Need to buy a laptop, fast!

BetaMind

Estimable
Sep 9, 2014
4
0
4,510
1. What is your budget?

$1,000, I can push it to maximum of 1,200 but I'd prefer not to unless it really will be worth that extra $200.


2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?

I want the size of the notebook to be either 15.6', if not something around there but no smaller than 13' and no higher than 17'.

3. What screen resolution do you want?
I want it to be the HD.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
I need a portable laptop.

5. How much battery life do you need?
I need at-least 5+HRS. I'm willing to go for 4, lowest if need be.

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)?
The main-purpose of this isn't for playing games but if i were to choose I'd prefer to play POTE or LoL on it or Dragon Nest.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
A lot of photo-editing + web-designing.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
I don't need 1TB but if i could get it that'd be awesome, I'm fine with 750GB+

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

I'm here aren't I? I don't know the difference between good and bad when it comes to computer / laptop specs, haha.

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

4 Years.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?

I don't think this is important for the purpose I'm getting it for, I don't mind whichever.

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.

No Toshiba, No Sony and no Dell, I've had bad experience with all of them in terms of customer support / laptop malfunctioning / battery dying too quickly / etc.

13. What country do you live in?
U.S

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

I really want it to be mainly for creative purposes, I'd like to be able to run the full adobe suit on it no problem, here and there I'll probably play a game or two when I find time.

NO Windows 8, I don't want that to be the OS, I'd like Windows 7.

- In terms of the laptop design, I don't want it to be too heavy or heavy at all. I'd prefer something light or something around there.
- I'd prefer it not have any branding.
- I also would like the keyboard to be mechanical and I don't know the term for this but nothing should be able to get inside the buttons, for my current laptop the keys are all dirty underneath due to years of usage + exposure, I've attempted cleaning it but it's not the smoothest of operations.
- I'd also like to have a warranty that'll cover me for the very least a year.
- I want it to be silent, very silent, I want to be able to run it without having to hearing a airplane start up (haha.....)
- I like the whole sleek carbon feel concept, that'd be nice.
- No less than 8GB Ram, I honestly would prefer it to be higher than that. I want to be able to run a rainmeter set-up so more memory would contribute.

Thank you very much for taking your time to read this request for help. I am aware I am a very very picky person and this might be an annoying task but I again sincerely thank you for taking your time to read this.
 
Solution
Your windows 7 requirement is going to knock out the majority of laptops, Windows 7 is not typically offered on new ones anymore, and as a result you're often looking at older models that are just not being sold as overstock or just popular older models. You can try to buy a W8 laptop and downgrade, but not all of them have driver support in W7.

"Mechanical" keyboards in a laptop will not be possible. If they were, it certainly would't be thin and light light you wanted. Have you seen mechanical desktop keyboards? They're bulky and heavy. The best you can get in most laptops are the scissor switches, unless you opt for a custom build of some sort (I think there are mechanical switches for laptop keyboards, but I'm not aware of anyone...

snowctrl

Honorable
Sep 10, 2013
107
0
10,660


You could try a custom-built from PC Specialist...?:

https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/custom-laptops/ultraNote-laptops/
 

BetaMind

Estimable
Sep 9, 2014
4
0
4,510



They don't ship to the U.S
 

BetaMind

Estimable
Sep 9, 2014
4
0
4,510


I hate the feel to it, I'm glued to the traditional desktop layout(W95 based), I am buying a laptop, not a over-sized mobile device. I am aware that you can indeed go to the desktop mode but the whole start itself is configured to go back to the mobile device layout, I honestly dislike that. If i wanted to buy a damn over-sized windows phone, I would, but I don't, I just want to buy a modern up-to-date laptop with windows 7, hell I'll take Windows vista over Windows 8/8.1 anyday.
 
I personally would go with asus n series laptops as they are compatible with win 7. But the only issue I can think of you may not like are the keys. I have had no issue with dust getting in the keys myself but if you don;t like the chicklet keys they use then lenovo is the best for the typing experience. You could look into hp as they make good laptops with win 7.
 

Bolin

Estimable
Sep 8, 2014
312
0
5,010


Agree
I don't see why is people so against windows 8, there's classic shell :p Everything else in the OS is exactly the same or even better except for the existance of the metro UI
 

drapacioli

Distinguished
Dec 6, 2010
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19,010
Your windows 7 requirement is going to knock out the majority of laptops, Windows 7 is not typically offered on new ones anymore, and as a result you're often looking at older models that are just not being sold as overstock or just popular older models. You can try to buy a W8 laptop and downgrade, but not all of them have driver support in W7.

"Mechanical" keyboards in a laptop will not be possible. If they were, it certainly would't be thin and light light you wanted. Have you seen mechanical desktop keyboards? They're bulky and heavy. The best you can get in most laptops are the scissor switches, unless you opt for a custom build of some sort (I think there are mechanical switches for laptop keyboards, but I'm not aware of anyone that uses them.). If you want to minimize the dirt and stuff, you want one of those gapless keyboards.

Finally, since most of these windows 7 models are older, they aren't the thinnest and lightest on the market, nor do they have the best battery life. Suffice to say that you're spending a lot more than you need for a lot less than you expected just because you want Windows 7. If it's really worth it to you, here's a model that will work:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2CP1XT6069

I'm not partial to Acer and I'm not sure it will last 4 years (the average lifespan of a laptop is closer to 2.5-3 now), but it's about the only thing I could find with decent specs AND windows 7 AND a 6 cell battery. It will handle your photo editing, to be honest I'm not sure about the games you mentioned since it has integrated graphics. Finally it has an HD display, but it's not full HD, only 768p. The battery is just barely adequate, with a max of 4.5 hours (realistically you'll probably see less).

If you were to allow Windows 8 though, you could get much more for less money:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834317610

This laptop has 1080p, better integrated graphics, a touchscreen, a ULV i7 (means lower power, but the processor will still perform reasonably well. Technically it's not as powerful as the Acer), and up to a 7 hour battery life (A benefit of the newer ULV processors). I'm still not positive about the games but once you get into discrete graphics the battery life starts going way down. The 4400 should be able to handle your games on low settings if they are on the same level or lower than games such as Dota 2, Tomb Raider, and Diablo III. If you need longevity first and games second, this should work well. So, basically you get almost everything you wanted in this laptop minus windows 7 and any demanding games you might like to play, all for $150 less than the windows 7 option which isn't as good.
 
Solution

drapacioli

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Dec 6, 2010
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The Y50 is nice and will handle everything needed, but it suffers from below average battery life (as is expected of a laptop geared more towards gaming). Not sure you can stretch it to 4 hours when you need it (it's listed as max 4 hours, which means if you do anything that requires CPU or GPU power, you're probably not going to get it, and it'll be worse as the battery begins to age.)
 

drapacioli

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Dec 6, 2010
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Yes, but that happens automatically with nvidia's Optimus, so I would assume that's already calculated into the max battery life. For example, on my Asus laptop, the max battery life was reported as 3.5 hours, which it reached only when not doing gpu-intensive tasks (i.e. the dedicated 540M was not being used). As soon as it was switched on the battery dropped to 2 hours, or less than 1 hour if it was being maxed out. Plus that laptop has the more power-hungry H processors, which don't save as much when idling and are quicker to use more power even for light tasks (it uses about 3x the power at full load than the 4510U). Even the i7-3620QM, which I listed in the Acer machine linked above, uses less power than the i5-4500H (by about 20-25%). Don't get me wrong it's a very decent laptop especially for the price, I just highly doubt the battery will last as long as needed given all the higher-power components inside and fairly low battery (It might be different if they used 6 cell batteries instead of 4, I honestly don't know why Lenovo did that)