Computer Brands?

Mim

So, I'm in the market for a new laptop this coming fall (maybe spring if I have to wait for something I really want). I really do not know what types of brands to look for though. Right now I'm using a gateway and, well, the laptop is falling apart physically. What kinds of laptops should I be looking for? Here is a list of things I use for my laptop:

- Internet browsing
- I play the Sims 3 (and I have expansion packs)
- Photoshop/Fireworks/Open Canvas/Illustrator (though Illustrator is rare)
- Microsoft office

So I need something that's not going to fall apart, has a high amount of RAM and a good video card for my Sims and..what else should I be looking for? I'd like something lightweight but if a heavy laptop will do what I need then it'd be fine, I don't need to carry it everywhere, but if I could that'd be nice. I don't know if I care about blu-ray players but if it has one that'd be nice. I'm mostly worried about the laptop handling programs and not freezing up on me.

I think my budget might be in the $1000 range, so I need this to be good and reliable for a couple of years.

Rhino

By far, I think the lenovo/thinkpads are the best lapttops out there. They have track pad and nub and just built to higher standards. The downside is that they are typically more expensive and probably outside your $1000 range. They also tend to be on the heavier side, but nothing outside the normal range of typical laptop weights.

Like you said, for those apps you'll need a good chunk of RAM. It's so cheap these days, I'd suggest atleast 4 gigs with x64.

For CPU, most of them will have dual cores. You'll probably want an i5 since Sim and photoshop like cpu.

For Sims you'll also need a good mobile graphics card. I haven't kept up with that, but make sure it's at least a mid-range ATI or Nvidia. Stay away from intel or matrox or any of that. Those would be fine for web browsing, but sucks for games.

Also you might want to consider a SSD. Generally, most laptop harddrives are slower (5400 rpm or under) and can be a huge bottle neck. SSD is super fast and uses less battery. The downside is cost. They are expensive.


If you get a dell, gateway, etc. Make sure you reinstall it or de-crap-ify it. They typically install tons of shit on there that doens't need to be running. My Win 7 workstation runs about 25 processes on startup (self install). When I looked at my sisters Dell she had over 90 programs running by default! Majority of that shit she didn't want or need, but was taking ram and sometimes hitting the cpu. The reason big companies install that shit is because they get a kick back. So wipe it or re install or have a friend do it.

Essee

My last two laptops have been Sony VAIOs and they have run incredibly beautifully. I've been very happy with them, and they're hardy things (my original one actually somehow survived milk being spilled in it once, AND a year later the same mishap with some tea). They have great keyboards, too, which is a huuuge problem both myself and my fiance have always had with laptops. They also don't install much crapware that you need to get rid of, from what I remember. The only downside to VAIOs is that they can be kinda pricey-- possibly out of your price range-- if you don't find an open-box return/refurbished or otherwise discounted unit. Try to look around on various deal sites (Sony actually has their own resource for this here: http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644534352&searchType=outlet) and see if you can find anything that's on sale. For some reason I'm blanking on the other usual places to look, but Newegg, for example, sometimes has open-box/refurbished stuff in stock. For reference, I have the VAIO VGN-FW590GTB, which has last me a little over two years thus far and is still going strong.

Seeing if you can find an open-box return or refurbished laptop is always a fairly good idea for saving money, anyway. Open-box returns just mean somebody opened it, decided they didn't want it (sometimes this is because of something small they noticed, like a broken latch, which my first VAIO had-- my new one doesn't have a latch to begin with), and sent it back to the retailer. As for other advice for your search... yeah, definitely make sure you don't get an integrated graphics card if you want to run stuff like Sims (this is any card made by Intel, basically). They're VERY common on laptops, and they have a tendency to cause all sorts of graphical issues in games (even though Intel has been making these cards for a very long time now). If you're literally only playing Sims you might be able to get away with it, but I wouldn't recommend it. Regarding what @Rhino said about decrapifying your machine once you get any laptop... try this site: http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/ Tons of forumers have recommended it in previous topics, and their tool lets you quickly pick and choose what rubbish you want to get off your machine.

Esh

I feel like for what the OP needs, you could go way under $1,000. Sims 3 isn't exactly taxing on graphics cards nowadays is it?

Quid

We got my wife this for well under a thousand and it should be able to cover everything you'd want. I'm a big fan of Acer and have found their products, laptops in particular, to be very reliable. I will say that their sound is the single drawback though. It's not an issue most of the time and not at all with head phones but background noise can easily overpower the speakers.

initiatefailure

I'm a big fan of ASUS for laptops. That may be solely based on their wood grain models though. They're so sexy. I think glossy finishes are the absolute worst thing for electronics so there's that aesthetic reason right there. Besides that they always seem to be solid tech wise and highly regarded by reviews.

But yeah regardless of what laptop you get, reinstalling your OS to remove all that crap installed on it it a requirement.

My last laptop was a Toshiba and it was just loaded with bloat like that

Elin

This is one of my current laptops. It plays The Sims 3 just fine, although it stutters a bit if you keep everything on high. I also play Fallout: NV on it, and I played Rift on it. Everything works just fine. I can't attest to any of the Photoshop/illustrator programs though as I don't use them.

My other laptop is an Asus G51 and the thing is a BEAST. It'll run whatever you want it to but it weighs approximately 10k pounds and lasts about 10 minutes unplugged. Asus does make very nice quality mid-range laptops that may do what you need, I just don't personally own one. I will say that between the G51, my husbands desktop, and my netbook we have 3 Asus machines in the house that we are very happy with.

Quid

I've had good times with Asus too. The netbook I have from them has been nice.

Honestly, your best bet is probably going to be to check out the rating for individual models.

Mim

Well, I'm wary of Asus and Acer, but I do like the look of some Vaios. I don't mind buy brand new laptops as I'm not worried at the moment about saving money.

Also, do Vaios come with quiet keyboards? I need something that I can use in class (if it's light enough) that won't disturb others while I type.

So okay, to make sure I got this straight I need a laptop that has:

RAM 4GB or up
ATI or Nvidia
and a Dual Core Processor?

And what is an SSD? /computer term noob

Esh

Why are you wary of Asus? They make really solid and dependable machines and hardware. I've had more troubles with my Sony Vaio than I ever did with my Asus netbook.

Here: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/70899/image/75982/

SSD is a solid state drive. No moving parts. They're also REALLY expensive compared to normal hard drives and probably more than you need.

Mim

Esh wrote:

Why are you wary of Asus? They make really solid and dependable machines and hardware. I've had more troubles with my Sony Vaio than I ever did with my Asus netbook.

Here: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/70899/image/75982/

SSD is a solid state drive. No moving parts. They're also REALLY expensive compared to normal hard drives and probably more than you need.

How can Lenovo be expensive but be the fourth common manufacturer to have issues?

Esh

Mim wrote:

Esh wrote:

Why are you wary of Asus? They make really solid and dependable machines and hardware. I've had more troubles with my Sony Vaio than I ever did with my Asus netbook.

Here: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/70899/image/75982/

SSD is a solid state drive. No moving parts. They're also REALLY expensive compared to normal hard drives and probably more than you need.

How can Lenovo be expensive but be the fourth common manufacturer to have issues?

Because price does not always equal quality. I wouldn't ever judge a product based on a cost. It can be a factor, but it's definitely not something that always works out that way. If you buy things thinking that, you're going to end up burned. Hard.

MichaelLC

How's Toshiba these days?

Bartholamue

To put things in comparison, a Solid State Drive is like a USB flash drive with a lot more memory. They use segments of flash memory, so data transfer is a lot faster and data loss is less likely compared to traditional HDD's.

Essee

Mim wrote:

Also, do Vaios come with quiet keyboards? I need something that I can use in class (if it's light enough) that won't disturb others while I type.

Yeah, I think my VAIO's pretty quiet, personally... uhh... I dunno. It's definitely not loud. My fiance's been bringing it to his classes to type notes on, and it's been fine. I can't necessarily speak for the absolute latest models on that, though-- if you can manage it, see if you can go to some big computer store near you, or find a Sony Style store if there's actually one in your area, and try it out for yourself. For reference, my current one has a keyboard that's basically flat. It doesn't have the taller keys you'd find on a normal keyboard, or the somewhat shorter, sloped ones you'd find on most laptops. They're flat, and nearly flush with the base of the laptop (which likely means it's a lot harder to get junk inside the keyboard, too). I thought it was weird at first, but it actually seems to be really good for long typing/gaming/etc. sessions. Oh yeah, since you're thinking of using this in class... the battery life is STILL the original two hours even while watching videos/etc. after two years of constant use, too, which is nice if your classroom doesn't have a power outlet free.

The reason I suggested open-box stuff is that you can often get what is basically the same new laptop for less; the issue for stores is that, once the box has been opened, they can't really sell the computer as "new," even if the person didn't touch it, so they have to sell it as "open-box." But buying new is fine, too, if you don't want to deal with that stuff!

Bionic Monkey

MichaelLC wrote:

How's Toshiba these days?

Good. Toshiba laptops tend to be some of the better bang-for-the-buck machines on the market, right up there with Asus.

MichaelLC

Bionic Monkey wrote:

MichaelLC wrote:

How's Toshiba these days?

Good. Toshiba laptops tend to be some of the better bang-for-the-buck machines on the market, right up there with Asus.

Thanks. That's what I thought, good to hear it hasn't changed. From my browsing seemed to be most were on-board graphics so might not be best choice for OP, though. Otherwise looked pretty nice.

Mim

Do you guys know of a computer chain where I can go and see the laptops in person? I'm hoping for something bigger than Best Buy's display of laptops.

Quid

If there's a Fry's Electronics near your location that'd be a good place.

Mim

Quid wrote:

If there's a Fry's Electronics near your location that'd be a good place.

Nah, it doesn't seem they have any up here near Philly (I'm looking at their website).

Also, okay so the Toshiba has "on-board graphics" ? What is "on-board graphics" and why might the not be what I'd want? Are they just lower end graphics cards? My friend has a nice Toshiba I was checking out awhile ago (a Qosimo) and she seems to love it (she's an art student). I haven't had much chance to ask her about it though.

Skoal Cat

On-board graphics are where the mother board is handling the video information. Separate video cards that plug into the motherboard are generally going to be more powerful. They will also draw more power and give you a shorter battery life and hotter running temperature.

MichaelLC

Mim wrote:

Quid wrote:

If there's a Fry's Electronics near your location that'd be a good place.

Nah, it doesn't seem they have any up here near Philly (I'm looking at their website).

edit: There may or may not be a CompUSA here:

103 Franklin Mills Boulevard
Philadelphia, PA 19154
(215) 612-2150

Esh

Mim wrote:

Quid wrote:

If there's a Fry's Electronics near your location that'd be a good place.

Nah, it doesn't seem they have any up here near Philly (I'm looking at their website).

Also, okay so the Toshiba has "on-board graphics" ? What is "on-board graphics" and why might the not be what I'd want? Are they just lower end graphics cards? My friend has a nice Toshiba I was checking out awhile ago (a Qosimo) and she seems to love it (she's an art student). I haven't had much chance to ask her about it though.

Some onboard graphics are very serviceable. The Nvidia 320m in my MacBook Pro is actually pretty beefy for what it is and would handle the Sims 3 no problem. I think the newer Intel chipsets aren't bad either.

Elimination

Esh wrote:

Mim wrote:

Esh wrote:

Why are you wary of Asus? They make really solid and dependable machines and hardware. I've had more troubles with my Sony Vaio than I ever did with my Asus netbook.

Here: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/70899/image/75982/

SSD is a solid state drive. No moving parts. They're also REALLY expensive compared to normal hard drives and probably more than you need.

How can Lenovo be expensive but be the fourth common manufacturer to have issues?

Because price does not always equal quality. I wouldn't ever judge a product based on a cost. It can be a factor, but it's definitely not something that always works out that way. If you buy things thinking that, you're going to end up burned. Hard.

I like how that site has that graph, but has absolutely no hard data to prove any of it. I mean I could easily make a graph that says something like bluebarries give heart disease and post it on the net without any hard evidence and it would be just as reliable as that graph there is. I have an acer, and so does my brother, My friend bought a sony Vaio and his cost way more money than my acer, and has failed on him twice since he got it 6 months ago, where as my acer is still going strong as ever. My acer also heats up a lot less, and runs modern games better than his. Mine cost $700, his cost $1200.

Esh

Elimination wrote:

Esh wrote:

Mim wrote:

Esh wrote:

Why are you wary of Asus? They make really solid and dependable machines and hardware. I've had more troubles with my Sony Vaio than I ever did with my Asus netbook.

Here: http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/articles/70899/image/75982/

SSD is a solid state drive. No moving parts. They're also REALLY expensive compared to normal hard drives and probably more than you need.

How can Lenovo be expensive but be the fourth common manufacturer to have issues?

Because price does not always equal quality. I wouldn't ever judge a product based on a cost. It can be a factor, but it's definitely not something that always works out that way. If you buy things thinking that, you're going to end up burned. Hard.

I like how that site has that graph, but has absolutely no hard data to prove any of it. I mean I could easily make a graph that says something like bluebarries give heart disease and post it on the net without any hard evidence and it would be just as reliable as that graph there is. I have an acer, and so does my brother, My friend bought a sony Vaio and his cost way more money than my acer, and has failed on him twice since he got it 6 months ago, where as my acer is still going strong as ever. My acer also heats up a lot less, and runs modern games better than his. Mine cost $700, his cost $1200.

I only linked the graph for convenience. As well, you could've clicked around above it to get to the report. Here's the link to the article on the Lifehacker which has a link to the PDF detailing the study.

http://lifehacker.com/5524704/laptop+reliability-study-highlights-the-most-sturdy-laptop-makers

While anecdotes can be helpful (perhaps in relation to certain models), I'll take a study any day of the week.

Bionic Monkey

Skoal Cat wrote:

On-board graphics are where the mother board is handling the video information. Separate video cards that plug into the motherboard are generally going to be more powerful. They will also draw more power and give you a shorter battery life and hotter running temperature.

That said, if you get an AMD Vision processor or an Intel Sandy Bridge processor, even onboard graphics will be quite serviceable these days.

Ruckus

My previous two notebooks have been HP's. The first one died after about 4 years of heavy use (I'd worn the paint off various parts of it). The second I actually still have, and it works perfectly except for being a Windows Vista notebook, I'm selling it to someone next week.

My current notebook is an MSI G-series, which I specifically bought to give me the ability to play many of my extensive collection of games on Steam (harddrive's not big enough to hold my entire Steam Cache unfortunately).

It's stats are as follows:
Intel i7 Quad core processor (2.0Ghz, bursting 2.79Ghz)
6GB RAM
500GB Harddrive
1GB nVidia GeForce GT 540M Graphics

With shipping it cost about $1100. I'm testing the water with MSI, I've seen quality in their other products (Motherboards, Graphics cards) but never tried their notebooks. I've had it for about 2 months and so far it's doing everything I want it to. I can run Red Faction: Armageddon on relatively high settings, it's played all my source games cranked, Call of Duty 4/4:2/Black Ops with high settings.

Mim

What about Samsung laptops? I haven't heard much about those.

Esh

Mim wrote:

What about Samsung laptops? I haven't heard much about those.

Are you looking at a particular model or something? Honestly, Asus or Toshiba is going to be your best bet. Until you start running particular models past us, there's not much we can help you with.

Mim

I really just saw the brand (I didn't even know Samsung made laptops) and no one really said anything about it.

Anyways, I'm looking at this at the moment. I'm going to try to get to CompUSA sometime this week:

http://tinyurl.com/3bnk32r (Toshiba Qosmio)
http://tinyurl.com/6cg5ljq Acer Laptop

ceres

I have a Samsung NC10 and I absolutely love it. It'll run just about anything I want to play at super-low settings, but it's a netbook and probably not really what you want. I can only speak for that particular model, but my netbook is great and is still kicking after a few years of fairly heavy use, plus all the standard abuse I put my machines through.

Esh

Mim wrote:

I really just saw the brand (I didn't even know Samsung made laptops) and no one really said anything about it.

Anyways, I'm looking at this at the moment. I'm going to try to get to CompUSA sometime this week:

http://tinyurl.com/3bnk32r (Toshiba Qosmio)
http://tinyurl.com/6cg5ljq Acer Laptop

That Toshiba is grossly over powered for what you want and the Acer seems ok, but I have no idea what the graphics chipset in it is. Also one is a 17" and one is a 14". That's a pretty big difference in size and weight.

Mim

Esh wrote:

Mim wrote:

I really just saw the brand (I didn't even know Samsung made laptops) and no one really said anything about it.

Anyways, I'm looking at this at the moment. I'm going to try to get to CompUSA sometime this week:

http://tinyurl.com/3bnk32r (Toshiba Qosmio)
http://tinyurl.com/6cg5ljq Acer Laptop

That Toshiba is grossly over powered for what you want and the Acer seems ok, but I have no idea what the graphics chipset in it is. Also one is a 17" and one is a 14". That's a pretty big difference in size and weight.

Grossly overpowered? Also, The size/weight is not a deal breaker for me. What it is capable of (and durability) is. Also, for the Asus ...that is weird, it says UMA? Should that be something to worry about?

Another question: Integrated or Dedicated for graphics/audio. Is one better than the other?

Esh

Mim wrote:

Esh wrote:

Mim wrote:

I really just saw the brand (I didn't even know Samsung made laptops) and no one really said anything about it.

Anyways, I'm looking at this at the moment. I'm going to try to get to CompUSA sometime this week:

http://tinyurl.com/3bnk32r (Toshiba Qosmio)
http://tinyurl.com/6cg5ljq Acer Laptop

That Toshiba is grossly over powered for what you want and the Acer seems ok, but I have no idea what the graphics chipset in it is. Also one is a 17" and one is a 14". That's a pretty big difference in size and weight.

Grossly overpowered? Also, The size/weight is not a deal breaker for me. What it is capable of (and durability) is. Also, for the Asus ...that is weird, it says UMA? Should that be something to worry about?

Another question: Integrated or Dedicated for graphics/audio. Is one better than the other?

Dedicated is going to be better, but for what you want, it doesn't matter. Sims 3 is an old game and newer integrated graphics will run it just fine.

Bryse Eayo

K, so I have not seen something mentioned that's super important right now.

If you want to use photoshop and illustrator with any speed you're going to want to an nvidia graphics card. Radeon cards are having driver issues and will not accelerate OpenGL powered software. This includes adobe software, any sort of CAD and minecraft. The various manufacturers have not said anything about this and does not look like it's gonna be fixed anytime soon.

Mim

Esh wrote:

Mim wrote:

Esh wrote:

Mim wrote:

I really just saw the brand (I didn't even know Samsung made laptops) and no one really said anything about it.

Anyways, I'm looking at this at the moment. I'm going to try to get to CompUSA sometime this week:

http://tinyurl.com/3bnk32r (Toshiba Qosmio)
http://tinyurl.com/6cg5ljq Acer Laptop

That Toshiba is grossly over powered for what you want and the Acer seems ok, but I have no idea what the graphics chipset in it is. Also one is a 17" and one is a 14". That's a pretty big difference in size and weight.

Grossly overpowered? Also, The size/weight is not a deal breaker for me. What it is capable of (and durability) is. Also, for the Asus ...that is weird, it says UMA? Should that be something to worry about?

Another question: Integrated or Dedicated for graphics/audio. Is one better than the other?

Dedicated is going to be better, but for what you want, it doesn't matter. Sims 3 is an old game and newer integrated graphics will run it just fine.

Okay, so I take it dedicated = discrete? And is grossly overpowered bad or is just like an excess because I'm looking to have this for a couple of years and eventually might need that power.

Syrdon

Mim wrote:

Esh wrote:

Dedicated is going to be better, but for what you want, it doesn't matter. Sims 3 is an old game and newer integrated graphics will run it just fine.

Okay, so I take it dedicated = discrete? And is grossly overpowered bad or is just like an excess because I'm looking to have this for a couple of years and eventually might need that power.

Yeah, dedicated is effectively discrete (that's likely technically wrong, but close enough). Grossly overpowered means you'll pay for it in battery life, and pay heavily. If I had opted for the graphics card in my netbook I would have lost something like 2-4 hours off the battery life (out of 12). If you're not going to be using it on the battery for long periods of time, its not going to matter as much, but if you are then its worth considering.

Esh

Mim wrote:

Esh wrote:

Mim wrote:

Esh wrote:

Mim wrote:

I really just saw the brand (I didn't even know Samsung made laptops) and no one really said anything about it.

Anyways, I'm looking at this at the moment. I'm going to try to get to CompUSA sometime this week:

http://tinyurl.com/3bnk32r (Toshiba Qosmio)
http://tinyurl.com/6cg5ljq Acer Laptop

That Toshiba is grossly over powered for what you want and the Acer seems ok, but I have no idea what the graphics chipset in it is. Also one is a 17" and one is a 14". That's a pretty big difference in size and weight.

Grossly overpowered? Also, The size/weight is not a deal breaker for me. What it is capable of (and durability) is. Also, for the Asus ...that is weird, it says UMA? Should that be something to worry about?

Another question: Integrated or Dedicated for graphics/audio. Is one better than the other?

Dedicated is going to be better, but for what you want, it doesn't matter. Sims 3 is an old game and newer integrated graphics will run it just fine.

Okay, so I take it dedicated = discrete? And is grossly overpowered bad or is just like an excess because I'm looking to have this for a couple of years and eventually might need that power.

Yes, dedicated = discrete.

Sure, if there's some games on the horizon you're looking to play, future proof yourself and buy the $1,100.

I know you said lightweight would be nice, but not necessary, but until you've lugged a 17" around, you don't really understand what a pain in the ass it is. I'd dial it back to a 15" and get an external monitor for at home if you need more screen real estate.

Mim

Well, I probably won't have to lug it around very often. This semester coming up is actually pretty light on work so needing to bring it to school won't be awful because it'll be the only thing I'd have to carry.

There is this though http://tinyurl.com/3r4m2q5

But hopefully the price will drop down by September or I get like a coupon or something...

Skoal Cat

Honestly, my old monster, even by its self, was a nightmare to carry.

Mim

Skoal Cat wrote:

Honestly, my old monster, even by its self, was a nightmare to carry.

I'm not opposed to carrying a heavy weight. I used to carry all the books in my locker around, then in college it was all my books and laptop.

Actually this might explain why my posture is awful... :P