need a laptop for real work

[zombine210]

need to replace my aging Acer el-cheapo laptop.
i need something powerful and light. need to purchase before fall 2013 semester and i have $1k budget. some change would be nice.

i need something between 12" and 14.5" with nice resolution in matte finish. my current 15.6" is too heavy and large.

i need a powerful enough cpu and beefy ram to run multiple programs: office, programming IDEs, web, etc. i'll be taking some info sec courses in the future, but i don't know what programs we'll be using yet.

i don't need to game on this laptop, so gpu is not a requirement but would be nice if available.

an ssd would be nice too, but i have a separate budget to replace the hdd, as long as it's accessible.

also, would prefer no optical drive. i can count with one hand the times i've used one in the past three years. and would keep things on the light side.

most importantly, no windows 8! any flavor of windows 7 is preferable.

any other suggestions from people working in the IT field; what would you recommend?

other notes:
I use a Lenovo Thinkpad T series for work and it's great, but i hate the special function key placement where the left ctrl key should be. that really bugs me about them.

 

[wolfeking]

also, would prefer no optical drive. i can count with one hand the times i've used one in the past three years. and would keep things on the light side.

This is not going to help really. For most laptops the ODD is a matter of several ounces. Plus you really don't want to go through having a hole there (as it reduces the structural rigidity of the laptop.

most importantly, no windows 8! any flavor of windows 7 is preferable.

Why? If it is the interface, get over it and use a 3rd party desktop. Otherwise windows 8 is only going to do what 7 does only faster and with better power management.


Suggestions, look at Dell Latitude/Precision, HP Probook/Elitebook or Lenovo Thinkpad. You will not match the quality of these on the consumer level.

 

[AntimatterAsh]

Why? If it is the interface, get over it and use a 3rd party desktop. Otherwise windows 8 is only going to do what 7 does only faster and with better power management.

Am I the only one who see's upgrading to Windows 8 then spending hours modding it to look like 7 a waste of time?

Getting back to the OP...If you want a nice all round laptop, the Toshiba Sattelite Series are quite good...I can show you my laptop...

(Toshiba Satellite P850) i3-2330m, GT630M, 8GB RAM

For what you sound like you want to to, this may be pretty good, the processor and graphics are slightly lower than I would have wanted but it performs pretty well for medium intensity gaming and programming. For what you want, it may be worth getting a SSD and fitting it yourself. Hope I helped

 

[wolfeking]

Am I the only one who see's upgrading to Windows 8 then spending hours modding it to look like 7 a waste of time?

Yes, as it does not take hours. It takes about 5 minutes, and you still have much better performance than windows 7.

That aside, I would not touch Toshiba for a computer for uni. But op can choose there.

 

[daisymtc]

Just get an ultrabook!

 

[DMGrier]

Who care which version of Windows he want's to run, not like he bashed Windows 8 just prefered the Windows 7. It's like me coming on here to say hey why are some of you guys using Windows 2000 or XP, using a decade old operating system is the dumbest thing of all time but it is my opinion. Either way I would go the ultra book route as well as long as your not programming or doing any advance media editing they will have all the performance you need. Personally I would go with either a Vaio ultra book or a Lenovo Thinkpad line.

http://www.lenovo.com/products/us/laptop/thinkpad/x-series/x230/

Could not find Vaio Ultra Book running Windows 7 though so good luck on that.