Some advice

[Gottso]

In the market to buy a laptop, so I'll fill out the info suggested. Need some advice and will give what I am looking for if its not covered in the following questions.

1. What is your budget?

$500 - $700

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?

15-16 inches

3. What screen resolution do you want?

1366 x 768

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?

Portable

5. How much battery life do you need?

As long as possible!

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)?

Not a high priority. Maybe some RTSes, Civ 5, Shogun 2 when it is released. Again, not a high priority, but thats what I would play if the machine could run it.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)

Photo editing (Photoshop, Lightroom), Running VMware, Remote access apps such as Logmein, Watching movies would be a plus, but not needed.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?

Prefer 500GB, but not high priority, can go lower.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

Amazon (due to gift cards). Might consider bypassing Amazon to buy from Newegg if the deal was very good, since I usually buy most of my stuff from the egg.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?

At least 3 years [minimum].

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?

Not high priority....dvd writer preferred.

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.

Looking for a robust machine. Have been happy with Toshiba's build [like a tank, even their low end machines] and unhappy with Dell [wife's inspiron already had the screen and KB replaced just under 2years old]. Have been eyeballing Asus based off people's reviews on egg, here and amazon.

13. What country do you live in?

US

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

Build quality and battery life are high on my list. Memory as well for photo/graphics work as well as running VMware.

Do not care too much if graphics are integrated nor if the HD isn't the best around. Prefer win 7 and will be toiling with Ubuntu and Win 2k8 Server through VMware.

Thanks for any input you can offer me. It's a daunting task...researching all the laptop options.

JG

 

[WR2]

It's a daunting task...researching all the laptop options. [/b]

Hello Gottso;
It's gotten even worse for the moment. A whole new slew of CPUs, GPUs and laptops due out very shortly.
They're being announced this week at the Annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2011).

But your price range is good for what you want IMO. If you can find something like a Toshiba Satellite L655-S5111 (or similar model) with Core i3-370 2.4Ghz CPU, 4GB RAM 500GB HDD 15.6" 1366x768 LCD & ATi HD 5650 graphics on Amazon for around $700 it would be a great deal.
Here is that model on NewEgg for $700

 

[Gottso]

I appreciate the reply WR2 and I was eyeballing that on newegg as I posted my initial thread, unfortunately, it's not on Amazon at the moment. Pulled the trigger and went with the ASUS K52DR-A1 . Seems to be on par with the Toshiba you linked besides the CPU being a trip core AMD instead of an i3.

On a side note, the Asus Asus k52DR-X1 and the Asus k52DR-A1 seem to to be the same, with the former having a smaller hard drive but more expensive than the latter. Unless I am missing something...

Most likely buying over my need, but think its a good deal and will serve well if I do decide to game a bit heavy or do some video editing.

Shame most [all?] laptops do not come with a windows install disk and they throw the recovery on the hard drive. Guess it will force me to finally get off my A and get my hands dirty with Ubuntu.

 

[WR2]

On a side note, the Asus Asus k52DR-X1 and the Asus k52DR-A1 seem to to be the same, with the former having a smaller hard drive but more expensive than the latter. Unless I am missing something...

Here is a side-by-side comparison between the Asus Asus k52DR X1 and A1. Hard to account for the price difference, especially since the A1 has the bigger HDD, not the other way around.
I would have expected a Radeon Mobility HD 5670 video card at that price difference.

Not a lot of reviews out on the k52DR yet:
http/www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-K52Dr.42193.0.html
http/www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/asus-k52dr.aspx?page=1

Background info on the CPU/GPU:
AMD Phenom II X3 N830 2.1 GHz - Passmark CPU benchmark score and ranking For comparison the i3 370 2.4Ghz scored 2209
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 - Notebook Gaming List

While waiting for it to get there you can grab the Users Manual from the Asus website download page

Once it does arrive - go ahead and burn that Recovery partition .ISO image to a DVD. You can look into Slipstreaming any service pack update into the ISO recovery image so your recovery disk is up-to-date.
And make yourself a System Repair CD using the Win7 Create a repair disk option once you've updated the OS online (and maybe once every six months or after a major update like a service pack).

No reason not to install Ubuntu along with Win7. 500GB is plenty of room for a dual OS boot setup.

 

[Gottso]

I will most likely go with the dual boot. I appreciate all that info you posted, going to read some of it now.

 

[Gottso]

Best answer selected by gottso.