So when I need to know what to buy at a good cost, and I have questions, I turn to the misc, who have never failed me. If you want to get into the 'rep on sight' line in my sig, throw me some good advice.
looking to buy a laptop. Yes, this is the same thing I went through twice in the last year, one for my Mom, and one for me.
I have returned from the sandbox for the final time, and my college-bound daughter has fallen in love (and basically claimed) my beloved Lenovo x220. Makes sense for her to take it with her since I cannot possibly picture a more ideal college laptop. However, i need a few things that the x220 doesn't do, namely USB 3.0 and a larger screen (and a backlit keyboard, doggone it!)
what I need:
- desktop replacement strength "innards" that will be able to rip my BluRay collection to mkv without taking 3 days per disk. I am fairly certain that encoding DVDs and BluRays is very CPU-intensive, so I assume that means I need to shell over the $$$ for an Ivy Bridge i7. Not real sure how much of a difference exists between the specific models of the i7, other than i7-3### means IvyBridge, and "QM" means "quadcore mobile". Don't really need the low voltage variations as I will generally be tethered to an outlet, although I wouldn't mind having a few hours of battery life
- ability to connect to a HDTV fairly easily, as I plan on doing homework in my 'mancave' with my laptop connected to my 42" TV and finally finish off my damn bachelor's degree before I retire.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of buying the x220 last year and living with it for over a year. Why is it a mistake?
1. I'm spoiled by the keyboard
2. I love the little red mouse control trackpoint thingee, and I hate the standard finger touchpad mouse control. Yes, I will be using a mouse a lot, but if there are models out there that have the little trackpoint stick, they will get some heavy consideration.
3. I am spoiled by the screen. Sweet mother of Jesus, an IPS screen on a laptop is a thing of beauty. 1600x900 is the minimum resolution if the screen is VERY high quality, although I'd prefer a full HD 1920 screen. I'm purely spoiled by the IPS. Looking for a 15.6" or 17.3" screen, but it MUST be a good quality screen. I know IPS just isn't that ubiquitous, so I don't expect that, but I need a good screen. I also need to be able to output to a 42" HDTV, so HDMI-out seems fairly obvious.
4. I'm spoiled by the build (nice and sturdy). I'll only be carrying it around my house, but I don't want flex in the chassis while my oafish ass carries it from room to room to end up messing up a circuit board. I would prefer to get a solid 2-3 years out of this. I'd like to skip the next Intel 'tock' cycle if possible without getting totally bogged down.
5. I'm spoiled by the battery life and I'm spoiled by the overall portability of the x220. I know that a fast CPU and a large screen = smaller battery life and less portability, but I would prefer to have at least a few hours of battery life. Wife is totally cool with me sitting beside on my laptop her while she watches her cooking shows and her Dancing with the 'Whatevers' shows, and having to plug in during those shows gets really annoying.
As a result, I fear I will not be able to fit all of the above into an affordable machine, and I'm going to have to figure out how to earn enough brownie points with the finance minister (aka wife) to get the machine that will satisfy my needs.
I was a rather experienced computer guy quite some time ago but far too many deployments overseas has rendered me somewhat technologically archaic. I know that Ivy Bridge has good onboard graphics and should give a little boost to my battery life over the Sandy Bridge CPU I have now, and it also has USB 3.0 which seems the holy grail since it takes so darn long to copy crap from my 1 TB passport to my HDD and back. I am also craving an SSD since I really don't store a bunch of crap on my laptop itself, it's all music and movies and such on an external.
If possible, would like to keep the cost under $1400
No plans for gaming, but I want to take my rather extensive BluRay collection, and rip them down into
- size playable on my 60" TV (for me!)
- size playable on a laptop (for daughter at college)
- size playable on media device (wife likes to take phone to gym and watch movies while she slaves away on the elliptical)
I also need to buy early August at the absolute LATEST. that'll give me enough time to get my junk from the x220 onto the new toy
I would like to go with a smaller SSD for my applications and OS, and then if possible go with a slightly larger HDD onboard for storage, although if I understand things, USB 3.0 means a USB 3.0 external drive will be just fine for holding the movies and pictures and music and such, so if it makes sense, I guess just an SSD and USB 3.0 external. I have a 320GB on the x220 and I'm 100GB away from filling it, and there's a ton of stuff that is repeated on the external and my internal HDD, which won't be necessary if I have USB 3.0.
I do plan on ripping bluRay's into mkv files (once I figure out how the heck to do that - green dot opportunity!), so a BluRay seems rather important, unless an external BluRay player via 3.0 is feasible and cheaper (if such a thing exists)? Don't give a crap about burning DVDs or BluRays (I want to get RID of external disks)
==========
so, how to get greens:
1. Provide links to specific laptops that meet my price/performance requirements listed above, as well as personal experience (i.e. "I had a Toshiba, it was good for the money, but it was PURELY a desktop replacement, moving it around the house might lessen the life" etc)
2. Provide edu-ma-cashuns as to why my hardware requirements aren't quite accurate (for example "dude, USB 4.0 is coming out in 2 weeks, look how fast it'll work < whitepaper link >, and these computers < link > are supposed to be coming out in the next month with USB 4.0"
3. Provide good links to "FAQs for dummies" that explain the encode/decode BluRay thing, as my goal is to get the 100+ BluRays and the 500+ DVDs converted into 1 or more of the aforementioned 3 formats above (full size for my mancave TV, laptop size for my oldest and middle daughters, and portable device size for the finance minister). ESPECIALLY looking for software recommendations as well.
Thread is subscribed. If you do a quick search, I ask these questions rather frequently and have purchased 2 laptops for me, 1 for my Mom, and a PS3 over the last 5 years. Each thread I subscribed to, and I didn't drop the subscription until every post in the thread that provided solid advice was repped. 2 of the dudes in my sig were the ones that provided the best, most accurate, and most useful advice, and they get repped on sight.
posting this for someone on a different forum, as I don't know anything about laptops. its word for word, so obviously some thing won't make sense.
looking to buy a laptop. Yes, this is the same thing I went through twice in the last year, one for my Mom, and one for me.
I have returned from the sandbox for the final time, and my college-bound daughter has fallen in love (and basically claimed) my beloved Lenovo x220. Makes sense for her to take it with her since I cannot possibly picture a more ideal college laptop. However, i need a few things that the x220 doesn't do, namely USB 3.0 and a larger screen (and a backlit keyboard, doggone it!)
what I need:
- desktop replacement strength "innards" that will be able to rip my BluRay collection to mkv without taking 3 days per disk. I am fairly certain that encoding DVDs and BluRays is very CPU-intensive, so I assume that means I need to shell over the $$$ for an Ivy Bridge i7. Not real sure how much of a difference exists between the specific models of the i7, other than i7-3### means IvyBridge, and "QM" means "quadcore mobile". Don't really need the low voltage variations as I will generally be tethered to an outlet, although I wouldn't mind having a few hours of battery life
- ability to connect to a HDTV fairly easily, as I plan on doing homework in my 'mancave' with my laptop connected to my 42" TV and finally finish off my damn bachelor's degree before I retire.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of buying the x220 last year and living with it for over a year. Why is it a mistake?
1. I'm spoiled by the keyboard
2. I love the little red mouse control trackpoint thingee, and I hate the standard finger touchpad mouse control. Yes, I will be using a mouse a lot, but if there are models out there that have the little trackpoint stick, they will get some heavy consideration.
3. I am spoiled by the screen. Sweet mother of Jesus, an IPS screen on a laptop is a thing of beauty. 1600x900 is the minimum resolution if the screen is VERY high quality, although I'd prefer a full HD 1920 screen. I'm purely spoiled by the IPS. Looking for a 15.6" or 17.3" screen, but it MUST be a good quality screen. I know IPS just isn't that ubiquitous, so I don't expect that, but I need a good screen. I also need to be able to output to a 42" HDTV, so HDMI-out seems fairly obvious.
4. I'm spoiled by the build (nice and sturdy). I'll only be carrying it around my house, but I don't want flex in the chassis while my oafish ass carries it from room to room to end up messing up a circuit board. I would prefer to get a solid 2-3 years out of this. I'd like to skip the next Intel 'tock' cycle if possible without getting totally bogged down.
5. I'm spoiled by the battery life and I'm spoiled by the overall portability of the x220. I know that a fast CPU and a large screen = smaller battery life and less portability, but I would prefer to have at least a few hours of battery life. Wife is totally cool with me sitting beside on my laptop her while she watches her cooking shows and her Dancing with the 'Whatevers' shows, and having to plug in during those shows gets really annoying.
As a result, I fear I will not be able to fit all of the above into an affordable machine, and I'm going to have to figure out how to earn enough brownie points with the finance minister (aka wife) to get the machine that will satisfy my needs.
I was a rather experienced computer guy quite some time ago but far too many deployments overseas has rendered me somewhat technologically archaic. I know that Ivy Bridge has good onboard graphics and should give a little boost to my battery life over the Sandy Bridge CPU I have now, and it also has USB 3.0 which seems the holy grail since it takes so darn long to copy crap from my 1 TB passport to my HDD and back. I am also craving an SSD since I really don't store a bunch of crap on my laptop itself, it's all music and movies and such on an external.
If possible, would like to keep the cost under $1400
No plans for gaming, but I want to take my rather extensive BluRay collection, and rip them down into
- size playable on my 60" TV (for me!)
- size playable on a laptop (for daughter at college)
- size playable on media device (wife likes to take phone to gym and watch movies while she slaves away on the elliptical)
I also need to buy early August at the absolute LATEST. that'll give me enough time to get my junk from the x220 onto the new toy
I would like to go with a smaller SSD for my applications and OS, and then if possible go with a slightly larger HDD onboard for storage, although if I understand things, USB 3.0 means a USB 3.0 external drive will be just fine for holding the movies and pictures and music and such, so if it makes sense, I guess just an SSD and USB 3.0 external. I have a 320GB on the x220 and I'm 100GB away from filling it, and there's a ton of stuff that is repeated on the external and my internal HDD, which won't be necessary if I have USB 3.0.
I do plan on ripping bluRay's into mkv files (once I figure out how the heck to do that - green dot opportunity!), so a BluRay seems rather important, unless an external BluRay player via 3.0 is feasible and cheaper (if such a thing exists)? Don't give a crap about burning DVDs or BluRays (I want to get RID of external disks)
==========
so, how to get greens:
1. Provide links to specific laptops that meet my price/performance requirements listed above, as well as personal experience (i.e. "I had a Toshiba, it was good for the money, but it was PURELY a desktop replacement, moving it around the house might lessen the life" etc)
2. Provide edu-ma-cashuns as to why my hardware requirements aren't quite accurate (for example "dude, USB 4.0 is coming out in 2 weeks, look how fast it'll work < whitepaper link >, and these computers < link > are supposed to be coming out in the next month with USB 4.0"
3. Provide good links to "FAQs for dummies" that explain the encode/decode BluRay thing, as my goal is to get the 100+ BluRays and the 500+ DVDs converted into 1 or more of the aforementioned 3 formats above (full size for my mancave TV, laptop size for my oldest and middle daughters, and portable device size for the finance minister). ESPECIALLY looking for software recommendations as well.
Thread is subscribed. If you do a quick search, I ask these questions rather frequently and have purchased 2 laptops for me, 1 for my Mom, and a PS3 over the last 5 years. Each thread I subscribed to, and I didn't drop the subscription until every post in the thread that provided solid advice was repped. 2 of the dudes in my sig were the ones that provided the best, most accurate, and most useful advice, and they get repped on sight.
posting this for someone on a different forum, as I don't know anything about laptops. its word for word, so obviously some thing won't make sense.
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