I need to find a laptop to replace my old Dell N5040 (i3, 6GB of RAM DDR3, 320 GB hard disk at 5400 rpm, 720p screen) which I've owned for about 4 years now.
I do a LOT of coding in several languages (i need to run different IDE's like eclipse and visual studio), run data bases, do heavy work with multi-threading, running multiple sql queries simultaneously, and so on.
This laptop will also be used as an entertainment laptop; watching movies, surfing the internet, skyping & light gaming (super nintendo emulated games and stuff like that)
If money wasn't an issue I would have bought an 15" macbook pro with retina display and 512GB SSD. BUT I don't have the 2500 US$ to spend on a laptop.
My budget is up to 1500 us$.
What I think I need:
- quad core processor (preferably i7)
- 16GB of RAM (willing to compromise to 8GB with posibility to update to 16 Gb in the future)
- a GOOD & easy on the eyes Retina like or ultra high res IPS display (I spend ~10 hours a day in front of the display)
- 512 SSD (i'm willing to compromise to a configuration with a smaller SSD as primary drive but with an additional mechanichal drive, something like 128 SSD + 1TB 7200 rpm)
- good cooling system (a serious problem with my current DELL is overheating when doing heavy multi-threading stuff)
- decent keyboard
- overall realiable & good quality hardware
What's not that important for me:
- Weight and dimensions (Yes I do have to carry around the thing in my backpack but I would much rather have a powerful and bulky laptop than a slim and less powerful one)
- GPU (I wont play high-end games on it)
- Sound & speakers (average sound will work for me)
- Battery life (anything with 3+ hours will do just fine)
- Touchscreen (don't need it!)
- touchpad (most of the times I use an external mouse anyway)
What I'm not sure of:
Screen size: I have always had 15" or 16" laptops, never went smaller than that, I have some serious doubts about how comftarble will I be with a 13" display (specially with coding).
I do a LOT of coding in several languages (i need to run different IDE's like eclipse and visual studio), run data bases, do heavy work with multi-threading, running multiple sql queries simultaneously, and so on.
This laptop will also be used as an entertainment laptop; watching movies, surfing the internet, skyping & light gaming (super nintendo emulated games and stuff like that)
If money wasn't an issue I would have bought an 15" macbook pro with retina display and 512GB SSD. BUT I don't have the 2500 US$ to spend on a laptop.
My budget is up to 1500 us$.
What I think I need:
- quad core processor (preferably i7)
- 16GB of RAM (willing to compromise to 8GB with posibility to update to 16 Gb in the future)
- a GOOD & easy on the eyes Retina like or ultra high res IPS display (I spend ~10 hours a day in front of the display)
- 512 SSD (i'm willing to compromise to a configuration with a smaller SSD as primary drive but with an additional mechanichal drive, something like 128 SSD + 1TB 7200 rpm)
- good cooling system (a serious problem with my current DELL is overheating when doing heavy multi-threading stuff)
- decent keyboard
- overall realiable & good quality hardware
What's not that important for me:
- Weight and dimensions (Yes I do have to carry around the thing in my backpack but I would much rather have a powerful and bulky laptop than a slim and less powerful one)
- GPU (I wont play high-end games on it)
- Sound & speakers (average sound will work for me)
- Battery life (anything with 3+ hours will do just fine)
- Touchscreen (don't need it!)
- touchpad (most of the times I use an external mouse anyway)
What I'm not sure of:
Screen size: I have always had 15" or 16" laptops, never went smaller than that, I have some serious doubts about how comftarble will I be with a 13" display (specially with coding).