Good Brand of Laptop for school work and Magic related stuff (cannot be apple)

[Joshua Robinson]

So i was recently accepted into a school where you can have laptops and need one for doing work. I can choose between an apple or a Microsoft, I wanted an apple for movie maker and how good it is but my parents wont let me.

so tell me, what is a good laptop with a 17 inch screen? i need to know soon for after christmas sales

thank you!!

[xela]

Get a Vaio. 'Nuff said.

[PoundFFFFFF]

Don't get a mac.

[Joshua Robinson]

Get a Vaio. 'Nuff said.

And why a Viao alex?

[dmbaggs]

Like Alex said, get a Vaio!!


They are sleek, reliable, easy to use. The have good performance for the price. I have had my vaio for a couple years now and it's still going strong! I love it. Also HP has a few good ones, but you'd have to do more research to find one that fits your wants and needs. Goodluck hunting 

[Joshua Robinson]

I do like toshiba's because my mum and dad have a Qousimo, and my friend has a toshiba i love both of their brands and ive used both, they both work brilliantly

[phantom1412]

Don't get a mac.

Why not?

[MrLukeCarroll]

For a good Media laptop, I've loved my last 3 HP entertainment laptops

[Kanped]

I have a Dell Studio and while the components are astounding for the price, the build quality is terrible.  I find the same with Toshiba; if you open them up, you can see that they haven't thought through the cooling system.  If your GPU overheats, it can cause serious problems.  Dell, for example, in my laptop have placed the exhaust for the cooling fan in such a position that the screen completely covers it when it's open.  The intake is directly underneath, so anything but a hard, flat, clean surface will give problems.

Honestly, the only laptops I've seen that are done well are Macs but I'm just talking about the build quality; I hate the software so much (you could just put linux on it, then it'd rock). 

I would strongly consider whether you really, really need the portability of a laptop for what you want as you could build a desktop computer that was much more powerful for much less money and it won't give you overheating problems.

[AceGambit]

Personal opinion - Vaio is an over-priced product.  There's nothing wrong with the machine, but for the price tag, you can get something better. 


At all costs, no matter what happens, avoid Acer.  Their price tag can seem appealing, but that's about the only nice thing about their machines.  As with any product, there are people out there who will claim to have owned one for years with no problems, but the number of people with Acers that don't last past 18 months is astoundingly high.


I have 3 HP laptops, an Asus, and a Dell.  The Dell Latitude is by far the best of the bunch.  Asus make very good products as well though.  HP's media laptops are not bad products, I just had a bad experience with one of them (and a corresponding bad experience with customer support) so I will never buy an HP laptop again. 

[IAmTheChin]

HP or Dell are pretty balanced as far as pre-built laptops go. Don't go buying a laptop based off a program that comes with it.


As far as a 17" laptop goes, my biggest mistake. The point of a laptop is portability. A 17" is meant to be a desktop replacement. When I owned one half the desks I was in class with, my laptop would go off the edges. It's not that they're that heavy, but they're quite a nuisance if you have to travel more than half an hour to a class. I have a 15" now and am quite happy with it.


-Chin

[Joshua Robinson]

I would strongly consider whether you really, really need the portability of a laptop for what you want as you could build a desktop computer that was much more powerful for much less money and it won't give you overheating problems.

I do need the portability of a laptop, because i have to take it to school and take it home for work, i do have a dell desktop set up which is awesome, it works perfectly, but slow at times. i want a good laptop with a 17 inch screen for school work AND Card videos with good editing software, and so i can also play games ei, minecraft.

[PoundFFFFFF]

Don't get a mac.

Why not?

  Because you can get a PC with better specs for $1000 less. And one that actually does work instead of "Putting together a Photo Album".

[Kanped]

I would strongly consider whether you really, really need the portability of a laptop for what you want as you could build a desktop computer that was much more powerful for much less money and it won't give you overheating problems.

I do need the portability of a laptop, because i have to take it to school and take it home for work, i do have a dell desktop set up which is awesome, it works perfectly, but slow at times. i want a good laptop with a 17 inch screen for school work AND Card videos with good editing software, and so i can also play games ei, minecraft.

But you could get a portable hard drive and use that for school.  The software is irrelevant, you should always buy software separately (IMO, including the OS) and do a completely clean install of everything on a new PC. 

Games like Minecraft aren't too demanding but if you want to play AAA titles (I dunno, CoD or something) on a laptop, forget it.  Mine has an i5 processor, decent graphics card and 4 gigs of RAM but it can't run any game made after 2004 well.  For video editing, it WILL be an irritation to import, edit and bounce video without a good processor and a lot of RAM. 

Look, if you really need a machine to do all those things well, you're looking at a high-end laptop or an entry level desktop (depending on the games you want to play).  I think the best solution would be to get a decent linux netbook for school and upgrade your desktop.   It could probably do with a good clean out of the hard drive, too. 

[AceGambit]

I think the best solution would be to get a decent linux netbook for school and upgrade your desktop.

Netbooks are not real computers.  My phone is more powerful than most netbooks.  Linux is nice and fun to screw with, but it simply does not do everything a windows pc can do (and anyone who tells you different is either lying to themselves or doesn't realize that not everyone has time to recompile their kernel).  I can't argue about the price though.

[Kanped]

School work like calculations, spreadsheets and word documents?  They can handle that comfortably.  rather than recompile the kernel, you can just download a different distro if there's something particular that you need.  I'll admit getting the drivers to work on a new distro isn't always easy, though.

[Overflight]

I've previously had a Toshiba which lasted a good 5 years before breaking down. I currently have an HP which after 2 is already giving me some issues (battery acting wonky, random shut downs).

I agree that VAIOs are overpriced. 

[KPopFever605]

I have a Vaio, and it works like a charm, although I've heard that Apple comps are great, but to me, they are way over priced. $1000 for a comp. That $1000 could have gone to the Vortexes.

[PoundFFFFFF]

School work like calculations, spreadsheets and word documents?  They can handle that comfortably.  rather than recompile the kernel, you can just download a different distro if there's something particular that you need.  I'll admit getting the drivers to work on a new distro isn't always easy, though.

  The guy's 14... the computer should have the purpose of gaming the lights out lol~

[Joshua Robinson]

yeah, only 14 and need it for school work and for internet games

[Kanped]

The guy's 14... the computer should have the purpose of gaming the lights out lol~

I was using DOS before I could write and writing Sinclair BASIC before I started school (well, the programming part is according to my dad, I don't remember it).  I'm pretty sure he can handle a clean install of a Linux distro.  Download file, burn CD, restart, follow instructions, done.  I'm just suggesting that a laptop can't really be a great gaming station (and if you're planning on doing school work on it, that's a good thing, believe me).

[dmbaggs]

Don't get a mac.

Why not?

  Because you can get a PC with better specs for $1000 less. And one that actually does work instead of "Putting together a Photo Album".

Mac's are more secure and have a longer life span. Many people think that macs aren't good for non-mac applications or whatnot. I think macs are much better. I know a few illustrators and artists (professionals) that swear by macs. I would spend a couple months with a mac and you'd probably see that they are superior machines.

[Don Boyer]

I have my own opinions on the Mac/PC/Linux debate, but these simple facts remain:

1) his parents already nixed the idea of getting a Mac.
2) he'll be working in a school environment and busy studying - some time for gaming, sure, but I doubt he'd want to waste it installing and reinstalling new operating system builds.

I used Dell for many years.  Some rail against them, some love them.  Same goes for Dell's customer service.  I haven't had any real problems.

If you want a gamer's notebook that's suitable for school and have a healthy budget, try the Alienware M17x R3.  It has some kickin' specs and is made by what is now a subsidiary of Dell.  If you're on a tighter budget, you can scale down to a smaller Alienware machine or try a Dell XPS 15 or 17.  The model number is the screen size, and they're available in a massive number of possible configurations.  The XPS line was Dell's gaming line before they bought Alienware, but it's still a high-performance machine in their standard Dell line-up.  Whatever budget you're dealing with, you can find a machine that suits you somewhere in the Alienware or XPS lines.

A big recommendation - I used to own a 15" Dell laptop, top of the line at the time I bought it.  Extremely heavy and sucked battery power like a Bedouin drinking at a water fountain.  The machines with slightly smaller screens will give you good performance at a more affordable price and generally have much longer battery life.  Plus they WEIGH a lot less!

I switched from the 15" Dell to a 13" MacBook the moment Apple started using Intel chips.  I never regretted both the OS switch and going to a smaller, lighter model.

[KPopFever605]

yeah, only 14 and need it for school work and for internet games

If you need it for school work, I'd try to use the school computer lab, because internet games and social media are a bit of a lengthy distraction upon the part. Trust me, and an hour on FB, I know call it Procrastibook. Good Luck though, hopefully you can resist the temptation. By golly, I've been going HERE instead of doing by HW. It's now 11:35 PM and I finally got done.

[Don Boyer]

yeah, only 14 and need it for school work and for internet games

If you need it for school work, I'd try to use the school computer lab, because internet games and social media are a bit of a lengthy distraction upon the part. Trust me, and an hour on FB, I know call it Procrastibook. Good Luck though, hopefully you can resist the temptation. By golly, I've been going HERE instead of doing by HW. It's now 11:35 PM and I finally got done.

Given the option of using a computer lab PC and my own laptop, who here would not choose "my own laptop"?  It's a rare computer lab that has an adequate number of late-model computers to work on, you can't run your choice of software on them, and you're stuck to working on their schedule and not your own if that's the only choice you give yourself.

KPop, his parents are BUYING him a computer - why on blue-green Earth would the computer lab be a better choice?  He can procrastinate there as easily as anywhere else if he's that type of student - which judging by his acceptance into this exclusive program I'd say he isn't.