Looking for a small/medium laptop

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Denamian

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 14, 2005
Messages
198
Hello, thank you for taking the time to look at post!

I had an 11.6" laptop that I recently got rid of because I'm looking to upgrade. I've done some shopping so I'm not asking you guys to do it all for me, I just haven't been able to find anything that really fits the bill.

This Samsung laptop looks pretty nice to me... but it's bigger and heavier than I am looking for. Can you guys help me find something better // that better fits my needs?

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Budget max would probably be $1250. Prefer to keep it below $1,000 if possible. Use is mostly basic personal computing and some drafting and 3d modeling. I would also like to be able to stream HD video, and potentially play new-ish games on low-medium settings.

The list below gives rough ranges of the types of things I am looking for in each of the major categories. However, I would love to look at anything you guys know of that is close, so if you see my preferences and something pops to mind... please let me know!

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  • I don't like the 10.1" netbook size, so I'm looking for something in the 11-14" range (prefer 11-13").
  • Notebook or ultrabook... prefer smaller, but it's not a dealbreaker.
  • I want it to be easy to carry around, so probably 5 pounds and below.
  • Dedicated graphics would be preferred, but if someone knows of a system with onboard/integrated that would meet my above mentioned desires, I am all ears.
  • 4 gigs of ram is a minimum for me (prefer 6+).
  • Windows 7 please. No Windows 8 for me.
  • Don't really care if it has an optical drive. I'm shooting for smaller and lighter - so most probably won't.
  • I would prefer to have a SSD or at least a SSD/HDD hybrid drive for the boot times and OS speed, but I would settle for a decent 7200 rpm hard drive (don't think I could stomache a 5400). Don't really need more than 250gb, but more is always fine :)
  • Battery life is a pretty big deal for me too. I need to be able to use it under medium stress for at least 3 hours.

***NOTE*** heat dissipation is a concern of mine in a laptop, so if anyone knows a laptop or ultrabook that loosely fits these criteria but has a great battery and good heat dissipation - I will love you forever!

Thank you once more for your time!
 
Sony Vaio S 13.3 might be a good candidate. Optional discrete GPU with an i5 Ivy processor should be enough for that sort of work. It's only 3lbs in weight and should offer >4hrs of battery life. Whatever laptop you end up getting, I'd highly suggest you buy and upgrade the SSD and RAM yourself.

Out of curiosity, what programs are you using? I do 3D CAD work and drafting on my X220 and it handles it just fine. *Autocad 2013, btw*
 
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Look at the lenovo X class, in particular the X230. Really nice power house machines (they use full laptop spec configs, vs low voltage/cut down chips).

Plus they still have removable batteries and lots of accessories.
 
pelo said:
Sony Vaio S 13.3 might be a good candidate. Optional discrete GPU with an i5 Ivy processor should be enough for that sort of work. It's only 3lbs in weight and should offer >4hrs of battery life. Whatever laptop you end up getting, I'd highly suggest you buy and upgrade the SSD and RAM yourself.

Out of curiosity, what programs are you using? I do 3D CAD work and drafting on my X220 and it handles it just fine. *Autocad 2013, btw*
Click to expand...

Mostly Autocad as well. I took a look at the Vaio S-series... I'm not seeing a windows 7 option. I'm really not a fan of Windows 8, so those are probably out for me.

As you mentioned having yourself, and the person below suggested, I will take a look at the Lenovo setups now.
 
I found the following upgraded T430s laptop with lenovo for $1200. Near the upper end of my budget, but it has most of the hardware (and even the OS) that I wanted. It's even small, and lightweight.

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Intel Core i7-3520M
Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
14.0" 1600 x 900) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display
NVIDIA Optimus Graphics (NVS 5200M, 1GB)
8 GB DDR3 - 1600MHz
500GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
16GB mSATA Solid State Cache Drive
6 Cell Lithium Battery T81+ (5.5 hours)

13.50" x 9.05" x 1.00"
3.96lbs.


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My only complaints are that there is no hybrid drive option (for boot/OS), and it's a thinkpad, so it's ugly as @*$.
 
Does anyone know of a good place to go where you can shop for ASUS products with customization? the

Zenbook (UX32VD) has every single option that I am looking for in an amazing form factor, but I can't find a website that has a decent listing of them. It appears to be just a crapshoot sifting through amazon or newegg or tiger direct.
 
Sign up to the Lenovo B&N discount page. You can find a T430s with the above specs for ~$750-$800 quite frequently. Another option is buying a refurb from their outlet site. They offer sales on their outlet just like they do on their regular site

As I mentioned before, don't bother buying the mSATA and RAM upgrades. That's something you can just do yourself and it's much cheaper that way. The i7 is a dual core and isn't worth the high premium they charge for it. Your software will run just as well with a standard i5.

If you don't mind adding a pound in weight, you can buy the T430 with an optional 9-cell battery for a bit cheaper. It'll get you ~10+ hours on a single charge.

I would also avoid getting Ultrabooks like the plague.
 
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