Looking for a laptop for college

[Kyle Christenson]

1. What is your budget? $1000-ish

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?

Anything in the 14-16" range

3. What screen resolution do you want? 1920x1080 would be nice but not necessary

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? It would be my sole computer at college next year. I'll need it for 3d modelling and such being a mechanical engineering major.

5. How much battery life do you need? The more the better

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)?

I don't play very many computer games currently because my family's pc is very slow. I will probably play a couple FPS games though.

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

3d modelling and occasional video editing

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? Probably whatever comes stock on any laptop is fine

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

i've been looking at hp.com. I would really like to get a np9130/50 but would need to justify the added price with my parents.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? I would like it to last me through college

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD writer

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.

Like I said the Sager np9130/50s seem very nice. Ive looked at the 15.6" hp. Malibal laptops also look nice but again, I would need to justify the added price with my parents.

13. What country do you live in? USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

I would like to have an i7 and 16gb of ram. I don't know if that is necessary for my applications though. Since ill be doing more 3d modelling than gaming i've seen talk of the quadro graphics being better than the geforce but haven't been able to find those close to my price range. If I can justify the added price I can probably go up to $1250.

Thanks

 

[jamesjocky]

I've come across the ASUS B53S-XH51, do you guys have any particular thoughts on it? The only bad part is that there's is no keypad, but I can manage enough without it. Also, I don't know if I should spend the extra money to upgrade to 6GB.. I mean the computer I'm using now has 4, and that seems plenty to me, but I don't if the extra 2GB will be helpful for MATLAB and other stuff I'll need.

Another options could be:
SAMSUNG NP700Z5A-S06US- The battery should approximately last 7.8 hours and has a decent gpu.

 

[yillbs]

the samsung is discontinued, from newegg, and the hardware in it.. is a bit dated. The asus looks nice, but if you are used to a keypad.. it's harder to get over than you think. This is probably out of your budget, but sense you wre looking at the 7 series, check out the NP780 version.. it's a beast, but you pay for beast. If that's still to much, there is nothing wrong with that asus.