School Laptop

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gamerfreak Joined: July 28, 2010 Status: Offline Posts: 9 Rep:

School Laptop

Wed Jul 28, 2010 9:16:41 PM #129092 Perm Link

I'll keep it short n' sweet. Its for internet, office, programming, and some light graphic work as well.

So far I've looked at:
15in Macbook Pro - $1,999 after student discount, plus a free 8gb iPod Touch

HP ENVY 15 - $1,100

Dell Studio XPS 16 - $1,200

Suggestions? I'm a sucker for metal construction. Or leather. That dell has leather.

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Tornado

Retro Grade Joined: August 16, 2003 Status: Offline Posts: 2958 Rep:

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Wed Jul 28, 2010 10:06:36 PM #129094 Perm Link

Never ever ever get a laptop without an optical drive. Ever. That HP is a piece of crap for more reasons than that, but that is the major one.

That said, the Dell is a cheaper laptop with more powerful componentry and a bigger battery. To get the Dell you are talking about to match up with the HP on specs costs $1,219 (basically, you add Bluetooth). The HP costs $1,249 (it needs a better processor which is still slower than the one in the Dell and the external optical drive). Despite costing less, the Dell has a considerably more powerful processor, a larger battery, higher screen screen resolution, a better card readers and an internal optical drive.

The only disadvantage the Dell has is a worse GPU, which the processor would for the most part offset. However, because the Dell has a processor that has less power draw (but is still more powerful), a somewhat weaker GPU and a larger battery, the Dell would likely get considerably better battery life. Furthermore, because the Dell has a Core-i7, it may be able to support USB 3.0 with a future firmware patch. The HP will not.

Edited at Wed Jul 28, 2010 10:12:56 PM

Michael: Jodie, how's my schedule look for today?
Jodie: You've got a conference and dinner party at the Japanese Embassy regarding wildlife protection.
Michael: Oh, yeah...sorry, but I'll have to cancel that. I'm heading out to save America!

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Aron Schatz

2014: Year of change. Joined: August 3, 2001 Status: Offline Posts: 10753 Rep:

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Wed Jul 28, 2010 10:17:40 PM #129095 Perm Link

I have a question. Are you going to be taking this laptop to class? Those laptops are pretty hefty for lugging around.

Welcome to the site!

2014 is going to be a good year. More content, more streamlining. Be a part of history!

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gamerfreak Joined: July 28, 2010 Status: Offline Posts: 9 Rep:

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Wed Jul 28, 2010 10:20:48 PM #129097 Perm Link

Probably Aron, but I'm pretty used to carrying a 50lb backpack around...I didnt use my locker in highschool.

And thanks Tornado. I'll count that HP out.

Edited at Wed Jul 28, 2010 10:22:00 PM

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Aron Schatz

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Wed Jul 28, 2010 10:29:24 PM #129099 Perm Link

What kind of graphics are we talking about? What's your budget? Are you planning on using this exclusively (no desktop)? Do you plan on gaming? What kind of games?

The more info, the better. Informed choices are good.

2014 is going to be a good year. More content, more streamlining. Be a part of history!

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gamerfreak Joined: July 28, 2010 Status: Offline Posts: 9 Rep:

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Wed Jul 28, 2010 10:34:32 PM #129100 Perm Link

I do some CAD/Photoshop work, but nothing too crazy. My budget is <$2500, and it will be my exclusive machine - no desktop. No games either, despite the username.

Thanks again.

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Aron Schatz

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Wed Jul 28, 2010 10:43:28 PM #129101 Perm Link

If you're not married to the Mac, the Dell is probably the machine to get.

I'd be happy taking a Mac, but the price premium is a bit too much for me. Are you going to run Linux on it?

2014 is going to be a good year. More content, more streamlining. Be a part of history!

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gamerfreak Joined: July 28, 2010 Status: Offline Posts: 9 Rep:

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Wed Jul 28, 2010 10:49:37 PM #129102 Perm Link

In response to Aron Schatz #129101

No plans for linux, its really not necessary or practical for me TBH. I'd probably end up running Win7 is parallels along with OSX, which would add to the cost.

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Tornado

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Wed Jul 28, 2010 11:02:33 PM #129103 Perm Link

In response to Aron Schatz #129095

If you are going to use this sans desktop, I would build it up a bit so it lasts you a bit longer. Get the high resolution screen option and possibly the 840QM processor. Laptop memory is all standardized, so I would buy 8GB of RAM off of Newegg and then sell the RAM that came with it on eBay. I'd also buy one of those new 750GB WD hard drives instead of the 640GB Dell offers as an option.

As an alternative, I would suggest an HP Pavilion dv6t Select Edition. It can be built up in a very similar way to the Dell (except for screen resolution), but it is $200 cheaper with alot more goodies included. For example, if you get the 840QM processor in the HP you get a free Blu-Ray drive included.

Said By Aron Schatz
I have a question. Are you going to be taking this laptop to class? Those laptops are pretty hefty for lugging around.

Pfft. Real men carry 17" and up laptops. To and from school. Every day. Towards the end of my first year of college, I was beginning to think 17" wasn't big enough, because many of my friends had gotten 18" and 18.4" laptops after I got mine.

Edited at Wed Jul 28, 2010 11:08:04 PM

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gamerfreak Joined: July 28, 2010 Status: Offline Posts: 9 Rep:

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Wed Jul 28, 2010 11:12:46 PM #129104 Perm Link

I think the radius on the corners of the HP latops is too big.

I'm a sucker for design, lol.

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Tornado

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Wed Jul 28, 2010 11:27:29 PM #129105 Perm Link

Fair enough.
Then I would suggest the Dell Studio XPS 16 with the Intel Core i7 840QM, Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit (Unless you want Windows XP mode. Then get Professional. Unlike with Vista, there really isn't any real reason to upgrade to Ultimate.), 4GB of RAM, the 500GB 7200RPM drive, the 1080p screen upgrade, and the internal Bluetooth module.
If you upgrade the RAM to 8GB and upgrade the HDD to 750GB by working through Newegg, it wouldn't cost you as much money as if you went through the Dell site, and you can resell the extra stuff afterwards to make some of it back. Either way, I would suggest 8GB of RAM, because I know how much of a resource hog AutoCAD can be.
It is more laptop than you would need, but it would also last you a lot longer than the base model would so you probably wouldn't have to replace it for several years. It would also still be a couple hundred dollars cheaper than the Macbook Pro if you went through Newegg (though about the same price if you got everything from Dell), but it would annihilate it on performance and you wouldn't need to run Bootcamp (which can be tricky to set up, and it tends to hate 64-bit versions of Windows even though it promises compatibility).

Also, I would personally get the Blu-Ray drive addon (which adds $191 to the price), but I dunno if you would care. It is an expensive add-on, but the Dell has HDMI out and a 1080p screen, so I think it would kind of go to waste without one.

Edited at Wed Jul 28, 2010 11:41:57 PM

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stinger608

Joined: December 5, 2008 Status: Offline Posts: 169 Rep:

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Sun Aug 29, 2010 7:58:34 PM #132739 Perm Link

In response to Tornado #129103

Said By Tornado
If you are going to use this sans desktop, I would build it up a bit so it lasts you a bit longer. Get the high resolution screen option and possibly the 840QM processor. Laptop memory is all standardized, so I would buy 8GB of RAM off of Newegg and then sell the RAM that came with it on eBay. I'd also buy one of those new 750GB WD hard drives instead of the 640GB Dell offers as an option.

As an alternative, I would suggest an HP Pavilion dv6t Select Edition. It can be built up in a very similar way to the Dell (except for screen resolution), but it is $200 cheaper with alot more goodies included. For example, if you get the 840QM processor in the HP you get a free Blu-Ray drive included.

Said By Aron Schatz
I have a question. Are you going to be taking this laptop to class? Those laptops are pretty hefty for lugging around.

Pfft. Real men carry 17" and up laptops. To and from school. Every day. Towards the end of my first year of college, I was beginning to think 17" wasn't big enough, because many of my friends had gotten 18" and 18.4" laptops after I got mine.

To be honest, the difference between 4gb and 8gb of ram is minimal. It would only be advisable to run 8gb of ram in something that would be very image, or application intensive, and none of the laptops that you listed would run image or application intensive programs.
If in fact, you are just using a laptop for a "desktop" replacement, and only doing minor image editing, and an older "AutoCAD" program, then I would stick with the 4gb of ram.

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Tornado

Retro Grade Joined: August 16, 2003 Status: Offline Posts: 2958 Rep:

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Sun Aug 29, 2010 8:40:21 PM #132741 Perm Link

I disagree. In my experience, for Windows Vista/7 64-bit, 8GB is the sweet spot; and the 840QM, while not the most powerful thing on the market (though close to it in regards to laptops) could still easily pound out enough multitasking work to use up all of 4GB. 6GB would probably be closer to the most he could use at any point in time, but at that point he might as well upgrade both sticks to 4GB instead of just one of them. That way, he wouldn't have to deal with it for a good while.

School Laptop

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