Hey guys - since so many of you guys are in IT (and I trust all of you ) I figured I would post this up.

I am looking to get a new laptop in the near future. It will not replace my desktop (i have an iMac) and I am hoping for a balance of power and portability. I am trying to avoid breaking the bank, but I don't want something cheap either. I would probably game on it, but it would be meant for a classroom setting mostly.

I have started looking into Lenovo and Sony, both of which are new territory for me. I am burned out on Dell and I have been underwhelmed by HP in the past. I would ideally want a SSD which seems to be a bit more standard now.

I'm not a computer noob, so fire away and give me your thoughts!

Justice nerds.....ASSEMBLE!!

 

sony is way overpriced. whats your budget?

check this

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/X...9300_Notebook/

 

Asus, get the ones that are Bestbuy exclusives. Best bang for the buck, they are solid gaming pcs.

Whats your budget?

 

My budget isn't firm, but I'm thinking something in the sub-$1000 range. I don't want to blow the bank on a laptop that I will mostly be taking to class.

However...I can definitely see myself gaming on it some since the Mac can't always play what I want/need. So, a solid graphics card is a plus, high res, and decent screen size.

 

what games do you plan to play?

 

You can do all sorts of stuff your ti-83 cant even handle.

 

Asus FTW!! They are a great manufacturer.. I have been using their products for years. As the others stated, Sony is way overpriced.

 

not to mention my suggestion has dual floppy drive, lots of ***** and buttons, a 4.3" dual-color screen, and it has a built in case, where you can just fold it into a simple carrying module, weighing in at only 23.4 lbs.

 

Brit Im in IT and have no suggestions sir... I dont game at all...so if it has all the office stuff and can do email and get on my forums...im a happy camper..

 

This is just my opinion I like Sony these days because even though they are still on the expensive they still use good parts unlike Dell (who once was good). I have actually a lot of laptop/ computers and the sony and mac are the ones giving me the least amount of trouble. Its mostly HP and Dell's that are giving me a headache.

It also depends on what you use it for and how fast you want it like i3, i5, i7 but that would be a another story to tell.

 

Lenovo man myself. no complaints here. I still have my original IBM T30 that's 10 years old. I replaced it only because of the hardware being outdated. I repair way too many Dell's to recommend them. HP is a joke. Sony was good when they made Walkman. Since then.. ehh. You can only get a Mac if you're into graphical design or else you'll be in the exclusive "WTF Club".

 

I've had several brands of laptops, and as for the two you mentioned I would say sony is too expensive for what you get, and Lenovo is pretty damn sweet. I bought my wife a Lenovo laptop, it has been dropped from the couch/bed/kitchen counter around 5 times and amazingly is still working, I have no freaking clue how. the battery shortly after the one year warranty, they sent me a new one for free. I know have it dual booting windows 7 and Mac OSX.

Overall though, you need to narrow down your requirements a bit, then look to see what meets your needs. Portability + decent size screen = conflicting requirements So you are probably going middle of the playing field with a ~15 inch screen then, right? 13" or less no good for gaming, but hella portable. 17" is great for gaming but bad on portability...

Also I recommend going with a high cpu frequency/speed over higher number of cores. Fact is, most games out today will run better on a 3.0ghz dual core, than a 1.8 ghz quad-core. I would personally stick to the newer i3/i5/i7 if you are going with intel over the older core 2 duo series or core 2 quad

If you want to forgo gaming, a macbook air is fantastic for mobility.

 

Gaming is the lesser focus here...more of a "nice to have". I would likely play games on the level of Starcraft, portal2, and diablo3 (assuming it comes out before we are all dead).

I am focused more on dependable, decent battery life, and strong computing and ability to multitask. Iwould also likely do some photo editing on it. I would also need it to be scalable (the one complaint that I have about my iMac). So I guess I need an all-around solid laptop.

 

Gah, responding on my phone was wearing me out lol. Ok, so...

I can definitely rule a Macbook Air/MBP out, simply because I think that they are overpriced for what you get AND I already have an iMac. I would prefer to have a Windows based laptop simply for the occasions where having a Mac is not conducive to what I'm doing. Best of both worlds.

Screen size? Yes, middle of the road is what I'm looking for - probably around 15". I've seen some of the newer widescreen laptops and HOLY HELL, those things are not portable at all (and they weigh a ton).

I am planning on sticking with an i5 or i7 processor and I definitely understand the benefits of a dual core over a quad core. I likely wont be using much that would be capable of utilizing a quadcore processor, so I'll stick with a dual core i5/i7 with a higher clock speed.

As stated, I would love to have one with a SSD. I'll have to sacrifice overall space (unless I want to fork over serious cash), but I have an external at home so that's not an issue.

Ideally, I would want one with a separate GPU that can be upgraded. I had a Dell back in the day with an integrated GPU and I hated it. This is more of a "want" rather than a "need", but it would be really nice.

Would it be better to buy the base amount of RAM and then purchase more after the fact? I always feel like the upgrades as you customize through the supplier are always overpriced...

Overall, I could see myself running the following on a regular basis:

Office
Internet
Steam (gaming)
HD video (720p and 1080p)
Photoshop/Lightroom
torrents

Thanks for all the input guys!

 

I'd say Lenovo, but you want to look on the forums first because some of the models have problems w/ their trackpads.. That's the ONLY issue I've ever seen w/ Lenovo.. And as far as that goes, I always use an external mouse w/ lappies anyway..

Lenovo will get you what you need for weight, specs, and functionality as well as price.. That's my go-to consumer brand.. Of course there are specialty brands out there that may give you more "niche" rigs (higher end alienware, ASUS, Dell, etc) but for a consumer lappie, that you have multi-purposes for, this is going to be your best bet.