ISO: Laptop for Graduate School

Rmmhc

Estimable
Jun 30, 2014
3
0
4,510
1. What is your budget?

1. What is your budget?
My budget is roughly $1400.00 USD

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
I would prefer 15" or smaller but no smaller than 13".

3. What screen resolution do you want?
I'm unsure at the moment.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
I need a portable laptop primarily used for school. I have a very nice desktop I've built so this laptop does not need to have a 850m, etc.

5. How much battery life do you need?
This is one of the key factors here. I need it to be longer than 6 hours.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Games are not likely on this laptop. I may slap a few games on there to tinker around with, but I have a desktop for those purposes already.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Photoshop is something I'm learning as a hobby right now. I'd like to be able to utilize photoshop on my laptop when I have downtime at work or school.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
This is tricky. I've seen plenty of laptops with 16 - 24GB SSD's and a HDD to accompany them. I'd much rather have a 256 - 512GB SSD than have to worry about a mechanical hard drive. It's likely I'll have a portable HDD with me in my bag if I ever were to need to store large files.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
I am not.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
Ideally, this laptop should last for 3 years. After that, I'll probably upgrade to something else depending on what my needs are.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
I do not need an optical drive.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
I prefer ASUS, ACER, MSI, etc. The only two brands I will not purchase from are Dell and HP. Quality control standards from previous laptops I've owned, laptops of friends I've replaced HDDs and fans on, are not up to what I would consider reliable enough for me to throw my graduate work on it.

13. What country do you live in?
United States, specifically Missouri. 64093

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Let me start off with what I would prefer. I would prefer something that looks like an apple product. That could be a macbook air or a macbook pro. The macbook air has an acute angle look to it while the MBP has a rectangle. Both of these laptops are lightweight and stylish.

I have considered the macbook air, but I want to wait and see if I can find something else as I have a copy of Microsoft Office ready to go for PC but not for MAC.

I've had my eye on this laptop:
http://

As you can see, it's very sleek and stylish. However, I'm not going to need an i7 or an 850GPU.
I'm waiting on pricing. From what I've gathered, these won't be released until September.

I've also been looking at the Asus Zenbook 301.

Touchscreen is not necessary. I've never used one before other than a smart phone. I don't believe that it would make an extreme difference in my day to day usage.
 
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-V7-582PG-7657-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-Ultrabook/dp/B00K2O4QPY/ref=pd_sim_sbs_pc_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=10WYFV79WCP6XM11BK7Y#productDetails

then id consider changing the HDD to this manually

http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-MX100-adapter-Internal-CT128MX100SSD1/dp/B00KFAGD88/ref=sr_1_3?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1404145470&sr=1-3&keywords=crucial+mx100

I am not sure how easy acer laptops are to work with

it has an i7 and 850 gpu however you dont need these but it still has decent battery life so its best of both worlds

laptop is available for preorder not sure when it will get released though

price of laptop is 1100$

price of ssd is 109$ for 256gb and 200+$ for 512gb.

Also you can always switch to integrated graphics with nvidia optimus feature on the gtx 850m which disables the 850m whenever you want to boost battery life
 

Rmmhc

Estimable
Jun 30, 2014
3
0
4,510
That laptop is beautiful. I could even go for the i5 version and save some money, which would allow me to splurge more towards a 500gb ssd. However, the laptop seems a bit heavy at 4.85 pounds and I'm not 100% in love with the form factor. I'm definitely going to do more research towards this laptop and its i5 brother. I'm very glad you posted these.

The markup on the GPU is what concerns me. I don't need anything over intel 5000.
 

Rmmhc

Estimable
Jun 30, 2014
3
0
4,510
I'd like to bump this thread with updated information.

1. What is your budget?
My budget is roughly $1200.00 USD

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
13 - 15", no bigger.

3. What screen resolution do you want?
I'm unsure at the moment.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portable. I do not want to pay extra for a dedicated GPU.

5. How much battery life do you need?
This is one of the key factors here. I need it to be 6 hours or longer.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Not worried about games. Word processing, media, coding, lots of spread sheets, etc.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
I'd like to install Photoshop and be able to play around with that. I'm learning it as a hobby.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
256 - 512 SSD.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
I am not.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
3 years.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
I do not need an optical drive.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
Not set on a brand. I thought about buying specifically ASUS, but the laptop that I wanted had negative reviews across the board.

13. What country do you live in?
United States, specifically Missouri. 64093

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
The form factor is the most important thing for me. I love the design of the Macbook Air and the Macbook Pro. I do not want a Mac unless I can get a 2013 13.3" air for less than $750. The Best Buy promotion going on still leaves me an expensive laptop that only comes with 4g of ram and a 128gb ssd. Not satisfied paying those prices for something so limiting.

If the laptop is reasonably priced and it comes with just a 128gb ssd, I'd be willing to purchase it and buy an SSD separately. However, I don't want to spend an arm and a leg on this.

I've had my eye on this laptop:
http://www.amazon.com/Zenbook-UX303LA-DB51T-13-3-Inch-Display-Touchscreen/dp/B00KTHGRIS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406390538&sr=8-1&keywords=asus+zenbook+ux303la


This laptop comes with just a 128gb ssd. However, I like the design of the asus zenbook 303la/ln, etc. They look like macbook airs and they are lite. This is going to double as a work/school laptop. I'll have ungodly amount of spreadsheets and documents needed for work as well as papers, etc for school.

Anyone have any other ideas to throw in? Once again, I do NOT want to pay extra for a dedicated GPU when I'm not going to be playing games on this.