1. What is your budget? $1000-$1300
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 14"-15.6"
3. What screen resolution do you want? 1920x1080
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? A mixture of both. I am going to be carrying it around to class, but I'd still like it to be powerful.
5. How much battery life do you need? 5 hours
6. 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)?
Civ 5, Kerbal Space Program, Minecraft, and other indie games like Don't Starve and Fez, which don't seem to be very graphics-intensive.
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) Programming, possibly CAD
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? 512 GB
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? 4 years
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? None.
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 can get student discounts from Lenovo and Dell, but I think that's only if I order directly from their websites, which I'm not sure I would do.
13. What country do you live in? USA
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I enter college this fall and I plan on studying computer science. I'd like a laptop that I can carry around in a backpack, that has decent battery life, and that I can use for programming and light gaming. I'd like to be able to comfortably dual-boot Linux and/or use a virtual machine. Although I plan on majoring in computer science, I could potentially change to a different engineering major. Because of that, I'd like to keep my options open and get a laptop that can handle some CAD. So far, I've looked at several different laptops:
-Lenovo ThinkPad W540: I like this laptop, but is it overkill for my needs? My school recommends this model.
-Lenovo Y40/Y50: From what I've read it seems as though the screen is quite poor.
-Asus N550JK: I've seen this laptop recommended quite a bit. I'm not thrilled with having to install an SSD myself if I choose to go that route.
Alternatively, I've thought about getting something more like the Lenovo t440s and hope that the integrated graphics will suffice or use computer labs instead. I like the portability and battery life of the t440s. There's also the t440p, but that loses the thinness and battery life of the t440s.
I'm open to other suggestions. What do you think I should get?
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 14"-15.6"
3. What screen resolution do you want? 1920x1080
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? A mixture of both. I am going to be carrying it around to class, but I'd still like it to be powerful.
5. How much battery life do you need? 5 hours
6. 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)?
Civ 5, Kerbal Space Program, Minecraft, and other indie games like Don't Starve and Fez, which don't seem to be very graphics-intensive.
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) Programming, possibly CAD
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? 512 GB
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? 4 years
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? None.
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 can get student discounts from Lenovo and Dell, but I think that's only if I order directly from their websites, which I'm not sure I would do.
13. What country do you live in? USA
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I enter college this fall and I plan on studying computer science. I'd like a laptop that I can carry around in a backpack, that has decent battery life, and that I can use for programming and light gaming. I'd like to be able to comfortably dual-boot Linux and/or use a virtual machine. Although I plan on majoring in computer science, I could potentially change to a different engineering major. Because of that, I'd like to keep my options open and get a laptop that can handle some CAD. So far, I've looked at several different laptops:
-Lenovo ThinkPad W540: I like this laptop, but is it overkill for my needs? My school recommends this model.
-Lenovo Y40/Y50: From what I've read it seems as though the screen is quite poor.
-Asus N550JK: I've seen this laptop recommended quite a bit. I'm not thrilled with having to install an SSD myself if I choose to go that route.
Alternatively, I've thought about getting something more like the Lenovo t440s and hope that the integrated graphics will suffice or use computer labs instead. I like the portability and battery life of the t440s. There's also the t440p, but that loses the thinness and battery life of the t440s.
I'm open to other suggestions. What do you think I should get?