Another "i need a new laptop" thread

[Ebin]

Build your own costum rig, thats what I'm doing, be sure to future proof yourself though.

There's a place where people will put together a laptop for you like towers? To my limited knowledge, laptops components are mostly integrated to each other, the graphics card is sometimes integrated with the mother board for example. If there is such a place, wouldn't buying a laptop where such engineering is required cost a load of money?

Er.. I meant build your own computer, as in choose your own parts.

Er... The best you can do is select a model of laptop and choose between a selection of maybe 3 different hardware selections.

 

[Swadius 2.0]

A little tip on choosing a laptop if it's still applicable at this point. Try to pick a laptop where you can reach the fan and other components easily. I learned this mistake when trying to clean out the fan area of an Acer aspire 5516. I have to halfway disassemble the entire laptop just to access the fan whereas most other computers just has an access panel you need to unscrew on the bottom.

 

[Ebin]

Indeed. I've kind of taken it for granted because of my Dell XPS 1737.

 

[russik112]

A little tip on choosing a laptop if it's still applicable at this point. Try to pick a laptop where you can reach the fan and other components easily. I learned this mistake when trying to clean out the fan area of an Acer aspire 5516. I have to halfway disassemble the entire laptop just to access the fan whereas most other computers just has an access panel you need to unscrew on the bottom.

THIS! QFT, my current laptop is dusty as hell and I had to go through half of the computer to find out I was doing something wrong.. **** it, no more laptops, I'll gather the 2000$ and live happly ever after.

 

[Ebin]

$2000? I can build you a decent desktop from refurbished parts and a bare bones kit for less than $600. What are you doing wrong?

 

[Magorian Aximand]

I payed $800 for mine, and there is very little it can't do.

 

[Swadius 2.0]

I payed $800 for mine, and there is very little it can't do.

Can it love you for one short night?

 

[Magorian Aximand]

You bet your ass it can.

 

[Lord Burgess1]

Can it suck a golf ball through a hose pipe?

 

[russik112]

Can it suck a golf ball through a hose pipe?

No, but your mother can, I've been told 

 

[Togakure]

Just replaced my going on six-years-old, souped-up Dell Inspiron with a Dell XPS 2nd Gen i7 -2820QM, 8mem/750hd/2vid.  My config cost me about $1.5K here, but you can get something in your price range if you step down the processor to a lower i7 or an i5 with less RAM and a cheaper vid card.  I compared price/features, performance against my requirements for Alienware, ASUS, Toshiba, HP, and Dell.  Only the Dell XPS had everything I wanted within the budget I set--the rest were well above $2K.  The graphics and sound on this baby are outstanding.

Definitely find coupons!  I "saved" (sic) about $400 on mine thanks to a couple of them.

 

[Magorian Aximand]

My HP is almost up to those specs, and it ran me around $800. I'm pretty sure the few extra bits to get it to match wouldn't be $700.

 

[Togakure]

My HP is almost up to those specs, and it ran me around $800. I'm pretty sure the few extra bits to get it to match wouldn't be $700.

So you think I paid too much, hmm?  I researched for two weeks here and there before I made my decision.  The processor was the best non-"Extreme" i7 available at that time (a few months ago) to my knowledge.  That alone kicked the price up almost $400 from the base i7 processor.  Some of my more expensive options included Blue Ray R/W, Win Pro instead of Home, the 2GB nVidia card, etc.  Granted, I didn't agonize much over the price as it was under the budget I set and met or exceeded all requirements.  Nothing else I found did, and I did a lot of looking around.  Also, it was a gift in a sense; grandpa passed at 101 in Feb., and left us all a little something.

I'm curious to know both your specs and where you got it.  A link maybe?  I have a friend looking to get a new one and she loves mine, but her price limit is around what you spent.

 

[Lord Burgess1]

2GB of GPU memory does seem like overkill.

 

[Ebin]

I'd be pretty happy with a 2GB dedicated card. 

 

[Lord Burgess1]

I'm not saying it's great, but you may as well have 1GB and save yourself some money.

 

[Magorian Aximand]

My HP is almost up to those specs, and it ran me around $800. I'm pretty sure the few extra bits to get it to match wouldn't be $700.

So you think I paid too much, hmm?  I researched for two weeks here and there before I made my decision.  The processor was the best non-"Extreme" i7 available at that time (a few months ago) to my knowledge.  That alone kicked the price up almost $400 from the base i7 processor.  Some of my more expensive options included Blue Ray R/W, Win Pro instead of Home, the 2GB nVidia card, etc.  Granted, I didn't agonize much over the price as it was under the budget I set and met or exceeded all requirements.  Nothing else I found did, and I did a lot of looking around.  Also, it was a gift in a sense; grandpa passed at 101 in Feb., and left us all a little something.

I'm curious to know both your specs and where you got it.  A link maybe?  I have a friend looking to get a new one and she loves mine, but her price limit is around what you spent.

Spoiler: My specs

dv6t Quad Ed
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 2nd generation Intel(R) Quad Core(TM) i7-2630QM (2.0 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) w/Turbo Boost up to 2.9 GHz
• 1GB GDDR5 Radeon(TM) HD 6490M Graphics [HDMI, VGA]
• FREE Upgrade to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• FREE Upgrade to 750GB 5400RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• No Additional Office Software
• FREE Upgrade to Norton Internet Security(TM) 2011 - 15 Month Subscription (activation required)
• 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery (standard) - Up to 5.5 hours of battery life +++
• 15.6" diagonal High Definition HP BrightView LED Display (1366x76
• FREE Upgrade to Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone and HP SimplePass Fingerprint Reader
• Intel 802.11b/g/n WLAN with Wireless Display Support
• Standard Keyboard
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

If you go to logic reviews (I posted a link in this thread) you should get some nice coupons for this. They've added some new options, like a better screen (my 1366X768 is still nicer than my previous laptop, so I'm not complaining), so it might not be exactly the same deal, but you should be able to get close if not better.

 

[Togakure]

My HP  ...

So you think  ...
I'm curious to know both your specs and where you got it.  A link maybe?  I have a friend looking to get a new one and she loves mine, but her price limit is around what you spent.

Spoiler: My specs

dv6t Quad Ed
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
• 2nd generation Intel(R) Quad Core(TM) i7-2630QM (2.0 GHz, 6MB L3 Cache) w/Turbo Boost up to 2.9 GHz
• 1GB GDDR5 Radeon(TM) HD 6490M Graphics [HDMI, VGA]
• FREE Upgrade to 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• FREE Upgrade to 750GB 5400RPM Hard Drive with HP ProtectSmart Hard Drive Protection
• No Additional Office Software
• FREE Upgrade to Norton Internet Security(TM) 2011 - 15 Month Subscription (activation required)
• 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery (standard) - Up to 5.5 hours of battery life +++
• 15.6" diagonal High Definition HP BrightView LED Display (1366x76
• FREE Upgrade to Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
• HP TrueVision HD Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone and HP SimplePass Fingerprint Reader
• Intel 802.11b/g/n WLAN with Wireless Display Support
• Standard Keyboard
• HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

If you go to logic reviews ....

Thank you, sir.  I've forwarded the info and your endorsement to Deb.  That's a nice laptop for what you paid.  She replied with "Thanks! I'll look into it."

Here are more detailed specs, with some differences highlighted, green to red in magnitude of cost increase:

Spoiler

PROCESSOR: 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2820QM processor 2.30 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 3.40 GHz
OPERATING SYSTEM: Genuine Windows® 7 Professional, 64bit, English
VIDEO CARD: NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M 2GB graphics with Optimus
MEMORY: 8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
HARD DRIVE: 750GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
SECURITY SOFTWARE: McAfee Security Center with VirusScan, Firewall, Spyware Removal, 15-Months
HD DISPLAY: 15.6 FHD B+RGLED TL (1920x1080) and Skype-Certified 2.0MP HD Webcam
INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE: Tray Load Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads and Writes BD/CD/DVD)
WIRELESS + BLUETOOTH: Intel© Centrino© Advanced-N 6230 & Bluetooth 3.0
BATTERY OPTIONS: 90 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
SOUND OPTIONS: JBL 2.1 Speakers with Waves Maxx Audio 3 + Creative SoundBlaster X-FI MB 1.2
KEYBOARD: Backlit Keyboard - English

 

[Magorian Aximand]

Glad I could help. You really cranked up every spec you could, eh?

 

[Togakure]

Glad I could help. You really cranked up every spec you could, eh?

Well, yeah, but not without reason.  Over the next couple of years I'm hoping to invest in a digital recording platform (software, all on this box): sound generation, MIDI sequencing, pre/post digital signal processing, multi-track recording, and digital mastering--all in the box.  I'm not sure this will fly, but I know I'll need a lot of power to avoid having to use multiple PCs (which is what most of my pro friends do).

I help my roomie with video editing for his local cable TV show, and a big project at work requires reviewing 3D renderings, which up until now I had to go in to the office to do.  Now I can do it here.

And then of course, I love games when I can manage the time. 

?? What's going on with my font?  Is it bigger and darker than normal?  Maybe I bumped the zoom.