Laptop running SAS, SPSS for graduate study

[lakelucid]

1_What is your budget?
$1000

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
13"~14"

3_What screen resolution do you want?
I'm not sure

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
No

5_How much battery life do you need?
A decent 3~5hours

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)?
No

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
Mainly running statistical softwares like SAS, SPSS, and school related routine office tasks.

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
250~500Gb, though don't mind for more if within budget

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
newegg, though I'm open to other sellers

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
At least 3 years


11_What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Any DVD/CD player+burner would be fine, though I can live without one installed on a laptop.

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.
Toshiba, Lenovo, Asus, Sony: good reputation. I do not prefer MSI or Acer, but can accept the latter if it's a reasonable pick.

13_What country do you live in?
I travel between US and Taiwan.


14_Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I am using it for school and work, therefore I want something that I can carry without using too much muscle power and back stress. I can accept laptops within 1.8kg, but not anything over. As I mentioned, I will be running data analysis with statistical software using sample sizes of 500 to maybe a couple thousand, no gaming, just work. I'm not sure what kind of hardware maximize and boost SAS performance other than CPU power, if you have experience, please share them with me, thanks in advance.

 

[hang-the-9]

I support both of these programs at work, any modern laptop will handle these programs fine, you want the most RAM you can get though, 4 gig will be nice and is found even in laptops in your price range.

Lenovo I find to have some of the most solid components in their ThinkPad line. Their non-business ones tend to be a bit flmisier.

http/shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/na/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:expandcategory?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-id=8FA114A7D9FF4F38AE8E19B36EC665A7

 

[lakelucid]

Best answer selected by lakelucid.