Is there a laptop for to fit this?

[Hagbard Celine]

Hello Tom's,
This is my first post, so excuse my ignorance and be gentle
1. Budget:
~$1000 strictly <1500

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
13" - 15"

3. What screen resolution do you want?
I'd like 1920x1080, but 1600x900 is fine, and even 1366x768 for the 13"

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
It is for college and will be my only computer, so it must be portable, but also powerful enough to do everything I require.

5. How much battery life do you need?
6+

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)?
No. Maybe an occasional Civ 4, or other old game and it doesn't have to be on high settings anyway.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Web, programming, virtual machines, math/physics programs such as octave or matlab,

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
I can probably manage with 256gb, and an external hdd
Atleast some ssd

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
Any, but I am interested in xoticpc, prostar and the likes because they allow me to have an internal hdd and ssd, and in budget, but none seem to have the necessary battery life

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.
Like:
Asus- I've heard good things and I was satified with a k55a-dh71 from xoticpc with some upgrades until I saw the battery life
Lenovo- I've heard good things and liked the Y500 except for the battery life
Clevo- I like the customization available and have heard good things, but again the battery life kills it.

Dislike: None
13. What country do you live in?
US

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I'd prefer a quad-core i7, but quad i5 is fine too and a dual core if fits everything else
8gb ram
I would also prefer if it didn't have compatibility issues with ubuntu

Is this possible?
Any suggestions that fit most criteria are welcome!
Thank you

 

[affroman112]

You would most likley need an ultrabook to get 6+ hours of battery life. That lenovo Y500 is a great laptop if you can live with less battery life.

 

[Hagbard Celine]

Thanks for the quick reply!
Yeah, I've heard that ultrabooks are overpriced and the cpus they come with aren't that great. However, if anyone could suggest an ultrabook that is powerful enough for my needs, I'd be very grateful.

 

[affroman112]

In a ultrabook you are paying for battery life and weight. They use lower clocked dual cores for their processors. If battery life is your primary concern you can look at the thinkpad models form lenovo. You get good battery life and an excellent keyboard.

 

[Hagbard Celine]

Okay, yeah those seem great, I'm leaning towards the Thinkpad Edge E531, and will probably replace the hdd with an ssd or put an ssd in the mSATA. Any thoughts? Does anyone have another suggestion?

 

[Hagbard Celine]

They are great too, but they are great too, but the cpu I can get on that is worse and it is more expense. I will definitely consider them because they have a ridiculously long battery life, but I don't think I need any more than about 8 hours. Is it just me or are the upgrade ssd and ram options on the lenovo website grossly inflates? Also, if I wait until Haswell, how much can I expect ivy bridge laptop prices to fall?

 

[affroman112]

I forgot about Haswell coming out. Waiting for Haswell to come out would be the best choice. You get lower power requirments and more powerful integrated graphics. Might be able to get your quad i7 with the battery life you want. I don't think that the price of ivy bridge laptops will drop that much. I didn't see it happen with sandy bridge to ivy bridge.

 

[Hagbard Celine]

Yeah thank you. I think I'll wait, but it was good to see what options were available and which laptops best fit my needs for when I do get it.