Need help choosing a notebook for an Interior Designer - $ 2400

[cn3]

Hi fellow geeks!

Vivian needs a laptop. She is in love with macs, but the reason she is buying the laptop is for autoCAD, 3DsMAX - and these are only for windows currently.
My argument is that getting a mac to run windows is not much of an advantage, considering she could get a quadro from nvidia within this awesome budget.

Here is the filled faq provided by the community.
______________________________________

1_What is your budget?
$2,300.

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15''

3_What screen resolution do you want?
1680 x 1050 or equivalent. (need space, but dont want tiny letters)

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Yes.

5_How much battery life do you need?
~3-4 hrs.

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.

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
CAD, 3DsMax, Photo Editing, Card reader for a nikkon d5000.

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
250 or so.

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.
Best Buy, Future Shop, Mac Store, NCIX

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
~3 years.

11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
DVD R, CDROM R

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.
( in her words ACER is Ugly. Compaq sux. Mac is awesome. HP is good. Lenovo is decent.

13_What country do you live in?
Brazil, Buying it in Canada.

14_Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Thanks for checking it out!

 

[Maziar]

Dell Studio 17 would be good:
http/configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=bncwd14&c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&kc=laptop_studio_17

 

[deadlockedworld]

"4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?"
What this is really asking is for you to choose: Low weight or High power?

I agree that if shes a designer she may want a larger screen that 15". Getting a Mac to run windows tags an extra $100 onto an already steep price tag...

They aren't "pretty" but the Dell "Precision" lineup comes with the Nvidia Quadro graphics.

On the pretty end I think the Sony Vaio, Toshiba Satellite, or Lenovo Y550 are probably the options-- although they all still look like crap next to a macbook.

(I've also had a big problem with this idea of "pretty" laptops. My GF insists on thin and pretty.. but all those models are so underpowered... )

 

[cn3]

"4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?"
What this is really asking is for you to choose: Low weight or High power?

Got it! I answered this thinking about having a portable workstation. She won't have a desktop anymore, so she wants a desktop replacement, as portable as she can have.


For designers, the screen size is related to resolution as well, right? I don't know any cad users on 15" laptops, but I got te feeling that 17'' is too big.




The dell studio that Maziar suggested is cool, I'm just not sure about ATI video cards. I acctauly HAVE one, but I'm never sure if I made a good choice over a mobility quadro from nVidia.


Great models so far, thanks guys!

 

[Maziar]

HD 4650M is a good mobility cards.
The tasks that you want to do are mostly CPU limited rather than GPU limited,and the Studi 17 has an i7 CPU which handles them fine.
I could have recommended you the precision model with i7 but it's of your budget.

 

[bejabbers]

try this one: http/www.infonec.com/site/main.php?module=detail&id=450001

While it is a "gaming" machine, it still has pretty much everything you're looking for within budget.


Brand: Asus
Series: G51J
Model: G51J-A1
Screen: 15.6\" FHD (1920x1080)
Processor: Intel i7-720QM (1.60GHz Quad-Core)
Chipset: Intel PM55 + ICH9M
RAM: 4GB DDR3 1066MHz, (2GB+2GB), max. 4GB
Hard Disk: 640G 7200RPM (320G x 2)
Video Card: NV GTX 260M 1GB VRAM DDR3
Network: 802.11B/G/N, No TPM, 10/100/1000
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
Weight: 8
Optical DVD Drive: 8x Super-Multi DVDRW Dual layer
Webcamera: 2.0M
Ports (usb/fw/eSATA/IR/BT): 4/1/1/0/1
VGA/DVI/TVO/HDMI: 1/0/0/1

 

[Maziar]

First of all the OP doesn't need a gaming laptop so there is no need to waste the money for a GTX 260M if you don't use it.
Also ASUS G51J has quite lots of BSOD problems.

 

[cn3]

Thanks everyone about the suggestions, but she decided to get a MacBook Pro. No reasons were given.

 

[cn3]

Best answer selected by cn3.