New Laptop Suggestions

[Guest]

Well, it is creeping up on about 5 years on my current laptop (Lenovo Thnkpad T400) and it has had a decent run. But now the system overheats and the battery is on its last legs and it is a mess.

Anyone have a suggestion for a new laptop? I am teetering on the edge of getting a Mac because of the longevity they seem to have. It would be my first Apple product aside from an iPod, so I'm a little hesitant on adjusting to a new system. I have mixed around with Linux before, so I'm not too concerned about it. The price tag is a little high though.

I do not have any use for gaming or watching movies or music, although computing power is a fairly big issue for me. Ideally, I would be able to have at least a dual-core processor and 8+ gigs of RAM for statistical computing power. This isn't meant to be my main computing device, but it would be nice to sub-sample data on a laptop to then bring to the big kahuna.

Any sites or laptops to look at would be appreciated.

[HalfHawk]

I bought a new HP laptop about two years ago and what I have now is a little plastic furnace that's louder than the crowd at Philips... Don't buy Hewlett-Packard.

If you're thinking Mac, wait for summer (typically June-ish though it could be delayed this year). They'll unveil the updated 2014 models with improved Broadwell processors. You could also save a few hundred bucks at that time, since the current models will drop in price.

If they release a MacBook Air with Retina display, I'm not thinking twice. It's mine.

Edited April 14, 2014 by HalfHawk

[PSSSHHHRRR87]

It really depends on your price point. Yeah, avoid HP and Dell, although Alienware laptops are the creme de la creme when speaking of Windows. Macs are awesome and I would buy one.

Affordable laptops I'd suggest Lenovo or Asus. Asus is known as one of the top brands for motherboards and they are pretty sturdy laptops. If money is no option, then Alienware 17 or Macbook Pro.

[HalfHawk]

Forgot to mention in my first post, PCMag is one of the more reliable review sites out there when it comes to brand name systems.

[Ruckus]

MacBook Pro man. Just do it. You will be very happy. Look for an Apple Refurb. Comes like new with warranty and everything but is also discounted. The only negative is you will never want to go back to a PC.

[Ruckus]

If you have lots of software for PC already, that could be another thing to consider when switching to MAC.

[HalfHawk]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm going to look over all the links everyone has provided later on tonight, it is sounding like I need to consider the timing of my purchase if I go with a Mac. That Alienware is looking attractive, strangely enough it is marketed as a gaming laptop but I will do hardly any of that. I would still push that memory to the limit if that is what I go with.

I'm also looking over all the software I use that may not be compatible with Mac...or at least not easily compatible in a form I can get a hold of. Damn you ArcGIS and SAS, at least I use R more than those. Still a bit of a concern for me.

I only mentioned Mac specifically because I thought you were leaning towards that option, but I should have said that Broadwell processors will begin appearing in all laptops come mid-year (that's when Intel releases the processor), so keep that along with the potential savings in mind. It's not light years ahead of what you'll find in current models, but it will substantially improve battery life across all devices.

Also, please stay away from Alienware and gaming laptops altogether if you want longevity. High end graphics cards aren't meant to be held inside a small frame with tiny cooling fans and a limited battery life. All gaming laptops with the exception of the Asus G-series, will begin to overheat eventually. The Asus G-series only gets a pass because it's packing some serious bulk and rear fans for a laptop.

[Admin]

I have a MacBook Pro from 2 years and a brand new Dell M4800 and that thing kills my MacBook. Granted it's a lot newer but I am very happy with it's power. Of course both of them were a good bit over $3k (thanks work) but I was surprised to finally get a Dell that could stand toe to toe with my Apple. The E6500 I had before was absolute crap and I never wanted another Dell laptop again.

As mentioned above a MacBook air would be a good way to go. Or you could even look into the Surface Pro 2 those are pretty awesome. - this guy sounds a lot like the type of user that you are.

[ATLHawks3]

Can't go wrong with any Asus laptop.

[Admin]

The Surface Pro 2 fully loaded not enough for you? The 256 GB model with 8 gbs of ram and i5 processor would likely meet your needs, unless you're certain that the dual core processor is going to make that much of a difference. I'm skeptical that just doing data type stuff will see much of a difference on it.

On sale for $1200 right now

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00FRLYUOE/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1397531757&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40

And no way dude I've got a pair of Dell T7500 desktops at the house as well, but those are mine and the laptops belong to work.

[Admin]

Looks like I am going play the waiting game for purchasing a Mac. Anyone have a good time-table for when they will release their new models? That will be the best bet for me, purchase a brand new system once they are available so I don't miss out on the Broadwell processor. I decided to be a little adventurous with the laptop and try some new things. I dusted out the insides, put in a new solid state hard drive and loaded Ubuntu onto the machine. Once I find the time I will try and put some more thermal paste on the CPU. But with an SSD and Ubuntu, it seems to have drastically changed the performance in a positive manner. I've never used SSD and WOW. I am blown away by the performance, the boot time has been cut by a fifth and reading data is much faster. I feel like a moron for not jumping to an SSD. I'm going to keep an eye out for SSD deals to pick one up for my desktop. These are great!

SSD absolutely makes a huge difference in them, especially in boot up time, but they're so damned expensive they aren't really practical to get anything more than a small drive. You might find that you don't even need to get a new laptop now.

[ATLJA316]

I've suggested a mac to all friends that have asked for my advice, and have been thanked each time.

I travel a lot, so my macbook is invaluable to me.

In a literal sense... it's made out of metal. not some crap plastic that is going to get scratched and potentially crack or chip over time.

OSX is also a great operating system. Very easy to learn if you've never used it before.

[Guest]

So Amazon had a random deal for Kindle Owners the other day. It was an Acer c720 Chromebook for $59! I couldn't pass that up. So now I'm plodding along on a chromebook and about to install linux/ubuntu on it as well.

 

At this rate, I may never get a new laptop. I'm thinking hard about investing my computing resources into a desktop and just remote into it for anything important I need to do. Well, I say that now but I might change my mind in a week.