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Help with picking a new laptop, please.

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  • Laptops
  • Macbook Pro
Last response: in Laptop General Discussion
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September 3, 2014 10:54:07 AM

Hello,

I am in the market for a new laptop. My late 2008 MacBook Pro is showing its age and, in fact, I am really in fear that it will give out on me soon. It just shuts down randomly and I don't know how long it has left. Anyhow, I was wondering if anyone has some suggestions on laptops.

Here are some of the things that I do, or that I will need a laptop to do for me:

Adobe Creative Cloud Applications (I am a web developer)
Act a media center when I am at home (XBMC, streaming all types of media files)
Very light gaming, if any at all (just in case :p )
Budget: under $1000 - That is my limit, but if I can a way better deal, I am all for it.

I need it to be portable, that is why I am going with a laptop. I think that I want to give Windows 8.1 a go instead of OSX this time around.

Thank you in advance for any and all help, advice and suggestions.

Testudo

More about : picking laptop

September 3, 2014 11:06:22 AM

TwistedFury said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

That's a great laptop that sounds great for your case. Much cheaper than $1000.


Wow, that is a great price. So, you think that is good enough to have, let's say, Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver open at the same time, as well as multiple browsers and tabs?

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September 3, 2014 11:12:32 AM

testudoAubreii said:
TwistedFury said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

That's a great laptop that sounds great for your case. Much cheaper than $1000.


Wow, that is a great price. So, you think that is good enough to have, let's say, Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver open at the same time, as well as multiple browsers and tabs?



Oh yea, most definitely.
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September 3, 2014 11:22:47 AM

TwistedFury said:
testudoAubreii said:
TwistedFury said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

That's a great laptop that sounds great for your case. Much cheaper than $1000.


Wow, that is a great price. So, you think that is good enough to have, let's say, Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver open at the same time, as well as multiple browsers and tabs?



Oh yea, most definitely.


Thanks!

Do you think this can output at 1080p to my TV, and play all types of media files? Sorry if that seems like silly questions, but I am just trying to make sure.

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September 3, 2014 11:26:59 AM

testudoAubreii said:
TwistedFury said:
testudoAubreii said:
TwistedFury said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

That's a great laptop that sounds great for your case. Much cheaper than $1000.


Wow, that is a great price. So, you think that is good enough to have, let's say, Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver open at the same time, as well as multiple browsers and tabs?



Oh yea, most definitely.


Thanks!

Do you think this can output at 1080p to my TV, and play all types of media files? Sorry if that seems like silly questions, but I am just trying to make sure.



Yes you could. It's not a silly question either man.
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September 6, 2014 10:23:16 AM

Alrighty, so now my budget is significantly lower. I have to find something that will just be used for web development. I mean, I would like to use it to stream media files, but gaming is out. I really and absolutely need to have Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver open at the same time, as well as multiple browsers and browser tabs.

My new budget is $600. Any advice?
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September 7, 2014 8:54:55 AM

Do you know if there is a huge performance difference between the i5 and the AMD A-10?
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September 7, 2014 10:26:12 AM

Depends on the number, but the A10 will be more towards gaming whereas the i5 will be better at what you want, like having a bunch of things open at once and using render programs, etc.
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September 7, 2014 4:54:23 PM

If you want that, go for it, but I saw that it's out of stock
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September 7, 2014 8:14:04 PM

I just saw that, too. So, would that have been a good pick for the price? I just noticed that was a Richland APU, anyway.
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September 8, 2014 12:12:13 PM



Thanks! I have been looking at that HP Envy, but I have always heard bad things about HP laptops. Is there any truth in that? I would also like to know the speed of the RAM. 12 GB is great, though.
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September 8, 2014 12:20:53 PM

testudoAubreii said:


Thanks! I have been looking at that HP Envy, but I have always heard bad things about HP laptops. Is there any truth in that? I would also like to know the speed of the RAM. 12 GB is great, though.


HP is fine, and I can't seem to find the RAM speed.
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September 8, 2014 12:25:35 PM

TwistedFury said:
testudoAubreii said:


Thanks! I have been looking at that HP Envy, but I have always heard bad things about HP laptops. Is there any truth in that? I would also like to know the speed of the RAM. 12 GB is great, though.


HP is fine, and I can't seem to find the RAM speed.


Me, either. I wonder if there is a reason for it lol...I couldn't imagine it being any slower than the 1066 that I am working with now. Thanks for looking!

Even though the CPU is sort of "old", it should still hold up for what I am using it for, right? I mean, I can have multiple apps, browsers and browser tabs open and working at the same time, plus streaming, watching and listening to big media files.
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September 8, 2014 12:27:27 PM

It's definitely faster than 1066, my best bet is 1600, and yes, it should still hold up to what you plan on using it for.
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September 8, 2014 12:39:31 PM

TwistedFury said:
It's definitely faster than 1066, my best bet is 1600, and yes, it should still hold up to what you plan on using it for.


Damn! It just sold out, again. Now what lol?
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September 8, 2014 3:24:14 PM

The HP seems to be in stock now.
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September 8, 2014 3:59:42 PM

Cool, you should get it.
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September 10, 2014 12:04:02 PM

Still on the hunt lol...

So, I upped my budget a bit. I ran across this HP:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA29P...

I know that we have discussed HP, and there seems to be some gripes. All that I am looking at is the price/performance here. If I can find another deal like this with Lenovo or Asus, I would probably lean that way. Anyhow, what do you all think about this? Is this a good deal?
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Best solution

September 12, 2014 6:02:46 PM

The Price/Performance is okay on that one, but you're paying a lot for that touch screen
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September 14, 2014 8:11:52 AM

That one is pretty good too.
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September 14, 2014 9:30:01 AM

TwistedFury said:
That one is pretty good too.


Thanks. Do you think that the performance increase from an i5 to that i7 is worth the extra money. I think it is like $150 more for the same laptop, but with the i5.

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September 14, 2014 5:38:01 PM

Depends on the CPU really, but generally for same gen, it's not drastic.
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September 14, 2014 7:08:49 PM

TwistedFury said:
Depends on the CPU really, but generally for same gen, it's not drastic.


The i7 I am looking at is a quad core. Does that make a difference?
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September 14, 2014 7:29:39 PM

All of the i7's are quads, what's the specs on the i5?
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September 16, 2014 5:56:53 AM

TwistedFury said:
All of the i7's are quads, what's the specs on the i5?


I have noticed that not all of the i7's are quad cores. The "U" models are undervolted dual cores and the "QM" versions are the quad cores. There are various specs on the i5's. Most include a "M" model, which provides higher voltage, and thus higher clocks, and a dedicated GPU.
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September 16, 2014 6:30:07 AM

Do you think this is a good deal for $700:

ASUS G75
Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 3630QM Processor

RAM
DDR3 1600 MHz 8Gb

Display
Full HD 3D (1920x1080) LED Backlight

GPU
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 670MX with 3GB GDDR5 VRAM

Hard Drive
1TB 5400 RPM

Optical Drive
Super-Multi DVD

Operating System
Windows 8.1 Pro
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a b D Laptop
September 16, 2014 7:21:19 AM

testudoAubreii said:
Do you think this is a good deal for $700:

ASUS G75
Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 3630QM Processor

RAM
DDR3 1600 MHz 8Gb

Display
Full HD 3D (1920x1080) LED Backlight

GPU
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 670MX with 3GB GDDR5 VRAM

Hard Drive
1TB 5400 RPM

Optical Drive
Super-Multi DVD

Operating System
Windows 8.1 Pro


That's definitely a good deal as long as it's new. It should compare to the perfomance of an 850m (slightly higher but should also consume more energy)
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September 16, 2014 12:48:47 PM

Bolin said:
testudoAubreii said:
Do you think this is a good deal for $700:

ASUS G75
Processor
Intel® Core™ i7 3630QM Processor

RAM
DDR3 1600 MHz 8Gb

Display
Full HD 3D (1920x1080) LED Backlight

GPU
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 670MX with 3GB GDDR5 VRAM

Hard Drive
1TB 5400 RPM

Optical Drive
Super-Multi DVD

Operating System
Windows 8.1 Pro


That's definitely a good deal as long as it's new. It should compare to the perfomance of an 850m (slightly higher but should also consume more energy)


Thank you for your reply!

The guy was messing around and trying to up the price every time that he contacted me. Anyhow, I found a different one. It is a bit different. The GPU is different, as well as the RAM and HDD.

Here it is:

Asus ROG G75VW Gaming Laptop

i7 3610qm processor
16gb 1600MHz Ram
240gb SSD Crucial Hard Drive
Nvidia Geforce GTX 660M 2gb
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!