Back to school laptop purchase help! Thank you!

[pseudofed]

Hello! So I'm starting college over at Pennstate soon, couple of months actually. I've been looking for a great "all-round" laptop. Some people's definitions of all-round can be different so let me clarify with what I am sorta looking for (but not strictly).

Price range we are dealing with here:
- Nothing above $1,800.00 (unless there is a student discount that brings the price down to $1,800.00)
- Nothing below $1,500.00 (I'm really trying to maximize what I can spend here because this laptop will be in use for 4 years)

My daily use will consist of:
- Documentation/consistent note taking (i.e. Google Docs, Word 2016, Excel 2016)
- Occasional Programming with Atom or sublime (no complier use)
- Very little gaming with very low-powered games (I.e. League of Legends & Call of Duty)
// I own a custom built gaming desktop that I am bringing with me to college. So the laptop doesn't need to play excessively powerful new games.

- and lastly, chemistry simulation rendering

Dream laptop:
- An awesome battery life (please nothing lower than 5 hours on normal use like note taking or internet surfing)
- Build quality (definitely not something made of full plastic)
- Looking for something that doesn't have heating issues or isn't too loud (I'll be in class where sometimes it might be quiet)
- Obviously good specs for the amount I'm spending

I was originally going to buy the macbook Pro 2016 because Macs seem to retain their speed over years. Windows laptops in my experience their speed just drops exponentially each year. However, the release date is unknown. I can't wait to get a laptop because I have to have one ready for school.

That is my all-round idea of what I am looking for. Thanks for your time in helping me! If you have an questions just ask.

 

[jaguarskx]

I would just get a 15" Dell XPS 15 9550 for $1,199. It has a quad core i5-6300HQ CPU. It's Infinity screen means very narrow bezels which means this 15" laptop is similar to the size on an average 14" laptop and weighs in a 4.4lbs. While it has a GTX 960m, you can use the Intel HD 520 to play games like LoL and maybe CoD to maximize battery life while gaming and also to keep heat and noise low. It has a 1TB hard drive, but you can always buy your own 2.5" SSD and replace it. A SATA 1TB SSD generally sell for around $260 - $320 depending on the brand and model#. There is also a PCIe M.2 slot for a SSD; it is occupied by a 32GB SSD used as cache for the HDD.

Alternatively, if you really want to spend over $1,500, then you can purchase the $1,830 version of the Dell XPS 15 9550. It has a quad core i7-6700HQ CPU. The difference between the Core i5 and i7 is Hyper Threading (HT) which means the CPU can process up to 8 instruction threads rather than just 4. However, HT is generally only useful if the programs you use have been designed to take advantage of HT.

Instead of a 1TB HDD it has a 512GB SSD in the PCIe M.2 slot. The 2.5" bay to install either a HDD or SSD is not available. It is occupied by the larger 84WHr battery rather than the standard 56WHr battery that the less expensive models have. It also comes standard with 16GB of RAM rather than just 8GB of RAM. It still has the GTX 960m.


http/www.dell.com/us/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd


I believe reviews have stated that the Dell XPS 15 with the smaller 56WHr battery can generally last about 8 - 9 hours with "typical" usage which means no games. I think the 84WHr battery variant can last about 11 - 12 hours with "typical" usage.