Buying a laptop. Help. Created 13 years ago2011-04-16 21:40:48 UTC by zeeba-G

I'm getting $1650. back for my tax refund. I am going to spend it on a laptop because I am away from home at school most of the week and need a computer with me. I've been needing to upgrade to a better pc but need a laptop too so decided to get a really nice laptop.

I need it for mapping and drafting with autocad and vectorworks and photoshop and pretty much any program. It would also be nice to be able to map for source with it. Is this even reasonable? Any ideas? I haven't even began looking. I don't want to spend way too much but I am willing to spend enough for what I need. Are there laptops that can easily handle source mapping?

In a way I guess what i'm looking for is a really nice gaming laptop.

Edit: I want it to be better and faster than my current computer:

Dell Vostro Vostro_2000 intel pentium dual CPU E2180 @2.00GHZ 1.20GHZ, 1.00 Ram

And I really don't think I want an apple.

Buy an alienware.

Find a company that sells laptops without an OS. It will save you a fortune.

Intriguing idea, Chicken.

I just did some Google searching for that very idea, as I myself want to buy a laptop sometime this Summer. I never thought about that.

I found some sites offering laptops without an OS but they looked kinda shady.

I think what I'm going to end up doing is building a laptop myself, if at all possible. Should be fun.

[/hijack]

I'll never understand the US tax system.

Speaking of taxes, the other day a letter arrived at my house - the previous owner as the recipient. It was pretty short and went something like "we have detected unusual operations in foreign currency in your name that didn't match your stated income. Please correct this in your next income report". There was no return address and I don't know where this person lives now, so I can do nothing about it. But I found it funny

http://slickdeals.net/

Keep your eyes peeled. Every once in a while, a manufacturer will put up a really nice deal and users will discover it and submit it to this site. It might make your search a little easier.

If you're going to go with one of the major manufacturers, the general rule I try to follow is to only consider buying products that are being put on sale. Since building a laptop is probably a little more involved than you'd like to be, you're at the mercy of whatever the manufacturers want to charge. You can get some pretty bangin' deals, but you've gotta be patient.

I'll never understand the US tax system.

Dude, we don't even understand our tax system.

Sounds good but I need suggestions such as what kind of processor, how many ghz/ram etc. to look for to overly handle source. My neighbor that knows about computers helped me with my dell but it handles source so badly and he said it would perfectly.

Then he doesn't know that much

I don't know much about laptops either. I generally only know about current computers when I need to buy a new one - that'd be about once every 6 or 7 years. I'm still good for another 2-3. I hope

Source2009 is not that demanding and with $1650 to spare you'll easily be able to get quite a capable machine.

I mean, here's a quick find on ebuyer:
HP G62-452SA Laptop

Intel® Core ™ i3-350M Processor 2.26GHz
3GB RAM + 320GB HDD
15.6" HD LED
Webcam + HDMI
Free Internet Security + Free Carry Case
Charcoal with Prism pattern
Windows 7 Home Premium

It's about twice as powerful as your current PC at only £368.99, but hold off because it's an integrated graphics chip which is guaranteed to drive you mad.
Not really recommending that one, just pointing out that your task is easily doable.

Personally I'd go for this:
Samsung RV511 Laptop

Intel Core i5-480M 2.66GHz
4GB RAM
500GB HDD
15.6" HD LED Gloss
NVIDIA GeForce 315M
Webcam + Bluetooth
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit

£608.56 (around 993 USD)

Pretty darn powerful and a proper graphics card.

Edit:
I don't know what ebuyer are like in the USA, but definitely check them out. They tend to have pretty unbeatable deals on fully built systems.

Wow bad a dude! Ebuyer? A website?

I'll check this out tomorrow when I get home from work meeting.

Also Zeeba, chose quality. Acer, MSI and other shit tend to break a lot.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/

Also a good resource. These folks benchmark hardware (namely, notebook graphics cards) and show you a comparison across the spectrum. It's pretty handy for getting your bearings and understanding how the particular setup you're looking at stacks up against what you could end up getting. Just punch the graphics card model into the search bar.

Thanks theres a lot of great info here. Hmm apples got some overheating issue reviews on bestbuy.com.

Check this out. I built this alienware onlone and it comes out to $1674.

Any thoughts on it?

Alienware m15x:

Module Description Description Product Code & SKU Product Code & SKU
Base System Color Alienware M15x, Lunar Shadow ADGRYN [224-8217]
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English AW7HP6E [420-6436][420-9691][421-0092][421-1400]
Processor Intel® Core™ i7 740QM Quad Core Processor, 1.73GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6M Cache 740QM [317-5398]
Memory 4GB Dual Channel Memory (2x 2GB DDR3) 4GB133 [317-2404]
LCD Display 15.6-inch WideFHD 1920x1080 (1080p) WLED LCD1080 [320-0936]
Video Card 1024 MB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 5730 AT5730 [320-8991]
Hard Drive 500GB SATAII 7,200RPM 500GB72 [341-9754]
Nameplate Personalized Nameplate (My name) NPLATE [330-6106][330-6174]
AlienFX AlienFX Quasar Blue BLUE [313-8792][421-1590]
Avatar Alienhead Glow AVITR2 [421-1572]
Adobe Reader Acrobat SW Adobe Acrobat Reader ADOBER [410-1883]
Optical Drives Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW) DVDRWRX [313-8565][421-1305]
Sound Internal High-Definition 5.1 Surround Sound Audio IS [313-8944]
Wireless Wireless 1520 802.11n Half Mini-Card DW1520 [430-3774]
Automatic Updates Automatic Updates: On AUTOON [330-6348]
Primary Battery Primary - 6-cell (56Watt) Lithium-Ion Battery BTTRY6C [312-0205]
Service 1 Year Basic Service Plan S1OS [421-1724][905-3017][906-0700][988-7347][990-8029][994-3730]
Factory Installed Games Steam and Portal™ Factory Installed STEAM [421-1360]
Wallpapers Alienhead 3D WAL1 [421-1591]
Bluetooth Internal Bluetooth 2.1 Mini-Card - 2.1 Enhanced Data Rate TM370 [430-0684]
Standard Nameplate Trigger

Also Zeeba, chose quality. Acer, MSI and other shit tend to break a lot.

Seconded, Acer is absolute shit, and if you ever get the option, don't buy one.

Also the Alienware looks good, I'd say go for it if you have the money, but I've never personally used an alienware.

It's a great laptop, I'll agree. But damn... that's expensive as hell. A friend of mine found one similar to that model (perhaps a few tiers down in the processor and graphics department, if my memory serves me) except it came with a BluRay reader/DVD burner combo drive and a 2-year warranty that was all on sale for $1100. I think you could surely do a hell of a lot better than $1600+.

Surely it's pointless to put the i7 in it. It's running at a fairly low clock speed (it'd have to in the small space a laptop provides due to lack of cooling) and you'd probably get similar performance and MUCH better value for money from an i5.

Personally I would avoid an Alienware. Not because they're not good - they're great - it's just the same deal you get with Apple: an extra £300 for the badge alone.

Hmm. Alright. It seems apple is more expensive for the exact same components though. What do you think of the mac book pro 15?

I've seen some great vid.s for the alienware m15x as it runs with no lag and great res. but its battery life is absolutely horrible. I want a rig to map for source so i'm leaning towards it.

I use a macbook pro for editing college assignments in Final Cut Pro (FCP only works on macs, but is a requirement in order to pass the editing part of my course. Sadface.) and they're certainly well designed. It's super solidly built and I feel like I could throw it against the wall and it'd be fine. Aside from the ridiculous cost, however, the problems start to arise when you turn it on and realise you're using a fucking mac. It'll drive you absolutely insane if you want to do anything on it that wasn't specifically designed to run on a mac. I'm also not 100% sure that the Source SDK is available on mac, even though the games are.

Like I said, Alienwares are great, although I still think you're better finding an equivalent for cheaper. If you've decided you're definitely getting either a Macbook or an Alienware, though, go for the Alienware.

Edit: Ok very important ? If I do decide to go with the alienware m15x there is a very important decision I have to make. Is it worth spending an extra 325. or 950. to get the better processor or is the base i7 processor fine?

Dell Price $1,574.00 With first one "included"

Intel® Core™ i7 740QM Quad Core Processor, 1.73GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 6M Cache [Included in Price]


Intel® Core™ i7 840QM Quad Core Processor, 1.86GHz (3.20GHz Turbo Mode, 6M Cache) [Add $325.00 or $9.00/month1]


Overclocked Quad Core Processors
Intel® Core™ i7 940XM Quad Core Processor, 2.13GHz (3.33GHz Turbo Mode, 8M Cache) [Add $950.00 or $28.00/month1]
Increase Efficiency