What Laptop to get

themadtaxi

Honorable
Jun 3, 2012
5
0
10,510
Hey, I just graduated and was told I could choose whatever laptop I wanted. Knowing that id probably mess up if I tried to do it alone, I decided to ask all the great people here! I like to play demanding games and edit videos. I would also like some decent data transfer rate on the hard drive. Im not a big fan of apple laptops.

Should I go ultrabook?

Do I need an SSD?

What brand is most reliable?

Any laptop suggestion?
 
Solution
Here's something in a 15" frame:
MSI GT 60 15" Gaming Notebook ~$1500
Core i7 3610QM 2.30GHz (Turbo 3.3Ghz) Ivy Bridge CPU, 12GB RAM, 1TB HDD 7200rpm, 15.6" 1920x1080 LCD w/ Geforce GTX 670M graphics card.

This model has 2x 500GB in Raid0 for storage. Other models can be equipped with SSD and a HDD.
It's best to answer the questions in the following thread which can be used to narrow down on laptops that will like suit your needs. Otherwise you might get recommended a laptop that costs upwards of $7,000 and beyond. Yes... they do exist.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/50797-35-laptop-buyers

Should you get an ultrabook? Yes... if you are looking for portability.

Should you get SSD? Yes, if you want Win 7 to load as fast as possible and to launch programs as fast as possible. Otherwise there is no effect on performance.

Reliable brands? You'll get different answers here, but I stay away from HP and Acer.
 

themadtaxi

Honorable
Jun 3, 2012
5
0
10,510
1. What is your budget?

Roughly 1500 -1900

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

Hmm... full size, 15 and up?

3. What screen resolution do you want?

Highest possible for the budget

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

A bit of both

5. How much battery life do you need?

Good life, going to be used on the go as well as plugged in.

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)?

I play skyrim and bf3. On my desktop I play on the highest settings, I would like it to be as good as possible.

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

I use premiere pro and after effects.

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

300GB + would be good

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

NA

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

I want to be able to use it in college for the next four years

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

Definitely want to be able to write on disks

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.

NA

13. What country do you live in?

US
 
Definitely not Ultrabook territory. They're more about 13" and ultra low voltage dual core CPUs.

1920x1080 resolution and quad core Ivy Bridge CPU fit nicely in your budget range.

 

themadtaxi

Honorable
Jun 3, 2012
5
0
10,510


After looking at some laptops just now, I think 15in is plenty for me.