Laptop search - requesting help.

airtaz

Distinguished
Mar 17, 2005
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18,510
1. What is your budget?
$1200ish US

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Lighter the better of course, mid-sized would be a safe answer.

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Uncertain of the resolutions. Desktop is 1920x1080 which is nice. Unknown how that would be on a laptop screen size.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
It isn't a replacement. It will be an addition.

5. How much battery life do you need?
Up to 3 hours or so?

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)?
Yes. SC2, Diablo III, Torchlight 2, GW2..... (Higher resolution the better)

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
This will be for a new college student. His major is Computer engineering.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
750g-1T

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
I almost prefer to brick and mortar this laptop. I am uncertain how any warranty work, if needed, will work with a laptop if ordered online.
He will be attending school in Aimes, IA. I'm pretty sure options will be plentiful with a 30 minute drive or so. I know there is at least a BestBuy around. If online, I would prefer newegg.com or amazon.com. Open for any reputable company.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
If this could last his entire 4 years there, that would be ideal.

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

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 am open to all brands of high quality. Your experience will play a factor in this.

13. What country do you live in?
US.

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Son will be attending college at IA State University. We are looking for a laptop for studies as well as one to play video games. Taking his desktop is a possibility, as well. Preferences are listed above. Some others would be: HDMI to hook up to a larger monitor and/or HD TVs would be a major plus.

At work, I have a docking station that allows multiple monitors/real sized keyboard use and mouse. I feel this feature would help keep strain off his body/eyes while using it in his dorm.

I appreciate any and all feedback.

Thanks.
 

cl-jeffrey

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Jun 21, 2012
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10,590
Sounds like you made up your mind on where to purchase the laptop from.

Just make sure you insure such a valuable investment with the extended warranty if he is going to use it for the whole 4 years.

I learned the hard way and trust me it's not fun if your a student on a budget.

Here is a link below of laptops available at best buy

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olstemplatemapper.jsp?_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1&_dynSessConf=849363221514380527&id=pcat17080&type=page&lcn=Computers+%26+Tablets&sc=abComputerSP&st=processingtime%3A%3E1900-01-01&usc=abcat0500000&cp=1&sp=-bestsellingsort+skuid&nrp=38&qp=cabcat0500000%23%23-1%23%23-1%7E%7Ecabcat0502000%23%23-1%23%23-1%7E%7Ecpcmcat247400050000%23%23-1%23%23-1%7E%7Eq4661737433736b75313230%7E%7Enf1139%7C%7C47616d696e6720536572696573&add_to_pkg=false&pagetype=listing&gf=y
 

airtaz

Distinguished
Mar 17, 2005
4
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18,510
You are correct about the warranty. I should have put that in the initial post. I definitely want the availability of an extended warranty.

I feel safer buying it from a store like BB. I believe even if we order it online from them, my son should be able to take it to the store to be fixed.... ?

There seems to be several laptops from there that may fit our requirements. Now, the brand name game and quality of components I am lost on.
 

cl-jeffrey

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Jun 21, 2012
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10,590
You can see if there are any reviews and see what others say to help make your choice.

Once you narrow it down then you can look at video reviews and see what they say about the laptop.

It's always good to get a customers opinion and an experts opinion.
 

ashmonke

Honorable
Jul 10, 2012
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10,520
The Lenovo laptop you listed originally seems like the best choice given the options at BB. It has all the latest technologies built in: 3rd gen Intel Core i7, blu ray, Nvidia 660M kepler graphics with DDR5, and USB3. At the $1200 price point, I don't see any other laptops at BB being comparible to it.

As for buying online from BB, if you buy their warranty you can take it to a store to be fixed.
 

airtaz

Distinguished
Mar 17, 2005
4
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18,510
Looks like that laptop is not only sold out, but has since been replaced by other models. I am now looking at lenovo.com. They have, what appears to be, some pretty good discounts right now. I am looking at the different models and most appear to be the same. Some exceptions are:

resolutions of 1366x768 vs. 1920x1080. I'm advising my son to go with the 1920x1080.

hard drive sizes but that can be fixed with an external if needed.

hard drive speed. I have no real reason, but I have never been a fan of anything slower than a 7200 drive. Thoughts?

They have ThinkPads and IdeaPads. What?

The Y-series IdeaPad has the GTX660M. I think that should suffice for any newer games coming out. Maybe?

As for the warranty, their best one is 3 year over night. Much better price that BB's.

So, I guess to find out the answer to the questions above and decide.