Laptop Recommendations.

[Chris Sandford]

Im currently in the market for a laptop (obviously) and I was wondering if yall could help me out with finding the specifications (Or specific models) that would be good for me. This will basically be my entertainment whilst im training to be a nuclear physicist.

Ill basically be using it for
Internet
Video Streaming like netflix
Skype
Games (probably more vintage shooters and modern strategy games)
researching and making projects
lots of music
Also, it would be nice if it wouldnt be outdated in a year or two.

Any help would be much appreciated.

oh and windows, sorry mac. I dont like you very much. Nothing personal.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Well, I'd recommend the Sager NP5160 or NP5170 but they're unavailable until April. Powerful little beasties, which will come in handy for gaming and project work. Run Intel Socket 1155 CPUs (hence the unavailability 'til April) and nVidia 500M series GPUs so there's a fair bit of working life built into them.

You might also want to look at what Asus has on offer and, seeing as you don't want a pure gaming laptop, check out Toshiba as well.

 

[Ziadaine_v1legacy]

Go with something Simple from Toshiba, ASUS, SONY or MSI. looking around $600-$800 AU for a good Laptop for your everyday features, if it needs a bit more of a kick for some graphics for games, you're looking around the $900-$1100 mark, which case the SONY VAIO is a good selection for both Games and video work as well as the stuff you mentioned.

 

[lemiel14n3]

I'm an Apple guy myself, so in order to further justify my spending decisions I recommend a Mac Book pro. I've use one for a while now and it's never let me down. Although, if you're planning on playing a lot of games on it, and don't have a console, you'll probably want something else. But, everything I couldn't play on the Mac, I've been able to find available on the console market.

 

[Nova5]

I would recommend this Toshiba laptop [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834214188] as a low cost solution. Bought one for my mother the other day. It would easily meet your needs, and have a long, healthy lifespan.

But, everything I couldn't play on the Mac, I've been able to find available on the console market.

Why not just run bootcamp? I run Win7 via bootcamp on my 27" iMac for media work, when I need a Windows-based utility. It runs natively, so there's no issues.

[small]For the record, I'm not a fanboy of any O/S - I rock four boxes at home, one of each O/S for my work/school: Win7, OSX, Linux, and Solaris. Each has its flaws, each has its awesome. Fanboyism is a huge detractor from the industry, and is a fucking timesink.[/small]

 

[Rokar333]

I would recommend this Toshiba laptop [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834214188] as a low cost solution.

^This. Or rather, if you want some slightly better specs, I find that Toshiba Satellites are awesome, relatively low cost for what they give you laptops. However there are a couple of flaws you need to be aware of. First off, if you get a Toshiba laptop no matter how old or new Make Sure It Has A REAL Graphics Card. Also Toshiba has a tendancy to use their own custom drivers for their laptops. This means that your video card driver updates will always be behind.

 

[Nova5]

I would recommend this Toshiba laptop [http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834214188] as a low cost solution.

^This. Or rather, if you want some slightly better specs, I find that Toshiba Satellites are awesome, relatively low cost for what they give you laptops. However there are a couple of flaws you need to be aware of. First off, if you get a Toshiba laptop no matter how old or new Make Sure It Has A REAL Graphics Card. Also Toshiba has a tendancy to use their own custom drivers for their laptops. This means that your video card driver updates will always be behind.

What are you talking about...? You mean their crappy custom-written utilities they stick in with their driver packages? Every manufacturer has that shovelware. I just usually reformat with my own copy of Windows 7 and install drivers' from the chipset manufacturers' websites, to keep it clean.

Also, what do you mean by 'real' graphics card? There are no 'cards' in a laptop, just integrated chipsets. Or do you mean one with dedicated VRAM? Or one made by ATI/nVidia? The one listed above uses Intel's graphics chipset, and is more than enough to meet the OP's needs.

-

[small]Not to keep going with this, but for the purpose of stopping misinformation: No hardware vendor writes drivers for another manufacturer's chipsets. Ever (except maybe where Linux, Solaris, et al are concerned, though I've never seen it). They re-package them in a "user-friendly" installer, and often don't offer the latest versions on their 'support' pages. What they do write are general-purpose GUI frontends for hardware management utilities, which almost always blow goats.[/small]

 

[Viewtiful Dan]

Take a look at some Alienware labtops. They are good and highly customizable

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Also, what do you mean by 'real' graphics card? There are no 'cards' in a laptop, just integrated chipsets.

Discrete laptop GPUs (yes, actual GPU cards) have been available for a few years now in certain highend/gaming series of laptops, replacing integrated chipsets. This means that, though it's no easy task, on those laptops GPU upgrades are possible.

 

[Nova5]

Also, what do you mean by 'real' graphics card? There are no 'cards' in a laptop, just integrated chipsets.

Discrete laptop GPUs (yes, actual GPU cards) have been available for a few years now in certain highend/gaming series of laptops, replacing integrated chipsets. This means that, though it's no easy task, on those laptops GPU upgrades are possible.

That's so intensely rare, proprietary, and fucking expensive that I didn't feel the need to add an asterisk. But yes, congrats, correct on a technicality. On that note, do you honestly believe the poster I was replying to was referring to that?

 

[SirDoom]

Personally, I'm very happy with my Toshiba Qosmio. If you don't mind having a huge and heavy laptop, it's really good for most media related things.

(The only downside I see is the horrid sound card, which works beautifully for listening to music, but lacks the stereo-mix option for recording sound from the computer and your voice at the same time. Other than that, it's great)

 

[CountChocula99]

Im currently in the market for a laptop (obviously) and I was wondering if yall could help me out with finding the specifications (Or specific models) that would be good for me. This will basically be my entertainment whilst im training to be a nuclear physicist.

Ill basically be using it for
Internet
Video Streaming like netflix
Skype
Games (probably more vintage shooters and modern strategy games)
researching and making projects
lots of music
Also, it would be nice if it wouldnt be outdated in a year or two.

Any help would be much appreciated.

oh and windows, sorry mac. I dont like you very much. Nothing personal.

A couple questions for you:

1. what is your budget?

2. Exactly what kind of projects are you making and what programs would you need to run? word documents? photoshop? video projects?

3. would you be OK if this laptop cannot run the latest, demanding games at HD resolution?

4. Do you prefer a thin and portable laptop, or is a giant bulky laptop OK?

 

[Sneaklemming]

I see people recommending a macbook for your university life. I got a macbook for college myself, Im not almost finished and my macbook has barely survived. It's been through several problems, all related to the manufacture. I've had to have the graphics card replaced, the screen, the battery and two fans, and the heatsink is now shot. Like I said all of these are related to the survivability of a macbook, which is only meant to be 2 years.

I used osx for 6 months until I switched to windows vista/win7 with bootcamp. The power of the hardware is still quite good for a four yr old laptop (I was able to play dragon age 2 and shogun total war 2 recently).

So it's a trade off, the macbook is an expensive bit of hardware, and it can be powerful (if you get the macbook pro).

The real negative is the life expectancy for a macbook (officially quoted as 2 years). There are also other weird things, like mac hardware specific problems for connecting to university networks (my experience at least) and using peripherals/connecting to other devices.

All in all, theres really no reason to buy a mac, since you can just install osx on a normal laptop (if youre in it for the software) and you can get the hardware cheaper from other people (with a better lifetime).

 

[Chris Sandford]

Im currently in the market for a laptop (obviously) and I was wondering if yall could help me out with finding the specifications (Or specific models) that would be good for me. This will basically be my entertainment whilst im training to be a nuclear physicist.

Ill basically be using it for
Internet
Video Streaming like netflix
Skype
Games (probably more vintage shooters and modern strategy games)
researching and making projects
lots of music
Also, it would be nice if it wouldnt be outdated in a year or two.

Any help would be much appreciated.

oh and windows, sorry mac. I dont like you very much. Nothing personal.

A couple questions for you:

1. what is your budget?

2. Exactly what kind of projects are you making and what programs would you need to run? word documents? photoshop? video projects?

3. would you be OK if this laptop cannot run the latest, demanding games at HD resolution?

4. Do you prefer a thin and portable laptop, or is a giant bulky laptop OK?

1. around 700
2. Im not sure exactly, im going into the US Navy's Nuclear program.
3. Nope. Ill probably only play RTS and the occasional nostalgia title.
4. No Preference.

 

[TheComedown]

Also, what do you mean by 'real' graphics card? There are no 'cards' in a laptop, just integrated chipsets.

Discrete laptop GPUs (yes, actual GPU cards) have been available for a few years now in certain highend/gaming series of laptops, replacing integrated chipsets. This means that, though it's no easy task, on those laptops GPU upgrades are possible.

That's so intensely rare, proprietary, and fucking expensive that I didn't feel the need to add an asterisk. But yes, congrats, correct on a technicality. On that note, do you honestly believe the poster I was replying to was referring to that?

Really not rare at all, and its becoming more and more common. As for the OP an integrated chip WONT meet his needs at all if he wants to play modern strategy games as the majority of the new games coming out will have a hissy fit and hide in their rooms if the only person to play with is a shitty little integrated intel chip.

 

[CountChocula99]

Ill basically be using it for
Internet
Video Streaming like netflix
Skype
Games (probably more vintage shooters and modern strategy games)
researching and making projects
lots of music
Also, it would be nice if it wouldnt be outdated in a year or two.

.......

1. around 700
2. Im not sure exactly, im going into the US Navy's Nuclear program.
3. Nope. Ill probably only play RTS and the occasional nostalgia title.
4. No Preference.

In this case there are quite a few laptops that would work for you. If you don't mind bulkier, you can get the Sager NP5160 for around $700

Spoiler

For $765 you can get an excellent Sandy Bridge Sager/Clevo with mid-level graphics card (the drawback would be that it is a bit heavy, not very portable and only about 3hrs battery life
Sager NP5160 / Clevo W150HN PRE ORDER
- 15.6? HD 16:9 LED Backlit Wide screen (1366x768) Super Clear Glare Type Screen
- - 2nd Generation Intel® Core? i7-2630QM, 2.0-2.8GHz, (32nm, 6MB L3 cache)
- Stock Thermal Compound-
- nVidia GT 540M 1024MB PCI-Express GDDR3 DX11 with Optimus? Technology
- ~ 4,096MB DDR3 1333MHz Dual Channel Memory (2 SODIMMS)
- ~Combo 8x8x6x4x Dual Layer DVD +/-R/RW 5x DVD-RAM 24x CD-R/RW Drive w/Software
- ~ 320GB 7200RPM (Serial-ATA II 300 - 16MB Cache) - Default
- Internal 4-in-1 Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO)
- Built-in 802.11 Wireless B/G/N - Stock Wireless Card + Bluetooth
- Built in 2.0 Megapixel Camera
- USB 3.0
- 5.73 lbs
- 14.72" (w) x 9.8" (d) x 1.46" (h)

source XoticPC
[link]http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np5160-clevo-w150hn-pre-order-p-2999.html[/link]

If you want something slightly more portable with longer battery life, the HP dv6 select edition is not bad:

Spoiler

$749 for this configuration - to upgrade to mid-level video card with switchable graphics (AMD HD5650), add $100
- Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-460M Dual Core Processor (2.53 GHz, 3MB L3 Cache) with Turbo Boost up to 2.8GHz
- Intel(R) HD Graphics [HDMI, VGA] - For Dual Core Processors
- FREE Upgrade to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
- 640GB 5400RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
- 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (standard) - Up to 5.25 hours of battery life +++
- 1366x768 (for gaming I would recommend 1600x900 or 1920x1080, but that is much more expensive)
- SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
- Intel Wireless-N Card
- eSATA
- HDMI
- 5.46 lbs
- 14.88" (L) x 9.65" (W) x 1.37" (H)

source: HP shopping
[link]http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_can_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=notebooks&a1=See+all&v1=series&series_name=dv6zse_series&jumpid=in_R329_prodexp/hhoslp/psg/notebooks/All_laptop_&_tablet_PC_series/dv6zse_series [/link]

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Also, what do you mean by 'real' graphics card? There are no 'cards' in a laptop, just integrated chipsets.

Discrete laptop GPUs (yes, actual GPU cards) have been available for a few years now in certain highend/gaming series of laptops, replacing integrated chipsets. This means that, though it's no easy task, on those laptops GPU upgrades are possible.

That's so intensely rare, proprietary, and fucking expensive that I didn't feel the need to add an asterisk. But yes, congrats, correct on a technicality. On that note, do you honestly believe the poster I was replying to was referring to that?

Really not rare at all, and its becoming more and more common. As for the OP an integrated chip WONT meet his needs at all if he wants to play modern strategy games as the majority of the new games coming out will have a hissy fit and hide in their rooms if the only person to play with is a shitty little integrated intel chip.

Sorta-sorta... Depends on the integrated chipset. Some high end models use fairly robust (for integrated jobs) chipsets. With laptops an integrated GPU isn't the kiss of death it is for desktops... OTOH, Intel GPU chipsets are shit. Even Intel know this which is why they recently cut a deal with nVidia to licence nVidia's GPU tech for future Intel APUs (CPU/GPU on the same die). Somewhat telling, I'd say.

 

[Hairetos]

Also, what do you mean by 'real' graphics card? There are no 'cards' in a laptop, just integrated chipsets.

Discrete laptop GPUs (yes, actual GPU cards) have been available for a few years now in certain highend/gaming series of laptops, replacing integrated chipsets. This means that, though it's no easy task, on those laptops GPU upgrades are possible.

That's so intensely rare, proprietary, and fucking expensive that I didn't feel the need to add an asterisk. But yes, congrats, correct on a technicality. On that note, do you honestly believe the poster I was replying to was referring to that?

You are so ignorant if you think they're rare and expensive. I can find plenty of under 1000 dollar laptops that have excellent discrete cards. ASUS, Acer (the TimelineX series makes cheap laptops with 1GB dedicated cards), almost every maker except maybe IBM/Lenovo has models with dedicated cards.