looking for a Notebook

beginner99

Diamond Member
Jun 2, 2009
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Have been looking forever and have not found one that really suits me well.
Basically need it for "school". Needs some power inkl gpu cause I will also use it as desktop replacement for a certain while (probbaly 1.5h years).

Wish list:

1. 15" Screen preferred but 14-16 is acceptable depending on weight
2. higher than the standard 1300x.... much preferred.
3. matte! but I see that this is THE LIMITING factor, so I'm actually ready for a compromise
4. Arrandale i5/i7 version (no i3, turbo seems very handy...)
5. HDD -> anything, cheapest possible cause I gonna but in an ssd of my choice anyway (probably intel, seems to offer best bang for the buck at the moment, OEM laptops with ssd's are overpriced + crappy samsung ssd normally)
6. win 7 64x Prof (but this is more or less hand in hand with matte, consumer/buisness). so again would be ready for compromise if everything else is fine
7. GPU: needs to be able to power a 1600x1050-ish display. A 5830 maybe 5770 would seem resonable. Or then best nv mobile gpu with optimus.
Switchable preferred. The GT210m / 4330 crap IMHO useless. No real benefit over arrandale igp on a high res monitor (=unplayable anyway).

To I want too much?
 

CurseTheSky

Diamond Member
Oct 21, 2006
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Basically need it for "school". Needs some power inkl gpu cause I will also use it as desktop replacement for a certain while (probbaly 1.5h years).

...

7. GPU: needs to be able to power a 1600x1050-ish display. A 5830 maybe 5770 would seem resonable. Or then best nv mobile gpu with optimus.
Switchable preferred. The GT210m / 4330 crap IMHO useless. No real benefit over arrandale igp on a high res monitor (=unplayable anyway).

That puts you into gaming laptop territory. IIRC, the GT 335M is a decent compromise, but even that is going to struggle with some games. The only notebook I know of off hand that has one is the Alienware M11x.

Other than that, you're looking at a heavy laptop with poor battery life in trade for a good GPU. In my opinion, that makes for a poor school machine.

Perhaps you'd be best suited with a semi-recent CULV laptop (Acer Timeline, Asus UL series) for around $500, and a secondary, used, year-old gaming laptop for about the same? I'm considering going this route myself, since it'll let me play games portably while still keeping one system for using wherever I want it, and for up to 8-10 hours if needed.
 

beginner99

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Jun 2, 2009
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just get a desktop for play and a small, light laptop for school.

yeah that was my plan too. But i decided to wait with my desktop build for another year cause of different reasons. I would give my current desktop to my parents and only have this one notebook for around a year or so.

Note that it's not a typical school. I'm doing it parallel to working. Don't now exact english term for it ( "distance study" according to translator, it's about computer science ;) ). only have to go every 2-3 weeks for 1 day. So I don't carry it around all the time. Additionally the rooms we use all are equiped meaning I can easly plug it in. So don't need 8 hr battery life.

Maybe I should just take an i3/i5 without any other graphics. I mean I don't play any demanding games now (cause I can't anyway) They will all work fine on the i5 igp. But maybe I would if I could. ;).
Currently I have an old e4300 desktop. Ok, not much faster than a CULV probably...but buying something slower hm...
 

beginner99

Diamond Member
Jun 2, 2009
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I think I found my baby. An hp envy 15 configured to my needs would be perfect. everything fits. non-glare, 64 bit win 7 prof, radeon 5830,...and so on.
of course has a certain price tag...
very clever of HP. only an external optical drive. makes sense. hardly ever need one. gives more space for usefull things.

But now te bad part. How can I order it?
I can configure perfectly in us store but my countries HP site offers no config options. just 3 different config which all are not that great (all have a 4 core 45 nm i7).
Same hold true for lenovo.

Only dell has a configurator.

Well will try to call. But that has to wait now for a few days.

EDIT:

Else i will need to take the quad core i7 version with 8 gb of ram and glare screen. funny thing is it's not much more expensive than the one i configured on the us-site with i5 and only 4 gb of ram. Still, I don't really need 8 gb of ram. And 3 hours of battery would be nice (which of course I can forget with these specs).
 
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