Topic: Laptops

[[LSR]Jalicno]

If you need laptop for work you need stable and decent premium class processor at least Pentium Quad Core or why not  i3 and that is not cheap. Around world most prices are same and they start with 300 euro + if we look trough calculator that looks much more than yours 400 AUS(258 euro)

SSD drive you can't find in that range, go for 500 euro+ and you will see brands as Acer, Compaq, Fujitsu and to be honest they aren't your target.

HP has good quality,Asus currently has best prices for their products, Lenovo is close to them. Toshiba and Sony sell their products mostly cause of their good reputation in past. My favorite is Dell in premium segment but that also cost little more than others - one year longer warranty included.

Seems i didn't wrote much useful post with lot of details as i often do. But if you going buy good laptop you should prepare much more cash than you currently own.

[[MAF]Vertigo]

I guess this Acer Aspire is the best one to go for. i5 for $499.
There are a bunch of others with quad core pentiums with 2+ GHz, but I guess the i5 trumps those significantly.

I don't think I'll bother with the SSD at this stage, maybe some time in the future.

[Terrorfist]

Those Quad Core Pentiums that you see are just a bunch of BGAs like the J1900. Nice pick Vert, Those Pentiums are just dual cores on HT just like i3.

[[MAF]Karlis]

Those Quad Core Pentiums that you see are just a bunch of BGAs like the J1900. Nice pick Vert, Those Pentiums are just dual cores on HT just like i3.

i don't get your point.
the fact that they are BGAs or not has nothing to do with laptop choice.
and, the i5 is actually an dual core on HT too http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Core-i5-4210U-Notebook-Processor.115081.0.html

in spite of that, it is about two times faster and has about 4 times better built in GPU than the celeron, so it could run SA and alike good enough.

i'd go with the i5, if you're fine with the price, and get a 128GB ssd bit later.

and sorry, i looked at the wrong HP back then, but still, it wasn't a good option.

[[MAF]Vertigo]

Thanks for the opinions. Like I said I'm not using this for gaming, so I think it will be more than capable for what I need.

[Uitblinker]

Interesting thread ! I'm also planning to buy a new laptop soon to replace my old Dell laptop. Coincidentally I'm also planning to buy the HP Pavilion-15 that has been listed here. I don't really need my laptop for gaming either just like Vertigo.

I have one question about the SSD thingy, my friends told me that I should consider it as well since it greatly improves the performance (well just like you guys stated over here) but since I'm such a big computer noob, I'm wondering how it practically works!. If you have a hard disk already and if you "add" the SSD thing, will you still benefit from it? Or will the performance only increase if the only drive is the SSD (so no hard disk included). Also, how should this change my search? Do I need to look for specific things if I want to have such a SSD thingy?

[[MAF]Karlis]

Things stored on the SSD will be fast, but those stored on the HDD won't be. That's why usually people install windows and their most demanding programs on the SSD, but keep rarely used data like movies on HDD. However, if it's an laptop, most likely, you won't get to keep both of them because of size constraints, unless you want to replace the DVD disc drive with another case for HDD/SSD, which is often possible.

[Uitblinker]

Alright thanks Karlis, really helpful! Still considering it, just a pity that the price per GB is much higher for SSD's compared to traditional hard disks.

[[FSR]Ush]

I recently bought 256GB of SSD for 100 euro's. Which is quite cheap. I got the crucial MX100 (good price/performance)

[[MAF]Epoxi]

@Uitblinker: You can always buy an external USB HDD if you want to have lots of data storage on your laptop at the same time as having a super fast SSD for OS and programs.

[[MAF]Vertigo]

The sale on the Acer I found finished. Fuck.

Is this Acer a good compromise? It's $527, compared to the Aspire (not on sale) which is $598 and the CPU holds up pretty well, especially since I'm not planning to overclock. Or is the Aspire THAT much better?

There's also this one, which is a little cheaper again.

Or maybe even this one with an i3.

[[MAF]Karlis]

the i3 is just about 50% slower than the i5, but the AMDs are both more than two times slower, and their GPU is worse too, so i3 is the better deal.

[[MAF]Vertigo]

That's so annoying, I'm getting 50% of the speed for the same price. Oh well.

[[LSR]Jalicno]

AMD processor and Acer brand i would pass without doubt. Put some more effort into your search, there should be some Lenovo or Asus by same 'special price' they are often in shops now days. Especially models with I3 processors and Nvidia 820 video cards what i recommend in premium class (400-450 euro, no Windows 8.1 pre-installed) 

[[MAF]Vertigo]

The Lenovo's were all expensive and the Asus one's at the same price weren't as good.