Looking For A Powerful Laptop

FruscianteFan

Hi Guys,

I'm looking for some advice on a new laptop!

I will be using it for college work, for designing and updating my website, general internet, movies and music and I also might do some recording on it at some stage. I want it to last me as long as possible.

I want to spend as little as possible to get the best laptop I can. Ideally about 800, if needed I might be able to stretch to a bit more.

So on to specs:
At least 4gb of Ram
Intel i5 or higher (New Model Sandy Bridge and no AMD)
At least 320gb hard drive as I have a 640gb external Seagate
Screen size ideally 15" but might consider a 13" macbook
Battery life of at least 6 hours
Plenty of usb hubs and a card reader, firewire and eSata would be a bonus

I don't want some cheap piece of plastic as I want this to last me as long as possible, would never go near an inspiron or the likes after the last one I used.

So what do you guys think?

Heres some I have been looking at, I have never seen them up close though

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Toshiba_Satellite_Pro_R850-143_1077314.html

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Lenovo_G570_1076389.html

How are Toshiba and Lenovo for build quality? I read here in another thread that Lenovo are basically IBM machines, that must be good.

I was also looking at a 13" macbook pro but I dont know if I could justify the extra cost, plus they look very small. I think the 15" is too much, could never spend that much on just a laptop.

What about Dell? What are the XPS models like?

Cheers

Razzuh

Just ordered an xps from dell myself. I found they were the best source for getting 2nd gen i7s at reasonable prices. Most sites seem to have very poor value on higher spec laptops, and seem to still have mostly 1st gen chips.

I think dell are supposed to have recovered a little lately after a 3 or 4 year long run of terrible quality. I'm updating from an inspiron 9300 that I have to say is in perfect condition still after 6 years, so I'm happy to give dell another run.

I'd just advise you to monitor the deals on the site for a while to get a good price, as long as your not in a rush. Make sure you get a 10% discount coupon from the email newsletter too. To give a sample to compare, I'm getting an XPS 17 with a 2630QM i7, 6GB ram, 500GB HD and GT555 3GB nVidia graphics. That came in at €950. That's several hundred below any similar spec I could find from other sources.

mordeith

FruscianteFan wrote: »

Hi Guys,

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Toshiba_Satellite_Pro_R850-143_1077314.html

http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Lenovo_G570_1076389.html

Just to point out that neither of those appear to have firewire.
I ordered a Studio XPS 17 from Dell as I wanted both firewire and VGA. A lot of new laptops seem to have ditched VGA in favour of HDMI (which is cool) and don't have firewire much either but I wanted both. Came with 4GB Ram and a Core i7. Bought it a few months back so cost me €1,100 but I'm pretty pleased with it. Only thing is the battery doesn't last long (which isn't a problem for me as I mostly use it home)

nogoodnamesleft

I ordered a Lenovo L420s about 3 weeks ago direct from their site they were doing a deal on them at that moment in time. I finally arrived yesterday UPS was the hold up. It was the best bang for my buck as I wanted to stay away from Dell due to their reputation for customer support.

Anyways the lenovo has:

Intel Core i5-2410M Processor (2.3GHz up to SC 2.9GHz, 3MB L3)
- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64
- Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 English
- 14.0" W HD (1366 x 768) LED Backlight, Infinity Glass, Low-light sensitive HD Webcam
- AMD Radeon HD6630 2GB Switchable Graphics, Intel Core i5-2410M Processor
- 4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM)
- Keyboard UK English
- UltraNav with TrackPoint and ClickPad plus Fingerprint Reader
- 320 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
- eSATA
- HDMI
- Multi Recorder Optical Drive (12.7mm)
- Battery (LiPolymer 48.8Wh) - 8 Cell
- Country Pack Ireland
- Bluetooth 3.0
- Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000 (1X2 BGN)
- Language Pack UK English

And a 4 Year on site warrenty as part of their deal. I specified it to have 64bit Win 7 as i wanted the capability of being able to add more RAM at a later date. It came in at under a grand with Win 7 home as opposed to professional. Im going to make it dual boot anyways so didnt see the need in adding 70euro to the price.

Only had it a day and im very impressed with it. Its very pretty looking and feels good quality (keyboard is very tactile). It has an 8 cell battery so lasts about 5 - 6 hours.

coldfire1x

^^ How much did that cost?

nogoodnamesleft

coldfire1x wrote: »

^^ How much did that cost?

990.13EUR Direct from their website. They were running an offer at the time of ordering.

Couldnt find anything like it for the money all the bricks and mortar shops only had cheap and cheerful laptops best available in the shops near me was a 1st gen i3. Still waiting on a call back from one salesman who looked perplexed when I told him what I required.

GTE

I have had fantastic results with Toshiba as has my whole family from about 1997 to the present.

I use a 2008 Toshiba P300 with a dual core 2.4 Ghz processor and 4GB of ram (on a 32bit Windows XP and 7 installation, so thats about 3GB).

As sound engineer I have used it as my primary recording and mixing computer for the past three years and it has not let me down. It is still going very strong but dont take my other thread about upgrading the RAM and CPU the wrong way. It is still flying along but I am looking into further years of service.

A lot of general grunt from the laptop and if you are only planning on some basicish recording I am sure even a used P300 in the correct processor setup would do you fine for DAW work so that means anything from the new Sandybridge line will be fantastic and last you a good while as long as you don't get too mad and enter desktop land in terms of useage.

High-mid spec Toshiba is my vote.

Nelson Muntz

You might want to take a look at this one

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/site/Catalog/ItemDetail.aspx?ItemNo=80001918

I just ordered it & I am very happy with the price.

FruscianteFan

Thanks for all the suggestions!

I was looking at the dell XPS 15 or this Lenovo (http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Lenovo_G570_1076390.html) Its a higher spec than the last one. I like the idea of it having a blu-ray drive or else the Toshiba I posted earlier.

To get a similar spec XPS 15 to the Lenovo or Toshiba it is over 1000. But if they are better quality I might go for a lower spec. What do you guys think?

FruscianteFan

Just to add I really like the price on the Lenovo! If they are decent quality I might just go for it, especially as the others are a fair bit more for the same spec!

roboshatner

Would not go near Komplett

Nelson Muntz wrote: »

You might want to take a look at this one

http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/site/Catalog/ItemDetail.aspx?ItemNo=80001918

I just ordered it & I am very happy with the price.

Nelson Muntz

roboshatner wrote: »

Would not go near Komplett

I assume you had a problem with them in the past?