicated doesn't mean they haven't soldered the thing to the mobo or that the mobo doesn't use proprietary connections. Even then they probably stuck the cheapest PSU they could find in it.

Also a good chance the CPU will be a sub 2 Ghz dual core which wont be worth **** in a couple years anyways.


Edit: If the wants something to last in excess of 4 years he's looking at something like this http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230455 though even with an 8 cell battery I doubt it will do more then 5 hours. Only just outside of his price range at that.

That's actually the laptop i have. I bought it knowing I would be doing lots of high demand activities on it. It is a powerhouse and you don't buy something like that thinking the battery will last you all day. It simply isn't going to happen. It's an awesome machine and will no doubt handle whats desired but the price puts it out of range.

However there are other ASUS laptops that might fit the bill.
http://www.asuslaptop.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=K53SD-SX1070V
If battery is a factor they only have 6-cells and at high load will probably only get you a couple hours.
Graphics cards are solid so gaming wont be an issue.
You can add 2GB more memory should you desire it.
It has a 2nd gen i5, 2.5GHz, 2 cores, 4 threads
USB 3.0

[Rand0m her0]

That's actually the laptop i have. I bought it knowing I would be doing lots of high demand activities on it. It is a powerhouse and you don't buy something like that thinking the battery will last you all day. It simply isn't going to happen. It's an awesome machine and will no doubt handle whats desired but the price puts it out of range.

However there are other ASUS laptops that might fit the bill.
http://www.asuslaptop.co.uk/proddetail.php?prod=K53SD-SX1070V
If battery is a factor they only have 6-cells and at high load will probably only get you a couple hours.
Graphics cards are solid so gaming wont be an issue.
You can add 2GB more memory should you desire it.
It has a 2nd gen i5, 2.5GHz, 2 cores, 4 threads
USB 3.0

£=/=$ >_>

It'll be something like 630 GPB, which well out of his price range is not unreasonably so. And yea as powerful as that is a lower battery life is to be expected.


The one you linked isn't bad specs wise, but if it gets more then 3 hours of life under reasonable use I'll be shocked.

[Lorikz Kain]

Samus, hopefully you get some ideas of what might work for you as far as laptops go. If you can shell out more than your limit I would definitely recommend what RH posted here. I love that laptop and use it more than my desktop now. The only downside is the short batter life but I didn't buy it for battery life so it doesn't bother me.

[Emmanuel]

Personally I would go with a desktop; i5-2500K, NVIDIA 400 or 500 series, 8 GB RAM, and a 120 GB SSD and your set. Easily upgradeable each year and the Case/PSU should last you for several years. Here are some laptops though just to look at:
Acer Laptop with AMD A6 and a dedicated graphics card
Lenovo Laptop with Intel i5 Ivy and a dedicated graphics card (only 4 GB of RAM but you can buy 2 sticks for $50)
Asus Laptop with Intel i5 Sandy and a dedicated graphics card
Dell Laptop with Intel i5 SandyAcer Latop with Intel i5 Sandy

If you edit video then you should go with an Intel Ivy Bridge i7 processor with 4000 HD graphics, they have hyperthreading and integrated graphics on Intel processor are excellent at encoding video. If you just edit images then an Intel i5 will do just fine and perform just as well in gaming. However if you seriously want to game on your budget go with an A8 or A10 from AMD (make sure it is one that starts with an A, I have an E-450 and I hated myself everyday when I had one). Graphics cards will cause a lot more heat in a cramped space, pretty loud in laptops from what ive seen, and your battery life is crap whether you are playing games or not (not to mention they are nothing compared to something you can put into a desktop for the same prices. 6-8 GB of RAM should be plenty unless you do some hardcore video encoding. I would go with a 120 GB SSD and have a 1 TB external hard drive (USB 3.0 if the laptop you get has it). SSDs are extremely fast, you might could blink and miss the startup, and they are energy-efficient/silent.

Then again I don't see the point in having to get a tuned down system when you can buy parts for a desktop and put it together yourself (the only difference is the first time you do it you have to buy Windows 7, everytime after it is free unless you bought it OEM)

[Lorikz Kain]

Personally I would go with a desktop; i5-2500K, NVIDIA 400 or 500 series, 8 GB RAM, and a 120 GB SSD and your set. Easily upgradeable each year and the Case/PSU should last you for several years. Here are some laptops though just to look at:
Acer Laptop with AMD A6 and a dedicated graphics card
Lenovo Laptop with Intel i5 Ivy and a dedicated graphics card (only 4 GB of RAM but you can buy 2 sticks for $50)
Asus Laptop with Intel i5 Sandy and a dedicated graphics card
Dell Laptop with Intel i5 SandyAcer Latop with Intel i5 Sandy

If you edit video then you should go with an Intel Ivy Bridge i7 processor with 4000 HD graphics, they have hyperthreading and integrated graphics on Intel processor are excellent at encoding video. If you just edit images then an Intel i5 will do just fine and perform just as well in gaming. However if you seriously want to game on your budget go with an A8 or A10 from AMD (make sure it is one that starts with an A, I have an E-450 and I hated myself everyday when I had one). Graphics cards will cause a lot more heat in a cramped space, pretty loud in laptops from what ive seen, and your battery life is crap whether you are playing games or not (not to mention they are nothing compared to something you can put into a desktop for the same prices. 6-8 GB of RAM should be plenty unless you do some hardcore video encoding. I would go with a 120 GB SSD and have a 1 TB external hard drive (USB 3.0 if the laptop you get has it). SSDs are extremely fast, you might could blink and miss the startup, and they are energy-efficient/silent.

Then again I don't see the point in having to get a tuned down system when you can buy parts for a desktop and put it together yourself (the only difference is the first time you do it you have to buy Windows 7, everytime after it is free unless you bought it OEM)

He wants it for school, I assume so he can carry to classes with him. My laptop has the GTX560m and its quite even at high loads. Heat shouldn't be an issue on a laptop if they made it correctly. I tested mine by putting it under heavy load while it sat on wool blankets for at least 3 hours. It got warm sure but its design for air circulation kept it well within operating temps. Really the only 'downside' is battery life. Its gonna be ****ty on any rig with significant power. I personally don't care, I got it for gaming mobility, not so i can sit in a park sipping coffee playing on facebook. But this is all something the buyer has to decide whether they care about or not.

I highly discourage buying anything Acer. I have seen nothing but complete crap from them. Dell is just meh...

[Samus]

One thing that (believe it or not) REALLY bothers me about those linked ASUS' are the number pads.

I've never ever used a laptop with a number pad, plus i'm used to the enter key being larger than those simple horizontal types.

I've been using this HP for the last 2 years now.
And it'd be nice if I could get a similiar keyboard setup.

Also i've asked around and as Blade said, getting a SSD for primary storage would be a good decision, so I don't think something that comes with large storage would be a good idea as it will just go to waste.

Also
Opinions on this:

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/hp-pavilion-g6-1325ea-15-6-laptop-red-11884755-pdt.html

[Curufinwe]

What ever you do, don't go getting an Acer, mine is burning, literally, and its a real issue.
Plus, I have an xbox at uni, its great for socialising

[Lorikz Kain]

You would benefit from maxing out its ram to 6GB.
The CPU is a sub 2GHz dual core which may work for now but will give you problems down the road.
The GPU (AMD Radeon HD 6380G) is a low end card that would be out performed by newest Intel and AMD integrated graphics.

[Samus]

You would benefit from maxing out its ram to 6GB.
The CPU is a sub 2GHz dual core which may work for now but will give you problems down the road.
The GPU (AMD Radeon HD 6380G) is a low end card that would be out performed by newest Intel and AMD integrated graphics.

get on skype so we can talk.