Need help picking a NON GAMING Laptop, NEW to mobile computing!!

[ambizro]

I just recently sold my very very powerful GAMING rig that I built a few years ago. My current needs are:

fast boot up / load times
decent amount of storage
lightweight
good battery life

I will be using this laptop to burn / watch dvdrips
download music
autocad / nx
school work
general daily browsing

I want something of quality and good value.

i would like to get either a i5 or i7 but have no idea which processor is best for my needs. what cpu would you guys rec for me?

 

[ambizro]

around 1000 after tax cdn

 

[rgd1101]

budget?

 

[squirrelonfire]

Y58 or M14X. They are both on sale for under $1000

 

[RetiredChief]

Some things to look for:
.. Daul HDD bays. This is so you can insall a SSD with OS + Programs and move the HDD over to the 2nd bay for storage space.
..[strike] An IB i5 (with 4 cores/4 threads) should be fine vs and i7 with 4 cores/8 threads[/strike]. Go with an i7
.. The iGPU for an IB CPU, verify it is the HD4000 and Not the HD3000. This would be fine for everything except posibly autocad. If autocad would benifit from a dGPU then inclued that as a requirement.

..Would not worry about installed RAM, as increasing it is cheap and easy.
.. I generally do NOT buy lptop with an SSD, I do as an upgrade myself.

Brands: Generally Asus -> Toshibia -> Samsung.

 

[Tibbs01]

Some things to look for:
.. Daul HDD bays. This is so you can insall a SSD with OS + Programs and move the HDD over to the 2nd bay for storage space.
.. An IB i5 (with 4 cores/4 threads) should be fine vs and i7 with 4 cores/8 threads.
.. The iGPU for an IB CPU, verify it is the HD4000 and Not the HD3000. This would be fine for everything except posibly autocad. If autocad would benifit from a dGPU then inclued that as a requirement.

..Would not worry about installed RAM, as increasing it is cheap and easy.
.. I generally do NOT buy lptop with an SSD, I do as an upgrade myself.

Brands: Generally Asus -> Toshibia -> Samsung.

There are no i5 quad core laptop processors, and i7 mobile processors are only quad core if they have a "QM" designation at the end.

While the i5 is a great laptop choice just note that it is a dual core with turbo and hyperthreading.

 

[RetiredChief]

I stand corrected, Forgot that they differ from desktop versions
Will edit my post

 

[Sarutobi0997]

There are no i5 quad core laptop processors, and i7 mobile processors are only quad core if they have a "QM" designation at the end.

While the i5 is a great laptop choice just note that it is a dual core with turbo and hyperthreading.

there are quad-core i5s just not very popular Intel® Core™ i5-2500K Processor
(6M Cache, up to 3.70 GHz)

 

[Pyree]

^we are talking about IB i5 mobile processors here. On mobile platform, all i5 CPU are 2 core, even some i7 are 2 core.

And FYI, the i5-2500k is very popular but in desktops.

Haswell will bring 4 core cpu for the mainstream mobile segment.

 

[RetiredChief]

^ correct, My laptop is an i5-2410M = 2 cores/4 threads while my desktop i5-2500K is a 4 core/4 thread CPU. and concur the i5-2500K was probably the most poular CPU until IB.

 

[StormOfRazors]

I just recently sold my very very powerful GAMING rig that I built a few years ago. My current needs are:

fast boot up / load times
decent amount of storage
lightweight
good battery life

I will be using this laptop to burn / watch dvdrips
download music
autocad / nx
school work
general daily browsing

I want something of quality and good value.

i would like to get either a i5 or i7 but have no idea which processor is best for my needs. what cpu would you guys rec for me?

Just want to point out that whatever Laptop you buy (be it dell, HP, ACER etc) will more than likely include a lot of what we call 'crapware' on it which slows the system down. The first thing i would recommend doing is a clean install of windows to get rid of all this software you wont use. I did it for my dell, and it reduced boot times and the time it took for the desktop to be usable (ie when the spinning circle disappeared from the mouse cursor) by half. a reduction of HALF. This crapware especially slows the system down when you fill up the hard drive a bit.

The only problem is that the companies dont include the OS CD in the box (probably to cut costs) but contact tech support and they will send you one for free in the mail (dells procedure, cannot comment on other brands)

For your question though, if you are loking for boot times and and battery life, an Ultrabook is what you should be looking for, but these can be more expensive. Also, as they use SSD's for the faster performance, decent amounts of storage are not high on the list and can cost a fair bit.

 

[RetiredChief]

Added to my list, as you mentioned video.
.. To convert a DVD-RW drive to a Blu-ray Rom/DVD-RW drive is about a $100. But have to verify that the laptop DVD drive is readily removable and 2nd Verify that replacement wil fit, may need to swap faceplate.
I swapped out the DVD drives in two of my laoptops for Blu-ray drives.

Based on StormOfRazors comments. Most of the bloatware you can delete. Once deleted and everything is working create a System image of your Boot drive (partition). Use this to recreate windows, much better than re-installing windows, re-install drivers, reload programs, wait for the 10,000 windows updates to complete.
Also you can use just about any Windows installation disk, just select custom install and do NOT enter your key. Once the clean instal is completed then Enter the key for your laptop.

 

[StormOfRazors]

Added to my list, as you mentioned video.
.. To convert a DVD-RW drive to a Blu-ray Rom/DVD-RW drive is about a $100. But have to verify that the laptop DVD drive is readily removable and 2nd Verify that replacement wil fit, may need to swap faceplate.
I swapped out the DVD drives in two of my laoptops for Blu-ray drives.

Based on StormOfRazors comments. Most of the bloatware you can delete. Once deleted and everything is working create a System image of your Boot drive (partition). Use this to recreate windows, much better than re-installing windows, re-install drivers, reload programs, wait for the 10,000 windows updates to complete.
Also you can use just about any Windows installation disk, just select custom install and do NOT enter your key. Once the clean instal is completed then Enter the key for your laptop.

Yea RetiredChief is right, you can delete most of the bloatware manually but I always like to do a clean install. Each person has their own preferences i guess.
I hope you manage to find your laptop. Although as we have said, you are looking for an ultrabook for speed but the cost of these is expensive especially if you want storage. Definitely get an i7 though.

Oh btw RetiredChief, how did you cross out (put a line through) part of your message so it can still be viewd, but people know you have crossed it out? it was when you were suggesting an i5 Ivy bridge but changed to an i7

 

[RetiredChief]

You have two choices A) Edit this message and B) Quick Edit.
If you select "Edit this message" Then highlight what you want to strike thru, then at the top select the button for strike thru.