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What notebook should I buy?


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This thread is for people who want to compare notebooks of different brands or simply want to know, "what notebook should I get with x config in mind and y budget".

Have fun.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Budget: ~$1200

Screen Size: 15in

Traveling notebook would like great superb never run out of battery life :)

Dual core or even quad core would be good

4-6gig ram

no optical drive needed

250gig+ hdd

I don't need a gaming laptop, right now I have a netbook but the screen is just too

small for me.

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X220 - no brainer. It pretty much demolishes any other non-gaming laptop.

- IPS screen

- Sandy Bridge CPU + new IGP that can run some games (~4K 3DMark06)

- USB 3.0

- mSATA HD option

- slice battery

- dock

- superb build quality

- very light

- quiet and runs cool

- Expresscard for Vi-dock

- trackpoint

- replacement parts really easy to get

I guess you could complain about screen res if you're picky.

T420 is supposedly not too bad either, it just comes with regular (14") screen.

Edited by unreal25
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Forgot to say 1 con: it can only fit 7mm drive apparently, so there is quite a limited choice in that respect. One can of course go with the mSATA SSD but they are somewhat slower and more expensive.

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That battery is crazy I could bring that baby allover with me and it would never run out of a battery over a whole day... If smaller screen but good build quality and limited hard drive are the only cons, that makes the X220 the best laptop in portable non-gaming category and a battery life not easily topped by any other competitor right now.

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The Thinkpad keyboard is top notch too. :) Also it has some form of UEFI option in the BIOS. (I thought UEFI is a BIOS replacement?) People claim you can get ~20 sec boot from the Power on with some basic tweaks on T420:

T420 + mSata + UEFI ONLY = 20 SEC BOOT

The tablet version (X220 tablet) also has an option of IPS + damage-resistant Gorilla glass .

I'd welcome to see improvements like that on Alienware series too. But I guess first things first. Ditch the shit screen, Dell. Seriously.

Edited by unreal25
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Asking for a mate -

-13-14 inches

-at least 3-4 hours battery life at max load

-must have optical drive

-either mac or windows (hasn't decided yet)

-reasonable hard drive space 320gb+

-wifi-bluetooth-hdmi the usual gear

-nothing over $1600AU (bought from US must be under $1200USD)

Edited by Jimbo
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  • 2 months later...
Guest bifnewman
Asking for a mate -

-13-14 inches

-at least 3-4 hours battery life at max load

-must have optical drive

-either mac or windows (hasn't decided yet)

-reasonable hard drive space 320gb+

-wifi-bluetooth-hdmi the usual gear

-nothing over $1600AU (bought from US must be under $1200USD)

I know this is a little late but the Thinkpad T420 can be bought for a good price. It has a 14" screen, optical drive, windows, normal hd, wifi, bluetooth, and achieves over 7 hours of battery life on just the 6-cell battery. if you go for the 9-cell, you get like 12.5 hours. if you go for the 9-cell and the slice, you get like 30 hours. Since it can also be bought with a dedicated GPU option, I'm having trouble deciding between the M11x, the X220, and the T420.

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Bif... the 30hour battery life is the way to go for a ultraportable. The other thing your deciding for Bif was a Desktop Replacement... Right?

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  • 3 weeks later...

Ok.... Ultra cheap option needed for a mate.

$350AU MAX, $250 preferable

14" max, 10" netbook is fine

5-6hrs usable battery life

Are the atom powered netbooks the best things to be looking at, or are there AMD options also?

He was looking at this Logical Blue One - Horize W246 Notebook PC, but add shipping and it's seriously stretching an already thin budget.

Can anyone help out please?

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi everyone. I'm looking for a good gaming laptop:

Budget: max. 1300€ (~1900$)

Screen size: min. 14"

It has to be able to play the latest games, and portabilty is a plus. I also want to use it as a regular laptop, take it to work/library/... so it has to be relatively quiet.

I was thinking of buying an Alienware M14x, but I've heard that it makes a lot of noise.

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There are some new MSI gaming notebooks for a good price which have the Nvidia GTX 5470m, should be pretty powerful, just slightly behind a 6970m (and I assume the 570m is just as overclockable as it's predecessor, the 470m). There's a 17.3 and a 16 inch version, MSI GTX780DXR and GT683DXR if I remember correctly.

Very good price/performance ratio.

There's also the Asus G Series, the new G74, but it has only a 560m which is a lot less powerful than a 570m, but I know that the G Series are very quiet. Never used a MSI myself.

The M14x is more portable, but also not as powerful. I don't know about the fan noise, though I think if you set the power profile properly for working in the library or similar (slightly reduce the CPU power) you'll have a noiseless system.

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  • 2 weeks later...

alright so, im getting ready to start college up and well i dont only want the laptop for college...

so let me start with this... im NOT a hardcore gamer, my price ceiling is 1100$, if there is a laptop well worth over that please suggest it anyways.

games i do play :

stronghold 3 - coming out soon - doesnt require much of anything really...

runescape - ik... shutup lol, i just want something that can run a program at 1000 mb of ram throughout the night, without making any loud fan noises...

------------------------

so that is pretty much the gaming i do... not much...

i want a computer that will last me a really long time!! - 2 + years!!

-----------------------

if any other info is needed pls let me know... thank you for your help!

PLEASE NO MACBOOK PRO...

POST LINKS AND COMMENTS BEEELOW..... and also....

is this worth getting with the current specs it has?

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Dell-AM14X-6557STB/16651966

Edited by skill a pure
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Any wishes for screen size / resolution? What about battery life? Except for gaming, what will you do with the notebook, taking notes most of the time, browsing?

ummm i think the least screen size - 14 " above would be good if the battery life was good too... resolution... dont know too much about... something you think would work great for me would be fine =)

i will practically - yes be using the laptop for browsing , microsoft office , and the games that i mentioned above/ would GREATLY appreciate a QUIET laptop!!

and a WELL BUILT laptop to last me through the years... and maybe 6gb memory +? i dont really feel that 4gb is safe to say to be enough... thanks

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The Alienware M14x is probably the best 14 inch system out there at the moment, powerful and well built, but it's rather heavy and big for it's size. Any system with decent gaming capabilities will be heavier than regular notebooks, and it usually also has an impact on battery live.

You might also want to take a look at the XPS15, Clevo P150HM, Asus G53 or MSI GT683. All of these are pretty powerful 15-15.6 inch systems and should be good enough for 2 years. There are also more business like systems, but they usually don't have decent GPUs, though the battery life can be better of course. E.g. Lenovo systems.

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The Alienware M14x is probably the best 14 inch system out there at the moment, powerful and well built, but it's rather heavy and big for it's size. Any system with decent gaming capabilities will be heavier than regular notebooks, and it usually also has an impact on battery live.

You might also want to take a look at the XPS15, Clevo P150HM, Asus G53 or MSI GT683. All of these are pretty powerful 15-15.6 inch systems and should be good enough for 2 years. There are also more business like systems, but they usually don't have decent GPUs, though the battery life can be better of course. E.g. Lenovo systems.

that xps looks really promising... is there a big difference if i keep it with 1366 x 768

and 1900 x 1080?

what would be so different or better about it?

will it waste more battery life?

edit: and also THANK you for helping me out very much =)

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You definitely don't want a 1366x768 display on a 15.6 inch screen. The 1080p panel will use slightly more power, but the difference is negligible. You won't be able to play games on 1080p with the GPU of the XPS, but you can still lower the resolution for gaming. 1920x1080 is a very good resolution for a 15 inch screen imo, especially when browsing or having two windows open side by side.

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You definitely don't want a 1366x768 display on a 15.6 inch screen. The 1080p panel will use slightly more power, but the difference is negligible. You won't be able to play games on 1080p with the GPU of the XPS, but you can still lower the resolution for gaming. 1920x1080 is a very good resolution for a 15 inch screen imo, especially when browsing or having two windows open side by side.

how big is the effect on the battery?

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