Well seeing how helpful these threads have been in the past, it's come for my beloved post.
My program used to supply me with a laptop but have since revoked the laptop lease, which means this Dell laptop that I type to you guys on today must be returned by early May. Having said that, that puts me in the need for a laptop.
I am looking for a laptop that is powerful enough to handle my needs and also is not an apple product or have a very reflective screen. Preferrably 14 - 15.6" in length, I don't want something too big because of weight, and I don't want something too small.
However instead of asking you guys to search for a laptop, I have already asked a few people who have shown me some laptops that might be worth considering. My budget is $500-800, but with taxes and accessories I'm willing to go up to $999.99 CAD. I prefer to stay away from Apple & Acer.
What I do on average on a laptop is this:
-FFR, SM
-Real Time Strategy games such as Age of Empires II.
-Work with SQL Server, Spreadsheets, ERwin modelling systems.
-Work with IBM Rational Rose, microsoft office.
-Often have 20+ tabs open in the internet at the same time.
-Stream hockey games
-Stream videos
-Possibility of some FPS gaming in the future?
-Can use in excess of 120 processes at a time with misc. items
Because of this, I prefer something with a large amount of RAM so that I don't experience as bad a slowdown. A great CPU is also on a want list. Hard drive space isn't as big an issue, as I have a 500GB hard drive and a 1 TB hard drive, both external that I mainly save things into.
This laptop is a laptop that I hope to use for years and not have to worry about again until at least after I graduate from university in 2015. I do not care if the laptop has a webcam or not.
Here are the specs of this laptop that I am returning in a couple weeks:
I am quite pleased with how the Dell has handled how I use a laptop. The keyboard and screen are great. Slowdowns began bugging me after I hit 115ish processes though. Yes, it's a large number but most of them are chrome tabs lol. One final preference is that I do not want refurbished laptops. I am aware a couple of the below options are refurbished, and you can consider them out of my short list in this thread.
These are 9 options that have been presented to me (the bolded one is my favourite so far, but I'm wondering if the FFR community agrees with me):
ASUS AMD Quad Core, 8 GB RAM, 640 GB HDD $599
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...322&CatId=4938
ASUS Intel I5, 6 GB RAM, 750 GB HDD, BluRay $699
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...839&CatId=4938
DELL Inspiron 15R , Intel I7, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, 1GB Graphics - $799 (regular $1378; on sale, also gives free backpack)
http://configure.dell.com/dellstore/...iron-15r-n5110
More details:
lenovo IdeaPad Z570 (1024DMU) Notebook Intel Core i5 2450M(2.50GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory DDR3 1333 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M, $639.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834246327
lenovo IdeaPad Z570 (1024ASU) Notebook Intel Core i5 2450M(2.50GHz) 15.6" 8GB Memory DDR3 1333 750GB HDD 5400rpm BD Combo Intel HD Graphics 3000, $679.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834246318
SAMSUNG Series 3 305V5A-A04 Notebook AMD A-Series A8-3510MX(1.8GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory DDR3 640GB HDD 5400rpm DVD SMDL (S-ATA) AMD Radeon HD 6620G, $679.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834131183
SAMSUNG NP-RC512-A01US Refurbished Notebook Intel Core i7 2670QM(2.20GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory 750GB HDD Intel HD Graphics, $719.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834131271
Future Shop: Dell 15.6" Intel Core i7-2670M Laptop w/500GB HD, 8GB RAM, GeForce 525M $629.99
http://www.redflagdeals.com/in/toron...ce-525m-62999/
ASUS A53 Series A53Z-TH61 Notebook AMD A-Series A6-3400M(1.4GHz) 15.6" 8GB Memory DDR3 1333 640GB HDD 5400rpm Supermulti Dual Layer DVD-RW AMD Radeon HD 6520G $589.99
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...16834230375CVF