I need suggestions for the right laptop

[TungFree]

I need suggestions for the right laptop.
Some considerations are:
battery time,
weight
Photoshop,
dvd burning,
7200 rpm DDR,
prefer Nvidia video card

 

[IlllI]

anything with a 9 cell battery

which pretty much every mfg offers as an option

 

[TungFree]

not anything is light weight but the 9 batteries also vary how long they last some last 1.5 hours, that is ridiculously short. and the 10" UNDER $400, are slow and weak on graphics, albeit some can do 9.5 hours on 6 cell batteries, the intensive calculator laptops are not needed for Photoshop but at times I may also want to compress a DVD and burn it. I hoped someone knew which ones were light weight and had enough power to do what I needed and I could carry them to my classes when I teach.

 

[Hacp]

Weight: Whats your preferred weight?
Battery life:How long and under what stress?

 

[IlllI]

cant have your cake and eat it too

btw i think if a laptop had a 9 cell battery it would last a lot longer than 1.5 hours. i've no idea where you got that number from

 

[TheStu]

Lightweight/powerful/decent battery life.

What OS are you wanting to run?
What version of PhotoShop are you planning on running?

Also, just a nitpick, but it is a 7200 RPM drive, and why is that so important to you? The latest 5400 RPM drives all tend to have fairly high platter densities so they are still pretty zippy.

 

[Rottie]

Apple MacBook Pro is your only option....no question asked...

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: Rottie
Apple MacBook Pro is your only option....no question asked...

Thinkpads are fairly light, and from what I hear, get decent battery life. But you might be right, as far as having all that he is looking for (light, good battery, powerful) the MacBook Pro might be the way to go.

 

[IlllI]

screen is what uses most juice, those ccfl tubes etc. macbook pro would have an led backlit screen, which i think gets 20-30 more runtime compared to ccfl
thinkpad with 9 cell would do well, i think a few have led screens too but i forget which ones. but basically anything with a massive battery will do well lol

 

[fatpat268]

Originally posted by: TheStu
Lightweight/powerful/decent battery life.

What OS are you wanting to run?
What version of PhotoShop are you planning on running?

Also, just a nitpick, but it is a 7400 RPM drive, and why is that so important to you? The latest 5400 RPM drives all tend to have fairly high platter densities so they are still pretty zippy.

Also, just a nitpick, but it is a 7200 RPM drive.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: fatpat268

Originally posted by: TheStu
Lightweight/powerful/decent battery life.

What OS are you wanting to run?
What version of PhotoShop are you planning on running?

Also, just a nitpick, but it is a 7400 RPM drive, and why is that so important to you? The latest 5400 RPM drives all tend to have fairly high platter densities so they are still pretty zippy.

Also, just a nitpick, but it is a 7200 RPM drive.

:facepalm: That is what I get for posting while tired... you are quite correct, my mistake, and I got to look like a jackass. Just pure awesome all around

 

[IlllI]

haven't you heard? 7200rpm and 7400rpm are out of style! 7600 is all the rage now

 

[Hacp]

Originally posted by: TheStu

Originally posted by: fatpat268

Originally posted by: TheStu
Lightweight/powerful/decent battery life.

What OS are you wanting to run?
What version of PhotoShop are you planning on running?

Also, just a nitpick, but it is a 7400 RPM drive, and why is that so important to you? The latest 5400 RPM drives all tend to have fairly high platter densities so they are still pretty zippy.

Also, just a nitpick, but it is a 7200 RPM drive.

:facepalm: That is what I get for posting while tired... you are quite correct, my mistake, and I got to look like a jackass. Just pure awesome all around

Muphry's law strikes again!

 

[TungFree]

Thank you all for the contributions.

I did lots of research from both the suggestions here of the thinkpad, and many Asus models. The Thinkpad is interesting because it has options of what to add, but does not offer the weight. Anyone know what the weight is?

The models that interest me to buy in a flash, seem to weigh near 9 lbs and that seems so heavy. I do all I can to keep away from Macs because I will need to learn and learn the new ways to do things. I am very drawn to Asus.
So I looked at these notebooks:
1. ASUS N70SV-X1 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T9550(2.66GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory 640GB HDD 7200rpm BD Combo NVIDIA GeForce GT 130M - Retail

This one is great but soooo heavy and very poor wireless, that reviewer had trouble staying connected for more than 30 seconds that is Horrid!!

2. ASUS N81 Series N81Vp-C1 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T9550(2.66GHz) 14.1" 4GB Memory 320GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 - Retail
Has 2 great reviews and one contradicting them. Says it is very light weight but no weight is given in lbs.

3. Asus N10J-A2 Netbook (1.6GHz Intel Atom N270, 2GB DDR2, 320GB, Windows XP Pro, 10.2" LCD)

( 10.2in - Operating System: Windows XP )


The first one seemed great BUT 9.3 lbs H E A V Y!!! AND the reviewer said, it could not stay wireless connected for over 30 secs and that killed the deal to me.


3. Coice N10j-A2 Sacrificing the DVD-RW and larger screen, and faster processing, for the sake of 3 lbs weight, and long battery life is very tempting but disappointing in what it can do.

I am still undecided, the sacrifices if included will yield over 9 lbs weight in one and the other has no weight stated. I am still open to inputs if you know the weights of the models. Anyone know what the Asus 8N1 weighs?

 

[TheStu]

You can install Windows on the MacBook Pro, but you lose battery life that way. About 50% actually. What I mean is that if you are getting 3-4 hours in OS X, you will only get 1.5-2 hours in Windows.

 

[Hacp]

Try a studio xps 1340? If you're gonna buy it, don't buy online. Call a rep and they can give you the best deals.

 

[alimoalem]

How powerful must the laptop be? I'm sure even an Intel Atom will at least run Photoshop. And how much?

This is just my opinion, but if you're going to post a vague thread, at least define what you mean when you say battery time, weight, etc.

I'd go to a store and look at a netbook and use one. Go to the different notebooks and pick them up. See what is heavy for you. At least narrow down the playing field. In your last post, you've listed an ASUS N70SV-X1 and the Asus netbook both as options. They are on opposite sides of the spectrum.

Anyway, I'd look at the following

DELL (these are all <5lbs, Core 2 Duo, DVD+/-RW)
- Latitude (D630, E6400, E4300)
- Vostro 1320
- XPS M1330, Studio XPS

LENOVO (these are all <5lbs, Core 2 Duo, DVD+/-RW)
- Thinkpad SL400, R400, T400/500, @500
- Ideapad Y430/450/530/550

HP has a few (I'm sure the dv2, dv3, and dv4 all fit your criteria)

The following are off newegg. They have DVD burners, C2D, NVIDIA graphics
Samsung P560, MSI GT627, Samsung X460, Asus U6

Just wondering, why do you want a dedicated graphics card, and why specifically NVIDIA?

 

[TungFree]

Re: why I want a dedicated card and why Nvidia.
I have had difficulties with ATI for 7 years with every card I had ever owned of theirs. I want to stick now with Nvidia, I only want decent graphics without ATI in the hardware.

But I will check out all suggestions including the Studio XPS ,Dell ones.

 

[heymrdj]

Originally posted by: IlllI
cant have your cake and eat it too

btw i think if a laptop had a 9 cell battery it would last a lot longer than 1.5 hours. i've no idea where you got that number from

When gaming, my hi capacity 9 cell battery on my DV9550t with 8600GS is only capable of 50 minutes . On power saver and just web surfing I can get 2.5 hours though .

 

[Hacp]

Originally posted by: heymrdj

Originally posted by: IlllI
cant have your cake and eat it too

btw i think if a laptop had a 9 cell battery it would last a lot longer than 1.5 hours. i've no idea where you got that number from

When gaming, my hi capacity 9 cell battery on my DV9550t with 8600GS is only capable of 50 minutes . On power saver and just web surfing I can get 2.5 hours though .

That means your pc is eating up 90 watts? What video card do you have in their? U sporting a quad core?
Edit:
So I checked and the 8600GS is supposed to only use 20 watts. Your processor uses 35 watts max. What other things are you plugging in to eat at the extra 35 watts?

 

[IlllI]

Originally posted by: heymrdj

When gaming, my hi capacity 9 cell battery on my DV9550t with 8600GS is only capable of 50 minutes . On power saver and just web surfing I can get 2.5 hours though .

last i checked the OP mentioned nothing about gaming. it was in reference to what he was wanting to do with it, nothing about gaming at all. 2.5 hrs is pretty weak. theres gotta be something else going on

Originally posted by: TungFree
Re: why I want a dedicated card and why Nvidia.
I have had difficulties with ATI for 7 years with every card I had ever owned of theirs. I want to stick now with Nvidia, I only want decent graphics without ATI in the hardware.

But I will check out all suggestions including the Studio XPS ,Dell ones.

also in regards to this. be careful. nvidia has hardware issues with the 8xxx series for laptops

specifically massive defects in the manufacturing process which cause overheating of the gpu

oh also unless you are using cs4 video card doesnt really do much for photoshop. for cs4 i think theres some hardware acceleration with nvidia cards, but i dont remember which ones. i think its only a few specific models.

 

[WildHorse]

Whole big forum section just about your question worth perusing:
What Notebook Should I Buy?

 

[WildHorse]

1st listing on page:

Save 30% on all laptops over $999 (excluding the HDX Entertainment Notebook) with coupon code NB3009. Expires September 22nd. Free shipping on most orders as well.

 

[WildHorse]

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[heymrdj]

Originally posted by: Hacp

Originally posted by: heymrdj

Originally posted by: IlllI
cant have your cake and eat it too

btw i think if a laptop had a 9 cell battery it would last a lot longer than 1.5 hours. i've no idea where you got that number from

When gaming, my hi capacity 9 cell battery on my DV9550t with 8600GS is only capable of 50 minutes . On power saver and just web surfing I can get 2.5 hours though .

That means your pc is eating up 90 watts? What video card do you have in their? U sporting a quad core?
Edit:
So I checked and the 8600GS is supposed to only use 20 watts. Your processor uses 35 watts max. What other things are you plugging in to eat at the extra 35 watts?

My Kill-A-Watt shows 92W from the wall under full gaming. 17" widescreen, two 5400RPM hard drives, wireless and wired nics running at the same time (local LAN for servers, WAN for internet). Speakers pull about 2-5 watts I guess, not sure there. Finger print reader, webcam, and Cooler Master Notepal Infinite 17" cooling pad. DVD+-RW and Vista Ultimate 64bit, 4GB Ram. Intel Core 2 Duo T7500. PM/GM/GL965 NB, ICH8 SB. Intel 4965ABGN wireless module

It gets so hot that it will go thermal under "normal" power settings if left on the carpet. Power saver it'll last about 30 minutes before temps get too high. If i remember the unit has two internal fans. When brand new out of the box a thermometer between my lap and the bottom of my laptop registered 114F.

Personally I see where the powers going sadly. And I know the OP didn't talk about gaming, just was saying, it's easy to make a 9cell cry. This is pretty much the average times for 9550t's, my battery is about 1.5 years old though so that could be showing a bit of the age, but then again i don't remember it ever being too much longer. I think the best I ever got was just over 3 hours on power saver with wireless on, screen on minimum brightness, no sound, just browsing one web page.