Solved! I7 Laptop Buying Advice

[bsdesign]

I am looking to buy a new laptop in a few days. Budget of around $1500

I plan on doing some video editing/audio editing as well as lots of Photoshop use and other graphics editing. Maybe I will do some gaming but I mainly game on my xbox... also would like to be able to watch HD movies on my laptop..

anyhow I am looking at the Sony F Series i7 laptops... they seems to be getting good reviews... here is one things i am a little unsure of... there are 2 options (and i see alot of laptops havin these 2 kinds of options)... one for full 1080p and then there are others with 900p or 780p resolution on the laptop screens. Here is the thing, i am going to be hooking this up to my 27" HD Monitor via hdmi (or RGB depending on which is better).... if I get a laptop that does have a nice ATI or nVidia gfx card, can i output my laptop via HDMI to my new monitor in full 1080p even if the laptop screen resolution is only 900p? If someone could shed some light on this subject for me, that would be great. I could use to save a few $$ if the laptop screen doesnt do full 1080p just as long as the hdmi output will do 1080p... again i am looking at the F series by Viao ...

also, do you think 4gb is enought ram, or should i throw down the extra $ for 6 or 8 gb?

Thanks guys!

 

[WR2]

I plan on doing some video editing/audio editing as well as lots of Photoshop use and other graphics editing.

You're a good candidate for getting 8GB of RAM, especially if you're using this machine to earn a living. More of a hobby machine? Everything you plan to do can get done with 4GB of RAM - just not quite as fast or as easily as it would be with 8GB.

You can have your laptop display running at 1600x900 and your external display @ 1920x1080.

 

[bsdesign]

great thanks. yeah i am going to be using this for work/play so i think i am going to get 8gb ram and its good to know about external display resolution capabilities. Going to give the Sony Viao F series a try.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Shop for a laptop the same way you'd shop for a video card. Ignore the brand, look at the spec and the price.

 

[raza715]

SONY VIO is like Alienware so it will cost you much more than other brands in same specs, sometimes SONY cost more than a other brand better specs laptop, so i would recommend you to go with http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220834. This notebook is very best for your work.

 

[bsdesign]

A little update....

So I decided to NOT go with the Sony Viao... instead i went with the Asus G73JH... and I love it... i found a refurbished one for just onder $1000 too... saved myself $500! yay for me...

Had the laptop for about 2 weeks and it kicks ass... its only got 6gb ram but its super fast... runs Adobe CS5 lightning fast... games kick ass!!! played a few games on high settings with no problem... love it all... only complaints are the screen n the laptop is not the greatest but still looks tight.. but i use external monitor anyhow... also more USB ports would be nice (i got 4) and a DVI out would have been nice too... also i noticed a problem with the ATI video drivers... seems like the latest version locks up my system giving me gray screen lockups... weird... anyhow i rolled back the driver and havnt had a problem since...

love the laptop!