Topic: Laptop Help?

[Silver]

I am currently in the market for a laptop. I am wondering what kind I should get?

So I go with the thought that the higher the price the better it is?

Get one and tweak it myself?

Any brand recommendations?

I just need to be guided in a direction by someone who knows what to look for in a laptop.

I want to do a bit of photo editing with it, streaming videos, surfing the web. Perhaps play 'The Sims' and a few other games.

[Trieste]

The best thing you can do is take a look at the minimum requirements for any photo editing software (shouldn't be too high) and any games you want to play on your laptop... then shoot for something a little better than that. You can shoot for higher if you have the budget.

From your post, it sounds like you're in the market for a Windows laptop and not a Mac or other OS?

[Gypsy]

Price really isn't a good indicator of what makes a good laptop these days.  If you compare the actual specs on a machine, you can find much higher prices on laptops with lower performance.

Look for the sales, and compare the specs on the machines.  Then look around at some of the higher priced machines and compare them with what you found on sales -- sometimes you might be surprised to find the items on sale have just as good or better specs.

Figure out how much storage you want - and don't settle for less.   

On laptops, the kind of graphics card they have is one of the biggest limitations.  Mine has mid-range, but so far I haven't found one game that I want to play that it can't handle.  Unless you're going into REALLY graphics intensive games, most laptops these days will perform well.

Display resolution is another important factor.  If you want really high resolution, you'll probably have to pay more for it.  1600x900 is pretty standard - certainly don't go less.

I've had really good luck with the Acer brand laptops - and I've been most pleased with their performance consistently.  Their customer service / warranty has been top notch, while my experience with more mainstream companies (*cough* Dell / Hewlett Packard) has been much less satisfactory.   They've given good value for the money.

Good luck!  Hope you find a laptop that you really love.

[Oreo]

It sounds like you want a multi-purpose laptop. I got an ASUS ROG so I could do many things at one time. I can watch a movie while surfing the net, multiple tabs and windows, PhotoShop and an IM running simultaneously. Or I can play games like Halo without issue. My previous PCs would crash from the abuse.

[Silver]

From your post, it sounds like you're in the market for a Windows laptop and not a Mac or other OS?

Correct. I don't know the system and I am not willing to learn when this is supposed to for my personal use.

--

Thank you everyone for your suggestions so far, I really do appreciate it.

[Observing Trifles]

I've had good luck with my Toshiba Satellite. I use it mostly for video streaming, minor photo editing, and some very light gaming, and it's held up really well in spite of my crazy attempts at multitasking.

If you're going to be doing some gaming, a decent graphics card is important. That's about as much as I know about computer hardware, but when I was looking to buy a new desktop for gaming, I found that Game-Debate was a good resource for determining which one was worth my money. Basically, it allows you to pick a game that you want to play, old or new, and from there you type in your computer information (RAM, graphics card details, etc.). The site will then tell you if your computer meets or exceeds the minimum requirements for gameplay. I'm not very good with computer hardware, so it came in handy when I was trying to figure out which games I could play.

[Silver]

I think that I've settled upon two for the moment.

Samsung Series 9 NP900X3D-A01US 13.3-Inch Premium Ultrabook or Samsung Series 9 NP900X3D-A04US 13.3-Inch Ultrabook

Everything is perfect save for the fact that it doesn't have a CD-Rom.... If they had that they would be the perfect thing for me. We'll see as it's a gift, that I am basically picking out..still freaked out about the price a bit, but I've never heard anything bad about Samsung computers and I have always gone to Samsung phones for the past 6-7 years. If the computer is as good as their phone then I don't believe that there will be an issue.

[Autumn Sativus]

Honestly for the specs on that laptop, it's not worth it's money. You could get something with better specs for half the price.

The reason it doesn't have a disc drive is because you're in netbook territory there, not laptop. Try looking for a 15.6" screen if you want a disc drive included.

[Oreo]

I was thinking the same thing as Saffy.

[Autumn Sativus]

I think in that case you're mostly paying for the solid state drive. Were you purposefully looking for an SSD vs a HDD Silver?

One and Two examples of laptops with much better internals for lower prices, but they do not have SSDs.

[Silver]

I think in that case you're mostly paying for the solid state drive. Were you purposefully looking for an SSD vs a HDD Silver?

One and Two examples of laptops with much better internals for lower prices, but they do not have SSDs.

Actually no. Like I said, I am way in over my head... Help...*panic*

[Caeli]

Don't panic, Silver. We're all here to help.

Basically, an SSD (solid state drive) can be thought of as an oversized and more sophisticated version of a USB stick.  Like a thumb drive, there are no moving parts to an SSD; information is stored in microchips.  Meanwhile, a hard drive uses a mechanical arm with a read/write head to move around and read information from the right location on a storage platter.  This difference is what makes SSD so much faster.

Saffron linked to some really great examples above.

[Autumn Sativus]

Well how about your preferred price range, then? I can provide some optimal examples with an idea of what you'd like to spend. An SSD is a nice feature, but for most 'general' users of a computer it's definitely not a requirement.

Another example of a Samsung.

[Silver]

Alright that makes a lot more sense to me now. SSD almost seems like the direction that should be going.

Well how about your preferred price range, then? I can provide some optimal examples with an idea of what you'd like to spend. An SSD is a nice feature, but for most 'general' users of a computer it's definitely not a requirement.

Umm Under $900 maybe?

[Autumn Sativus]

This is probably a good example. The SSD generally reduces the specs you're going to get in a specific price range as they are very expensive in themselves and a lot less goes into the internal mechanics as a result to stay under a certain price range. Dual-core computers are essentially out of date at this point and frustratingly slow in comparison to quad-cores or higher. You'll also want to look for something with a minimum of 4GB of RAM, IMO. Since you're making a fairly expensive purchase you want to make sure you're not going to be calling it 'that dinosaur I hate' next year.

Here's another decent one.