Want to get a new laptop....



Cracker said:
Macbook pro. Sure, it's a little spendy, but the thing is made of fucking metal. No other laptop I've ever owned has felt as sleek and solid as my MBP. Love its blacklit keyboard, light weight, and touchpad as well. Even though I don't care for OSX (or don't have the time/desire to master it) this is one kickass laptop.
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THE TOUCHPAD! You really don't understand how amazing the touchpads are on the newer unibody macbook pros. Even compared to my first Macbook Pro from like 2007, the touchpad is ridiculous. It's literally the size of like 3/4 of my hand (i'm also only 5' 8"). I would never buy anything other than a Mac even if I was only basing it on the touchpad. I'm sure most of you guys are thinking "get a fucking mouse" but I actually prefer the touchpad for most things now. Unless I'm doing graphics work, forget the mouse. It's way easier to switch back and fourth from touchpad to keyboard. Plus theres the four finger gestures to hide all windows and show desktop and to display all of the windows. They really do come in handy.
 
habeeb said:
Sup guys. I'm actually a lead tech at a computer repair shop, can give a slightly less biased opinion here than the personal-use anecdotes.

IBM/Lenovo is the most reliable brand I've come across in the field. Every time I see one, the issue is user error -- never an issue with the hardware itself. Very solidly built machines.

Toshibas are good budget machines, but their higher end offerings are prone to retarded failures due to shit design [like plastic breaking behind harness-style DC jacks, thus losing the jack inside the machine requiring it to be opened] and come with a lot of bloatware, and are usually weaker in comparison to other brands.

DELL's high end models are a great investment -- the Dell Latitude E5510 is an awesome machine. Avoid the vostro series and stick with the Studio XPS line if you're going medium-end.

HP lost a TON of credibility from me with their dv2000/6000/9000 fuckup, but the dv6t/dv7t and ENVY lines are fucking GORGEOUS and perform very well.

Sony and Fujitsu are always really good buys and are very aesthetically pleasing, but seem to be out of your price range; regardless they rarely have major hardware issues and I can't think of any huge recalls or problem with any particular series outside the old old old pcg RAM slot issues.

Gateway's higher end offerings are unimpressive to say the least.

Don't bother with Acer, ASUS, overpriced crap like Widow or Alienware, etc.

Based on your criteria, here are the laptops I'd be looking at:

DELL Studio 14 - It's a little over your budget but has an i7 processor and is under $1000.

IBM/Lenovo's L Series or T series - The L series is within your budget and has an i5, the T series is a little over your budget but has an i7 and is smaller.
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excellent post. I agree with every single word
 
Thanks for the recommendation of sager...looks nice.

I'll be making my decision this weekend on this, I need to get a machine that can handle a good amount of VM's at once, so we'll see.

What do you guys know about i5 vs. i7 processors? there are a few i7's with really low processor speeds (like 1.3ghz)...are those mobile processors? or are they fast and the numbers are just throwing me off?

Thanks for everyone's recommendations though!

markus said:
Macbook. If for some reason you had to have a pc, thinkpad, vaio, lenovo
Not the cheap vaios either.
Seems to start about $1200-1400 for a decent pc laptop.
I know 6 people with Toshibas 1-3 yrs old and only one likes it.

Depending what your needs are, check out Sager too.
Good specs/price for a pc option.
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juntao65 said:
About toshibas, 4/7 of the people I know who own toshibas had them break down on them. I don't know about the new ones, but the older ones have a retarded design flaw: the fans on the bottom of the laptop.

I recommend lenovo all the way any day.
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My Toshiba fried on me a couple years ago for the same reason. Fan on the bottom means you can't actually put the laptop in your lap. Thinkpad has done well, but it's starting to go so I guess that puts me in the market soon too. I can't get used to using my netbook for more than a half hour at a time.
 
habeeb said:
HP lost a TON of credibility from me with their dv2000/6000/9000 fuckup
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This. The gf had one of these stupid HP fuckers. The only "cure" when it wouldn't boot up anymore was to turn it on, smother it in blankets so it really overheated, and press down hard on the area below the trackpad. Voodoo shit I know, but it worked.

Never buy HP. Ever.
 
pegasus2218 said:
This. The gf had one of these stupid HP fuckers. The only "cure" when it wouldn't boot up anymore was to turn it on, smother it in blankets so it really overheated, and press down hard on the area below the trackpad. Voodoo shit I know, but it worked.

Never buy HP. Ever.
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That startup ritual is hilarious.

Almost like rebirthing
 
pegasus2218 said:
This. The gf had one of these stupid HP fuckers. The only "cure" when it wouldn't boot up anymore was to turn it on, smother it in blankets so it really overheated, and press down hard on the area below the trackpad. Voodoo shit I know, but it worked.

Never buy HP. Ever.
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That was my old machine. I sanded down a pure copper penny so it was smooth and then put thermal paste on each side and replace their shitty foam heat transfer material on the GPU and it dropped the temp. by at least 40C.

They used this little foam crap that shrank after 6 months, so it literally left a gap between the chip and the heatsink. Cheap bastards trying to save 2 bucks a machine.
 
Update:

I just bought this: Acer AS5741-6073 15.6" Laptop | Staples®

I was working and my machine was chugging along and I just said fuck it and ran over to Best Buy. The most incompetent sales guy ever tried to help me, so I left and went across the street to Staples, and I saw this rig. Good deal, has the i5, upgradeable to 8 gigs, nice and lite weight. I like it so far, 18239812938 times faster than my last rig.

Thanks for all of the recommendations guys, even if I came out of left field with this machine :)
 
dchuk said:
Update:

I just bought this: Acer AS5741-6073 15.6" Laptop | Staples®

I was working and my machine was chugging along and I just said fuck it and ran over to Best Buy. The most incompetent sales guy ever tried to help me, so I left and went across the street to Staples, and I saw this rig. Good deal, has the i5, upgradeable to 8 gigs, nice and lite weight. I like it so far, 18239812938 times faster than my last rig.

Thanks for all of the recommendations guys, even if I came out of left field with this machine :)
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...<3
 
I can also vouch for toshiba, like a toyota they will run for ever.

*edit should have read the post directly above this before posting.
 
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