<p>I cannot decide whether I should get a good laptop with high performance, or a cheap, light laptop with long battery life and have a desktop on the side. I do think that I will use the laptop instead of notebooks, so I do need something light, but at the same time, if I can find enough outlets to frequently charge it, I just might get a performance laptop. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>You can get an extra battery if you want extended life as well as power.</p>
<p>As mentioned on other threads… the laptop (even a tablet) can’t really replace paper notebooks in some classes (like science, math).</p>
<p>If you plan to carry it around everywhere, go for light-weight & mobility. A 8lb laptop doesn’t sound so bad until you’ve been walking around with it hanging off your back all day… lighter is better.</p>
<p>But unfortunately, they tend to make laptops lighter by putting in a smaller battery that won’t last as long… so you might be charging constantly even if it’s a mobility laptop instead of a performance one. I have a 12" tablet w/ a 4cell battery. Even on the “extended life” setting I get about an hour & a half of life.
The other point I should make is that if you’re using your laptop while it’s plugged in all the time, you should remove the battery completely for your battery’s own health. It’s not that your over charging, but it’s the heat from your processor that will eventually degrade your battery & you’ll have to buy a replacement. So if you want your battery to last when you need it, take it out when you’re plugged in.
I own both a desktop & a laptop. I need my laptop because I otherwise wouldn’t have a computer in my research lab. My laptop is my main computer. My desktop has become my “backup” computer.. I store files on there, surf the web & that’s about it.</p>
<p>well, what do you do on your computer?</p>
<p>If you can’t/don’t type math/science notes, then chances are you haven’t done very much math/science or are an exceptionally slow typer.</p>
<p>to be frank, the only reason I would need anything more than a cheap notebook is for gaming. Since I am an engineering major, I could argue that I would be run Maple, do some programming, or run simulations on it, but that could be done on school computers.</p>
<p>Ideally, I shouldn’t have time to play video games, but hey, Starcraft II is coming out and I’m Korean. I can’t help myself.</p>
<p>depends on what the system reqs are then…</p>
<p>14" or 15" laptop will probably be best, 14" more so. make sure it has a separate graphics card, but not a powerful one - they suck up more power and create more heat. not good for use over long periods or battery life. i dunno what cards are out now, but something like an X1400 or Go7400 would probably be fine. of course, i haven’t been playing any recent games, so i dunno what the minimum reqs are for current RTS games…so you’ll probably have to figure that out yourself.</p>
<p>or, if you’re fine with lugging a desktop back and forth, go for that…except you won’t be playing much during breaks.</p>
<p>Well depending on the games you play, you may need a slightly higher end laptop. I decided to go the expensive laptop route with a Macbook Pro (which has a Nvidia Geforce 8600), which is not too bad for most games. Other’s in my suite went the gaming desktop with cheap desktop route, and it works for them.</p>
<p>buy a second hand business laptop (~$300-400) for light tasks, then DIY a desktop for $1000. if you want a laptop only, go with dell xps. you can customise the 15.4 inch screen resolution to 1920 x 1200.</p>
<p>The future promises a combo of dedicated and integrated graphics that will maximize performance and battery life as much as possible. If you’re running spreadsheets, the lower power and lower heat integrated graphics runs. When the graphics horsepower is needed, the dedicated card takes over.</p>
<p>Graphics cards in laptops gobble battery power and make heat. Also, if you get your laptop via your college (most colleges recommend/sell Dell Latitudes), it will probably be an nVidia quadro. They can play games with the settings turned down, but they are designed to perform better on CAD/Business 3D, not gaming.</p>
<p>If you are a hardcore gamer, get a cheap gaming rig or prepare to pay for the performance. graphics performance, sane cost (less than $2500), mobility. Pick any two.</p>