Laptop for Programming/Some Gaming?

College Life
1

<p>I will be a freshman doing computer science this coming Autumn. I don't know too much about computer hardware, so please feel free to explain decisions or what you recommend and assume I don't know anything. Please also back up your suggestion, instead of throwing something out there ("Get a MacbookPro" as opposed to "Get a MacbookPro, it has __<em>, perfect for _</em>, etc") :) </p>

<p>I've been looking around online and on some forums they have this form for OPs to answer.
Thank you very much!</p>

<p>1) What is your budget?
About $1000, but the cheaper the better. I welcome suggestions that is a bit above $1000 as well, and I'll just go search for deals.</p>

<p>2) What size notebook would you prefer? </p>

<p>Mainstream; 15" - 16" screen</p>

<p>3) Where will you buying this notebook?
USA, either online or somewhere in Washington or Oregon</p>

<p>4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?</p>

<p>a. Like: Software: Windows 7 OS, Hardware: no preference
b. Dislike: Apple (for both hardware and operating system) - I've gone through Apple computers from elementary through high school, and it was unnecessary stress for me.</p>

<p>5) Would you consider laptops that are refurbished/redistrubited?
I would consider it, but would prefer a new laptop.</p>

<p>6) What are the primary tasks will you be performing?
School work, programming, some gaming, watching movies, listening to music, internet, instant messaging, skype...</p>

<p>7) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both?
Both, but may opt to use the labs at school as to not keep the laptop on all the time. Will definitely bring it around though.</p>

<p>8) Will you be playing games on it; if so, which games or types of games?
Left 4 Dead 2, Diablo 3 (not out yet, just assume it runs similarly to Starcraft 2, which I know lags on some laptops.)
I don't do hard core gaming though, or I'd get a desktop. I'm also not completely into LAN gaming for PC... I'm more of the console type, so assume I'm just going to single play these games.</p>

<p>9) How many hours of battery life do you need?
The more, the better. Whatever you think would be fine (and perhaps even a little bit more) for a college student.</p>

<p>10) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK?
I would prefer buying in-store, but I am not against buying online.</p>

<p>11) What OS do you prefer? Windows (XP or Vista), Mac OS, Linux, etc.
Windows 7</p>

<p>Screen Specifics</p>

<p>12) From the choices below, what screen resolution(s) would you prefer? Keep in mind screen size in conjunction with resolution will play a large role in overall viewing comfort level. Everyone is different. Some like really small text, while others like their text big and easy to read. If you are unsure of what to purchase, we would highly recommend you check some notebook screens before you buy to see what you like.</p>

<ul>
<li>Standard Resolutions: WXGA, HD, 720p</li>
<li><p>Actual resolutions: 1280x800 and 1366x76 </p></li>
<li><p>Midrange Resolutions: WXGA+, HD+, 900p</p></li>
<li><p>Actual resolutions: 1440x900 and 1600x900</p></li>
</ul>

<p>13) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen?
(For more details, please scroll to the glossary section at the bottom)
Doesn't really matter.</p>

<p>Build Quality and Design</p>

<p>14) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?
No, just nothing pink. "Ugly" laptops are fine, as long as they do the job!</p>

<p>15) When are you buying this laptop and how long do you want this laptop to last?
August or early September 2010 (Classes start late Sept)</p>

<p>Notebook Components</p>

<p>16) How much hard drive space do you need; 80GB to 500GB? Do you want a SSD drive?
I'm not sure, worst case I'll have a outer hard drive to back up my files. SSD would be nice, but they are expensive.</p>

<p>17) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a CDRW/DVD-ROM, DVD Burner or Blu-Ray drive?
A CDRW/DVD-ROM will be fine</p>

2

<p>Go on Dell Outlet and look for some Previously Ordered but Never Shipped Latitudes E6400/6410 or E6500/6510.</p>

<p>I would go with the tried and true Dell Latitudes or Lenovo Thinkpad T Series.</p>

3

<p>You got this outline from Notebook Review. Did you make a thread there/what did they advise you to buy? I agree with going Dell. Dell has deals for laptops on an almost weekly basis. Three days ago an i5 Dell Studio 15 was on sale for $690 shipped.</p>

4

<p>Based on your criteria, most PC laptops with a dedicated GPU will do fine. You don’t really seem picky. </p>

<p>Some laptops you should consider:
HP Envy 14 (14.5" screen)
Acer TimelineX 4820TG (14.0" screen) or 5820TG (15.6")
Both laptops have HD5650, great for gaming… well on a laptop.</p>

<p>I myself have the Envy 14 and it’s great. 4 hours battery life on intel GMA, amazing screen quality, 1600x900 resolution, and nice specs.</p>

<p>BTW, I suggest posting this in NBR forums than in CC…</p>

5

<p>Second the Dell Latitudes and Lenovo Thinkpads. Those are real business-class laptops, and as a student, your laptop will suffer more abuse than the typical business laptop.</p>

<p>Consumer grade laptops will be in pretty bad shape in a short amount of time unless you give it a level of care that’s mostly infeasible in college.</p>

6

<p>Don’t get a low-end consumer laptop if you can avoid it (i.e. the Dell Inspirons end up having floppy screens after a few months, because their hinges are such poor quality). However, my Dell Studio has held up well for the past year, even after a few 3-foot falls. But Lenovo has the best build quality for price, including things like spill-resistant keyboards. One of my friends would close his laptop and pound on it when he was angry. I don’t recommend that, but with a Thinkpad you can get away with crap like that.</p>

7

<p>Customise a high end Dell Studio to have a gaming graphics card.</p>

<p>Overall, laptops fail at gaming. Since you said some gaming, I assume you aren’t too into it. Otherwise I’d build my own.</p>

<p>Oh, and chsowlflax17 is correct. My Dell Inpiron’s screen is already broken (it always felt cheap), and the keyboard keys are somewhat broken. It sucks, but I am going for the Desktop/Netbook combo when I get to college.</p>

8

<p>I also suggest the Thinkpad line. Durability is key for college laptops. If you go with a different company, try and see it in person before you buy. The case, keyboard, and trackpad can make a huge difference in a laptop. The Envy line originally had a bad trackpad, but I hear they improved it with the Envy 14.</p>

9

<p>I have the Envy 14 myself and I think the trackpad isn’t bad but not that great either. It’s pretty big but I don’t like its rough texture (not smooth like glass, feels like brushed aluminum).</p>

10

<p>The funny thing about the glass trackpad on Apple’s laptops is it doesn’t feel like glass at all… I’m not sure I’d like it to feel like glass, although it works well on iPhones. I’m really a big fan of that glass trackpad because of the scrolling. A lot of trackpads have it, but I haven’t used one that works as well as the Apple.</p>

<p>Anyway, if the Envy 14 only has a decent trackpad, I’d definitely stay away from the original models who don’t even have the 14’s trackpad.</p>

<p>Here’s an article on trackpads. The comments say good things about Sony and Lenovo pointing devices, but in my experience they vary between models.</p>

<p>[Won’t</a> somebody please think of the trackpads?](<a href=“http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/04/15/please-wont-somebody-think-of-the-trackpads/]Won’t”>http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/04/15/please-wont-somebody-think-of-the-trackpads/)</p>

11

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<p>I have the HP Envy 14 and can’t get enough. With the exception of the trackpad and some strange manufacturing issues a few people ran into (not me), it is getting fabulous reviews. The trackpad is awful out of the box, I’m not even going to sugarcoat that. But if you personalize it and download the two-finger-click program that someone on NBR adapted for the Envy 14, it really is a sweet trackpad.</p>

12

<p>Wait, the Envy 14 only has 4 hours of battery on integrated graphics? I expected it to be closer to the MBP’s 8-10 hours. Still, 4 hours is respectable for a full-powered laptop.</p>

13

<p>MBP 8-10 hours? That’s the advertised battery life. HP advertises their battery life of 7 hours, and 14 hours with the slice battery. My friends have the MBP and NONE of them get a battery life close to that. They average around 5-6 hours, depending on usage. But honestly, if you are going to use your computer for 4+ hours, you shouldn’t be away from an AC plug.</p>

<p>I ran several tests on my Envy 14 and I get around 4hours and 10 minutes on light browsing, and discharge rate is around 11,000-13,000mW. No slice battery.</p>

14

<p>Thinkpad T510. They’re durable - I’ve dropped my T500 many times. It’s fine for light gaming - I’ve played SC2 on mine and it ran fine. Good battery life - get a 9 cell battery. It fits everything you want for a computer. Another plus is the Trackpoint. I LOVE the Trackpoint. I don’t know if I can convert back to a mouse or another laptop with only a touchpad.</p>

15

<p>Alienware m17x…I adore mine although more expensive</p>

16

<p>Ignore people recommending HP and Dell laptops, they have higher failure rates. Stick to Asus, Toshiba, and Sony when cheap.</p>

<p>Something like this is as good as it gets for your price range [Newegg.com</a> - ASUS N61 Series N61JQ-X1 NoteBook Intel Core i7 720QM(1.60GHz) 16" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 320GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5730](<a href=“Are you a human?”>Are you a human?) or <a href=“Are you a human?”>Are you a human?;

<p>But I HIGHLY recommend(if you’re comfortable with it) buying a budget laptop for $500 and building a $500-600 system. I pieced together a desktop for $600 with 22" monitor that is twice as fast as the laptop above. I personally use a desktop+laptop combo and know others that do at school as well.</p>

<p>Having a laptop is really useless unless you MUST take notes on it in class; if so a gaming laptop will only be heavy, cumbersome, and have poor battery life.</p>

17

<p>^ the funny thing is, i have a 7 year old HP laptop (Pentium M, 1GB RAM, 40GB HDD) and a 7 year old Dell desktop with P4, 512MB RAM, 30GB HDD , and they still work perfectly fine today. the dell is on nearly 24/7 since 2003. It’s really a matter of how well you take care of your computer…</p>

18

<p>No, its more of a matter of luck.</p>

<p>[Laptop</a> Reliability and Failure Rates | O.M.G.](<a href=“blogetery.com - This website is for sale! - Blog Resources and Information.”>blogetery.com - This website is for sale! - Blog Resources and Information.)</p>

<p>The fact is Dell isn’t the best and HP is the worst so why even buy them when they offer inferior pricing and build quality?</p>

<p>My first year 2 people had their HP’s die(the only 2 who had them on my floor), one had a hard drive failure and the other was overheating(typical of modern HP laptops, they have the worst cooling known to man)</p>

<p>3 people had dells, 1 was an old Windows XP model that worked fine, another was a new Dell Studio laptop that had a wireless network card die(cheap dell branded one), and my friends Dell XPS had a hard drive failure as well in the middle of the semester.</p>

<p>Newer laptops are more prone to overheating than older ones and that is the biggest issue with HP laptops. You can’t compare desktops to laptops, building a desktop that doesn’t fail is easy as pie but creating something small and durable like a laptop that can stay cool and not break is difficult.</p>

19

<p>So just because a Seagate hard drive is placed inside a HP or Dell, the HDD is automatically more prone to failure? Hard drive failure rate isn’t dependent on the OEM. HP and Dell don’t even make their own drives. What OEMs do is buy hardware from 3rd party, put it together, and then sell it. HDDs are usually from WD, Seagate, or Toshiba.</p>

20

<p>Yes but they decide the quality of the part going into the laptop, that and the design of the laptop itself decides its reliability.</p>

<p>Believe it or not every hard drive is not created equal, every single series of drive have their own failure rates and it should be the manufacturer’s responsibility to test that.</p>

<p>Are you trying to imply that HP’s ridiculous failure rate is just a coincidence?</p>