Laptops with >=1050 vertical pixels and 8GB+ of RAM

[rick42]

Hi!

I am a programmer who is running into some difficulty with the recent move to wide screens. For years, I've bought laptops with 1400x1050 resolutions with my last being a Dell Latitude D520. Now I'm finding that screen resolution doesn't seem to exist.

I am unwilling to go to fewer than 1050 vertical pixels, and that seems to limit my options and increase the price significantly. So far, the options I've found are the HP DV8T, the HP Envy 15, and the Dell M6500. Configured with Windows 7 Professional 64 bit, 8GB of RAM, Office Professional, support, better batteries, and power adapters, the Envy and M6500 come in around $3k. The HP DV8T comes hundreds of dollars less, but the reviews on Amazon are scary.

So my questions are: 1) are my concerns about the HP DV8T (64bit OS with 8GB RAM) warranted? 2) Any other suggestions for laptops I should consider?

1_What is your budget? less than $3k

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 15" screen or bigger, probably bigger with the new wide screens

3_What screen resolution do you want? I need 1050 or more vertical pixels

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Either

5_How much battery life do you need? No strict requirement, but more is better and less than two hours is worrying

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? No games

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? Computer programming including running intense mathematical calculations and SQL Server with large (1GB+) databases

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need? Not much...250GB is plenty

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. M6500, dv8t, Envy 15

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop? About two years

11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? DVD writer would be nice but not required

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 have generally bought from Dell or HP in the past but am open to suggestions

13_What country do you live in? USA

14_Please tell us any additional information if needed. I need 8GB of RAM or more and 64bit Windows 7 Professional

Thanks for any suggestions!

Rick

 

[lostandwandering]

1) Yes I believe your fears are warranted. HP's DV series have been notorious for overheating and killing the motherboards. Haven't heard bad things about the Envy yet.

2) Seems that you are looking for any laptop with 8gb of RAM and a 1080p screen (1920x1080). 1600x1200 and 1680x1050 used to be pretty standard resolutions, they filled the WSXGA(+) standard. They've gone the way side and were replaced by 900p screens (1600x900). Do you have any sort of processor requirements, do you need a Quad Core?

Anyway, I'd look at the Dell Studio 17, came out to about $1800 based on the requirements you listed. The Latitude E6510 might be worth looking at too, though it came out closer to $2100 in the end.

Latitude E6510: http/www.dell.com/us/en/business/notebooks/latitude-e6510/pd.aspx?refid=latitude-e6510&s=bsd&cs=04&~ck=mn
Studio 17: http/www.dell.com/us/en/home/notebooks/studio-1747/pd.aspx?refid=studio-1747&s=dhs&cs=19&~ck=mn

 

[rick42]

I do not have any particular processor requirements...any processor that will come on a machine like this these days will be fine. The large amount of memory is most crucial for what I do.

Thanks for the opinion on the HP DV series.

I took a look at the Dells you suggested, and they are better than what I've found so far. Thanks a lot!