Toshiba P505 18in. w/ i7 processor

College Life
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<p>Hey everybody, I just got my letter for National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist, and the college I want to go to gives a laptop stipend to national merit scholars.</p>

<p>I love customizing my systems, but I would rather have a laptop with amazing hardware, then live with it for all of school, so my question basically is</p>

<p>-4gb or 6gb DDR3 RAM?</p>

<p>-64gb SSD + 320gb HDD or 500gb HDD?</p>

<p>-512mb or 1gb discrete graphics</p>

<p>-DVD vs. BLURAY Drive</p>

<p>I am not a PC gamer, but I do tend to use massive software for managing my media library
I like the idea of having a solid state disc but is it worth it
Not being a gamer, do I really need 1gb graphics
and if I don't need the graphics, then will bluray be worth it</p>

<p>I can afford most of these customizations, but not all of then, any suggestions?</p>

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<p>RAM: 4GB, since most users don’t even use that much. In all honesty, most users only use 1.5GB or so, so 4GB is definitely more than enough for you. That should leave you more money for this next one:</p>

<p>Storage: 64GB + 320GB HDD. SSDs are definitely the way to go, as they’re fast and very reliable (no moving parts). I’d actually go with a 64GB SSD and a 500GB laptop harddrive, and put that into a 2.5" external enclosure to make a 500GB external you can take with you anywhere.</p>

<p>Graphics: You never compare graphics chips using memory. A 1GB 9500GT will be outperformed three times over by a 512MB 9800GT. It all depends on the core, so if you can post which chips you’re looking at, I can give you an accurate assessment.</p>

<p>Optical Drive: Are you planning on getting a 1920x1080 monitor? If not, then your laptop screen by itself is probably too low resolution to notice a difference between DVDs and BRs. I’d base this one solely on if you’re going for a 1080 laptop screen or external monitor.</p>

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<p>What kind of software? In my experience, iTunes is the most bloated software, but even that is negligible in both processing power and storage space.</p>

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<p>If you plan on taking your laptop to class, then definitely. Most HDD failures are caused by shock on the harddrive as a result of movement while the HDD is still on. SSDs are impervious to this as they have no moving parts.</p>

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<p>As stated above, memory space on the graphics chip is irrelevent, and it’s all about the graphics chip itself.</p>

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<p>Blu-Ray decoding can be done on even the simplest integrated graphics chip. In general, for playback (when the video is already been made), integrated chips can handle it easily, including BR playback. For renderring (when your laptop has to make the video itself, such as in gaming), that’s when you’d want a dedicated graphics chip.</p>

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<p>NVIDIA® GeForce® 310M with 512MB GDDR3 discrete graphics memory<br>
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 330M with 1GB GDDR3 discrete graphics memory</p>

<p>These are my two options for Graphics,
and I do agree with your statement about hard drives, and after checking the price of Bluray DVD Players I probably wont tack on the extra cash for a bluray slot, but that means I have total choice on graphics</p>

<p>Frankly, the difference between the graphics would only be worth the antivirus subscription for a year, which raises the question, Which antivirus should I go with?</p>

<p>when I say media library, I mean that I process a lot of movies on my computer, but I believe that having the i7 is the most important factor in that respect.</p>

<p>Thank you for getting back to me so fast</p>

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<p>For graphics, you’re going to have to make the decision yourself.</p>

<p>The GT 330M is the more powerful graphics chip between the two. The G310M is weaker but offers better battery life as it uses less power. The choice for you is if you’d want more power for more battery life. Something I should bring up is that unless you game, you really do not need a good graphics chip. For movie playback, the G310M, although the weaker of the two, is already overkill.</p>

<p>As for the bit on movies, if you’re talking about video rendering, then yes, the CPU would be the best thing to upgrade here. Video rendering is not affected by the graphics chip.</p>

<p>As for antivirus, to be frank I have no clue. I haven’t used an anti-virus in years myself. I find that practicing safe online habits can keep you clear of 99.9% of viruses out there. Before you buy an antivirus program, though, I’d check with your school to see if they have any deals on one. My school gives us free copies of Symantec, so there’s a chance your school might have something similar.</p>

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<p>Cant recommend spending money on an antivirus. Between the freeware antiviruses and what your university may offer to students for free, no money is really needed. Though, be sure to compare between antiviruses you may choose.</p>

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Yeah, I tell the same thing to others about this. Common sense is the best weapon against malware; virus installation on the host relies on the stupidy of the user. just don’t go to scam sites, torrents, file sharing, hack sites, porn, etc. and it’s pretty much guaranteed that you won’t get any form of malware.</p>

<p>Anyways… honestly, if you want to get a high powered system, I would consider getting a custom built desktop. but does your scholarship allow you to purchase a desktop?</p>

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<p>Many schools offer FREE antivirus because they don’t want viruses getting on their own network. So it’s a win-win for you.</p>

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<p>Yes, I have considered buying a desktop, but I will be four hours from home which means that I will probably go home at least every few weeks, and I’m not sure how i would feel about leaving that kind of equipment in my dorm all weekend</p>

<p>To me, I would trade the ability to customize and the lower price of a desktop, for the ability to keep it with me, besides, I have a limited amount of time to use the stipend, so where would I get money for new components after my freshman year.</p>

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<p>heads up: that computer is going to have a crummy battery life. two hard drives, a discrete graphics card, an 18in display, and an i7 are going to drain your battery pretty heavy bro. and for what, so you can open up iTunes a millisecond faster? i don’t think that it is worth it.</p>

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<p>^ Because the SSD hardly uses much power, removing the HDD can save power. And you should consider buying a second battery, and removing the battery when the laptop is plugged into the wall.</p>

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<p>Why do you want an 18 inch laptop? Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of having a laptop? That thing must way close to 10 lbs.( if not more).</p>

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<p>Just to clarify, I already have a netbook that I will take to classes to take notes, this computer will spend most of the time sitting in my room. I want great computing power but I also want to be able to pack it up on the weekends. I’m also 6’7" 285lbs so a 10lb computer wouldn’t bother me that much anyway.</p>

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<p>Have you seen the 18 inch laptop in person? I highly recommend that you see it before you buy it. </p>

<p>You can get mega power in a 15 inch laptop.</p>