A 160GB SSD is enough space for pretty much anything outside of movies, games, and big music libraries. He doesn't play big games and the other two can be put on external storage.
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Buying a laptop soon - help!
- Thread starter hoiboy
- Start date
I have seen configurations in computers (some Macs included) in which you have an SSD just for the OS and applications, and a regular harddrive for data and media. You get the best of both worlds in this case; super fast boot time and app opening, etc., while you get the size advantage of a regular harddrive for data.
In the case of Macs, specifically MacBook Pros, it would require removing the optical drive to house the second harddrive.
In the case of Macs, specifically MacBook Pros, it would require removing the optical drive to house the second harddrive.
Just wanted to point out that specs and stuff are far, far less important than the experience you have using it -- aka the keyboard, the mouse, and the screen, and the build quality as well.
After you find a short list of the things you absolutely need out of a laptop, you should make sure to go and find a way to try out the laptop yourself. Especially at the size screen you want, there are some really annoying and near-unusable keys and touchpads out there (though hopefully you'll buy yourself a wireless mouse), so you'll want to try out the laptop for yourself to make sure those things are usable.
Also, try to find a laptop that uses a Synaptics touchpad. (Most Windows ones do, apart from some Dell and Toshiba). Then you can run Two-Finger Scroll, a simple executable that you can run or just put in Startup that gives your touchpads utility like, well, two finger scrolling -- which is a godsend for editing documents, especially on things with small screens. You'll be doing a lot of scrolling with an under-13" screen.
So yeah, I'd rather have adequate specs and good mouse/keyboard/screen than superior specs and mediocre mouse/keyboard/screen. Ultimately, these are the things that you 1) can't upgrade and 2) will notice the most.
After you find a short list of the things you absolutely need out of a laptop, you should make sure to go and find a way to try out the laptop yourself. Especially at the size screen you want, there are some really annoying and near-unusable keys and touchpads out there (though hopefully you'll buy yourself a wireless mouse), so you'll want to try out the laptop for yourself to make sure those things are usable.
Also, try to find a laptop that uses a Synaptics touchpad. (Most Windows ones do, apart from some Dell and Toshiba). Then you can run Two-Finger Scroll, a simple executable that you can run or just put in Startup that gives your touchpads utility like, well, two finger scrolling -- which is a godsend for editing documents, especially on things with small screens. You'll be doing a lot of scrolling with an under-13" screen.
So yeah, I'd rather have adequate specs and good mouse/keyboard/screen than superior specs and mediocre mouse/keyboard/screen. Ultimately, these are the things that you 1) can't upgrade and 2) will notice the most.
With a laptop, you can't upgrade much of anything outside of the HDD or memory without some serious balls. :B
Re: the Pentium series, modern Pentium processors based on the Sandy Bridge architecture are quite good. However, most Pentiums tend to be old Core 2 based variants, which are very inferior to even an i3. If you see a B9X0 model, then that's Sandy Bridge and it's probably fine.
Re: the Pentium series, modern Pentium processors based on the Sandy Bridge architecture are quite good. However, most Pentiums tend to be old Core 2 based variants, which are very inferior to even an i3. If you see a B9X0 model, then that's Sandy Bridge and it's probably fine.
Ok good to know.
I knew it was below i7 since i7 is usually preferable when video editing in programs like Sony Vegas. I guess I'll try to get a high end desktop / build one (with guides of course) instead of springing for an extremely expensive laptop like Alienware (who I hear has really bad customer service)
I knew it was below i7 since i7 is usually preferable when video editing in programs like Sony Vegas. I guess I'll try to get a high end desktop / build one (with guides of course) instead of springing for an extremely expensive laptop like Alienware (who I hear has really bad customer service)
i just dropped in here to say that i am in love with my 13'' macbook air. it's so fucking light -- under 3 lbs. the keyboard is extremely comfortable (and backlit!). i have never gotten a cramp or felt like i needed to take a break from typing because it hurt. it's incredibly quiet, too. silent, in fact.
i love osx and the multitouch trackpad. on my old clunker it was pretty arduous switching between stuff. now it's really easy. a couple of swipes and i can swap to itunes, change the album, back to word to continue typing, swipe to chrome to double check a fact, all really REALLY fast.
it's got great battery life too. i get around 6 hours with brightness on medium and just using the internet and listening to music. my HD is a 128 GB SSD, and it starts instantly. SSD is great. i hold all of my music on my computer and whatever 4-5 tv shows i am watching. i just bring it with me on the bus (stick it in my pack because it is very thin) and watch a show while the ride goes by. i get about 3.5-4 hours if i'm watching HD shows with medium brightness.
lastly, the price. it's a little pricey. i probably would not have gotten one if i had to pay for all of it. it was 1300, i think, so a little over your budget. if you can go a little over though, i highly recommend this laptop
i love osx and the multitouch trackpad. on my old clunker it was pretty arduous switching between stuff. now it's really easy. a couple of swipes and i can swap to itunes, change the album, back to word to continue typing, swipe to chrome to double check a fact, all really REALLY fast.
it's got great battery life too. i get around 6 hours with brightness on medium and just using the internet and listening to music. my HD is a 128 GB SSD, and it starts instantly. SSD is great. i hold all of my music on my computer and whatever 4-5 tv shows i am watching. i just bring it with me on the bus (stick it in my pack because it is very thin) and watch a show while the ride goes by. i get about 3.5-4 hours if i'm watching HD shows with medium brightness.
lastly, the price. it's a little pricey. i probably would not have gotten one if i had to pay for all of it. it was 1300, i think, so a little over your budget. if you can go a little over though, i highly recommend this laptop
you can get a refurbished one for $999. 128 GB flash memory (SSD), segregated graphics card, 4GB RAM.
Before you go "whoa I want new", Apple extensively tests and replaces much of the laptop and you also get a complete 1-year warranty.
The only downside is you're dropping another $100 if you want to dual-boot or even just overwrite OS X with Windows 7, but you might be able to get Windows at a discount/free from whatever college you're going to.
This one doesn't have an i3 (you can get an Air with an i5 for $1099) but I remember Apple had some reasoning of why they chose the Duo over the i3 for the model I listed. If you think it's worth it then go ahead.
Don't listen to Shinryu on SSDs. It's the single best upgrade you can make for day-to-day computing. I'd personally wait on Macs as like symphonyx64, I expect the new revision (most likely to be announced around June 11th) to be a pretty decent upgrade.
OP, I'd check out ultrabooks if you can spring for 'em. I don't think there are any Windows ones that stack up to the MacBook Air but there should be that are a bit cheaper than the MacBook Air at least. An ultrabook looks like exactly what you need. Check out Asus' offerings.
OP, I'd check out ultrabooks if you can spring for 'em. I don't think there are any Windows ones that stack up to the MacBook Air but there should be that are a bit cheaper than the MacBook Air at least. An ultrabook looks like exactly what you need. Check out Asus' offerings.
I got a Toshiba Portege R830 a couple of months ago and I love it. I was looking for pretty much same specs as you and chose it ove the X220. Its got a great battery life, light, pretty fast and has a decent sized hard drive. I also wouldn't get a Mac for uni, so far at my uni there seems to be a couple of compatability issues with submitting in assignments from Macs.
http://us.toshiba.com/computers/laptops/portege/R830
http://us.toshiba.com/computers/laptops/portege/R830
processor speed is the most bullshit measure of performance. also, i would take a 32gb ssd over an arbitrarily large hdd any day.
(that's really all i wanted to say (other than please don't buy a mac :( ))
(that's really all i wanted to say (other than please don't buy a mac :( ))
I made a post about laptop recommendations a little while ago. If you are still unsure about your decision, I would recommend reading it.
In general I agree with what Woodchuck posted, the actual user experience is more important than the internal specs. However, if you are willing the pay for it, the SSD is one upgrade that is definitely worth getting. I have been using one in my main desktop for more than a year, and I can attest how much faster they are than traditional HDD's. That said, the decision to get one is more complicated with a laptop as generally have only one bay available for storage drives (unless you remove your optical drive as Eraddd suggested), and high capacity SSD's are still very expensive. At the same time though, I would imagine that the benefits would be even more noticeable on a laptop because you will need to power it on much more often. The 256 GB Crucial M4 has gone on sale for around $200 several times in the past month, so if you were interested in an SSD, I would wait for it to drop down to that price again and snag it then.
The X220 is a great choice by the way. It has that great keyboard characteristic to all Thinkpads, and a relatively high quality screen (IPS panel!). However, 1366 x 768 is a bit too small for productivity purposes, so it might be wise to invest in a larger external monitor in the future for that purpose.
In general I agree with what Woodchuck posted, the actual user experience is more important than the internal specs. However, if you are willing the pay for it, the SSD is one upgrade that is definitely worth getting. I have been using one in my main desktop for more than a year, and I can attest how much faster they are than traditional HDD's. That said, the decision to get one is more complicated with a laptop as generally have only one bay available for storage drives (unless you remove your optical drive as Eraddd suggested), and high capacity SSD's are still very expensive. At the same time though, I would imagine that the benefits would be even more noticeable on a laptop because you will need to power it on much more often. The 256 GB Crucial M4 has gone on sale for around $200 several times in the past month, so if you were interested in an SSD, I would wait for it to drop down to that price again and snag it then.
The X220 is a great choice by the way. It has that great keyboard characteristic to all Thinkpads, and a relatively high quality screen (IPS panel!). However, 1366 x 768 is a bit too small for productivity purposes, so it might be wise to invest in a larger external monitor in the future for that purpose.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...ffiliateID=jXot6eVeYJg-V8lgdh_xbGjp28lrA__JFA
You don't need to wait. ^_^
You don't need to wait. ^_^
If they restock that for the same price I would hope everyone that can afford one purchases it. That's cheap as hell for a 256 gb ssd.
I'm looking at this laptop at the moment
http://us.gateway.com/gw/en/US/content/model/LX.WY102.012
Thoughts?
http://us.gateway.com/gw/en/US/content/model/LX.WY102.012
Thoughts?
I'm gonna bump this thread, but for those still looking to get a better performance out of their hard drive in terms of loading speeds, and can't afford a SSD or don't have access or put one in their computers, I'd recommend eboostr; it's a program that puts a cache on your RAM, and can also use your flash drives for better loading speeds. My friend's Photoshop CS5 loaded 3x faster, and a bunch of other programs also. It won't come as close to a SSD, but every bit helps, especially for those who multi-task and issue multiple load commands.
Caching on flash drives to improve memory also comes built in with Vista or later... but I didn't know about the "putting a cache on your RAM" part. Does this increase the amount of RAM available (which helps with large programs/extensive multitasking) or increase transfer speeds?
edit: and considering eboostr costs $30 why not just buy more RAM? lol
edit: and considering eboostr costs $30 why not just buy more RAM? lol
Hm, I would never encourage illegal means of obtaining software.
(Actually, my friend lent me his beta key license to use it).
Instead of reading off the Hard Drive, it's redirected to the cache, which fulfills the "request" much faster. Much more useful for smaller reads that the hard drive is weak at on average. So it allows faster loading speeds of programs.
(Actually, my friend lent me his beta key license to use it).
Instead of reading off the Hard Drive, it's redirected to the cache, which fulfills the "request" much faster. Much more useful for smaller reads that the hard drive is weak at on average. So it allows faster loading speeds of programs.
Bumping because I wanted to get help but didn't know where else to post. I knew about this thread so there wasn't much use in starting a new one?
Ok so :jump:
Click the black dude. I've read good things about this laptop. Does it look good enough to run Photoshop, Sony Vegas etc. (I mean the Pentium processor I'm using right now can run them but the rendering times are insane -_-)
Ok so :jump:
Click the black dude. I've read good things about this laptop. Does it look good enough to run Photoshop, Sony Vegas etc. (I mean the Pentium processor I'm using right now can run them but the rendering times are insane -_-)