College Laptop

• Yanm wrote on 2012-05-25 01:25

  Quote from Furrycookies;872422:

  Hmm what is a good laptop brand like hp, dell, lenovo, toshiba? I was talking with a friend and he said toshiba wasn't a good choice. Would you agree with that? And I know you guys don't like Acer xD

  
  
  Personally, I don't like Hp or Dell. What would the laptop be used for may I ask?
• Yoorah wrote on 2012-05-25 01:30
  Toshiba is a good choice in reliability. Not so much for gaming, because they don't allow you to easily install the latest graphics drivers from AMD or NVIDIA. You have to hope Toshiba will validate the driver themselves and update the driver on their site instead. Dunno if they still enforce that, and there are probably ways to get around this.. and it may not be relevant if all you have is Intel graphics anyway.
  
  HP is meh, Dell is okay. ASUS is good for providing good specs for a good price, but their quality is.. questionable? I trust ASUS components, but laptops not so much.
  
  Lenovo is one of the best, if not the best when it comes to reliability, if you're looking at the professional ThinkPad line. Their regular laptops are only average, I would guess.
  
  If I were you, I would avoid consumer grade laptops, especially "gamer" laptops. They're all a combination of heavy, unreliable and expensive.. depending on configuration. I'd go for a business grade laptop such as Lenovo's ThinkPad T series, or their X series if you want more portability. Do not underestimate the advantage of portability when you expect to carry it from class to class.
  
  If you can't afford one of those, get a Toshiba. They have some pretty sexy ultrabooks now, and their regular models, while unexciting, should be quite durable.
  
  Also wait for the 3rd gen Intel Core mobile CPUs to come out. (Or AMD's next gen Trinity APUs if you want gaming after all.)
• Furrycookies wrote on 2012-05-25 01:32
  Just college(Internet surfing, youtube, mabination, notes, microsoft office suite) and Mabi at times. Oh and is the Toshiba Satellite series any good?
• Yoorah wrote on 2012-05-25 01:40
  Satellite is their consumer line. It's not fancy, but it should be durable. I have a 10 year old Satellite that still works great, except for its screen, whose backlight no longer works. ):
• Yanm wrote on 2012-05-25 01:48

  Quote from Yoorah;872435:

  Toshiba is a good choice in reliability. Not so much for gaming, because they don't allow you to easily install the latest graphics drivers from AMD or NVIDIA. You have to hope Toshiba will validate the driver themselves and update the driver on their site instead. Dunno if they still enforce that, and there are probably ways to get around this.. and it may not be relevant if all you have is Intel graphics anyway.
  
  HP is meh, Dell is okay. ASUS is good for providing good specs for a good price, but their quality is.. questionable? I trust ASUS components, but laptops not so much.
  
  Lenovo is one of the best, if not the best when it comes to reliability, if you're looking at the professional ThinkPad line. Their regular laptops are only average, I would guess.
  
  If I were you, I would avoid consumer grade laptops, especially "gamer" laptops. They're all a combination of heavy, unreliable and expensive.. depending on configuration. I'd go for a business grade laptop such as Lenovo's ThinkPad T series, or their X series if you want more portability. Do not underestimate the advantage of portability when you expect to carry it from class to class.
  
  If you can't afford one of those, get a Toshiba. They have some pretty sexy ultrabooks now, and their regular models, while unexciting, should be quite durable.
  
  Also wait for the 3rd gen Intel Core mobile CPUs to come out. (Or AMD's next gen Trinity APUs if you want gaming after all.)

  
  
  I'm curious Yoorah. Are you talking about a specific brand or just all gaming laptop brands in general? I'm curious about your experiences with gaming laptops.
• Furrycookies wrote on 2012-05-25 01:54
  Um I don't understand the different categories that laptops have. Are Chromebooks based around google chrome or internet? Are ultrabooks thing laptops? So are netbooks just for browsing the internet? Sorry about all the questions!
• Yoorah wrote on 2012-05-25 02:03

  Quote from Yanm;872445:

  I'm curious Yoorah. Are you talking about a specific brand or just all gaming laptop brands in general? I'm curious about your experiences with gaming laptops.

  
  
  All gaming laptops in general. Simply put, to achieve anything resembling satisfactory gaming performance, you need components that dissipate a lot of heat. This in turn requires lots of cooling capacity. But just as gaming performance inevitably leads to hot parts being used, cooling performance requires an enclosure with a lot of volume, heavy heatsinks and powerful fans. This in turn leads to thick, heavy, and even more power hungry laptop designs. In an attempt to cut down on the thick and heavy part, manufacturers try to slim the laptops, use smaller heatsinks, etc. While this solution "works," it puts more stress on the components, and ultimately shortens the lifespan and reliability of the product.
  
  That's the technical side of it, anyway. There's also the marketing side which goes something like "consumers don't need reliability, as they don't have critical data and they will replace it soon anyway, so we build throw-away laptops just like any other consumer product" ...
  
  I have no experiences with gaming laptops because I wouldn't buy one. :P
  
  

  Quote from Furrycookies;872448:

  Um I don't understand the different categories that laptops have. Are Chromebooks based around google chrome or internet? Are ultrabooks thing laptops? So are netbooks just for browsing the internet? Sorry about all the questions!

  
  Avoid Chromebooks, they are netbooks with a stripped-down Linux OS made by Google. Yes, the experience is built around Chrome and web connectivity is a must.
  
  Yes, Netbooks are very basic, compact laptops that are underpowered for most things, but are okay for web browsing and taking notes. I used one for class, and it was okay.. but I wouldn't recommend it unless you're really strapped for cash.
  
  Ultrabooks represent a new marketing term by Intel which basically means "thin laptop with good battery life and under $1000."
• Yanm wrote on 2012-05-25 02:41

  Quote from Yoorah;872453:

  All gaming laptops in general. Simply put, to achieve anything resembling satisfactory gaming performance, you need components that dissipate a lot of heat. This in turn requires lots of cooling capacity. But just as gaming performance inevitably leads to hot parts being used, cooling performance requires an enclosure with a lot of volume, heavy heatsinks and powerful fans. This in turn leads to thick, heavy, and even more power hungry laptop designs. In an attempt to cut down on the thick and heavy part, manufacturers try to slim the laptops, use smaller heatsinks, etc. While this solution "works," it puts more stress on the components, and ultimately shortens the lifespan and reliability of the product.
  
  That's the technical side of it, anyway. There's also the marketing side which goes something like "consumers don't need reliability, as they don't have critical data and they will replace it soon anyway, so we build throw-away laptops just like any other consumer product" ...
  
  I have no experiences with gaming laptops because I wouldn't buy one. :P
  

  
  
  Yes, I do see your point. I mostly asked that because I'm pretty sure you know more about computers than I do so I wanted to know the reason why you thought that. Though. . .as far as the marketing side goes, I can understand their reasoning. Technology is constantly evolving. You probably know this better than most people. The AMD Radeon 7970M is the current strongest graphics card. Until Nvidia comes out with a GTX 680M or something similar, Red Team is the way to go for gaming. 1 year later, still playing everything on max settings. 2 years later, most on max settings, a few on high settings. 3 years later, the most demanding games will probably be medium/high settings and everything else at high. My point is that, for those that want to continue to play on max settings, they'll probably keep getting a new laptop every 1-2 years. Aside from that, the new features of Sager/MSI laptops would be tempting.
• Raidyn wrote on 2012-05-25 10:28
  I'd say look around for the Fujitsu Lifebook AH530. I'm considering to get it myself.
• Yoorah wrote on 2012-05-27 00:39

  Quote from Yanm;872477:

  Yes, I do see your point. I mostly asked that because I'm pretty sure you know more about computers than I do so I wanted to know the reason why you thought that. Though. . .as far as the marketing side goes, I can understand their reasoning. Technology is constantly evolving. You probably know this better than most people. The AMD Radeon 7970M is the current strongest graphics card. Until Nvidia comes out with a GTX 680M or something similar, Red Team is the way to go for gaming. 1 year later, still playing everything on max settings. 2 years later, most on max settings, a few on high settings. 3 years later, the most demanding games will probably be medium/high settings and everything else at high. My point is that, for those that want to continue to play on max settings, they'll probably keep getting a new laptop every 1-2 years. Aside from that, the new features of Sager/MSI laptops would be tempting.

  
  
  Oh, I know what you mean. But isn't getting a new laptop every 1-2 years excessively costly? Especially if they're premium-priced gaming laptops on top of that? It just seems like a waste of money. D: And unless you can sell them or something, it's a waste of space, too.. I don't know what I would do with all those laptops.
  
  Then again, that may not be an issue. You mentioned Sager.. that reminded me of a friend who got one a while back. It had a 'nice' GeForce GPU in it, I believe from the GTX 200 series? The thing cooked itself after only only a year or so. lol ):
  
  On the other hand, if you go for a high quality, ultraportable model, you will still be able to use it for ultraportable type tasks for many years to come. The battery might need replacing, and that's about it. Save the heavy duty stuff for desktops, if at all possible. :P
• Chockeh wrote on 2012-05-27 12:41

  Quote from Furrycookies;872422:

  Hmm what is a good laptop brand like hp, dell, lenovo, toshiba? I was talking with a friend and he said toshiba wasn't a good choice. Would you agree with that? And I know you guys don't like Acer xD

  
  
  Toshiba is bad and I had lots of problems with HP. A good laptop like Lenovo and Asus would be Lenevo and Asus.