Laptop recommendations?

[LordCashew]

Hey everyone, I'm new to this part of the forum. I'm looking at buying my first laptop in the next month or so, for wifi access, basic home recording and maybe use as a virtual rig. I'm fairly computer literate, but since I don't really follow what's going on in the computer industry I'm looking for recommendations on which brands and dealers I should be looking into or avoiding.

I'm leaning toward something PC at this point because they're so much cheaper, but I'm open to looking at Macs if there's a compelling reason to pay so much more.

 

[troyguitar]

You really need more info to get recommendations, such as:

Price range
Required features
Prioritization of specs (In other words, rank things like battery life, screen size, weight, processing power in order of importance)

I use a Fujitsu tablet which is perfect for me but is definitely not for everyone.

 

[arktan]

I always recommend Thinkpads (Lenovo - Laptop computers - ThinkPad)

You can't go wrong with a thinkpad if you go PC.

 

[wookie606]

to be honest, lately acer have got pretty good, i got a new one not long ago and ive been impressed (which is hard as i do work in a pc repair shop and see all the faults in major brands such as dell, sony and even the thinkpad has some gay as problems)

 

[djpharoah]

I always recommend Thinkpads (Lenovo - Laptop computers - ThinkPad)

You can't go wrong with a thinkpad if you go PC.

I'd avoid the new Chinese Made Thinkpads. Ever since Lenovo bought the Thinkpad line frm IBM their quality has gone down the toilet.

I know - I've own over 15 Thinkpads (my hobby prior to guitars) and the newer ones really suck. The last good Thinkpads imo were the T43p. Anything after it I wouldnt touch.

However check out Asus, HP, MSI if you want a great laptop. My buddy has an Asus thats just ridiculously stacked in components and its only 13.3".

 

[troyguitar]

It's kind of tough to find an MIJ laptop these days. Panasonic makes some and I know my Fujitsu is MIJ, but I'm not sure what else... maybe some of the upper end Sony's?

 

[Azyiu]

Also, would you guys recommend a Netbook (one without a dvd-rom) over a typical laptop? I am kind of leaning toward getting a Netbook, and get an extrenal dvd-rom for it, but am not exactly sure if this is a good way to go.

 

[troyguitar]

I have no optical drive in my laptop (and no external one either) and have never missed it. Beyond that I don't know anything about the Netbook in particular.

 

[Marv Attaxx]

to be honest, lately acer have got pretty good, i got a new one not long ago and ive been impressed (which is hard as i do work in a pc repair shop and see all the faults in major brands such as dell, sony and even the thinkpad has some gay as problems)

^this, acers are very good atm
I've got an Acer Aspire 6920g and it's awesome! Great design and it's very solid! Blu-ray, fast dual core (Intel Core 2 Duo T9300), a fast graphic card (if you like to play: it plays UT3 on max with over 30 frames/sec and it plays Crysis on the middle- to- high settings quite good) and 4 GB Ram.
I can highly recommend it
Didn't have any problems until now unlike our "old" dell and fujitsu siemens...

 

[wookie606]

my acer is quite happily handling sony acid pro, FL and superior allhto sinde i just got a new GPU for my main pc it has been a little neglected

 

[arktan]

I'd avoid the new Chinese Made Thinkpads. Ever since Lenovo bought the Thinkpad line frm IBM their quality has gone down the toilet.

I know - I've own over 15 Thinkpads (my hobby prior to guitars) and the newer ones really suck. The last good Thinkpads imo were the T43p. Anything after it I wouldnt touch.

The T43p was actually made by Lenovo. They just put that IBM logo during the transition period on the Thinkpads while they were actually Lenovos.
I don't care where the product is from but i only care about the quality for it. And Thinkpads still are among the best Laptop-Pc's you can get. So getting a Thinkpad (even the Lenovo ones /whatever the hype about IBM was/ )is still a better alternative than most other plastic-constructs that flex while holding them on one side.

And they hold 100% of the market in outer space


My last thinkpad before the T500 i use now was a T23. I don't really feel such a huge difference except the annoying widescreen (16:10). But that's a problem of the Display-vendors

 

[signalgrey]

apple just release the 13inch mac book pro's

i used to be a windows guy, used laptops for live and mobile studio reasons. The fact of the matter is that windows is shaky and unreliable (IN MY OPINION).

Software runs smoother, links together smoother, is (in my opinion) a touch more user friendly, and it has been quite reliable in my experience.

i now use a full mac setup. i big iMac for studio at home and a 13 incher pimped out with lots of Ram and the faster processor for playing live.

Logic is a great piece of software that is affordable and loaded with great stuff. it also works very well as a hub for other programs (reason, NI, line 6 etc...)

if you buy a laptop or any computer product quality should be a defining factor. theres no point in buying something and having it fuck you later on because the OS is fucked or the parts are Fucking cheap and from china etc..

 

[troyguitar]

All of Apple's products are made in China...

 

[Azyiu]

Actually whether the product is made in China or not is not the point. What matters is QC! Let's just say companies like Sony and Apple do a very good job on QC-ing their products, so usually their stuff is much more reliable.

 

[arktan]

Actually whether the product is made in China or not is not the point. What matters is QC!

Exactly.

 

[Benzesp]

HP_DV4. Small enough but not too small. Get the AMD version becasue the 780G chipset stomps the hell out of the Intel GM45 as far as gaming is concerned. BlueRay, HDMI out, it's a great machine for the money.

Netbooks blow, sorry but if you have ever tried running multiple apps on one you know what I'm talking about.

 

[JBroll]

Fuck that newfangled shiny Vista shit, get an old Thinkpad for $200 and buy more scotch.

Jeff

 

[Azyiu]

Fuck that newfangled shiny Vista shit, get an old Thinkpad for $200 and buy more scotch.

Jeff

^ that isn't a bad idea at all!

 

[JBroll]

HP_DV4. Small enough but not too small. Get the AMD version becasue the 780G chipset stomps the hell out of the Intel GM45 as far as gaming is concerned. BlueRay, HDMI out, it's a great machine for the money.

Netbooks blow, sorry but if you have ever tried running multiple apps on one you know what I'm talking about.

The trick is to not use them for CPU-intensive tasks. If you try running multiple resource-heavy apps on something designed to handle *light tasks* portably and for extended periods of time without battery charges, you're probably at least a little off in the noggin. If you have something heavy-duty in mind, SSH into your desktop and run things there - they're called 'netbooks' and not 'supercomputersthatfitinyourbloodypocketbooks' for a fucking good reason.

Jeff

 

[Xaios]

I pretty much agree with everything Jeff said. If you want a powerhouse computer, you might as well get a desktop.