Help on buying Laptop for college Fall 2012

[m_chanhiran@yahoo.co]

Why would someone only playing Angry Bird want that kind of GPU? Plus for school notebook that's going to be carried around, that's too heavy. I'd say the HP dm4t is worth a look. It's light at 4.3 pounds and has a decent HD+ LCD. It's relatively inexpensive and you could use the extra funds upgrading the warranty.

ive been looking at these HP's

http://www.shopping.hp.com/store/pro...rowse3/PDP_PDP

HP Pavilion dm4 and dm4t Beats Edition series | HP Official Store

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/sh...#defaultAnchor

-also ive been looking at the Envy 15, and i hear there are new Envy 4&6 coming out but those are ultrabooks, and i have no idea if they have the amount of memory i need
-and im still looking at the samsung series 7 and maybe a Sony Vaio SE but i would like some info on these
-and some of you guys say the Ideapad Y580 is good but some say that its too much for me b/c i won't be gaming?

What do you guys think of those choices.. im new to this laptop tech stuff
Thanks

[npaladin2000]

So far I like the Series 7 Chronos, great feel, nice performance, but they come in set configurations, and with one screen resolution (1600x900 matte). If you want something they don't offer, you need to be prepared to open it up and change it yourself (which I'm doing, adding the SSD, swapping out the WiFi card for an Intel 6200). Same deal with the Dell XPS15z (which is very surprising: they pretty much invented custom build-to-order) .

Sony's got a custom build-to-order for the VAIO SE, as does HP with the ENVY15. Sony's also got a couple of interesting extended battery options for the VAIO SE. Any of these machines would actually be slightly overkill for you, but you have the budget, and you need a machine that will last you 4 years and be easy to tote around a lot, and these do the trick. they're all around an inch thin and around 5 pounds.

That Lenovo they're talking about is 6 pounds and 1.4 inches thick, so it's a little bulkier, but it may end up being cheaper. You pay a little bit of a premium for having a thin and light 15 inch...but after dragging my 1.6 inch thick 6 pound Asus N53SV to a few trade shows and conventions, I can tell you a 1 inch, 5 pound machine for me is worth a little extra. You have to make your own decision on that though. Lenovo's a decent brand, though their Thinkpads are a lot more highly regarded than the IdeaPad line.

[m_chanhiran@yahoo.co]

So far I like the Series 7 Chronos, great feel, nice performance, but they come in set configurations, and with one screen resolution (1600x900 matte). If you want something they don't offer, you need to be prepared to open it up and change it yourself (which I'm doing, adding the SSD, swapping out the WiFi card for an Intel 6200). Same deal with the Dell XPS15z (which is very surprising: they pretty much invented custom build-to-order) .

Sony's got a custom build-to-order for the VAIO SE, as does HP with the ENVY15. Sony's also got a couple of interesting extended battery options for the VAIO SE. Any of these machines would actually be slightly overkill for you, but you have the budget, and you need a machine that will last you 4 years and be easy to tote around a lot, and these do the trick. they're all around an inch thin and around 5 pounds.

That Lenovo they're talking about is 6 pounds and 1.4 inches thick, so it's a little bulkier, but it may end up being cheaper. You pay a little bit of a premium for having a thin and light 15 inch...but after dragging my 1.6 inch thick 6 pound Asus N53SV to a few trade shows and conventions, I can tell you a 1 inch, 5 pound machine for me is worth a little extra. You have to make your own decision on that though. Lenovo's a decent brand, though their Thinkpads are a lot more highly regarded than the IdeaPad line.

Thanks for the info and how is the chronos regarding heat/fan does it get hot on your lap? and is the screen anti-glare? Also do you know anything about the new sony vaio c series coming with ivybridge or the new envy 4 and 6? and do you know any laptops that will becoming in a couple months that could be worth waiting for?

[m_chanhiran@yahoo.co]

If you're looking at using this notebook for four years and you won't be gaming, I'd definitely look at business notebooks, i.e. HP Probook or EliteBook, Lenovo Thinkpad, and Dell Latitude or Precision series - they're built to last, unlike most consumer laptops, and they should all offer three year warranties standard.

You should wait until Intel's new Ivy Bridge processors (i3/i5/i7-3xxx series) come out, since they'll offer improved performance, GPU performance, and battery life; maybe wait for Windows 8 too - by the time you're a senior in college Windows 7 will be rather long in the tooth.

As an alternative to Ivy Bridge, you could also look at AMD's Trinity series, also forthcoming - they processor's not as fast as an Intel, but the integrated GPU is way faster. I don't know about battery efficiency.

So are most of the mainstream laptops that everyone talks about (Vaio, Envy, Dell) aren't meant to last for long periods of times? and do you know any laptops coming out with windows 8 and the ivy bridge in both of their June releases.. and do anyone of you guys think the brand acer is a good brand/do they have any new or upcoming laptops

[pepper_john]

My company of 7k employees has used dell/hp notebooks exclusively and their failure rates are pretty high . Actually you can go the HP and Dell owners threads in this forum to see the surveys of user satisfaction.

[m_chanhiran@yahoo.co]

My company of 7k employees has used dell/hp notebooks exclusively and their failure rates are pretty high . Actually you can go the HP and Dell owners threads in this forum to see the surveys of user satisfaction.

thanks for the info and i will probably wait until ivy bridge comes out see what computers come out with that in a month or two..and what are the differences between an ultrabook and a thin notebook? or are they kinda both the same but just a little different in mass?

[npaladin2000]

Thanks for the info and how is the chronos regarding heat/fan does it get hot on your lap? and is the screen anti-glare? Also do you know anything about the new sony vaio c series coming with ivybridge or the new envy 4 and 6? and do you know any laptops that will becoming in a couple months that could be worth waiting for?

This thing is so quiet it's eerie. Admittedly, I put an SSD in, but the fans are still very quiet and there's n additional "quiet mode" key that will slow down the processor enough for the fan to go silent. I don't generally use machines on my lap but so far it's cool enough where I could reasonably do so. And there's few vents on the bottom so they won't be easily blocked. The screen is anti-glare.

Ivy Bridge is coming out now but that's an incremental update, not really a massive change. With your usage pattern you wouldn't get any immediate advantage from it, though I could understand wanting to wait for it. I didn't bother.

thanks for the info and i will probably wait until ivy bridge comes out see what computers come out with that in a month or two..and what are the differences between an ultrabook and a thin notebook? or are they kinda both the same but just a little different in mass?

An ultrabook is a specific spec for a thin notebook with an SSD.

[m_chanhiran@yahoo.co]

so what do you guys think of my choices i have come down to

not in order

-HP envy 15 (don't know if i should wait for ivy, but i hear the trackpad on this is horrible)

-Sony Vaio SE (i hear they are making a refresh soon, and how the cooling on this)

-Asus N46 or N56 (hows the trackpad and cooling)

-Lenovo y480 y580 (people have recommend this machine to me but im not a heavy gamer)

-Samsung s7 refresh maybe with ivy

i hear ivy is really only useful for gamers but i also hear it improves bat. life and performance and i feel if i want my computer to last this is the route to go?

[npaladin2000]

I would go with either the Sony, and get the battery slice for the additional battery life, or the Samsung for the matte screen.

[m_chanhiran@yahoo.co]

What 13"-15" ultra books or thine notebooks ~5lbs at the most (something i can move around for college comfortably) would you guys recommend for me to buy during the months of july- early august;one that has really good speakers or multimedia stuff, a great screen/graphics/full hd, great multi-touchpad,and that stays relatively cool throughout use?

The only reason that makes me iffy about and Apple is that the college "The School of Business strongly recommends that business students arrive with a PC over a Mac to be compatible with all instructional directives, tutorials, and information."
-people at orientation say that you can convert the stuff, but i dont know if its worth it to get a mac book. are they really that good?


im really indecisive and new to this haah

Thanks