Laptop

[Sakke]

I'm about to buy a new laptop. Primary yews will be university-related (MATLAB, Maple, etc.) and gaming (JKA, Dota 2, that style).
what should I be looking for? (And what should I avoid?)

[Magyk]

I have a Sony Vaio F-series (VPCF2290X, specifically) and love the shit out of it.


F-series is Sony's multimedia/gaming series, but I've been using it for school also. The particular model I have is a bit of a diesel, it's got a 16.4 inch screen, it's pretty beastly-feeling and is about the farthest thing from a little Macbook. I personally really like that about it, but if you want something light don't get this model. Sony has other Vaios that are lighter, and I've never met anyone that didn't pick up one that didn't love it. Just my recommendation.

These were my order details, came out to around $1400ish. This model also can also come with Sony's 3D package for games, if that's something you're interested. But it's a bit extra. And you can get a bluray player/burner, I just got CD instead to keep my price down.

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Norton Internet Security™ 2012 (30 day trial)
    6GB (4GB x1 + 2GB x1) DDR3-SDRAM-1333
    High capacity battery
    No engraving
    Microsoft® Office 2010 Starter
    No Fresh Start
    500GB (7200rpm) hard drive
    Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM quad-core processor (2.0GHz) with Turbo Boost up to 2.90GHz
    CD/DVD player / burner
    Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
    16.4" 2D Full HD LCD display (1920x1080) with LED backlight
    Silver
    Adobe Bundle (Free - $448 value)
    NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M (1GB) dedicated graphics


As far as games though, probably the most strenuous thing I ran on here was Skyrim and it was reccomended to run on either high or very high graphics, I don't remember which, but either way pretty good for a laptop IMO.

[CHEW]

What is your budget?

[Sakke]

I was considering spending 4-5000 DKR which is just below $1000.
Magyk, your system definitely looks suitable for gaming. And it's likely that I'll never make full yews of something like that.

I've been thinking since I posted first, that I might put my money into SSD instead of graphics I won't yews.

Also, I won't buy an Acer (including Packard Bell). Nor will I buy a mac-book.

[Darth_Wayne]

I bought this not too long ago on clearance for about $650. I've only tried playing Civ 5 on it but it runs it flawlessly. Also, bonus points for not coming with Windows 8.

[Sakke]

Quick questions:

Optical drive (DVD/whatever) - can you live without one?
Touch screen - worth it?
SSD/hybrid drive/HDD - ups and downs?

[Magyk]

I broke my disc drive on my laptop in like early December. (Didn't know drive was open, and I picked it up by one end and the leverage of the drive against the ground snapped it.)

It still works, but I've only used it one time since that happened, and that was like two months ago... so yeah, you can definitely live without it.

[CHEW]

Quick questions:

Optical drive (DVD/whatever) - can you live without one? -- Yes but having a dvd drive is nice, and they seems to be coming as a standard now days.

Touch screen - worth it? No

SSD/hybrid drive/HDD - ups and downs? Fast, but it only lasts so long. Like most solid state devices they only have so many write / rewrites in its lifetime.

[Sakke]

IDK why, but I ended up buying an Asus wih touchscreen. You can't imagine what it's like to log on to a public server and killing poeple (sniping) by clicking on hem on the screen.

[Magyk]

You can't imagine how much faster I am with a mouse.


That does sound cool/fun though.