The best laptop for an architecture student on a low budget !

Masad93

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Help, am gonna start studying architecture in 2 months, and I'm in need for a new laptop, but I only have a budget of 1200-1300$
what do you recommend ?
 

Masad93

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1. What is your budget?
850-950 Jordanian Dinars which is about 1200-1300$
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Medium sized
3. What screen resolution do you want?
14 - 16 "
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
desktop replacement
5. How much battery life do you need?
not less than 6 hours
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)?
probably not, maybe just FIFA , am fine with low settings !
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
I definitely need to use photo editing software, and obviously I need to use AutoCad and other software used by architects. As for video editing, I don't think am gonna need it, and listening to Music of course :)
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
320 GB would do the trick :)
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
Smart Buy Jordan:http://www.smartbuy.jo/smarttech/notebooks
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
5-6 years
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
DVD ROM/R&W
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.
no preference really, but I would like to stay away from Toshiba, cause my sister bought one after consulting me and she was kinda disappointed and so was I !
13. What country do you live in?
Jordan, in the capital Amman specifically
 

Masad93

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I did check, no specific requirements !
 
Any other web sites you can order from besides http://www.smartbuy.jo
Their selection was quite limited - especially in your budget range.
The HP Pavilion dv6-3173ee with it's Core i7-720QM 1.6GHz quad core CPU, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD and Radeon HD 5650 graphics is decent. But it's also last years model.
 

Masad93

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websites, no , but there are many local stores that I can choose from, so my options are quite good.
as for the budget, when I said 1200$-1300$ I meant that this is going to be the highest number I would go for, but ofcourse I prefer cheaper notebook :)
 
It doesn't matter to me. If it doesn't matter to you - you can keep in on your short list if you can't find the newer version.
The one shortcoming that HP has is th at battery life will be well under 6hrs.
 

keithblue2

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Hi Masad93, with US$1200 you should be able to get a killer laptop. Even for about a grand, you can get a really decent one. As WR2 said, the Dell Inspiron 15 is a good, well-rounded machine -- I have what I believe is its predecessor, the Dell Studio 15 (model 1558).

Since a lot of people have asked me this kind of question ("which laptop should I buy?"), I wrote a blog post the other day summarizing some of the options, based on my experience. (I'm also a software guy and a pretty hard-core, though practical, techie.) See "How to buy a good laptop" at http://computingkeith.com/2011/08/08/how-to-buy-a-good-laptop/.

For architecture, you're probably not going to be CPU-bound (meaning waiting on your processor) unless you're planning to do a lot of 3D modelling. So you could think about skipping the Core i5 and getting a Core i3: more or less, you're only basically losing "turbo mode", which takes it up over 3 GHz as needed. (The mobile Core i5 is a dual-core processor, like the i3, *not* a true quad-core processor like the desktop Core i5 or above.) But this also burns the battery faster, so unless you really need the extra speed, you might put the extra $$$ into something that will make a difference every day... like an SSD. (I posted on how awesome SSDs are: SSDs: Are you experienced?) And for most laptops, a Core i7 is sheer overkill.

For my money -- excuse me, your money -- I would pick the following features, in this order: a Core i3 (2nd gen of course), any screen upgrades (e.g. higher res or brighter, $100 to $150), an SSD (~$250; 128 GB is enough), and an extended battery (since battery like is important to you).

Good luck, hope this is helpful. Keith


 

Masad93

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Thanks Keith, I don't know about 3D modelling, perhaps :??:
about the Dell Inspiron 15, I went the other day to get it, and thy told me its out of stock :(
But they had two Dell inspirons , one is the Inspiron 14 and the other is Inspiron 14R, both have 3GB RAM, but the 14R has a Core i3-2310M 2.1 Ghz processor while the other had a Core i5-2310M 2.3 Ghz , and there are some other slight differences, e.g: the 14R has 320 GB of hard disk space while the other has 500 GB.
both have 14" HD Truelife screens.
the 14R is for 480 Jordanian dinars and has 64-Bit OS, while the other is for 550 JDs with a 32Bit OS !!

I think that the 14R is a much better deal, but I'm gonna wait another 2-3 weeks, maybe the Inspiron 15 would become available again :??:
 

Masad93

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Keith, since you are an owner of it, do you think the Dell Studio 15 is good enough for my needs, cause I found one at another local store for 540 JDs ?