$1,200 budget laptop

[Cream Soda]

My friend is asking me to help him with a laptop with a $1,200 budget, but he won't be playing any games on it lol and I don't want to go wild getting him shit he doesn't need.

That being said, for home use/business, what are some good options for something that will last him many years (he wants it to last over 5 years, etc.)

[Sepukku]

There's a $700 laptop out now, an HP i7 with 1TB hard drive and beats audio speakers. Not too bad, my budget was a little tighter so I opted for the $600 i5 750 TB. Frankly I don't know what he plans on using it for, home/business is so vague, if he doesn't need a ton of processing speed, if hes not gonna be running tons of shit simultaneously, why would he need a $1200 laptop? Get a very basic A6/A8/i5 laptop with limited harddrive (500ish?)

[Cream Soda]

Basically, he makes a lot of money, and knows little about technology. So when he asked me to help him get a new laptop I just asked him his budget and he said "I don't want to spend more than $1200"

The most intensive thing I've seen him use is I think it's called Solidworks? (Whichever the one for mechanical engineers is)

[Clash Perez]

Tell him to give you the $1200 and buy him a $400 laptop, and use the rest to get your water turned on.

[Cream Soda]

lol even if I were that much of an asshole, not possible. My uncle is the only one who can turn it on and they won't let him pay it over the phone/online/etc. He has to go in person, and he just straight up doesn't feel like it. (probably has something to do with him working 6pm-6am and not wanting to wake up/stay up till the hours of their office.

[Omnipotent]

This is what I just bought:, highly recommend
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+1...2014&cp=1&lp=3

[Yugl]

How travel friendly does he want this to be? Does he use any intense software?

[Cream Soda]

He's only traveled once or twice that I know of and with his laptop he has now, he usually leaves it at home and uses his job's computer at work.

Just texted him, solidworks is the only intensive program he uses; no interest in gaming.

[Sonomaa]

make sure it has a solid state drive, itll make a massive difference in speed and save battery life

[Cream Soda]

Yea, was thinking the same. Graphics card doesn't need to be powerful. Decent size SSD and an i7 probably preferred though; and just trying to avoid shit tier brands, such as HP

[Yugl]

http://www.xoticpc.com/asus-n53svdh7...wconfigure=yes

Remove HDD (-$60) add Intel Dual Band wireless (+$30)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820147193

Should be roughly 890+250= 1140

Newegg has free shipping; I doubt laptop shipping would exceed 60, so that should meet the budget.

Edit: When you clean install, remember to use AHCI mode.

[xElipsis]

http://www.reddit.com/r/suggestalaptop

If you check the side-bar (on the right side and down a little) There are some quick-pick laptop suggestions that might help. I'm sure if you sure that sub-reddit you might find something as well.

[Tidane]

(Post is using $1200 as a target.)

Processor

• Intel Core i5-3360M
• Intel Core i7-3610QM

Get an Intel processor that uses the Ivy Bridge architecture. These chips will be more expensive than a Sandy Bridge chip, but they use less power. I normally don't recommend Intel Core i5 processors, but in the mobile space, the difference between the two isn't huge. I believe all the i5M processors are dual-core with hyper threading and turbo boost, while the i7M processors are dual or quad-core with hyper threading and turbo boost. If you do go with an i7M processor, make sure you're getting one that's a quad-core and not a dual-core, or else your friend is just wasting money. The first is a dual-core while the second is quad-core; both are Ivy Bridge (3rd generation Core i Series).

RAM
4-8GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz. No real reason for more or less, given the requirements.

Memory
An SSD is a huge performance improvement over an HDD, but they are expensive. He'll probably want at least a 256GB SSD or a combination of an 80GB SSD and a 500GB HDD. You could go with a smaller SSD for only the Windows install, but I like to have some room for other applications that could benefit from the SSD installed on them. I haven't seen many laptop vendors that have multiple drive bays, so he may have to pay for the SSD larger SSD (the one Yugl linked looks fine, if you don't find one with a 256GB SSD in it for a reasonable price). If he's using this as his main computer, 256GB is really not a lot of space. You said he's not very technical, but if he doesn't want to be carrying an external HDD around with him, a dual-drive solution or network-based solution may be worth looking into.

Battery
If he's not traveling distances with it (only using it within his home and the home of others), the battery life shouldn't be important, but I hate suggesting anything with a bad battery life. Look for 6 or 9-cell batteries, which should give 4-8 hours of battery life, depending on usage and hardware.

Video Card
I took a look at the requirements for Solidworks. The website doesn't provide much information about system requirements other than ones that would be met by any laptop these days (2GB RAM, 5GB+ HDD space, SSE2 and a 64bit OS). I looked through some discussions of people using Solidworks on laptops. From what they've said, the application runs without issue using Intel's onboard graphics (HD3000/4000).

Screen Size
The size of the screen obviously dictates the size of the laptop. Most laptops I've seen these days are sporting 14-17.3" screens. You told me that it doesn't need to be tiny, so I'd ask him if he prefers a large or small screen.

A laptop with those specifications will be between $600-1200, depending on the combination of hardware and brand. I wouldn't get too caught up on branding, as the major components aren't produced by the name on the chasis. I've used HPs, Dells, Toshiba, and Samsung brand computers and they've all had their own poor quality parts and good parts. They're all under warranty from the day I get them until the day I get a new one, though, so miscellaneous parts failure has never been an issue for me.

That said, I don't spend a lot of time looking in the mobile space. The information above is based on my experiences with Intel's chipsets. Asking for a laptop to last five years isn't necessarily too much to ask for, as long as his use for it doesn't change much. I can't see any general use applications needing more performance than the above technical specifications can provide. The issues with laptops is that since they are mobile, they get a lot more banged up, which leads to components failing.

[octopus]

Someone who makes a lot of money but don't know much about technology? Just tell him to buy a MacBook Air lol.

[Caiyuo]

Why not one of the new foldable hybrid laptops? They're right around that budget and they seem really neat. Handful to choose from, too, I know Lenovo, Dell, Asus and Toshiba all have their own models.

[Gredival]

Why not one of the new foldable hybrid laptops? They're right around that budget and they seem really neat. Handful to choose from, too, I know Lenovo, Dell, Asus and Toshiba all have their own models.

Yeah one of those hybrid tablet/laptop Ultrabooks seems like it would be a good idea. Ones where the lid is a second screen or where the screen flips inside out on the frame so you can use the screen as a tablet when closed.

Otherwise just get any Ivy Bridge i7 and an SSD. You could go with a top tier maker since he doesn't seem to care about luxury tax.

[orinthia]

Here's something in that price range: http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np9130-...m1-p-4340.html Can look around on that site for others.

Sager is pretty nice, mostly in not having any branding as an option for their laptops, as well as no OS included yet also including a driver disc. Lot of options on additions. My brother has their 11.6 inch one and it's quite the beast for something so small (he travels a lot, super small for his backpack, yet the power brick is huge lol). And, at least on his, it uses a single large panel on the bottom to access everything internally, so you won't have to tear apart the whole thing to replace something or clean the fan, etc.


Though you said your friend isn't tech literate... just link him to a macbook. They're great for those kinds of people, and a lot less potential headaches on your side since "take it to the apple store" is your reason. I'm not kidding here, let those poor saps deal with it.

[Yugl]

I have the older version of that Sager (NP8130) and the laptop is amazing, but he'll miss out on SSD and some other upgrades (Wireless card) that will benefit the person with that budget.

[Ksandra]

My suggestion is to look into Dell laptops. You mentioned he wants it to last a long time, and Dell is the only company I know of (probably others) that lets you extend warranties indefinitely. They're customer service is fucking amazing, too. When it comes to laptops I really feel they're the only way to go if you want to spend that kind of money, because they will make sure you get the years worth out of it.

[Anakron]

What size laptop does he want? There's a lot selection between 10.1" and 17.3".

I'd go for something with 2 HDD bays (unless he doesn't need the optical), so he can have a SSD and a normal HDD for storage.