Laptop for college

[Ankur]

I need to find a laptop for friend. The budget is around 600-800$. He will be using it for college work and programming. He will be running Dual O.S and also VMWare. Please suggest a good laptop around this price range.
Need a 15 inch screen.
I suggested him Lenovo, Toshiba, Dell. Asus isn't popular here so couldn't recommend him that brand.

 

[Trivium]

If he's running dual OS and VMWare, you'll want a minimum of at least 4 processors, I'd say. So an i5 or i7 laptop would probably be the go. Toshiba laptops tend to be very good quality, especially when they are on sale. I've heard some horror stories about Dell laptops dying, or having problems, so probably wouldn't recommend them.

Having a quick look at what Toshiba has on offer, the Satellite P750 sounds like a very good value laptop, although it is at the higher end of the price bracket specified. But with i7 processor, dedicated graphics and 6GB of RAM (free upgrade from 4GB), its well equipped to handle the demands of running multiple OSs.

Screen is 15.6", so that is large enough too. At 2.6kg, its a bit heavy though, and from experience, having to lug around a heavy laptop at college can be a bit of a pain at times. But it then becomes a trade off between portability and functionality - your friend will just have to decide which is more important.

Hope that helps!

 

[wolfeking]

that satalite looks good actually. The GT540m is a integrated GPU though. Most "dedicated" cards are MXM3.0 and are removable/upgradeable. The GT series is soldered to the motherboard (aka integrated), and not upgradeable. Its a good performer, but rather hot running though.

Does he need a new laptop, or would a used one (ebay, craigslist, etc) be an option. He may be able to get a lot more performance by buying used. If he can, I would suggest the Dell latitude E series or the Precision series (dedicated Quadro GPU, and stronger processors) may be reachable in the $800 region.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Precis...ptops_Nov05&hash=item45ffd6e31b#ht_500wt_1361 is a good example.

 

[Ankur]

If he's running dual OS and VMWare, you'll want a minimum of at least 4 processors, I'd say. So an i5 or i7 laptop would probably be the go. Toshiba laptops tend to be very good quality, especially when they are on sale. I've heard some horror stories about Dell laptops dying, or having problems, so probably wouldn't recommend them.

Yeah Toshiba is the first choice. But any idea how hot does the CPU run while VMWare is on (on Toshiba)? My Dell runs at 92 Degree Celsius. Some day my CPU will die. What do you think about the cooling system of it?

that satalite looks good actually. The GT540m is a integrated GPU though. Most "dedicated" cards are MXM3.0 and are removable/upgradeable. The GT series is soldered to the motherboard (aka integrated), and not upgradeable. Its a good performer, but rather hot running though.

That is the mistake I did, I have GT 540M on my laptop and can't upgrade it
I don't think he will require a better GPU than GT series. So any lower would be enough.


I can't find a laptop with quad core CPU in the local stores (in that budget).

 

[Trivium]

The GT540m is a integrated GPU though. Most "dedicated" cards are MXM3.0 and are removable/upgradeable. The GT series is soldered to the motherboard (aka integrated), and not upgradeable.

Oh, it is too! I wasn't aware of that. Will have to pay closer attention to that in the future.

Also, I would be cautious when looking to buy computers second hand, especially laptops. You simply don't know what the system's been through prior to you buying it, and if its seen a lot of heavy use, then the chances of components failing could be quite a lot higher than getting a fresh new PC. But if you're careful, you can probably get away with finding a good, reliable second hand computer - but do your research first!

Also, the computer wolfeking linked to is quite good, especially for its price, however if you plan on running multiple OSs, then it might be worth getting a bit more RAM than just 4GB - but if the tasks he performs are mostly low in memory consumption, then it might be enough to get by. But as always, shop around, check out reviews, and compare prices and specs. The suggestions here are a good starting point, but I do suggest looking into it further yourselves.

Yeah Toshiba is the first choice. But any idea how hot does the CPU run while VMWare is on (on Toshiba)? My Dell runs at 92 Degree Celsius. Some day my CPU will die. What do you think about the cooling system of it

I havent monitored the CPU temperature of my laptop (Toshiba Qosmio, i7), but I know that it pumps out a lot of heat when it runs. I've got VMware installed on the laptop, and it doesn't seem to make any great difference to CPU temperatures (as far as I've noticed). It would all just depend how many tasks you want to run,and the intensity of them.

 

[wolfeking]

You stand a chance of a component failing even on the new computers.

But what I was saying as far as used goes is that you can get a lot more computer for the buck that way. And generally, if your smart about it and talk to the seller before you buy, then you can get a good one. I got a latitude D630 (same as precision M90 with the Quadro NVS135m) used for a little more than $150 and its in nearly factory shape (I customized it a little with some stickers and a SSD). Only failed compoments was the Wireless card, and that was fixed easily.

Really, if you need a quad core and fairly good quality with a large hard drive (dual boot) then you are stuck with either used, or subpar graphics.

 

[DMGrier]

The Toshiva is perfect, it has the quad core and a decent gpu but what is importand to pay attention to when buying a computer is the hardware and the OS, you brought up dual boot which makes me assume a Linux OS will be installes. Linux will work in Radeon cards just fine but they are fare more compatiable and perform much better with Nvidia gpu.

On a final note, there is no such thing as a quad core i5 in laptops. In desktops yes but they do not make quad core mobile i5 cpu''s. In laptops you have your dual core i3, i5 and even i7 and then from intel your only option of a quad core in mobile cpu is certian i7 models cause like I said they are also buit in dual cores.

 

[Ankur]

It is like 7 and XP on dual boot and Ubuntu/CentOS on VMWare
Or 7 as main OS and Linux+XP on VMWare.
From My experience I did not need more than 4 GB of RAM for VMware XP+7.
Not sure about OS.
There you see, My VMWare is on and memory is kinda 2.8GB used.

It is hard to find a Laptop with quad core CPU aka i7 CPU under 1k $ in India. What do you think about a dual core i5 with good turbo boost and hyper-threading?

 

[wolfeking]

You will not be able to dual boot XP on the GT540m. It does not carry XP driver support.

GTX460m is the newest GPU line from Nvidia that carries XP support. On the Raedon end, I have no data on XP support, but I would assume somewhere in the 5000 range.

 

[Ankur]

^Yeah, just tried it and failed. Why doesn't Intel integrated GPU work for it?

 

[wolfeking]

it could have a P series chipset that disables the integrated. Also some mobile i7s don't have integrated HD on them.

 

[jhonlumic]

tell him that purchase the DELL laptop for his programming in collage and its not chip but good in use and long life.........