Alrighty, so my Samsung just died an inglorious death, and I need a new one fairly asap.

I'm not a hardcore gamer, so I don't need all the bells n whistles, but i do want something fairly high end with plenty of oomph. Its gotta last me for a while so can't be outdated next week. I also do molecular and chemical modelling and stuff for work which requires a good amount of processor power.

As far as I can work out, I think I as something along the lines of:
2.4 GHz
4gb RAM
500gb+ HD
Good screen 15.6' at least
DVD Burner preferably

With processors, whats the difference between the Core 2 Duo and the Core i5/i7 processors? Any advantages to either?

I watch plenty of movies and stuff on it so a good screen is an absolute must.


I was thinking
Toshiba something (suggestions please)
Samsung NP-R580-JS05 OR NP-P580E OR NP-R780-JS02AU

Is there anything else I should consider?

What other brands/models should I look at? Have heard a few people before saying Toshiba are the way to go, any reasons why? Some people like Dell, some hate Dell, whats the deal with that?

I walk with it a lot so I dont want anythign too heavy either.

My IT guy was saying that a business model laptop is sufficient for most people, but what is the advantage of a business one over a personal one?

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**Man I'm Pretty**

tbh for what you're after you might get it with dell, but you also might get it on any random high street electrical chain store. I like my acer, it has a good cpu (slower speed than you're after but it's designed for portability and battery life, which are important to me) and you don't really need top-notch graphics either if you're only gonna watch dvds etc and not game on it.

The Dell will just fall apart before it breaks, and an HP will probably blow up and kill you.

You never told us the amount of money you want to spend?

been talking with my brother and pretty much decided on an ASUS G51JX-FHD

Core i7 720 quad processor
8gig RAM
1080 HD Screen
Blu-ray
500gig HDD

can get a fairly good price on it, less than I was expecting.

Its meant as a gamer comp so the processor and RAM is overkill for what I'd use it for, but compromising and getting less RAM (4 or 6 gig) and processor power (i5 chip) or a lower res screen only saves about $200 at most, so for the extra money i may as well get the lot and never have to worry about whether its got the oomph to do what I want. I do do some moderately hard stuff on it for work, so its nice to know that I won't have any problems.

The 1080 screen and blu-ray player limits the choices of laptops, adding them to lower powered laptops drives the price up towards the ASUS - may as well just get the better one for a bit more.


any reason why this wouldn't be a good choice?

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**Man I'm Pretty**

Last edited by Trance Nutter on Jul-09-2010 at 14:25

It should be a great computer. The only issue you might have is that the i7 processor might be a little thirsty on the battery. And it's likely to get a bit warm.

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I was recently shopping for a laptop and the first place I started looking at was Asus because of their reputation. Their computers are supposed to be great, but there were a few models that were in my price range that had a lot of negative reviews regarding the touchpad of the mouse being very sensitive and jittery.

It was something wrong only with a few different models, but I would google around looking for reviews to see if that model has the same issues.

I bought a toshiba with an i3 processor and it's really quick. Since you're not a gamer, I'd also take sushi's feedback into mind if battery life is important to you. A model with i3 would probably be a bit cheaper too.

and so you know, from when I was doing my laptop research, the better rated laptop manufacturers were asus, toshiba, and sony.

how does an i3 compare with a c2d?

quote:

Originally posted by Trance Nutter any reason why this wouldn't be a good choice?

Price...And it's twice as powerful as necessary for non gaming purposes.

Just get one of these.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...c=us&l=en&cs=04
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...=en&s=bsd&cs=04

done.

Last edited by Capitalizt on Jul-10-2010 at 00:53

quote:

Originally posted by Capitalizt Price...And it's twice as powerful as necessary for non gaming purposes. Just get one of these. http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...c=us&l=en&cs=04 http://configure.us.dell.com/dellst...=en&s=bsd&cs=04 done.

I spent last night on the configurator, your links don't work but I'm guessing you've suggested either the Inspiron or Studio 15?

Inspiron you can't get a 1080 HD screen. I wouldn't buy a tv not 1080, I'm not going to buy a laptop thats not 1080.

Studio 15 - once you add a blu-ray player and 1080HD screen (and increase the warranty to the same as the ASUS) its basically the same price as what I can get the ASUS for. I get a discount through my work which takes it to about $200 less than the ASUS. For $200 more I figure I may as well get the faster processor and more RAM. I may not need it now, but at least it'll be there if I need it in the future.

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**Man I'm Pretty**