Opinion on a laptop for school

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coolblue

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I'm looking for your opinions to help me decide which laptop I should purchase for my school's mobile computing program. I've filled out as much of the faq as I could to help

1_What is your budget?

$2000 CAD tax included

2_What is the size of the notebook
that you are considering?

N/A

3_What screen resolution do you want?

1920 * 1080 would be nice. ;)

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?

N/A

5_How much battery life do you need?

N/A

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?

Yes I wish to play games but I need the laptop for January so I can't wait for AMD DX11 based mobile GPU's. :cry: I need a minimum of 128MB dedicated video memory for what ever graphics option I end up with.

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)

I require a CPU with virtualization capabilities.

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?

120 GB minimum

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.

No

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?

As long as possible

11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?

DVD-ROM minimum

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.

I'd prefer AMD but there's no real reason. :kaola:

13_What country do you live in?

Canada

14_Please tell us any additional information if needed.

Here's the minimum spec's as per my school:

Model - Mainstream

CPU Speed
Minimum of 1.6GHz
Core 2 Duo processor or AMD Equivalent
(Intel Virtualization Technology-x or AMD-Virtualization enabled)

RAM
3 GB

Hard Drive
120GB

Video RAM
128MB

Model - Performance

Minimum of 2.x
Core 2 Duo processor or AMD Equivalent
(Intel Virtualization Technology-x or AMD-Virtualization enabled)

4 GB

Min. 120GB

256MB

Also need Wireless N, Gigabit Ethernet and any security features would be a bonus.

I've been looking for any Turion II Ultra Dual Core Systems but they seem hard to find.
 

coolblue

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AMD-V Mobile Processors

Richmond - 90 nm
Lion - 65 nm
Caspian - 45 nm

Intel VT-x Mobile Processors

Almost all intel processors on this list meet my minimum specs except for a few of the low & ultra low voltage models.

Damn, intel has so many models it's confusing. :??:
 

maniac5999

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Hmmmm, this is really tough with what you gave us. we have nothing but a price range. for that price you could get a really sleek ultraportable or a bangin desktop replacement, either of which would be way beyond your specs.

Based on what you posted, I'd say that almost anything that you can buy today would kill those specs, with the exception of lappys running Intel IGPs (IIRC, even the ATi 3200 has 128megs of dedicated memory)

Personally, I'm also a huge AMD fan (haven't bought Intel since '01) But there's not much worth buying from AMD over about $700us (prolly about $1k CAD) You really need to refine your requirements in order for us to help you.

Oh, and based on what you told us, if you need a powerful laptop today, it's tough to go wrong with an i7 720, especially if your alternating between games (generally dual threaded) and serious apps (generally massively multi threaded)
 

coolblue

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Basically I need a laptop that can meet my schools minimum requirements (which are only valid until the end of august, then they'll likely be raised) and gives me a bit of breathing room so that I don't need to update my laptop every year. I'd also like to be able to play some recent/future games at decent settings. (Dragon Age: Origins, C & C 4)

Here are the minimums again:


Minimum of 2.x
Core 2 Duo processor or AMD Equivalent
(Intel Virtualization Technology-x or AMD-Virtualization enabled)

RAM - 4 GB

HDD - Min. 120GB

Video - 256MB



Thanks, I saw that review too.
 
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