# Laptop Recommendations



## Aevolve (Aug 21, 2012)

Hey guys- I've just started university this Fall, and I was in the market for a laptop.

So far the one I've been interested in is the Lenovo G780: Newegg.com - lenovo G780 (21823TU) Notebook Intel Core i7 3520M(2.90GHz) 17.3" 8GB Memory DDR3 1600 1TB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M

Out of curiousity- what are your opinions on the G780?
Do any of you have any better recommendations around the G780's price range?

I'm essentially looking for something fairly powerful:
- 750GB+ harddrive
- Min 8G RAM
- Decent graphics
- Fast processor (preferably i7)

Thank you for any help, I'm pretty new to laptops.


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## troyguitar (Aug 21, 2012)

When you say decent graphics do you mean decent enough to game on? If so, the 630M is on the weak side.

When the right coupon or sale comes along, the HP dv7 is very hard to beat for a big powerful laptop. Get the 650M and 1920p screen upgrades.

HP Pavilion dv7t-7000 Quad Edition Entertainment Notebook PC | HP® Official Store

Right now there is a 33% off coupon code NBY9121 which makes a dv7t with the graphics card and screen upgrades $1021 total, plus they have 12 months no interest financing. Awesome lappy for under $100 per month


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## Aevolve (Aug 21, 2012)

A bit of gaming would be nice, but I don't tend to run too many graphics-intensive games.
The HP seems nice.. I'll have to see if I can swing the extra couple-hundred.


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## Aevolve (Aug 21, 2012)

EDIT: Nevermind.


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## troyguitar (Aug 21, 2012)

Put the coupon code in... NBY9121


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## raximkoron (Aug 21, 2012)

Lenovo's are great, the keyboards are top notch and they're fairly durable. I'd probably go with the Y580 myself Newegg.com - lenovo IdeaPad Y580 &#40;209942U&#41; Notebook Intel Core i7 3610QM&#40;2.30GHz&#41; 15.6&#34; 8GB Memory DDR3 1600 1TB HDD 5400rpm Blu-ray RAMBO &#40;Re-writeable&#41; NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M

Especially if you're using it for college and taking it around campus and to classes, ~15" are a better bet. Much more case options exist, it takes up less table space, and the Y580 has a 1080p display so you'll fit more stuff on screen compared to the G780. The processor's a bit slower, but thanks to the way they work now, you probably won't notice any difference (turns unused cores off, overclocks the ones in use, etc). Plus the fact that the GTX 660M is quite viable for gaming if the need arises where as the 630M is pretty damned weak.


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## Aevolve (Aug 23, 2012)

Thank you so much for the heads-up on the Y580... It looks like I'm going to be going with the 20994HU. 
Has every feature I want, price is great- especially considering the features.


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## Maniacal (Aug 25, 2012)

Alienware M17X R2/R3/R4

Even though they are gaming laptops, they are great for music and video editing. 

I got one with an i7 an SSD and regular HD, 8 gigs ram. Very quick.

Downsides - expensive, heavy, hotter than the sun


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## The Atomic Ass (Aug 26, 2012)

troyguitar said:


> When you say decent graphics do you mean decent enough to game on? If so, the 630M is on the weak side.


Those of us who are neither framerate nor polygon whores, and can turn off most of the GPU hogs, find most of the modern games very playable, at around movie frame-rates, on integrated graphics.

I would venture to say that a dedicated card, no matter how "weak", would provide more than adequate performance for today's games.


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## Aevolve (Aug 26, 2012)

Maniacal said:


> Alienware M17X R2/R3/R4
> 
> Even though they are gaming laptops, they are great for music and video editing.
> 
> ...



Far far too expensive- as all Alienware's stuff is. But thank you.


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## Maniacal (Aug 27, 2012)

Well, I got my R2 second hand for £630. 

If you shop around on ebay etc I am sure you will find a good deal.


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## CrushingAnvil (Aug 29, 2012)

"Get a Macintosh" said no one ever in this thread.


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## Chickenhawk (Aug 31, 2012)

CrushingAnvil said:


> "Get a Macintosh" said no one ever in this thread.



He mentioned gaming, so we all kept our mouths shut. 

*Posted from a MacBook Pro


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## axxessdenied (Sep 1, 2012)

troyguitar said:


> When you say decent graphics do you mean decent enough to game on? If so, the 630M is on the weak side.
> 
> When the right coupon or sale comes along, the HP dv7 is very hard to beat for a big powerful laptop. Get the 650M and 1920p screen upgrades.
> 
> ...


HP is terrible! Buy one if you like having a laptop with issues!


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## Azathoth43 (Sep 1, 2012)

axxessdenied said:


> HP is terrible! Buy one if you like having a laptop with issues!



I find this true. I bought my wife one a few years ago and it has had problem after problem. Gave her my old MacBook and it hasn't given her any problems.

Haters hate.


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## Aevolve (Sep 2, 2012)

Just an update on this thread- I bought one of these babies yesterday and got express shipping. 

*Lenovo Y580 20994HU*
IdeaPad Y580 15.6" Laptop | Shop | Lenovo | (US)

*Specs:*
- 3rd generation Intel i7 (2.3 GHz)
- Nvidia Geforce GTX660M (2G dedicated video ram)
- 8G ram DDR3 1600 MHz
- 15.6" LED 1080p display
- 1 TB HD (5400 rpm  ) + 32G SSD - will probably upgrade at some point
- BluRay reader/rewriter

I'm beyond excited. If anyone's interested, I can do an NLD with lots of cool pictures.


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## The Atomic Ass (Sep 3, 2012)

PeachesMcKenzie said:


> Just an update on this thread- I bought one of these babies yesterday and got express shipping.
> 
> *Lenovo Y580 20994HU*
> IdeaPad Y580 15.6" Laptop | Shop | Lenovo | (US)
> ...


5400 rpm isn't THAT bad... But upgrading the SSD would be a good idea. Shoot for large enough to store your OS and all the apps you plan on running, +20%, and reserve the HDD for your profile, and media.

I have my laptop (running Linux) setup with an 80gb ssd for root, (about half used, which includes 18GB of Pocaloid) and a 1TB 5200 rpm (yes, 5200 is correct) HDD for /home. I do not see any performance issues with that setup.


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## raximkoron (Sep 7, 2012)

axxessdenied said:


> HP is terrible! Buy one if you like having a laptop with issues!



I suppose it depends on the model. We have a couple HP laptops at work we use for grey-box testing and they've been pretty raging piles of crap.

However, I bought myself an HP Envy 15" back in February and it's been awesome. The only issue I've had with it is finding updated video drivers as it's running a Radeon 7690m and Intel 3000. While I guess you could fault HP for choosing that setup, Lenovo and a couple other companies have used it as well... it's more or less AMD to blame in the end on that one.


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## Aevolve (Sep 8, 2012)

Anyone interested in an NLD or something? It should be here sometime next week.


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## tacotiklah (Sep 8, 2012)

PeachesMcKenzie said:


> Anyone interested in an NLD or something? It should be here sometime next week.



I'm down for it. 

I get to nerd out on specs and pics.


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## CrushingAnvil (Sep 8, 2012)

Chickenhawk said:


> He mentioned gaming, so we all kept our mouths shut.
> 
> *Posted from a MacBook Pro



I'm surprised you can afford internet after you bought an Apple product


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## troyguitar (Sep 9, 2012)

PeachesMcKenzie said:


> - 1 TB HD (5400 rpm  ) + 32G SSD - will probably upgrade at some point



If it's set up to use the SSD as a caching drive, then that actually works out to be decently fast. I had that configuration in a laptop that I borrowed for a couple of weeks earlier this year and it was quite quick. I wouldn't worry too much about it.


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## Aevolve (Sep 9, 2012)

ghstofperdition said:


> I'm down for it.
> 
> I get to nerd out on specs and pics.


I have my camera at my dorm now, so I'll be happy to do so when it arrives. Anything for you ghost. 


troyguitar said:


> If it's set up to use the SSD as a caching drive, then that actually works out to be decently fast. I had that configuration in a laptop that I borrowed for a couple of weeks earlier this year and it was quite quick. I wouldn't worry too much about it.



I _believe_ that's how it's set up, but we'll see. I won't have money to upgrade it anytime soon even if I wanted to.  Good to know that it shouldn't be half bad though; the rest of the specs are pretty awesome imo.


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## axxessdenied (Sep 11, 2012)

Chickenhawk said:


> He mentioned gaming, so we all kept our mouths shut.
> 
> *Posted from a MacBook Pro



Honestly... I don't get what the fuck apple is doing with their MacBook Pro line. The retina model while it has a great display is terrible for serviceability. 
Speccing out a model is so god damn difficult. Fuck the MBP. Dropping firewire when thunderbolt hasn't even taken off is stupid, imo. I don't want to buy a stupid adapter to have to use my firewire interface which is the MAIN reason I wanted a MBP was for the solid I/O.

I was going to buy one then got frustrated to all hell by the options for these things.


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## tacotiklah (Sep 12, 2012)

PeachesMcKenzie said:


> I have my camera at my dorm now, so I'll be happy to do so when it arrives. Anything for you ghost.



(´&#65381;&#969;&#65381;`)





While we're on the subject of computers, I'm debating on whether or not I should replace my desktop since I've had it since 2005. lol


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## Aevolve (Sep 12, 2012)

Build one! 

You can get some pretty insane specs for not much cash.


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## tacotiklah (Sep 12, 2012)

I won't have the cash for it until 11/24. But my budget would be about a grand.


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## troyguitar (Sep 12, 2012)

Since I've been looking at desktops myself, I'll share my conclusion:

cheap eBay i5-3570K machine = ~$600
add in a decent video card and power supply to complete the package for a great machine well under $1k


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## Amanita (Sep 12, 2012)

if i was to buy a laptop now i'd get some Dell Vostro. they're decent quality, reasonably priced, have anti-glare display (hell yeah!) and an Express Card port, which matters for FW interface users like me.


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## Aevolve (Sep 12, 2012)

ghstofperdition said:


> I won't have the cash for it until 11/24. But my budget would be about a grand.


You can get a pretty powerful desktop built for under a grand.


Amanita said:


> if i was to buy a laptop now i'd get some Dell Vostro. they're decent quality, reasonably priced, have anti-glare display (hell yeah!) and an Express Card port, which matters for FW interface users like me.



I already purchased a Lenovo Y580.. Got a message today saying that it should be delivered tomorrow. I paid for expedited shipping and ordered on the 1st, and apparently it finally shipped today. Got an email saying they had some delay getting parts in... we'll see if it's actually delivered tomorrow.


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## Azathoth43 (Sep 13, 2012)

axxessdenied said:


> Dropping firewire when thunderbolt hasn't even taken off is stupid, imo.



That's kinda what Apple does, they'll just drop something when they are done with it. Besides firewire has been a dead technology since almost its inception. I'm surprised they whipped that dead horse as long as they did.


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