Hello,
For the past two weeks or so I've been trying to find a laptop for school - and I'm completely overwhelmed. I'd appreciate any and all help I can get in finding an appropriate machine.
Budget: Less is always better, but $1500 is the absolute max. $1200 or less would be far preferable.
OS: Windows (hopefully Windows 7 when it rolls around)
Primary usage: schoolwork and web browsing. I should think that any machine which can support the secondary usages (below) will have no trouble here.
Secondary usage: non-gaming software such as Blender, GIMP, and mathematics/engineering/science software.
Third usage: gaming. I'd like to be able to play games on the laptop, though I don't care much about being able to play recent blockbusters. Since I won't have a lot of time for gaming while I'm at school (and at home I have a nice enough desktop), I'm more interested in playing older games such as the KOTOR series, Civ 3 (4 if the laptop will run it), Jedi Knight 2, Trackmania United, etc.
Battery: I'd like the battery to be able to last through playback of a full-length movie for plane flights and the like. At least two, and hopefully three, hours of word processing/web browsing would be nice. Any gaming, rendering, heavy mathematical lifting, etc would be done by an outlet.
Size: I've never owned a laptop before, but just from seeing some laptops in person at Best Buy and Microcenter, it seems that a 14 inch screen is a good size. I'd be quite happy to go bigger, but:
Weight: I'd like to keep the weight under 6.5 pounds.
I think that about covers my needs. Though I'd love to see a link to an already put together machine, I know nothing about laptops - so even comments like "XYZ manufacturer has very good build quality and their ABC series of laptops should fit your needs."
Thank you very much for your help,
Tarrosion
Edit: I forgot to mention that I don't need much hard drive space at all. A few basic programs, <4 GB of music, and a few old games are all I need. I don't know of SSDs are common in laptops these days, but perhaps that'd be an option for a less fragile and snappier system?
For the past two weeks or so I've been trying to find a laptop for school - and I'm completely overwhelmed. I'd appreciate any and all help I can get in finding an appropriate machine.
Budget: Less is always better, but $1500 is the absolute max. $1200 or less would be far preferable.
OS: Windows (hopefully Windows 7 when it rolls around)
Primary usage: schoolwork and web browsing. I should think that any machine which can support the secondary usages (below) will have no trouble here.
Secondary usage: non-gaming software such as Blender, GIMP, and mathematics/engineering/science software.
Third usage: gaming. I'd like to be able to play games on the laptop, though I don't care much about being able to play recent blockbusters. Since I won't have a lot of time for gaming while I'm at school (and at home I have a nice enough desktop), I'm more interested in playing older games such as the KOTOR series, Civ 3 (4 if the laptop will run it), Jedi Knight 2, Trackmania United, etc.
Battery: I'd like the battery to be able to last through playback of a full-length movie for plane flights and the like. At least two, and hopefully three, hours of word processing/web browsing would be nice. Any gaming, rendering, heavy mathematical lifting, etc would be done by an outlet.
Size: I've never owned a laptop before, but just from seeing some laptops in person at Best Buy and Microcenter, it seems that a 14 inch screen is a good size. I'd be quite happy to go bigger, but:
Weight: I'd like to keep the weight under 6.5 pounds.
I think that about covers my needs. Though I'd love to see a link to an already put together machine, I know nothing about laptops - so even comments like "XYZ manufacturer has very good build quality and their ABC series of laptops should fit your needs."
Thank you very much for your help,
Tarrosion
Edit: I forgot to mention that I don't need much hard drive space at all. A few basic programs, <4 GB of music, and a few old games are all I need. I don't know of SSDs are common in laptops these days, but perhaps that'd be an option for a less fragile and snappier system?
Last edited: