Help buying a laptop

[tagar89]

So I've been in the market for a new laptop for about two months now, but i cant seem to settle on one. My budget is around 1400-1600$. I'm going to use it for all around stuff (gaming, school work, autocad). Now i have heard that autocad runs better on nvidia gpu's so this would be prefered. I know sound coming from a laptop is really a hit or miss kind of deal. Anyways this is what i would prefer in a laptop:

What is your budget?
1400-1600

What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Around 15-17"

What screen resolution do you want?
Any hi res

Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Its more of a laptop to use in conjuction with my desktop

How much battery life do you need?
Would prefer a decent amount but im flexible

Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Not to advanced stuff like starcraft 2, sims 3, rollercoast tycoon 3

What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
Watching videos, listening to music, autocad, various microsoft office projects

How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need
Somewhere around the 500 area but not picky

If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
I'm pretty friendly with newegg.com

How long do you want to keep your laptop?
couple years maybe longer


What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
bluray write and read prefered but only flexible

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I'm open

13. What country do you live in?
US

Thanks for all you help, its much appriciated

Thomas

 

[tagar89]

Anything?

 

[Ashleyvd]

I think this http/www.brandsdragon.com/E11-7-inch-Google-Android-2.2-Wi-Fi-with-Camera-Tablet-PC-P-25600.html is much better.

 

[tagar89]

your joking right

 

[tagar89]

Is there something in the criteria that is hard to find?

 

[evodrop]

What's your priority? Games or CAD?

 

[IsabellaWinTeam]

So I've been in the market for a new laptop for about two months now, but i cant seem to settle on one. My budget is around 1400-1600$. I'm going to use it for all around stuff (gaming, school work, autocad). Now i have heard that autocad runs better on nvidia gpu's so this would be prefered. I know sound coming from a laptop is really a hit or miss kind of deal. Anyways this is what i would prefer in a laptop:

What is your budget?
1400-1600

What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Around 15-17"

What screen resolution do you want?
Any hi res

Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Its more of a laptop to use in conjuction with my desktop

How much battery life do you need?
Would prefer a decent amount but im flexible

Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Not to advanced stuff like starcraft 2, sims 3, rollercoast tycoon 3

What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
Watching videos, listening to music, autocad, various microsoft office projects

How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need
Somewhere around the 500 area but not picky

If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
I'm pretty friendly with newegg.com

How long do you want to keep your laptop?
couple years maybe longer


What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
bluray write and read prefered but only flexible

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I'm open

13. What country do you live in?
US

Thanks for all you help, its much appriciated

Thomas

Hi there,

What about the Alienware M15x? It has a 2.8 GHz Intel® Core™ i7-720QM processor, 250 GB of hard drive space, and NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 240M graphics. It is a powergaming laptop that is within your budget. It's also great for multimedia applications.

What do you think?

Cheers,
Isabella
MSFT Windows Outreach Team

 

[simonstyle]

I am also wondering to buy a new one.

 

[tagar89]

Probably cad, and im not That into gaming. just everynow and than. maybe something with with a bigger hard drive. honestly guys i will prob only use the laptop for school such as office, browsing the web and watching movies.

 

[tagar89]

So i think i narroed it down, i think im also going to bump up my price to just under 2 grand. Anyways these are my choices

IdeaPad Y560 Laptop - 06465CU - Black

Sony vaio VPCF13AFX/B

Toshiba Satellite A665-3DV8

Dell Studio XPS 16


I would look into asus but i cant find a site thats easy to compare the asus models. If anyone knows of one let me know.

Can people give opinions on the ones i have listed please. Thanks

Thomas

 

[simonstyle]

How about this http/www.brandsdragon.com/products/product_24019.htm It is cheap and useful.

 

[tagar89]

?

 

[evodrop]

All i can give you is this
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834157443&cm_re=quadro_fx_laptop-_-34-157-443-_-Product

since cad is your priority, a gaming video cards wont do very well in cad compared to a video card designed for cad.

this will probably play starcraft 2 on medium settings. maybe high.
i cant think of anything better with your budget on a professional level.

on the consumer level.....

seems like none of your laptops you picked have professional video cards.
if you rather want a regular consumer video card then this is the way to go.
http/www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6701575&CatId=4938

this laptop will play starcraft 2 at max settings. it'll probably do alright in cad too.

I'd go with the second choice. you have a lot of cpu and ram power which will help in cad.
I'd go with the first choice if i was serious about cad.

 

[tagar89]

What is a professional video card? whats the difference?

are we talking about your choices or mine?

 

[xBiocide]

I don't know anything about CAD, but the HP Elitebook 8540w (link provided by evodrop) looks pretty good. Do check other features of the laptop however, such as battery life, positioning of ports, and misc. stuff isn't generally listed in simply "specs".

Here is a link if you want to configure it to more suit your needs and budget.
http/h71016.www7.hp.com/ctoBases.asp?oi=E9CED&BEID=19701&SBLID=&ProductLineId=539&FamilyId=3156&LowBaseId=32297&LowPrice=$979.00&familyviewgroup=2455&viewtype=Matrix#



Evodrop provided the link for the ASUS G73. If you are interested in that one but would like a smaller version (the G73 is kinda bulky, depending on your preferences), I would recommend looking into the ASUS G53. However, it hasn't released yet. The date has been pushed back a lot, from August to September and now late October. Hopefully, this just means they are ensuring that nothing will go wrong with their powerhouse OR that their powerhouse has just fallen flat on its face.

Here's a link to it on XoticPC. You can preorder and customize it there as well.
http/www.xoticpc.com/asus-g53jwa1-pre-order-p-2857.html


If you are looking into such laptops, take a look at these:

The MSI 640 Series
The MSI 660 Series
The Alienware M11x
The Alienware M15x
The HP Envy Series
The ASUS G51 Series
SAGER makes some pretty good laptops as well.

 

[evodrop]

Professional cards (quadro/firepro cards) are specifically designed for graphic desgin such as cad. You would find these cards in workstations.

A consumer card is meant mostly for gaming.

The main difference you will see between these two is that consumer cards will have better frame rates whereas the professional cards will have better rendering.

the hp link provided by xbiocide goes well over your budget.
the asus link provided by xbiocide is indeed smaller but the one i provided performs a bit faster than his and has a blue ray player.

too bad the asus link i put is unavailable now (probably sold out) but here is an alternative.
http/www.amazon.com/ASUS-G73JW-XA1-17-3-Inch-Gaming-Laptop/dp/B0044BCZ0E/ref=sr_1_13?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1287282280&sr=1-13

the major difference between this laptop and the other laptop is the lack of a blue ray player.

 

[tagar89]

I think i will just do cad on my desktop. So lets go with a gaming comp i guess. or just a all around good computer.

P.S thoses asus's and alienware are way no thick for my taste

 

[tagar89]

Any takers with the changes ^^^

 

[tagar89]

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