Ideas as to which laptop I should be looking for.

[Chroelle]

As some of you might have read in the INN, then my dear wife gave me the go-ahead for buying a laptop for some of the insurance money we got back from the waterdamage that happened during the rainstorms in july - you might remember the videos of how the servers containing CWF died...

I always try to really dig into the whole spec world whenever I need to buy a new comp, but this time I am sure I could use some start-off tips.

Does anyone have any reccommendations. My budget is around 1000€. Of course prices are different based on different countries, but now you might have an idea as to what I am NOT in the market for.

Any helpful tips will be gratefully received.

[Zyx]

Does anyone have any reccommendations. My budget is around 1000€. Of course prices are different based on different countries, but now you might have an idea as to what I am NOT in the market for.

I think with that budget you can get a very good laptop with a 15" screen. Just stay away from HP, they have terrible build quality (at least the few I've had the pleasure to work with).

[Chroelle]

I was hoping to go a little bigger (more like 17") but that is not a requirement. I want speed and not so much space so that is nice for once not having to go look for space at a costly dollar.

[Zyx]

A grand is still more than enough for a very good 17" laptop as well. To give some idea, the laptop nearest to 1000€ at a local store was Asus N73SV, which has 17,3" screen with 1920x1080 resolution, an Intel i7 2.0 GHz processor, 6 gig of RAM, 500 GB hard drive, Blu-ray drive and Nvidia's GT 540M graphics.

I'm pretty sure that's more than enough of everything. I think a baseline for a good laptop is something with at least 1080 resolution, at least Intel i5 with at least 2.0 GHz, at least 4 gigs RAM, at least 500 GB hard drive and at least with some discrete graphics card (ie. not Intel).

All those numbers feel so huge today.

[Chroelle]

Very cool reply. Thanks. Just what I was looking for in terms of reply.

Does anyone have any DONT's they could share? Like "dont buy this brand" or "dont let them talk you into buying this sort of stuff along" or "dont buy something with Win7 installed - it is not as nice as you have so far experienced at work". I dont mean "dont buy anything with Windows - Go linux" (because I HAVE TO GO WINDOWS).

[Zyx]

Well, you can't go wrong with Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (which is what I think every laptop comes with). Also, note that most computers do not come with Office (most have some 30-day Test Drive version), so remember to pick up a copy (they at least used to have a bit cheaper Home & Student OEM version that you can buy at the same time you buy a new computer) if you need it (and can't get it for free through your job etc).

It seems that all laptops in that range come with Blu-Ray, but I don't see any advantage in having that. My laptop's DVD drive had broken and I didn't notice for 6 months ... that's how much use those drives have these days. It also seems they really like to have big numbers in the computers so there are laptops with huge hard drives and lots of ram, which is probably cheaper to buy and upgrade yourself later on.

[Chroelle]

I never use any bought Office packs anymore. My whole area went to OpenOffice after Microsoft upped their school-license prices by 1000%. So now all I need to do is figure out which Open Office to use. I have tried out a few already...

So I propably need to go for something where the motherboard/CPU is the best part of the computer, and not so much the size of the RAM and HD! And are there any brands I should shoot for? (Besides avoiding HP).

[Zyx]

Well, you don't have to worry about motherboards or CPUs, Intel's Core i5's or i7's are good. Just avoid any that only have Intel's integrated graphics.

As an owner of a Mac, I know very little about the brands these days.

[Chroelle]

A grand is still more than enough for a very good 17" laptop as well. To give some idea, the laptop nearest to 1000€ at a local store was Asus N73SV, which has 17,3" screen with 1920x1080 resolution, an Intel i7 2.0 GHz processor, 6 gig of RAM, 500 GB hard drive, Blu-ray drive and Nvidia's GT 540M graphics.

Guess which computer I got recommended today from a sales clerk after about 30 minutes of talking about my minimum requirements and what I would like to get as a luxury...
Also got recommended the 15" version N53 so I am trying to figure out where to go... I was so lucky that the first store I visited was the cheapest and also a store where Tanja knows the manager, so perhaps I can get an even better prize or something thrown in with it.

[Zyx]

The margins on laptops are razor-thin so I doubt you'll get any discount on the laptop. The stores make their money on the accessories, so if you get a new mouse as well for example, you can get some discount on it.

[Chroelle]

I got a discount of both the laptop, the discs I bought along with it and the bag I bought too. Saved me around 75€ or something.

Oh and this is of course written at my new ASUS laptop (if you want specs, please read the above posts... )