Laptop Computers

Thinking about moving from a desktop to a laptop full time. I just don't really game anymore. I do make some youtube videos though. I've bounced around for the past 2 days reading tons of stuff and have just gotten trigger shy. I'd say my budget is up to $1200?

I usually just want great value. I'm not sure if buying bleeding edge tech now is better than buying something lower end and upgrading later. Looked at things like XPS 13 inch, zenbooks, custom build Sagers etc. Currently I use a desktop Pc with 1g video card and 8 gigs of ram and amd 6300 6 core processor. Have probably had this build for 4+? years. I don't feel like I'm limited yet. That being said if I'm going to invest money I don't want to find limitations in a year from now when it comes to the laptop.

I'm thinking I want 16gig of ram. Torn on SSD. I like speed, but do I need the speed vs the price it costs? Most of the higher end laptops it's just standard. It seems like I need a good i5 processor with 16 gigs of ram and whatever the lowest price point provides that?

Any insight?

After having a SSD, I don't think I would want to not have one again.

Definitely get an SSD. Go with 8GB of RAM instead... plenty for any non-gaming use.

I ended up ordering thisAmazon.com : Dell Inspiron 15 i5548-4167SLV - 15.6 Accessories

Got it from the dell outlet refurb, $502 with tax. I'm going to put in this SSD I think.Amazon.com: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E500B/AM): Computers Accessories[site|thaus[cat|[art|[pid|B00OBRE5UE[tid|14454929703783841[bbc|LEPRIX

Although I may go with the 250gig one, as I still haven't gone past that ever on my desktop.

I ended up ordering thisAmazon.com : Dell Inspiron 15 i5548-4167SLV - 15.6 Accessories

Got it from the dell outlet refurb, $502 with tax. I'm going to put in this SSD I think.Amazon.com: Samsung 850 EVO 500GB 2.5-Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-75E500B/AM): Computers Accessories
Although I may go with the 250gig one, as I still haven't gone past that ever on my desktop.

Alkorin_sl said:

Good choice for an SSD. As to the size, you want to plan for a maximum of about 50% usage, since SSD performance can really start to suffer past that point.

The laptop looks like it should be just fine for what you plan to do with it. Beware of Dell's support, though; if you have any reason to believe that there is something wrong with the laptop, call early and get the bullshit out of the way. They will make you go through their checklists over the phone/by remote desktop before they send a tech or have you RMA anything.

Click to expand...

Good to know on both points. Thanks.

On a similar note to the last few posts, I'm looking to buy a laptop as well. It's only being used for some business, internet/video watching, and maybe the occasional game of league or similar... no high end gaming will be done on it.

I wasn't planning to buy a laptop at all until I helping my mother shop for a replacement for her broken laptop and saw how cheap some refurbished units were on newegg.

My budget is only $300 or less, and was just wondering if anyone had a suggestion. From just a few minutes of searching, something like:
Lenovo Thinkpad L420 Notebook - Intel Core i5-2520M 2.5Ghz, 8GB RAM, 120GB Solid State Hard Drive, DVD RW, Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit - Newegg.com
or
Refurbished: DELL Laptop Latitude E6420 Intel Core i5 2520M Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit - Newegg.com

but idk if Dell, lenovo or whoever is any good these days.. I've always liked ASUS keyboard design, but most of their laptops were too high or had worse specs then these.

Long story short, I'm a designer in a small office and have had the same Alienware laptop for nearly 5.5 years and I'm desperate to upgrade. I only have $1000 to work with because that's all the firm is willing to spend on a new computer. (I've tried to convince them otherwise) I do a good bit of CAD, 3D, photoshop etc. No BIM or rendering for the most part but do a little bit of light gaming on the side.

The laptops that I initially pitched were all in the 1500 to 2000 range so they were fairly high end. Since I do some work at home and on the road I wanted something fairly small and light like the m11x I currently use. That also pushes up the price however. I'm willing to sacrifice portability for the sake of performance but don't really want anything bigger than 15". I was thinking what I would consider doing is getting a laptop with a decent CPU (i7), GPU (GeForce 960m or better) with a generic hard drive and low amount of RAM that I would then swap out for an SSD and 8gb or better depending on the capacity as out of pocket expenses.

Any thoughts on a gaming caliber mid-range laptop that can be customized? My preliminary research pulls up a lot of MSI and Acer Aspires. Which are kind of meh but I may just have to settle.

Thanks.

Basic question about the Type Cover for the Surface Pros, are they blue tooth? If I were at a table, can I separate the screen from the keyboard (and still use the keyboard)?

Voyce_sl said:

Basic question about the Type Cover for the Surface Pros, are they blue tooth? If I were at a table, can I separate the screen from the keyboard (and still use the keyboard)?

Click to expand...

No they connect with the surface via a dock interface. No bluetooth and cant use it while detached.

On the Surface Pro subject, I need a new laptop and was considering a Surface Pro.

I'm a Solidworks user so need to be able to run that, had a quick read around and it's meant to work.
Does anyone here have a Surface Pro and use Solidworks? Is it running ok?
This is just for home design work and onsite not a work station.

Looking for a more portable laptop than my current 15.6" lenovo y510p. I really love the laptop but it's a hassle to carry around to school and I don't game anymore. I've been eyeing this 14" lenovo flex 3 for $650, and thinking about taking the hdd out and replacing it with a 1tb ssd, which are as low as 200 on slickdeals.net. Any experience with this? I don't quite understand what's different from the yoga series. Yoga 3 has lots of problems I'm reading, and the 700/900 are much more expensive. It seems like to get a big sdd built in, which is really the most important part these days and makes the most difference in speed, always comes with unnecessary other things like a faster i7 or 16gb ram. It seems like the cheapest option is just get a hdd and replace it with your own ssd. Thoughts?

Here's a link
http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops...01C9:00015CE9: